It’s been a little over a year since Hickman introduced a new paradigm for Marvel’s mutant population and gave them a new home on the island of Krakoa. While I haven’t been keeping up with it as much as I probably should, I love how the new X line has created so many new and interesting opportunities for fun ideas and different stories.
It’s a brave new world for the X-Men, and with books like “X-Corp” #1 we get to see how they live in it.
Written by Tini HowardCover by: David Aja
Illustrated by Alberto Foche
Colored by Sunny Gho
Lettered by VC’s Clayton Cowles
KRAKOA IS FOR CLOSERS!
The deals have been made. Mutantkind is safe on Krakoa. As the Reign of X continues, what are the wants of the mutants who have everything? Leading the charge is X-CORPORATION, headed by CXOs Monet St. Croix and Warren Worthington, a duo as cutthroat and ruthless in the boardroom as they are on a battlefield. But X-Corp needs more than just its figureheads. As Monet sets out to staff their team with some of the brightest and most deviant minds in mutantkind, Warren finds himself in a tense meeting with one of Krakoa’s first allies who wants to know the truth: on Angel’s wings, will X-Corp crash or soar?
Rated T+
When Earth’s mutant population declared its own independent nation on the mutant island of Krakoa, they managed to buy a considerable amount of goodwill with the human population by developing several live altering drugs from Krakoan flowers. Now, the mutant leadership wants to continue developing this newfound soft power with the creation of X-Corp, a company that uses mutant intellect and business sense to create and develop new products and ideas to power a better future. Unfortunately, the usual forces of greed, corruption, and mutant hatred are rearing their ugly heads, and are fully prepared to use every legal and illegal tool at their disposal to make sure that future doesn’t happen.
The script for “X-Corp” #1 is provided by long time X-Men writer Tini Howard, who does a really good job of showing the two separate faces of global corporate politics in the Marvel setting. The mutants find themselves playing in a strange new world where business cloak themselves in the trappings of legal documents, fancy boardrooms, and publicity, but once you peel away the veneer of civility it’s a world filled with backstabbing, spying, and violence. In order to navigate this new setting Howard has assembled a small, but very effective team of mutants with unique skills and backgrounds. Angel provides the good looks, and moneyed background that allows him to relate and talk to the world’s wealthy elite, Penance provides the ruthless corporate edge, Trinary is a technopath that can help the team with enhanced tech and I.T support, and Multiple Man provides a one man resource for all the manpower and researchers they could ever need. It’s a well balanced team with well suited skill sets, and Howard does a very good job of playing the characters off each other and using their abilities to great effect.
“X-Corp” #1 does have some pacing problems, mostly because there are some places where it’s a bit difficult to follow the plot and figure out what’s going on at certain points in the book. However, it’s not really Howard’s fault since the comic has pages of text sprinkled throughout the book that serve as exposition dumps. It’s become a hallmark of Hickman’s vision for the X-Men line and while it’s nice to see something different and interesting, it can make the actual comic book a bit difficult to follow at times. Also, since this is a corporate drama, there are a lot of scenes where the characters are just sitting around and talking to each other which might be a turn off for some readers, but Howard does a very good job of keeping it quick and effective. Just because the characters are fighting with words and lawyers instead of fists doesn’t mean it’s just as dangerous and life threatening.
The artwork for “X-Corp” #1 is provided by Alberto Foche with colors by Sunny Gho and continues the new X line’s tradition of very cool looking artwork. It seems that most of the X-Men books are adopting a similar style of realistic human features and settings along with rich, but somewhat faded and gentle, colors. It kind of feels like if you took Christian Ward’s artwork and toned it down to make it feel more legible. That’s not to say that there isn’t room for fun stuff, Foche does a great job of creating a world that is filled with very sleek and futuristic designs and ideas with a hint of strange things to come. Case in point, a good portion of the comic takes place on a race track that hosts genetically modified fire and water horses that look very interesting. It will be very interesting to see what sort of strange and cool looking gadgets, tech, and pharmaceuticals will be coming out of this book in the not too distant future.
Continued belowIf the artwork in “X-Corp” #1 has any problems. it’s that it feels a bit too similar to the artwork for all the other recent X-Men titles. While it makes sense that the editorial staff at Marvel would want to keep a consistent look to the books, but it feels like there could be more opportunities for experimentation and new styles and ideas. Still, it’s great art to look at and does a very good job of enhancing the story.
“X-Corp” #1 puts the X-Men franchise into a new fight for equality and representation, only instead of fighting with fists and energy blasts it’s with corporate doublespeak, manipulating public perception, and innovating to create a better future and insane profits.
Final Verdict: 8.5- A fascinating new take on the X-Men’s continued fight for survival and recognition that will be fought in boardrooms and laboratories instead of battlefields and government black sites.
