Hey y’all. We’re back after a week off to kick off the site’s return to a full schedule. That means News Roundups will return Wednesday and Features will return Friday. Featured Reviews is only taking one week off and will return Sunday. I also plan to write about the initial Loki episode, though the day for that has not yet been decided. The Summer of Shinkai will be kicking off soon and I have recently beaten a number of video games that I plan to write about. Its all looking up for this here blog.
Anyway, let’s get to the all X-Men reviews!
Marauders #21
Writer: Gerry Duggan
Artist: Matteo Lolli
Colors: Edgar Delgado
Letters: VC’s Cory Petit
Design: Tom Muller
Cover: Russell Dauterman and
Matthew Wilson
After months of teasing, the Hellfire
Gala has arrived! This issue serves as a good primer doing a lot of setup work
and teasing the events of the following 11 issues in the storyline. Whether it
be the Iron Man-Quinten Quire feud that continues in X-Force #21 or the
allusions in the epilogue to whatever big stunt the mutants pulled. Everything
is set up here.
Perhaps more importantly, this comic is teeming with entertaining character interactions. Xavier and Reed Richards have an understandably terse conversation while Reed’s son hangs out with his good friend, Kate Pryde. Captain America’s unease about attending a party with Dr. Doom is also tense, though Emma swiftly diffuses the situation. The high-water mark is easily the Thing spotting a number of Marauders playing dice and cannot believe he was not invited to play! It is truly delightful.
Lolli and Delgado do an excellent
job of controlling the proceedings. Every scene feels perfectly paced and, in
an issue with dozens, each character is distinct and feels like themselves in
both body language and the way they move. It is an impressive display of skill.
X-Force #20
Writer: Benjamin Percy
Artist: Joshua Cassara
Colors: GURU-eFX
Designer: Tom Muller
Letters: VC’s Joe Carmagna
Cover: Cassara and Dean White
I am here once again to remind
everyone that Beast is a supervillain and should have been excommunicated years
ago. Anyway, X-Force is running security at the Gala, naturally. It mostly goes
well, though there are a few hiccups. Tony Stark will not wear his assigned
Krakoan flower/ID/tracker and Quinten really would like him to. They have a fun
back and forth that ultimately goes nowhere because the pair are the exact same
type of stubborn.
Elsewhere Deadpool attempts to crash but Logan and Domino hold him off. I guess this is what they were doing during the Hellions issue. Most importantly, Beast is once again up to some extremely questionable shenanigans. Terra Verde’s mind-controlled representatives are here and Beast is having them spread their seed to various other diplomats. This is, obviously, extremely dumb and the first person that learns of this will take Krakoa down with the information.
So, when Emma learns what
X-Force is doing, she immediately attempts to shut it down. Before that can
happen, though, one of the Terra Verdians goes out of control. To be continued in
two weeks in Wolverine! Just like X of Swords! It is cool to see this story
apparently coming to a head after 20 issues. Hopefully, it has a major impact
on the direction of Krakoa going forward and is not just quietly wrapped up
behind the scenes.
Cassara’s art is, as always,
exquisite. His figures and backgrounds look fantastic. The way he renders hair—of
which there is a lot in this comic starring Logan, Beast, and Sage—is perhaps
the most interesting and aesthetically pleasing in the X-line. GURU-eFX’s
colors add a griminess to the book that any good X-Force series requires and
accompanies Cassara’s work well. This is a very easy on the eyes issue.
Also, there is a page just laying out Beast’s villain manifesto:
Hellions #12
Writer: Zeb Wells
Artist: Stephen Segovia
Colors: David Curiel
Letters: VC’s Ariana Maher
Designer: Tom Muller
Cover: Segovia and Rain Beredo
Another X-Men event arrives, and
I am forced to read an issue of Hellions. Luckily, this is easily the best
issue I have read of the series. Unfortunately, that is because it is wholly
inoffensive not because it is good.
In this issue, the Hellions no one cares for party crash the big Gala and cause minor mischief. Meanwhile, Havok, Psylocke, and Sinister pretend to not know these people, mostly successfully. Then everyone goes home. There are a few notable bits like Sinister’s continued (one-sided) fashion war with Exodus and Daken stunting on Wild Child. The text pages are the highlights as the Cuckoos gossip/monitor the event. It is supremely entertaining, and Wells has an excellent handle on the girls’ voices.
Segovia and Curiel do a good job
on art here. Nothing truly stands out except the fashion, which was entirely or
largely designed by someone else. The characters are rendered well and look
great in their various outfits.
No comments:
Post a Comment