Checking In On the X-Men
Back in June, I brought home my usual stack of comic books. That’s always fun. But I noticed that this particular stack had not one, not two, but seven different issues of X-Men- the latest issue of five separate ongoing titles plus a Special and an Annual. I’m a big X-Men fan so it’s not unusual for me to bring home multiple comics featuring my favorite team. But seven is a lot, even for me. So I figured it would be a good time to review the current state of the franchise.
The first title is All-New X-Men by Brian Michael Bendis, Stuart Immonen and Wade von Grawbadger. This is arguably the best of the X-titles right now- and I’m a little surprised to be saying that. Years ago, I had argued that Bendis, with his penchant for characterization, dialogue and melodrama, would be a better fit for the X-Men than the Avengers. After all, Chris Claremont had crafted a soap opera dynamic for the X-Men during their glory years. However, I backtracked on my original prediction when Bendis was eventually named the head writer for the X-Men titles. I had become frustrated with Bendis’ irregular pacing on the Avengers and didn’t want the X-Men subjected to multiple issues of filler in between big moments. Plus, I was concerned that his announced plans for the original teenaged team to become stranded in the present would feed into Baby Boomer nostalgia.
With All-New X-Men, Bendis has met some of my expectations and exceeded others. The time-stranded teenagers are fodder for adolescent melodrama, not maudlin nostalgia. It makes sense. We aren’t nostalgic when we’re young; we only become nostalgic for our youth as we become older. The original X-Men want to stay in the present and are often more accepting of changes than the characters who’ve lived through them. Bendis has also pleasantly surprised me by shaking up the status quo. He introduced a brief romance between Jean Grey and the Beast and a passing flirtation between Cyclops and X-23. He allowed Angel to leave his team and join the adult Cyclops’ squad. The entire team reunited when the others left Wolverine’s school as well. More recently, the younger Cyclops has left the team to join his father Starjammer in space. I’ve enjoyed the unexpected twists and turns in what has turned out to be a coming-of-age story as the various X-Men learn that the world is more complicated than they had comprehended.
In the latest issue, #28, Bendis focuses on the villainous future Brotherhood of Mutants. The future Brotherhood had been part of the recent Children of the Atom crossover where they were defeated by the combined forces of three teams of X-Men: Cyclops’ team, Wolverine’s team and a future team. Now, Bendis has fun with the possibilities of time travel. Fans have often wondered why time-traveling villains don’t simply return to the same time to complete their original plan with more information. Well, that’s exactly what the Brotherhood does. It’s clever and fun and it makes for another great issue of All-New X-Men.
Amazing X-Men is currently the title without a raison d’etre. It took the place of Astonishing X-Men on the schedule but it seemed like more of a showcase for writer Jason Aaron, fresh off of his run on Wolverine & the X-Men. It also looked like it was going to be a showcase for Nightcrawler, whose return from the land of the dead was the focal point of the first story arc. However, both Jason Aaron and Nightcrawler left the title after that first arc. Aaron’s plate is full, writing Thor and other titles for Marvel, and Nightcrawler was moved to his own eponymous ongoing series. Yet those abrupt departures left Amazing X-Men without direction.
A guest writer, Monty Nero, joined longtime X-Men artist Salvador Larroca on the annual, featuring Storm’s return to Africa. The new creative team of Craig Kyle, Chris Yost and Ed McGuinness then debuted on the most recent issue, #8. The annual is entirely avoidable. The Storm story hinges on that hoary old trope of the forgotten villain from the past. There’s also a backup story focused on Firestar, drawn by a disparate group of indie artists but it doesn’t really work as a whole.
However, the new regular team shows a lot of promise and a possible reason for this series to exist. Surprisingly, none of the regular titles feature the core team of X-Men. They’re all focused on the students, time-displaced teens, or mobile squads. Kyle and Yost propose to fill that gap with a book the focuses on Wolverine and an adult team operating out of the Jean Grey School. The core roster will apparently be comprised of Wolverine, Storm, Colossus, Nightcrawler, Iceman and Firestar. It’s a cool group- combining the classic Claremont-Byrne team with Spider-Man’s Amazing Friends. I may have disparaged ‘60s nostalgia earlier, but this team scratches the nostalgia itch for this Generation X kid. It’s also a good story, or at least the beginning of a good story. Wolverine heads home to Canada to visit his old Alpha Flight friends only to discover a plague of Wendigos, creating the potential for a big, fun, fight.
The flagship title is, of course, Uncanny X-Men by Brian Michael Bendis, Chris Bachalo and Tim Townsend (though one could argue co-flagship status for All-New). Unfortunately, Bendis has met both my high and low expectations with this title. It’s occasionally great, but not consistently so. The title essentially combines two teams. On the one hand, there’s Cyclops’ main team of rogue X-Men, which is pretty much down to Emma Frost and Magik. Magneto still makes the occasional appearance though he’s more often involved in his own solo series. On the other hand, there’s the team of kids that Cyclops has recruited. With so many characters in play, Uncanny X-Men often feels scattered.
The focus shifts between the kids and the adults with the result that you don’t get to know either of them very well. That isn’t as much a problem with the adults as it is with the kids. We’ve known Cyclops, Emma Frost and Magik for years and their characters are fairly well defined. Even so, they’re living on the edge so it would help to highlight their current motivations a little more. Plus, it would be nice if they didn’t occasionally disappear for an issue or two. It’s a much bigger problem with the kids. I still don’t feel like I know them- they’re codenames and one-note personalities- and I don’t care much about what happens to them. They have a long ways to go before they earn any esteem to compare with the former cadres of kids in New Mutants, Generation X and New X-Men.
Of course, Uncanny X-Men isn’t all bad. This is also the title where Bendis unleashes his big screen blockbuster fare. For example, the latest issue #22, featured a four-way fight between SHIELD, sentinels and both teams of X-Men (the Cyclops and Wolverine sides, for those who haven’t been paying attention). It was a sit-back-and-enjoy-the-popcorn blowout.
Guest writer Sean Ryan actually did a better job of balancing the kids and the adults on the recent Uncanny X-Men Special “No End in Sight.” There was a clear division between teachers and students and a rare emotional moment as Magik and Emma Frost taught the kids about the tragic past of previous teams. Ryan doesn’t have Bendis’ skill, but he did a good job of fleshing out the characters from the Uncanny title.
It’s been a rough start for Wolverine & the X-Men. The newest title at least has a clear niche to fill. It highlights the kids at the Jean Grey school and therefore inherits the mantle of earlier youth-focused titles Academy X, New X-Men and Young X-Men. Plus, it had a promising creative team. New writer Jason Latour had been involved in some pretty good story arcs for Astonishing X-Men. And new artist Mahmud Asrar had done excellent work at Image before Marvel snapped him up. Unfortunately, the title simply isn’t gelling right now.
Part of the problem, of course, is that Latour and Asrar have the unenviable task of following in the footsteps of Jason Aaron and Nick Bradshaw’s amazing run on the previous volume of Wolverine & the X-Men. In comparison, they just don’t measure up. Comparisons aside, Latour and Asrar haven’t yet wowed me with their take on the title. I’ll probably give them a little more time to win me over, but with five ongoing X-Men titles, I can afford to be a little more discerning.
The final title is the eponymous and adjective-less X-Men by Brian Wood. Wood made a pretty big splash in the media when he announced that he would have an all-female line-up for this particular squad. However, the X-Men have such a rich history of strong, female characters that his approach has never felt like a gimmick. Storm, Psylocke, Rachel Grey, Jubilee and Monet make for an interesting cast with diverse powers and ideas. They’ve also filled a niche as the X-Men’s mobile squad, tackling mutant-related crises all around the globe. In that way, they’re more of an heir to Astonishing X-Men than Amazing.
The biggest problem with X-Men is Wood’s glacial pace. Most comic book publishers have abandoned the deconstructed storytelling of the early aughts. Wood, however, has not. He still relies on 5 and 6 part story arcs, with no shorter tales to spice things up in between. When he’s telling a good story, it’s not a problem. But when he’s pursuing an uninteresting idea, it really drags on. This was especially notable with the all-female team of villains- a story that seemed to be all build-up and no pay-off.
More recently, Wood has returned to good form. His current story is very personable and emotional. In the main tale, Jubilee is fighting to keep her adopted son after his supervillain father has returned to claim him. In a sub-plot, Storm struggles with her new role as mother to a time-displaced daughter. The latest issue, #15, was the middle part of the story but it kept the action moving quickly while setting up a creditable and emotional threat. At the same time, I’m cautiously looking forward to the new creative team of Marc Guggenheim and Harvey Tolibao, who are slated to take over with issue #18.
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