Wolverine & The X-Men #4 – Review

By: Jason Aaron (writer) Nick Bradshaw (artist) Justin Posner (colors)

The Story: It always sucks to be the new kid.

What’s Good: While I was sad to see Chris Bachalo leave this series, rest assured that the art is in good hands with Nick Bradshaw. His round, friendly lines make the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning just as wonderful as Bachalo did, and his attention to detail is incredible. From the picture of Cyclops on a dart board, to Quire’s copy of the Art of War, to Glob’s papers sticking to him, every panel feels rich and resplendent. The change in art style also reflects a change in tone. The faculty are no longer fighting off external forces that threaten to destroy the school, but are still burdened by the day-to-day difficulties of managing and teaching twenty super-powered adolescents. As such, the atmosphere has lightened, and things no longer look ready to come apart at the seams. There are some truly beautiful shots of Angel against the sun, and everyone’s body language is as expressive as their dialogue.

One of my favorite parts of this new series has been just how well  Jason Aaron has been able to capture the dynamic between the students and the teachers, while keeping everyone in character. Wolverine and company are truly teachers, not team leaders or mentors as they’ve been in other books featuring young mutants, and this relationship informs nearly of their interactions.

The story in this issue centers around the introduction of Angel and the Kid-Apocalypse Evan, who calls himself Genesis. The two  face very different challenges; Evan will have to decide his fate, whether to be savior or destroyer. Worse, he will have go through puberty, bullies, high school drama as figure it out. This has me concerned for his treatment by writers: it will be only too tempting to repeatedly pen stories about him “going evil” only to “redeem himself” in endless and unsatisfying cycles. I’m really hoping that Jason Aaron has a very specific character arc in mind for him, and that he can convince editors and future writers to try to adhere to as tight a story as possible. For Angel, on the other hand, I think the struggle will not so much be about finding himself as it will be about convincing others that he is a very different person than the one they remember. This, I like. At the very end of the Dark Angel Saga, I was concerned that all that the only reprecusion was that he had developed amnesia, and that after maybe a few months, we’d get a story line about him regaining his memories. If the changes in him are as far-reaching as they are implied to be here, the writers have been braver than I would have dared to hope. There’s a lot of potential for some very interesting stories here, not only for this new character, but also for all of Warren’s friends as they adjust to his “condition.”

Age of X: Alpha #1 – Review

By: Mike Carey (writer), Gabriel Hernandez Walta, Carlo Barberi, Paco Diaz, Paul Davidson (pencillers)

Story: Without preamble or explanation, we are thrust into an America where mutants are on the run, all the time, where persecution is legislated and state-supported, and where human rights apply only to non-mutants. Through a series of loosely connected tales, we see what this America is made of.

The Writing: The X-Men have been doing alternate worlds since the classic Days of Future Past in Uncanny 141-142. The charm of these stories is that the writers and artists get to reimagine all the rich character histories and their moral centers. Villains can be inspirational heroes. Heroes can become villains. And we readers get to care because we have so much invested already in our relationships with these people. The strength of this issue and this concept are some of the fates of different heroes (the horrific fate of Cyclops, for example), those who are not quite heroes, but should be (Paige Guthrie), and those who have never been heroes and might be (Toad, for example). Carey hits all the right notes in this issue, and leaves most of the world unexplained. This is smart, because this is also a mystery story; I want to know why things are as they are, and I’ll stick with this story because I love these characters.

The Art: It’s really a grab bag of styles. Some are quite beautiful either in technical draftsmanship or in visual style. The transitions from one art team to another neatly signal the shifts in vignettes, but were a jarring experience for me as a reader. I get accustomed to a certain art team’s style as I read a book, and when they switch, I sometimes feel like I’m starting the process over. I don’t think I’m complaining for nothing, because the art styles are quite different. DC has been doing the same thing with Brightest Day, but usually there are no more than two art styles (sometimes three) to a BD book. As well, the art of the Magneto vignette by Davidson really didn’t work for me. It felt very two-dimensional and perspective or proportion wasn’t doing it. With those two art limitations said, I have no trouble saying that the art was otherwise good.

Conclusion: Mike Carey definitely hooked me in with the opening salvo of Age of X. I want to know where the heck everyone else is (Colossus, Nightcrawler, Xavier, etc). I’m going to be back for more.

Grade: B

-DS Arsenault