Sigil #1 – Review

By: Mike Carey (writer), Leonard Kirk (pencils), Ed Tadeo (inks), Guru eFX (colors), Rob Steen (letters), Sebastian Girner (assistant editor) & Nick Lowe (senior editor)

The Story: Troubled teenage girl with odd birthmark keeps having very vivid dreams where she is whisked away to another reality featuring pirates.

What’s Good: First, a caveat; I read a grand total of ZERO issues of any CrossGen titles when they were first coming out, so I have no experience with the previous Sigil series and am wholly reviewing this as a new reader.

If you follow the sales trends for comics, you’ve no doubt heard the refrain that the comic publishers need to do something to “grow the market”.  Somehow we’ve got to get more people buying comics!  But, the trick is that you don’t grow the market by just offering up a 6th ongoing X-Men title that will appeal to the hardcore X-Men fans.  It would help to bring in people from outside the “normal” comic demographic, and to do that the publishers are going to have to create some stories that aren’t about superheroes.

With that thought in mind, Marvel deserves some credit for relaunching Sigil in this sales environment.  It probably won’t sell all that well (Avengers and Batman aren’t even selling all that well right now), but they need to experiment with tossing some “other” types of stories out there as miniseries and see what might be able to get some traction.

I really enjoyed Sigil.  It tells a very straightforward story of a girl named Sam Rey.  She’s a high school kid whose mother has died and her dad appears to be doing the best he can for her, but life doesn’t seem to be easy.  She’s not popular at school, struggling in some of her classes and getting picked on by the bullies.  But, through all of this, she keeps getting whisked “away” in kinds of lucid dreams where she sees a world of pirates who may have some connection to her dead mother.  I was very intrigued by the story on a few fronts.  For one thing, I’m an unabashed fan of teenage-girl-growing-up stories.  You can just tell that this is going to have some of the vibe that makes me enjoy stories like Batgirl or Morning Glories.  For another, any man with a daughter is probably going to feel a connection with this title just because it shows a father who seems like a real dude.  He’s not an alcoholic, or abusive, or so consumed with his work that he has no time for his daughter. He’s just a normal dad doing the best he can under trying circumstances.

Finally, I’m just intrigued to see what happens with the story.  Anytime you read a new first issue (a TRUE first issue, not the Wolverine #1 of the month), you have to ask, “Do I want to see how this turns out?”  And, in this case I do.  I want to see what the nature of the magical power that is summoning Sam between worlds and I want to know how this connects with her mother.

The art is quite good.  It seems a little on the side of photorealistic, but in a good way.  I’d compare it to the months when Salvador Larroca is doing his good work and it isn’t “Greg Land bad stuff” by any stretch.  It just looks like the artist has uses photographs to inform him about what certain facial expressions look like and that’s a great thing.  It tells the story very effectively and that’s the most important thing.

X-Men: Legacy #227(Utopia) – Review

By Mike Carey (Writer), Dustin Weaver (Pencils), Ed Tadeo (Inks), and Brian Reber (Colors)

Some Thoughts Before The Review: The X-Men: Legacy Utopia arc serves the dual purpose of expanding the riots and getting Rogue (possibly Gambit and Danger as well) back into the main X-Men scheme of things. That makes for a good “X” story, but not necessarily an essential part of the Utopia crossover.

The Story: The rescue of an injured mutant, Trance, doesn’t go exactly as planned and soon she loses control of her powers. Rogue, Gambit, and Danger try to locate the girl before it’s too late. Also, Ms. Marvel feels she’s got a score to settle…

What’s Good: While it’s got all the trappings of a standard tie-in, X-Men: Legacy #227 is very well-executed. Because of that, it’s definitely better than your standard tie-in. The drama (and action) with Trance is pretty interesting, the team dynamic that Rogue, Gambit, and Danger have makes the book a good read, and the fact that the Legacy group is now operating with the X-Men (however temporarily) is most likely going to please any “X” fan.

Mike Carey writes every character effectively. While I expected the team of Rogue, Gambit, and Danger to be written well, I did not expect Carey to nail Ms. Marvel’s attitude (“I’m sort of on the clock here.”) so perfectly. Ms. Marvel’s appearance could have easily come off as somewhat unnecessary, but thanks to Mike Carey, her scenes are some of the most entertaining of the entire book. I also like what Carey does with Trance and how her situation comes to be resolved (even if it is a bit corny). I won’t spoil that here, but I will say that I appreciate that it’s satisfying.

Dustin Weaver’s work in Legacy #227 is quite a bit better than it was in the last issue of Legacy. Ms. Marvel’s look is much more consistent, the awkward poses are kept to a minimum, the characters show a great level of emotion (love Ms. Marvel’s look after the line I mention above), and the action hits the right notes. In addition, I like how Weaver and his team handle Trance’s power trouble. The split person scenes are neat.

What’s Not So Good: My biggest complaint about X-Men: Legacy #227 is that it never completely shakes the baggage that comes with being part of a tie-in. While the story is serviceable, it never feels like anything more than the minor sideshow that it is. If you can deal with that and enjoy the story for what it is though, you can probably ignore my complaint. I can think of two other negatives worth considering though. The first is that the resolution to the Trance issue is a bit corny and predictable. The second negative is that Dustin Weaver’s work looks pretty rough in a few panels near the end. The panels aren’t awful, but they do look pretty bad compared to the rest of them.

Conclusion: X-Men: Legacy #227 isn’t all that great (and far from essential) as a tie-in. Regardless, it is a rather good X-Men book. If you are a fan of the characters (like I am), then consider the latest Legacy to be worth picking up.

Grade: B

-Kyle Posluszny

X-Men: Legacy #226 (Utopia) – Review

By Mike Carey (Writer), Dustin Weaver (Pencils), Ed Tadeo (Inks), and Brian Reber (Colors)

Some Thoughts Before The Review: I always feel like part of the problem when I pick up an issue of a series just because it’s a tie-in to some sort of event. And I feel like an even bigger part of the problem when I pick up a tie-in that’s part of a series that I had previously dropped from my pull list.

The Story: Gambit, Rogue, and Danger help out Cyclops during the riots that made up the bulk of the Utopia one-shot. Rogue fights Ms. Marvel, Gambit throws it down with Ares, and Danger comes to the rescue on more than one occasion.

What’s Good and What’s Not So Good: X-Men: Legacy #226 functions as an entertaining side story to the Utopia event. Which is fine, but it also leaves the comic feeling a bit light as a whole. Rogue, Gambit, and Danger are a cool team and the way they go about handling the situation keeps things moving at a brisk pace, but that’s really all that the latest issue of Legacy has to offer.

Now on a technical level, the Legacy Utopia tie-in is solid all around. Mike Carey gives each character a clear voice and their personalities keep the action from ever feeling shallow. Speaking of the action, Dustin Weaver handles most of it well. There’s a few awkward panels and a few stiff looking characters, but as a whole I’m pretty satisfied with how everything plays out. The one thing I’m not satisfied with is how inconsistent Ms. Marvel looks. Karla Sofen has a different face in nearly every panel of her fight against Rogue. It’s a baffling flaw, especially considering how nice most of the character work is.

Conclusion: I wish there was more I could say about X-Men: Legacy #226, but there just isn’t a whole lot to the book. It’s solid all around, but completely unremarkable and far from essential. Consider picking it up only if you are a fan of the characters or want to have a bigger picture of what went down during the Utopia one-shot.

Grade: C

-Kyle Posluszny