Written by Christos GageIllustrated by David Baldeon– The Final Chapter In The Story Featuring Classic X-Villain Exodus.
– Wolverine’s X-Men Are Joined In Battle By Cyclops’ Young X-Men Recruits…To Disastrous Results!
I was very, very close to axing “X-Men Legacy” from my pull. Nothing personal, really, but with Mike Carey — the reason I was buying the book — gone, I didn’t have too much loyalty to the title.
Then again, Christos Gage has written a bunch of books I like. I gave it an arc.
Today, that arc ends. Let’s talk about it after the jump.
“X-Men Legacy,” since it became “Legacy”, has never really lived up to the titles promise. Sure, it was quite good, but more than a book about the future generations of X-Men, this was a book about Rogue and the people she enjoyed hanging around with. That’s how the book started when Mike Carey took over and wrote the ‘Supernovas’ arc, and that was how he ended it; for all intents and purposes, this book could have just been called “Rogue and the X-Men.”
However, since “Schism”, “Legacy” as a title has an an interesting opportunity to adapt. Carey left the book by setting Rogue up in Wolverine’s camp, which is a sect of the X-Men ostensibly dedicated to their own legacy. Wolverine’s modus operandi as headmaster of the Jean Grey Academy is to teach the future generation, who will one day take over the various roles of the X-Men we know and love (theoretically, at least — fans may never actually allow that). While the book will still hold Rogue as it’s lead, her role as a teacher at the academy now assuredly offers up an ample vantage point to really put the legacy aspect into “X-Men Legacy” (without any viruses or the appearance of Genis-Vell).
Queue Christos Gage — the man responsible for shepherding “Avengers: The Initiative”, a book about young Avengers in training and the teachers who teach them, and following it up with “Avengers Academy,” a book about young Avengers in training and the teachers who teach them. He took the reigns of “X-Men Legacy” and has turned it from a book about Rogue and her super pals into a book about young X-Men in training and the teachers who teach them.
Are we seeing a bit of a thematic repetition here? Sure. Are the results worthwhile? Assuredly.
If “Avengers Academy” had to be boiled down to it’s greatest strength, it would be it’s ability to truly create endearing characters. “Academy” has a wide cast, full of characters both new and old, yet each character is treated with an individual reverence that ultimately enhances the overall dynamic. While it has only been a small handful of issues, Gage’s ability to balance a large cast while still getting the point across is quite clear; everything about “Academy” is present in “Legacy”, albeit wrapped up in a new skin. The characters that carried over from Carey’s run feel natural and untouched, while the new characters and the surrounding students (despite getting a smaller amount of screen time) fit right in as if they’ve always been there. Only an arc in to the new run and it already feels like the status quo is as familiar as it’s always been, despite inherently undertaking a huge dynamic shift — and that is why Gage is perfect for the book.
All of this is succinctly captured in David Baldeon’s artwork. “Legacy” has seen many different artists, but for the most part the art — while admittedly quite good! — could often be boiled down to “pretty people doing pretty things in a pretty fashion.” Glamour was a key factor, and while everyone looked quite nice in the book, that outer veil never effectively pierced a lot of Carey’s implied character flaws. Baldeon is entirely different, though; his characters don’t thrive on their beauty, but rather their affable nature. Baldeon’s characters have a lot of life in them, and it shows in every panel from action to action. These characters are kinetic, well rounded and ostensibly human, and in a book that assumedly wants to counter balance the superheroic with the inexperienced or the imperfect you couldn’t find a better visual representation, especially with Jordi Tarragona’s smooth inks and Sonia Oback’s bright and popping colors.
Continued belowThis isn’t to say that “Legacy” is perfect. Far from it, really. The book inherently teeters on the edge of perfectly capturing it’s concept and missing the point completely at the same time. In terms of product line, Marvel has four books defined as the “gold” team, two of which (“Uncanny X-Force” and “X-Factor”) have very little to do with the every day occurrences of the X-Universe to the same extent that “Legacy” and “Wolverine and the X-Men” do. To that end, we already have a book at the new school that has a weird balance between it’s handle of the students and the staff — it’s called “Wolverine and the X-Men”, and it stars Wolverine, some students and a few X-Men. We don’t really need a second book with the exact same formula.
“Legacy,” at this moment, is best served as a book that imbues itself deep into the school environment, and that’s something it has only lightly done so far. This first arc essentially jettisoned all of the students into a corner while the adults took the lead, and while the kids managed to get some well deserved screen time by the end, the balance still needs to be evened out if “Legacy” is to really forge it’s own path, live up to its namesake, and not just continue to be a book that should be called “Rogue and the X-Men,” then it needs to make that distinction clear, and soon.
However, if anyone was going to do just that and knock it out of the park at the same time, it’d be Christos Gage, and with a partner like David Baldeon alongside him, the future is certainly looking bright.
Final Verdict: 8.5 – Buy
