X-Men Legacy #22 – Review

by Simon Spurrier (Writer), Khoi Pham (Artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (Colorist)

The Story: With everything going to hell, it’s a nice thing that David has the help of multiple X-Men for his problems.

The Review: It’s always exhilarating to see a title get to its conclusion. While the end may be coming, to see all those subplots and plot threads developed bloom is something that is always a bit satisfying, especially if you are part of the readers that were there during the inception of the title. There’s always the chance that the title might end up being disappointing, but the chance of it being right is always exciting nonetheless.

X-Men Legacy could have very well become something rather insipid in its last few issues, yet the weird energy and the themes brought by Simon Spurrier are strong here. This issue, in many way, is a culmination of many ongoing themes and developments brought to the character of David Haller, providing plenty of entertainment and excitement as the showdown against the evil Xavier goes forth.

Still putting plenty of emphasis on the narration of David, this issue gives readers plenty of the fascinating thoughts that fueled this series and its development, this time giving us a deep insight on the evolution of his introspection and his relation to mutant kind. The way he interacts with other characters he has met and those he didn’t in this battle against his hate and fears personified is very interesting, revealing how his point-of-view changed with each experiences, giving some nice points to how Spurrier handled his evolution throughout the series as seen in the pages of this issue.

X-Men Legacy #21 – Review

by Simon Spurrier (Writer), Khoi Pham (Artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (Colorist)

The Story: David has one good dialogue with Blindfold as he tries to fight the evil golden Xavier that fled from his head.

The Review: Simon Spurrier is a comic book anarchist. There, I said it. Let it be known to all that he cares not for how most capes comics are written and that he’ll do whatever he feels like. Serious issues and social stigmas aren’t normally discussed in super hero universes (at least not in ways that are blatantly direct), but Spurrier doesn’t care. He’s right here to destroy everything we think we know about how super heroes should be handled.

Let it not be said that it isn’t a good thing, though, as X-Men Legacy has been nothing if not delightful when it handles David Haller’s adventure and how he envisions the world. Spurrier, without shying away from what makes capes comics popular in the first place, use these concepts to actually put better ones to the forefront in order to make it both personal and grand in scale.

Simon Spurrier here seems to focus largely on David and his struggle with his mistakes, his powers, his grief and his inability to trust others, which he weaves easily into his tales and through the interactions with a person he loves and one he hates. The dialogue with Blindfold, which makes for the first half of the issue, is something that goes from poignant to a mix of optimism and pessimism, with David fully knowing (or at least he seems to think so) how humanity functions and how everything could be.