X-TREME X-MEN #11
"Beachhead!"
Not Recommended (2/10)
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Marvel Comics
Writer: Chris Claremont
Artist: Salvador Larroca
Colors: Liquid!
Letters: Tom Orzechowski
Editors: Andrew Lis
Price: $2.99 US/$4.75 CAN |
A gap between Claremont's script and Larroca's art continues to make for a confusing read, and to make matters worse, neither element is at its strongest. Claremont's plot is cliched and forced, while Larroca's art is in dire need of traditional inks, not the digital coloring technique that's employed here on its own. It's been about a year since this book launched, and there's no sign that it's getting any better.
Earth is being invaded by an alien army that's establishing a "beachhead" of sorts on the island nation of Madripoor, where the X-Men team led by Storm just happens to be. With Madripoor sealed off from the rest of the world by a powerful force field, it's up to them to save the day, along with an unlikely and malevolent ally. Meanwhile, Shaitan, the most powerful member of the alien army, desperately searches for Khan, his leader, who has gone missing in Madripoor.
Unlike the other aliens in this book, Larroca's design for Shaitan is sharp, different, unique and actually alien. He exudes menace. But as for the rest of the art... well, it's rather difficult to tell what's going on. Action sequences are surprisingly sketchy, and at times, the garish colors overwhelm the art and details are lost in the process. A greater sense of effort and clarity seems to come into play for a brief Avengers cameo, while the title characters almost seemed glossed over visually.
Claremont compensates for the lack of clarity in the art with a rather detailed description of the action in just about every scene in the script. While it helps to inform the reader as to what's going on, it also results in some weak dialogue. The characters sound like narrators, not people, and in a story full of aliens, super-powers and implausibly perfect heroes, the reader needs something believable and geunine to latch onto.
Also pushing credibility are the colorful codenames Claremont has come up with for some of the new characters. "Lifeguard" is far from the most interesting moniker, and the leader of the alien invasion force is named "Khan"? Hasn't genre fiction played off Genghis Khan once too often?
To Claremont's credit, the core plot is an accessible one. I didn't read the issue before this one, and it didn't take me long to figure out what was going on (even though I was disinterested in the action). Unfortunately, the characters don't boast the same level of accessibility. It's as though the writer has assumed that all of the readers will know who these central characters are. This is an X-Men title, and it's not unreasonable to assume that some new readers might be lurking out, wondering who "Lifeguard," "Slipstream" and "Viper" are.
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