X-Men #1 – Review

By: Brian Wood (Writer), Olivier Coipel (Penciler), Mark Morales and Olivier Coipel (Inkers), Laura Martin (Colorist), VC’s Joe Caramagna (Letterer)

The Review: As the old saying goes the female of the species is more deadly than the male, and that’s certainly the case when it comes to Marvel’s mutant community. While it’s often down to the guys to cause the conflicts and draw the battle lines, it’s usually the girls’ power sets that prove more decisive in a fight. Jean Grey’s daunting telekinesis, Storm’s mastery  of the weather, Emma Frost’s diamond form/psionic powerhouse double-dip…they’re hardly what you’d call a bunch of shrinking violets. Which is perhaps why the X-franchise is best placed to launch a title whose core team is comprised solely of women; there’s so many great, well-established female characters to choose from. The real challenge though was for Brian Wood to make this book about more than just gender politics, to make it great read for either sex by concentrating first on just making it a great comic book. On that front it’s most definitely a case of mission accomplished.

Wolverine and the X-Men #23 – Review

By: Jason Aaron (Writer), Nick Bradshaw (Artist), Laura Martin (Colorist)

The Story: Teachers and student team up to beat up some evil clown and Frankenstein himself.

The Review: The final issue of a story arc always has many things to achieve. First of all, it needs to gather all the characters together by following the themes approached in the arc in question. It needs to solve the conflict in a way that feels satisfactory.  And it should also set up some more conflict or events ahead to keep the series rolling. This issue, in a way, is a hit and miss, as it accomplishes two of these three things.

The first thing it does well is gather the characters together in a way that is entertaining. With all the teachers free of the brainwashing, the students are now joined with them to finally bring some pain to those who wished to do them harm. What makes this satisfying is that it gives us some of the great interaction between the cast of teachers and students that made this series so enjoyable during its debut. The Quentin Quire and Wolverine bits are always fun to read, even though in this issue they are sparse, but Quentin’s interaction with Idie is also genuinely good to read. The characters are back on track, which was something Jason Aaron did great in this series.

The Avengers #29 – Review

By: Brian Michael Bendis (writer), Walter Simonson (pencils), Scott Hanna (inks), Jason Keith (colors), and Cory Petit (letters)

The Story:  The Avengers hunt down Rachel Summers in an attempt to neutralize the X-Men’s telepathic advantage.

The Review:  The main Avengers title has been frustrating me for a while now.  Despite being what should be Marvel’s flagship book and being helmed by a fantastic, generations-spanning creative team, the book has been flailing, seemingly without any meaningful direction.  This led to a frustrating arc where Bendis and Simonson did an inexplicable re-tread of a story that was already being told in Secret Avengers.  Sadly, this month continues that trend, this time with Jason Aaron’s Wolverine and the X-Men in its sights.  For reasons unknown, Marvel decided that it would be a good idea to have Bendis retcon a random issue of Wolverine and the X-Men, and not even  particularly good one at that, that came out June.