0
Posted December 3, 2012 by Mikael Angelo Francisco in Comics
 
 

COMIC BOOK REVIEW: All-New X-Men #2

Brian Michael Bendis, Stuart Immonen

Beast’s time-traveling shenanigans continue in the second issue of the all-new ongoing, All-New X-Men. Spilling the beans on the current situation of mutant-human relations in the present Marvel universe in the melodramatic, pessimistic, self-righteous manner that only Dr. Henry McCoy can muster, the furry blue mutant persuades the original five X-Men to travel to their future – our present – to stop present Cyclops from “committing mutant genocide”.

I’ll be honest – the pretty pictures are the things that are mainly keeping me on board; the story is secondary. There are times when Stuart Immonen’s faces become a little too expressive for my liking, taking on an almost distorted quality that makes it seem like everyone’s making faces at each other. For the most part, however, his slick pencils work in perfect conjunction with Brian Bendis’s plotting and dialogue. Perhaps my favorite part of this book is the scene where the original five first meet “our” X-Men – Wolverine’s name for the team is especially cute and endearing, and brings to mind Skottie Young’s variant cover for issue #1.

Bendis has a sometimes-annoying knack for disregarding established continuity, and something happens in this issue between young Jean Grey and Logan that makes me wonder if Bendis does any sort of backreading before writing his stories. Minor quibble aside, the scenes satisfactorily play out as intended – slowly building up to an exciting encounter next issue, as we’ll be getting our first face-to-face between two Cyclopses – the idealistic and energetic young leader and the battle-hardened, tactically superior mutant revolutionary.

I was pleasantly surprised by the pacing of this issue – it’s a bit faster than what I’ve grown accustomed to from Bendis’s pen, and I’m liking it a lot. I just hope that the other members of the time-traveling original five get their own chances to shine. I’m particularly concerned about Warren – I can’t wait to see his reaction when he sees his future self (and since his future self has feathery wings and flesh-toned skin, I’m wondering if he’ll ever find out about his brooding Archangel phase).

Also, this comic book has the first Logan drawing that made me laugh since that ridiculously happy Logan playing with paper dolls way back in Whedon and Cassaday’s Astonishing X-Men a few years ago. Hilarious.

VERDICT: 4/5

Two issues in and All-New X-Men remains a strong, solid title in the Marvel NOW! roster. You definitely should be picking up this book regularly.

This review is powered by Comicx Hub!


Mikael Angelo Francisco