Warning. Due to the story-heavy nature of this final issue, it is likely this review will discuss events that could be classed as spoilers. So consider this a spoiler warning.
But why would you be reading a review for a comic you haven’t read, anyway? That’s just silly.
Written by Simon Spurrier
Illustrated by Tan Eng Huat
“FOR WE ARE MANY” CONCLUSION!
• Collapsing under the weight of his dead father’ disappointment, Legion’s god-like powers spiral out of control, leaving the fate of mutantkind in the balance. To what ends will Legion go to save the world from himself?
• This is it. This is the end. Anything can happen…
When we reviewed the first issue of Marvel NOW’s “X-Men Legacy” from Simon Spurrier and Tan Eng Huat, we said it was “on the verge of being a really good book”. That was over a year ago. Since then the book has had a good 23 more issues culminating in this, the 24th and final issue of the run. And in the meantime, seemingly unnoticed by most, it became not only something great, but perhaps Marvel’s greatest series of the last year. It may haven take the series a while to find it’s footing and build to the story it was really trying to tell, but once it hit that point there was no stopping it. The final issues of this series, this one included, can be described as nothing short of life-changing. A dramatic jump in quality, to be sure, but also a creative team that slowly but surely found its groove and the story they were trying to tell and bringing something really special to the table.
“X-Men Legacy”, under Simon Spurrier’s pen, has gone from a story about an under-used, little known character that couldn’t really live up to its own potential to a heart-warming, genuinely life-changing story about the importance of self-belief. This last issue, then, could not be more fitting as it turns out that David Haller’s greatest enemy all along was himself. This is the kind of story that is a grand, epic battle between ideologies in that way that only comics can deliver and is likely to gain more than enough comparisons to “Final Crisis”. But what’s really special about “X-Men Legacy” is that it’s not about good triumphing over evil, it’s about a young man being crippled under the weight of the legacy of his father. In this issue we actually see the emotional core of the book, the aforementioned and titular legacy, comes to a head in one of the most emotional splash pages I have ever seen. Which is actually a very good word to describe this issue: emotional. Something that perhaps was lacking in the beginning is an emotional core which has built up over the course of the series and gives the events of this issue, especially the ending, a lot of weight.
While “X-Men Legacy” may have had a fair few artists in this run, the one that started it all is here at the close: Tan Eng Huat. Huat’s pencils defined the look of the series when it started, giving it an inherent weirdness that Spurrier’s writing hadn’t quite caught up to. Now, the writing is playing entirely to Huat’s strengths as we the kind of reality-warping happenings that only comics can provide and Huat seems entirely in his element. Taking the craziness of a world-eating mass and the only hero trying to stop and juxtaposing that with the mindscape of David Haller, flashbacks and a god-like Haller looking in on the universe is no mean feat, but Huat manages it by really pushing how he presents reality on each page. Soon enough, as reality begins to break down, even the panel borders begin to warp and allows Huat to create something really unique on the page. It’s the kind of story that could only work with an artist like Huat who is able to push what is presented on the page and how.
Though, for as much as Huat brings to the page it would be all for not without the colours from Jose Villarrubia. With so many different layers of realities being presented in Spurrier’s writing and Huat’s art, it could be so easy for a reader to get lost in the tangle. However, it’s thanks to Villarrubia’s incredibly vibrant colours which bring a texture and feel to each layer of reality from the yellows of the real world, the reds of Haller’s mindscapes, the blue wash over the flashbacks to the stark black background of Haller looking on reality. This level of storytelling and especially Huat’s art could have been entirely incomprehensible without Villarrubia colours.
Continued belowUltimately, this was an incredibly impressive last issue for the series. Not only did Spurrier really build to an emotional climax and give the series an emotional weight and sense of purpose, but he made you care about David Haller along the way. For a character that had long languished in the background, Spurrier took him and wrote a series that could define him as a character for a long while. Not only that, but this wasn’t just a book about spandex-clad people punching each other as Spurrier infused the series with a real message about emotional self care. Between that and the simply excellent art from Tan Eng Huat and the gorgeous colours of Jose Villarrubia, this issue was an excellent end cap to one of Marvel’s best series of the last year. It’s just that no one seemed to notice.
And remember, just because it isn’t real doesn’t mean it’s not important.
Final Verdict: 8.8 – If you missed this series, this is why you should catch up.
