Written by Mike Carey
Illustrated by Khoi Pham
& Steve KurthThe X-Men have escaped the AGE OF X and returned to Utopia…unaware that something sinister followed them back. Upon discovering that this new evil has been loosed into the world, Rogue and Magneto round up a team of X-Men to hunt it down. But is this motley new crew of X-Men prepared for what awaits them?
I’ve flip-flopped on this book for quite a while, always seemingly dropping it only to continue picking it up again. The reason for this is simple: when Mike Carey is hot on the X-Men, he burns VERY hot and when he is cold, the book chills me to the bone. However, Age of X was absolutely a molten lava moment for Carey’s nearly five year stint on the X-Books, and it was just hot enough to keep my ratcheted in for at least the start of this new era on the book, which started strong with this very issue. Click below for thoughts galore.
This issue itself is divided into three major parts, two of which are original and one which is a reprint of an old issue of New Mutants which chronicled Professor Xavier’s first meeting with his estranged son, Legion. The first story takes the lead on introducing us to this new X-Team that Professor Xavier has formed (with a bit of healthy intervention from Cyclops) and putting the dynamic they will run with in place. Before we get to the character interactions in the issue itself, it would help to clarify that this team is brought together to track down six specific threats. It seems that when Legion re-made the world following Age of X, six of his personalities were given physical form, and this lead story is the team tracking down and battling the first of these personalities, a young “boy” named Time-Sink.
Both stories in this issue seem like stage setters for this upcoming era on the book, with large chunks of panel time devoted strictly to character moments and expository dialogue. In this story, a disproportionately large chunk of story was devoted to explaining why Frenzy is even there at all and clarifying why it is that she wants to be on this team. Apparently this career X-Villain (that, as he was quick to point out, attempted to murder Xavier twice) is longing for the acceptance, adoration and most importantly peace of mind that she had within the Age of X, and is devoting herself to becoming a better person in order to attain it. As Xavier was quick to point out, Jacob worked fourteen years for a wife, but a villain achieving legitimate redemption through associating with the X-Men is not a ghastly idea to put forward, so as a fan of all things mutant in the Marvel Universe, I’m excited to see how close Frenzy can actually get.
As one might expect, this uber powerful line-up does manage to take down Time-Sink, though not without a lengthy battle that had them caught with their pants down on more than one occasion. That said, Carey made it clear that they were not dealing with a lightweight, and the fact that Legion needed to take a knife to the shoulder in order to take this guy down means that Carey does not plan to understate the power of those this team is up against. He knows that he needs to inject some serious muscle into the five remaining personalities in order to make them seem like a legitimate threat to several of the most powerful mutants on the planet, and this story is evidence of his ability to do that.
As far as the art on this one, I can honestly say I’ve seen MUCH better work from Khoi Pham on pretty much everything else that I’ve seen him do. Now, granted, he does not have the most polished style in the world, but it seemed PARTICULARLY unpolished on this go-round, with several characters just looking chunky and awkward and facial expressions really failing to convey the proper emotion for nearly 90% of the issue (the scene between Frenzy and Xavier being a notable exception.) The beautiful range and perspective depth that I’ve come to expect from Pham is just non-existent here, which is a damn shame.
Continued belowThe second story excites me far more than the first as it lays the ground work for the following arc that we already know will send the team into space to find their lost teammates Havok, Polaris and Marvel Girl. What I really enjoy the most about this story is that 60% of it is told in reverse order, yet it still manages to make sense of the story. We see how Rachel got to Utopia, get a hint at why she went and when and finally see her wake up, back in her body but far from safe and sound. While this, much like the first story, was strictly a road mapping story, I really like that we got the convention challenging Mike Carey that readers of The Unwritten are all too familiar with and it makes me really want to see him take more chances with his story telling in this book, which I feel is what made his initial run on adjective-less X-Men in 2006 so successful.
The art on this story was far more amenable to my tastes, and Kurth manages to not only portray, in vivid detail, the despair of all those interacting with Rachel’s fading psychic imprint through keen use of facial expression, but brings a whole heaping boatload of detail to the amazing splash page reveal of Havok, Polaris, Rachel and Korvus battling a heretofore unknown (at least to me) enemy. I believe his art to be much more suited to this book if Pham is going to keep turning in work like he did during the main story.
Overall, while I remain committed to this book for now, there are still more than a few question marks. Yes, it makes sense for this particular team to work together to solve this particular problem, but it’ll take some convincing for them to stay together once all the personalities are tucked safely back in Legion’s mind. Like, for instance, why THIS team with a barely reformed villain, the absent father of one of the lost in space mutants and an insane god-mutant would be the one to go into space to save the X-Men’s wayward babes, but I trust Carey to make it make sense and to keep this lineup relevant. Also, he really needs to take some time to focus on Chamber after going so far out of his way to bring the character back to a more classic version of himself, but I suspect this will happen in time. Either way, I’m sold on the team and I’m sold on the concept, so lets see how far down this rabbit hole goes.
Final Verdict: 9.0 – Buy
