Hey, so remember when a select group of Mutants went into a mysterious vault where time moved differently? Well, it was easy to forget with everything else going on, like “X of Swords,” but they’re still in there. What’s been happening all that time? We get to catch up with Wolverine, Darwin, and Synch as they explore and see what they’ve been up to.
Oh, and there will be the occasional spoilers.
Written by Jonathan Hickman
Illustrated by Mahmud Asrar
Colored by Sunny Gho
Lettered by VC’s clayton CowlesINSIDE THE VAULT!
It’s been a long time since the team went into the vault. A long time.
Jonathan Hickman’s “X-Men” run has been doing a lot, and I mean a lot. Last issue they went to space. Before that they were dealing with the Krakoa/Arakko situation. Oh, and there’s an ongoing election to choose who will join the official X-Men team. But in issue #5, they were dealing with the Children of the Vault, and had to send a team into a technological world where time moves more quickly. Oh, and there’s a chance it won’t re-open for about a thousand years, give or take. We saw that they were gone for about three months in the comic’s time, which translates to over five hundred years inside the vault. That’s where the issue ended.
“X-Men” #18 picks up the story from there, showing us what happens inside the vault. Synch serves as narrator, which helps us catch up on the scenario, add additional dialogue to the scenes, and gets us inside his head. As a recently revived character, there’s a good chance readers will be unfamiliar with him, so the narration helps us get to know who he is and how he feels to create more of a connection.
Additionally, the narration comes from a future perspective, describing the events in past tense. Since it talks about them counting the days in the vault and their memories of it, we’re given enough foreshadowing to let us know that it’s going to be a struggle for all the characters.
At the same time, this issue gives us a look at the inside of the Vault. This gives both writer Jonathan Hickman and artist Mahmud Asrar a chance to stretch their creativity, bringing us into a strange technological world. This brings us to a new environment and characters that haven’t been seen in quite a few years, and we get to see how they all play out.
If there is any drawback to this, it’s how quickly the Children of the Vault that we see get disposed of. Each one has a unique character design, powers, and personalities, but the fight against them only serves to show off the characters’ powers (including Synch’s power-up) and demonstrate how the team is surrounded by danger at all times. We know it will be a constant fight for the three Mutants, but the enemies are just generic baddies with neat designs until we get to learn about them.
With that said, the designs are most certainly neat. Mahmud Asrar does a great job bringing these characters to life, with everything drawn with great detail and depth. When we see them in action, the combat is swift, even hectic (I’m not entirely sure which of them manipulated water to try and drown Darwin, but that was never going to work anyways) but it moves quickly and works well with the sudden attack.
There is a slight issue with the way Serafina’s lips stand out from the rest of her pitch-black body is unintentionally but uncomfortably similar to the face paint from minstrel shows. It’s particularly distracting in an otherwise great nearly full-page panel where Wolverine drops from above to attack her.
In terms of the main cast, Wolverine, Darwin, and Synch all stand out nicely. Although they have matching uniforms (and two thirds of them are bald), each one brings their own style to it. Since Synch is acting as our viewpoint character for this issue, we get plenty of close-ups on him to help show how he feels, all presented with nice subtle expressions and impressive detail. I particularly like Wolverine’s design, using the yellow x-shape of her uniform to match with her take on the iconic cowl.
Continued belowAnd yes, she’s Wolverine as much as Logan is at this point. She’s moved past X-23 at this point and has earned the Wolverine name (although I admit I still Gabrielle “Honey Badger” even if she’s going by “Scout” now, but that’s another conversation).
Moving past the character designs, Mahmud Asrar also does a fine job making the world inside the Vault feel properly otherworldly. While we’ve had plenty of alternate worlds in the X-titles recently, this one stands out as a technological realm, filled with writhing wires, massive steel towers, and plate metal floors.
Sunny Gho’s color work does wonders as well, using shades of grey blue throughout the backgrounds to establish the flavor of this world. Those colors help amplify the glowing effects, like the silver glint of Wolverine’s claws or the burning orange flames.
In the end, this issue is good for setting the scene and the characters, while providing some brief but fun action. Is it the most exciting issue? Not particularly. But it does what it has to do. It kicks off a story with characters we can be excited to see more from and brings us into the world within the Vault, so it’s a fine start to another chapter in Hickman’s “X-Men.”
Final Verdict: 7.0 – An engaging issue that brings us into the Vault and into the characters’ heads, as expected of the ongoing “X-Men” comic.
