All-New X-Men #22.NOW
I’m not going to even touch the numbering nightmare that is
this issue- there are so many numbers, and decimal points vying for attention
on this cover. Marvel needs to sort this crap out. Just look at how confusing
it would be to new readers (especially since this had been designated as a
jumping on point!)
Anyways…after years of diminishing returns on the Avengers
titles, Brian Michael Bendis is a wonderfully rejuvenated force on the X-Men
books, especially All-New X-Men which has buckets of energy and playfulness. It
offsets the darker tone of the other book set in Cyclops’ territory really
well. After the last arc in which the team recruited X-23 and took down the
Purifiers, I expected several issues of Bendis styled down-time in which
everybody sits around and chats about their feelings or just hangs out. We get
a little bit of that at the start of this issue with Bobby charmingly making
snow angels. We also get a great moment in young Scott and Jean’s relationship
where they both express how exhausted they are with all the fatalism and
pre-destiny surrounding their every move. Jean gets a lovely bit where she
flips out at the thought of Scott ending up with Emma Frost:
“[I] find out we get married but you end up with silver
boobs McGee.”
It’s this theme of fatalism that has been a driving force
behind this book and makes even the more saggy issues zip along while being
driven by this concept. The theme really comes to the fore in this issue with
Jean being abducted by the Shi’ar, presumably to answer for crimes she has yet
to commit as the Phoenix. It’ll be nice to have this team interact with The
Guardians of the Galaxy and I’m sure that book will benefit in terms of sales
from this cross-over. Immonen’s art, as always, is gorgeous, and I’m excited to
see him draw some spacey stuff in the coming issues.
X-Men #9
I’m pulling the plug with this issue. Critics and fans seem
to love Brian Wood’s writing, but it’s just not for me. As a huge fan of Grant
Morrison’s run on X-Men, I may be overly sensitive to elements of his work
being transformed into something they were never meant to be. I know that
comics are supposed to be malleable and allow for different interpretations of
the same idea, but the version of John Sublime presented in this series is so
far removed from the original version it’s mind-boggling. I don’t want to sound
like a whiney fan-boy, but Sublime should never be portrayed so that he can be
a potential love interest for a character. It’s a reduction of the character to
something he shouldn’t be, and this annoyance seems to have finally pushed me
over the edge on a book I’ve tolerated rather than enjoyed. Bye bye X-Men.
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