Comic Reviews 08.10.2020

 

Hey y’all. We’ve got an all-X-Men edition of reviews this week. Next week also seems like it will be a small week so there may be an older comic in the Featured Review piece. This week I looked at Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, which is a bad name, but a good manga and it was a fun review to write. I’m excited to read more and maybe eventually write about it. Anyway, we have new comics to talk about!

I know, in my heart of hearts, Leah Williams wrote this line.

Spoilers for: Empyre: X-Men #2, Giant-Size X-Men: Fantomex #1

Empyre: X-Men #2

 

Writers: Gerry Duggan, Ben Percy, and Leah Williams

Artist: Lucas Werneck

Colors: Nolan Woodard

Letters: VC’s Clayton Cowles

Design: Tom Muller

Cover: Stephen Segovia and Sunny Gho

 

Turns out each issue of this miniseries has a different creative team and they’re just passing it around. That undoubtedly will lead to varying quality to each issue, but this one remains quite good. The climax of the next seems like its going to be a giant Cotati tree versus a giant Krokoa plant monster and that sounds fantastic.

I also think Williams wrote this line

This issue does quite a lot, giving each character a spotlight while remaining focused on Magik. And Magik is so cool here. She gets to drop burn after burn on the old ladies of Hordeculture (And sometimes other X-Men), partially turn into a demon—which is, to be honest, a regular occurrence—and assemble the telepaths of Krokoa to fight the Cotati invasion. She rules.

The army of telepaths is needed because Krokoa is always sapping a small percentage of their telepathic power to do all the cool stuff it needs to do. So, when you need Krokoa to fight do some fighting, you need extra telepathic energy.

I’m not at all familiar with either person on this art team. They creative a serviceable comic. Everything is clearly told, the colors are fitting, and the epic cliffhanger feels suitably epic but is not elevated. Just an overall good-looking comic that pulls everything off with aplomb.

Giant-Size X-Men: Fantomex #1

 

Story and Words: Jonathon Hickman

Story and Art: Rod Reis

Letters: VC's Ariana Maher

Designer: Tom Muller

Cover: Reis

 

Fantomex has to be the most prominent obscure X-Men character, right? Most comic book readers likely don’t know who he is but so many writers love him that he plays a major or central role in every story in which he appears. I find him to be a delightful weirdo. This issue doesn’t highlight Fantomex’s personality much, but it does set in motion another story thread for Hickman’s ongoing story. And, as with the other Giant-Size one-shots of late, the art really gets to shine. If someone doesn’t consider Rod Reis a big-time artist, just hand them this comic.

 

Fantomex is, apparently, much older than we realized. He was created in the early 1930s in a Weapon Plus lab that was making clones that were identical except one chromosome was changed in each one. Somehow, two identical twins were created so they toss one out because they don’t need. That one is Fantomex. His brother, who is ultimately revealed to be Ultimaton, stayed.

I love upside-down panels

This issue follows Fantomex’s occasional forays into The World to convince Ultimaton to leave his life behind and live like a normal person. Every time, he brings along characters to serve as distractions. This includes Cyclops and Wolverine, expanding on a story from New X-Men. The most recent mission is going to be to retrieve the cure to whatever is killing Storm, a continuation of the Giant-Size X-Men: Jean Grey and Emma cliffhanger. This means it’s likely that the final Giant-Size issue is going to continue from here as it focuses on Storm. A story that focuses on Fantomex and Storm sounds like a blast. This miniseries of one-shots has been extremely strange, structurally, but this one finally feels like it provides forward momentum instead of being mere setup for stories a year from now.

Rod Reis turns in some of the best work of his career here. Everything looks like a watercolor painting and thus gorgeous. Despite having very few hard lines, Reis manages to keep everything clear and organized. His interpretations of the Howling Commandoes--joined by Fantomex With A Beret—standout with how much individuality they have in just a few pages. The way every era featured a different color palette really help differentiate them and helps keep the story in line.

 

As always, feel free to give your thoughts in these comments or on Twitter at @alexraysnyder. And if you like what you read here, consider throwing a couple bucks my way on Patreon to help cover costs.