Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #24 – Review

By: Brian Michael Bendis (Writer), Dave Marquez (Art), Justin Ponsor (Colors), VC’s Cory Petit (Lettering)

Review: Miles Morales fans beware: there ain’t much of him to be seen this month. As you can tell from the cover (and last month’s last-page reveal), this issue is more an introduction to the Ultimate universe’s Cloak and Dagger, a fan-favourite team whose appearance has been loosely teased in the 1610 for years.

I have to admit, I’ve no great reverence for the characters personally. The last time I remember seeing them star in any comic of note was Civil War and that was in…whoa, 2006!? Color me old. Still, if there’s one thing the Ultimate universe could do with right now it’s new blood, and what better place to introduce it than the line’s flagship title.

Uncanny X-Men #14

By: Kieron Gillen (story), Dustin Weaver (art), Jim Charalampidis (colors)

The Story: A déjà vu is usually a glitch in the Marvel. It happens when they copy something.

The Writing: (Oh, Spoilers ahead) While the story does echo a lot of Matrix: Reloaded, it isn’t a bad story. It’s actually quite interesting. Mr. Sinister has built an entire London underground, populated by thousands of (male only) clones of himself (Ms. Sinister wasn’t invited). One of these clones, a journalist set to do an interview with Sinister Prime (?) is very different from the other clones–he has free will. But not really. He’s actually designed to think he has free will so that Sinister can be challenged by…Sinister. This actually works quite well with the Mr. Sinister we’ve been following of late. He is so egotistical that not only does he want to interview himself, but he wants to test his own system by setting himself against it.

Uncanny X-Men #4 – Review

by Kieron Gillen (writing), Brandon Peterson (art), Justin Ponsor (colors), and Joe Caramagna (letters)

The Story: The Phalanx returns and the X-Men race to stop its rapid consumption.

The Review:  What a strange issue… I really don’t mean that in a bad way at all.  In fact, I wish more ongoing series did this.  Uncanny X-Men #4 is something a one-shot, and Gillen really makes the most of the opportunity, using the done-in-one format to tell a rather different kind of story with a very different focus.  It’s told from the perspective of a member of the Phalanx, marooned on Earth, and the result is a surprisingly intimate comic.

Gillen’s goal with this comic is to make the unrelatable relatable and to make something utterly alien, and generally construed as evil, into something sympathetic.  That’s no easy feat, yet Gillen does accomplish it.  The Phalanx becomes comprehensible.  It’s logic is still completely at odds with humanity, but that there is a logic operating is clear.  More than that though, while Gillen never shies away from just how different, and thus how opposed, the Phalanx is to humanity, he does a great job of giving it legitimate emotions, feelings of loneliness and affection that are surprising.

Really, Gillen boils the Phalanx down into something that is simply incompatible with humanity.  It feels and it loves, but simply put, what it sees as good and affectionate, humanity sees as murderously destructive. The result is something of a bizarre story that ends up being somewhat chilling.  At the heart of Gillen’s script is an entity that simply doesn’t want to be alone, while also wanting to express its affection, but its means are repugnant.  What you end up with then, is an isolated freak, killing out of love and loneliness, wracked by his conscious, but flailing about lost.  It’s thoroughly unsettling, but Gillen crafts a comic where you actually understand the incomprehensible and feel legitimate sympathy for a creature that commits mass murder while garnering that sympathy.  It’s a morally challenging comic, to be sure.

Of course, the downside to all of this is that in delving into these complexities, Gillen does end up being guilty of overwriting the book a bit.  There is a LOT of narration, so much so that it does slow the book down at some points.  At times, that’s acceptable – it gives the book an ominous tone – but that pace is constant, irrespective of when that ominous tone should be at the forefront or not.  I think Gillen’s biggest crime with all this narration is that he does fall prey on a few occasions of telling rather than showing.  I realize a great deal of characterization was necessary in an issue like this to establish the required intimacy, but Gillen should’ve allowed the art to do a little more of the talking.  I don’t think the reader needed quite so much hand-holding.

Uncanny X-Men #2 – Review

By: Kieron Gillen (writer), Carlos Pacheco, Jorge Molina & Rodney Buchemi (pencils), Cam Smith, Roger Bonet, Walden Wong & Molina (inks), Frank D’Armata, Rachelle Rosenberg, Jim Charalampidis & Molina (colors), Joe Caramagna (letters), Jordan D. White & Sebastian Girner (assistant editor), Daniel Ketchum (associate editor) & Nick Lowe (editor)

The Story: Mr. Sinister has created an army of clones of himself.

Five Things: 

1. Enjoyable Mr. Sinister story. – I’m not usually a fan of recycled villains in superhero comics because they become as predictable as the heroes, but this is a pretty nifty Mr. Sinister story.  The idea that he’s been chasing perfection for over a century and now finally thinks he has things in place to act is pretty cool.  It reminds me of something someone said about cottage cheese once: the first time someone made cottage cheese someone opened up the vat and said, “It’s ready.  Let’s eat it.”  How did they know that the goopy white stuff was ready to eat?  That’s kinda what Sinister has done here: He thinks he’s perfect and he’s ready to clone himself and control the planet.

2. A little talky. – Man….there is a lot of Mr. Sinister talking to hear his own voice in this issue.  Gillen manages to power through it in this issue just by being a gifted wordsmith, but there will be fans that groan any time they see such big word balloons.  The trouble with lots of words is that it sometimes slows the tempo of the comic down more than it should by making us linger too much on panels that should be fleeting.

3. Art manages to be okay in spite of a huge cast. – There’s no art in this issue that is “bad”, but anytime you have 3 pencillers, 4 inkers and 4 colorists the issue will look like a bit of a mess.  On a positive note, the storytelling remains intact and all the pages are professional.  I don’t want to bang on the art too much, but it just kinda bums me out that we’re already running into this problem on issue #2 AND that comes on the heels of a pretty average first issue.  Damn it, Uncanny is supposed to be a flagship book!  The art shouldn’t have to be workman-like and professional.  It should be awesome and with the exception of Terry Dodson, this title hasn’t had “awesome” in a long time.

Uncanny X-Force #11 – Review

by Rick Remender (writer), Mark Brooks (penciller & inker), Andrew Currie (inker), Dean White (colorist), and Cory Petit (letterer)

The Story: X-Force heads off to the Age of Apocalypse to acquire the celestial life seed.

The Review:  Somehow, Rick Remender has become the 90s guy and in a totally good way.  Once again, by revisiting the Age of Apocalypse this month, Remender finds himself making a distinctive callback that often deplored time and manages to make it cool again.  Well, almost.  A picture of Scott Summers with longhair still makes the character look ridiculous and full of 90s “attitude,” but I digress.

In venturing to the Age of the Apocalypse, Remender really succeeds in conveying the fact that X-Force are in a different world, a different reality.  Part of it is that unabashed acknowledgement of this being a relic of the 90s, as it makes the comic feel as though a group of 2011 characters ventured into an older comic world.  Beyond the metatextual stuff, however, Brooks and White also illustrate the setting brilliantly, making it look like a grimy, war-torn dystopia out of Ridley Scott’s nightmares.

Remender also shows that he recognizes the benefits of working in an alternate reality, as it allows you to ignore the rules that Marvel continuity usually forces upon you.  Hence, we have X-Force meeting up with a team of mutants largely composed of characters that are deceased in their home reality, characters that had strong ties to them.  While that works well as far as the interpersonal dynamics of the book go, it’s also just really cool for the reader to see these mutants out and about and kicking ass.  Hell, one of them is actually a villain that seems to have taken Wolverine’s hero role in the Age of Apocalypse, which is even more amusing.  And then there’s the last page, which is sort of an “oh no you didn’t” moment where Remender really shows the amount of fun he’s having with a reality where dead suddenly isn’t dead.

The character-work is solid as well.  Dark Beast is just as much of a dick as you’d expect and his dialogue is characterful and enjoyable.  Deadpool also continues to be fun under Remender, staying fun but never over-the-top.  It’s also amusing to see him occupy yet another uncharacteristic role: we’ve seen him as the team’s moral compass and now we’re seeing him as the pessimistic realist.  Deadpool.

X-Men: Legacy #214 – Capsule Review

Mike Carey, (Writer) Scot Eaton, Ken Lashley, (Pencils) Andrew Hennessy, Paul Neary, (Inkers) Frank D’Armata, and Edgar Delgado (Colorists)

Another month, another entertaining issue for the X-Men: Legacy series. This second arc wraps up with Gambit and Sebastian Shaw working together to help Xavier reclaim his mind from the recently awakened genes of Mr. Sinister. Meanwhile, Amanda Mueller attempts to take over Sinister, herself!

Carey, once again, effectively pulls from X-Men history to frame the struggle going on inside Xavier’s mind. His storytelling works extremely well, whether it’s done in a hallucinogenic flashback, a mindscape struggle, or a present day fight scene. Particularly impressive is how Carey makes sure all the major players get time to make an impact amongst a chaotic battle.

Art duties are, as usual, shared between two teams and they both do a nice job with the material. The action is strong, the flashbacks are fun, and the color work by both Frank D’Armata and Edgar Delgado is fantastic. All in all, this is another good looking chapter in Xavier’s story.

If you are an X-Men fan you owe it to yourself to check out one of the most consistently entertaining books in the X-Line. While this isn’t a great issue to jump onto (it concludes the current arc), it is worth checking out just for the teaser of where things might go in the near future. (Grade: B+)

-Kyle Posluszny

X-Men: Legacy #213 – Capsule Review

Mike Carey, (Writer) Scot Eaton, (Penciler) Andrew Hennessey, (Inker) and Frank D’Armata (Colorist)

All the pieces of the puzzle come together in this issue of X-Men: Legacy as the connection between Professor Xavier, Sebastian Shaw, Carter Ryking, and Juggernaut is finally revealed. The issue moves quickly as Gambit and Shaw form an unlikely alliance as they search for Xavier – who has fallen into Hydra’s clutches while suffering from strange hallucinations that may or may not be caused by Mr. Sinister.

For those that have stuck with his occasionally confusing story, Mike Carey’s story comes full circle and the bread crumbs he has dropped throughout the last few issues lead to a great payoff . As usual for this series, this issue features two different art styles, one for the present situation (strong, but marred by some silly facial expressions) and one for scenes taking place in Xavier’s mind (fantastically surreal and incredibly impressive). This is another strong issue and I expect great things to come out of the big reveal on the last page. (Grade: B)

–Kyle Posluszny