Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men: Utopia #1

By Matt Fraction (Writer), Marc Silvestri (Pencils), Michael Broussard, Eric Basaldua, Tyler Kirkham, & Sheldon Mitchell (Pencil Assists), Joe Weems w/ Marco Galli, Eric Basaldua, Rick Basaldua, Jason Gorder, Jay Leisten, Sal Regla, Jon Sibal, and Ryan Winn (Inks), and Frank D’Armata (Colors)

The Story: A riot breaks out as the March for Humanity (led by Simon Trask and his Humanity Now! coalition) reaches San Francisco’s mutant population. The confrontation sparks a wave of violence between mutants and humans that spreads throughout the streets of San Francisco and other nearby cities. With chaos reigning, Norman Osborn sends his Avengers in to restore some order by any means necessary. There is also another plan at work, something far more sinister…

What’s Good and What’s Not So Good: The best thing about the first chapter of Utopia is its strong ending. It’s genuinely surprising and it brings to mind a number of interesting possibilities. What’s disappointing though, is how long it feels like it takes to get the ending that makes the Utopia one-shot worth reading.

While Matt Fraction does a very nice job of ramping up the tension in San Francisco and establishing a sense of scale to the mutant/ human conflict, too much of Utopia #1 feels like fluff. What Fraction establishes in over thirty pages could have easily been taken care of with less than twenty-five. Now, with that said, just because it’s padding, doesn’t mean it’s bad.

Fraction does a lot of great things with the various characters he is allowed to play with. Fluff or not, there’s no denying how well written Utopia is. The scene between Cyclops and Toad is absolutely fantastic, as is the short Hawkeye/ Bullseye appearance. The page showing how others are reacting to the San Francisco mess is also very effective in a “short, but sweet” way.

What bothers me about Fraction’s story is that it makes Cyclops look rather foolish early on. The March for Humanity had apparently been marching hundreds of miles for quite sometime before reaching San Francisco. I find it hard to believe that a character like Cyclops (or any other “X” leader) would not be on top of things regarding how to deal with Trask’s march. Yeah, I know, that complaint is a bit of a nitpick in the larger scheme of things, but after all the character rehab Cyclops has gone through…

By now you’ve probably noticed that I have yet to mention Utopia’s artwork. There’s a reason for that. You know that phrase “Too many cooks in the kitchen?” Yeah… The artwork in Utopia #1 brings that phrase to mind quite often.

Now I’ll leave the “Top Cow” style stuff for you to decide on (expect subtle scenes to look anything but subtle…poses aplenty). What I will discuss, however, is the fact that the first issue of Utopia has visuals that are, when taken as a whole, quite disappointing. For every great looking scene, there is one that serves as a terrible reminder that the art team is made up of fourteen different people. Simply put, Utopia #1 is wildly inconsistent– visually. At least the whole thing has a cohesive look to it though. It really could have been so much worse considering how many people had a hand in creating the artwork.

Conclusion: The Utopia crossover shows a lot of promise, but it takes a while to understand why. If you can deal with the occasionally rough visuals and the sense that things have been stretched out a bit, you’ll find a lot to like about the Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men: Utopia one-shot.

Grade: C+

-Kyle Posluszny

Deadpool: Suicide Kings #1

By Mike Benson (Writer), Carlo Barberi (Pencils), Sandu Florea (Inks), and Marte Gracia (Colors)

Some Thoughts Before The Review: I’ve made no secret about how much I like Deadpool. In fact, I’ll pick up pretty much anything the character is in. To me, more Deadpool is a good thing (unless, of course, he gets in the way of the story or is written as though the person writing him is trying too hard…I’m looking at you Duane Swierczynski). So, needless to say, buying Suicide Kings was pretty much a no-brainer for me. Especially since I found Mike Benson’s first crack at Deadpool, the Games of Death one-shot, to be a pretty entertaining read.

The Story: Deadpool, as usual, takes a job thinking he is going to get paid the big bucks. As it turns out, his employer isn’t exactly being all that honest with him. Soon Deadpool finds his face all over the news for performing an act of terrorism.

What’s Good: Mike Benson does a better job of handling Deadpool in the first issue of Suicide Kings than he did in Games of Death. It goes a long way toward making the book an enjoyable read despite the extremely standard set up and the fairly standard execution. Also good about Suicide Kings is a good portion of the artwork. It manages to successfully straddle the line between silly and serious that suits the Merc with a Mouth extremely well.

What’s Not So Good: Well…you read the plot summary above (I hope). Fact is, if you’ve read a Deadpool story before, nothing about the storyline is going to surprise, shock, or even feel remotely original. Sure it is delivered decently enough, but I feel like I already know how the entire mini-series is going to play out. Another negative about the book is that from time to time the artwork makes the characters look very poorly proportioned and quite inconsistent.

Conclusion: Suicide Kings is the start to a serviceable Deadpool story, but don’t go into it expecting anything new. Enjoy it if you are a fan, but it’s far from an essential read.

Grade:  C-

-Kyle Posluszny