I had high hopes for this book, as I am a big X-Men fan and I am always hoping for some great new mutants to show themselves and add something to the universe. I feel like the X-Men have lost their way a little in the past few years, story-wise. Word is that there is pressure from on high to not give Fox, who own the movie rights to the franchise, anything that they could make a good flick from. And it's really starting to show in places, such as this title.
Given the above, the X-Men books work very hard not to give new or lesser-known mutants a lot of page time, and the ones they do give us are going to have to work pretty hard to carry a movie. We have guy who is covered in eyes (try seeing that and sleeping well tonight), a girl with vague nature-related powers, a guy who is able to become someone you have a lot in common with (yes really) and Quentin Quire, a character whom I had high hopes for and wanted to see develop (glimpses of the future suggest he will one day merge with the Phoenix Force) but where in previous incarnations he has been a smart-ass you love to hate and can eventually root for, in this series he just comes off as an annoying brat.
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| I think it's best for all of us that this is not translated |
The art is OK but nothing to write home about, and looks rushed in places, a common gripe of mine about Marvel books as they try to churn out 90-odd titles a month. This issue sees 3 of the kids take a Ferris Bueller's Day Off approach to an evening alone with no adults, who are out patrolling for the wayward, marrow-sucking Monet. Seems like a bit of a stretch that they decided to just wander around Central Park hoping to bump into her, but that's our premise to give the characters room to go and do something.
They sneak out to an auction (because those crazy teenagers all love auctions) and, well, not a lot else happens really. A lot of exposition, a lot of attempts to develop their characters which doesn't hit the mark and in some cases makes you like them even less. Something else that pops up in this book, and also in Ms Marvel (although I have now dropped it), is an attempt to give lesser-known villains some air time across various titles. In this case it's Exterminatrix, who also has also popped up in America #6 and will appear again in #7. They have done the same with Arcade (who really needs to defect to the DC Universe) and a whole host of others recently. It's almost like they are running some kind of supervillain America's Got Talent to see who the next big thing will be. Anyway it is very noticeable if you are reading a few Marvel comics every month and detracts from the story even more.
I think I am going to drop this book after this issue, reading it felt like hard work and the cliffhanger at the end just didn't get me excited at all. There are plenty of other X-Men titles out there that are much better (Astonishing X-Men is getting REALLY good right now) and your money is better spent on those.
2 / 5
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