Brian Wood’s initial arc on X-Men continues! What’s with these Proto-Mutants? I guess we’ll find out, won’t we? Slight spoiler alert!
Written by Brian Wood
Illustrated by David Lopez
- Learn the secret origin of the proto-mutants
- How long can Storm keep Cyclops from taking control of her team?
The idea of a missing link between species isn’t exactly a new idea. Even outside of comics, Bigfoot/Sasquatch/The Abominable Snowman has long thought to be the mythical missing link, even if they’re just urban legends (at best). Brian Wood visits this idea with his proto-mutant idea, and by itself, it’s a great story, but there are some continuity flaws present in the very idea of the proto-mutants being as young as they are. Ister, the Giant-Man of sorts that is one of these Proto-Mutants, is “merely,” to use the term loosely, 665 years old. Meanwhile, there are at least two full blown mutants who appeared before that. Exodus is nearly a thousand years old himself, and everyone’s favorite character named after the End of the World, Apocalypse, is 5,000! But one might consider this a minor continuity flub. It’s not exactly like Marvel books have a set mandate regarding as such anyway.
Aside from that, the book moves along really well, with believable friction between the two senior members, Colossus and Storm. Both are members of the Extinction Team on Utopia, and report to Scott directly. But while they have disagreements with how the proto-mutant matters should be handled, I’ve never known either character to lob threats at another in a debate; even a heated one. One character who felt underutilized was Pixie, who didn’t really have any importance to the story other than to act as a personal ferry for another character to join the squad. However, Brian Wood won me back with his characterization of Psylocke. She’s had a bit of a creative resurgence over the past few years, starting with her mini and moving to Uncanny X-Force, Uncanny X-Men, and now the adjective-less X-Men. She’s being portrayed less as an object and more like a strong character with an emerging personality that backs up her now immense power.
The plot itself, aside from the gaffe I mentioned earlier, is pretty standard-experiments-on-Mutants by evil bad guys who hate mutants. It’s not a new trope in the world of mutants, but Brian Wood knows how to give it a treatment that feels fresh and creepy. The “mad-scientist” as it were is a gleefully evil and brings just the right amount of evil to the story while keeping it fun. He’s definitely in the vein of other X-Men enemies like Bolivar Trask for instance. What he’s doing here is still something of a mystery, but you know just enough to keep you interested.
David Lopez, who joined the book with Wood, is a talented artist who works well with the mutant franchise. Despite that, though, his art works better in a somewhat lighter toned book like “New Mutants” where his knack for combining dynamic action and hilarious moments can work the best they possibly can. However, while it is your humble reviewer’s opinion that he works better in some comedic fashion, he knows how to play up the drama quite well through creative use of shading and excellent facial expressions. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Ororo Munroe as frightening as I’ve seen her here.
His figures also works quite well, as Psylocke looks sexy in her ninja-eque mission where she meets the proto-mutant, but is never exaggerated in any disturbing or disappointing way. In fact, everyone’s designs work very well, further proving why David Lopez is one of my new favorite X-Artists.
Bottom line: Brian Wood’s run isn’t much more than your average plot for our merry mutants, but it never feels like a re-hash. If you’re an old fan, you might not necessarily find anything new except for a contentious relationship between Storm and Colossus or Storm and Cyclops, but if you’ve never picked up an X-Men book in your life, you’ll get a pretty good idea of what they’re about.
Final Verdict: 7.0 – Buy
