Claremont surprised me with an unusually interesting issue of X-Treme X-Men. This doesn't advance any plot, but instead focuses on character... one of Claremont's favorites, I'll wager. It's Cannonball, one of the original New Mutants, and through this reflective issue, the writer brings the young hero into the regular cast. There are a couple of elements in the book that didn't quite click for me, though, one of which was the rather sketchy artwork.
At the site of a tragic train accident -- the result of an incident involving the powerful mutant known as Weapon XXII, AKA Fantomex -- Sam Guthrie, the young mutant and X-Corp agent known as Cannonball, allies himself alongside the British rescue workers. They remind him of his father and the miners from his Kentucky hometown, and through them, Sam finds peace in the connection with his past. He begins to question whether or not the dangerous and disheartening life of a mutant super-hero is for him.
While Larroca's uninked depiction of the train wreckage reinforces the realism of the setting, the same can't be said of the characters. Aside from Sam, we never get a real sense of the other players in this story. There's a sketchy quality in the artwork, and the focus is always so squarely on Cannonball, it seems as though we barely catch a glimpse of anyone else. There's also an odd scene in which, from one panel to the next, Sam suddenly grows two inches taller than his supervisor. It's a brief moment, but a glaring inconsistency.
The strongest element in the script is how the tunnel disaster takes Sam back to his chilhood and reminds him of his father. I really got a sense of Sam as something of than a mutant super-hero, as a man who finds himself drawn in two directions. He's trained for one life, but he's failed to find the fulfillment he expected.
I was a bit disappointed that we didn't see more of Sam and Lila's time together. I didn't feel Claremont sold the intensity of their relationship as well here. He seems to take it for granted that we buy into the bond. The rescue supervisor's turnaround with his prejudices seems to come from out of nowhere either, and it boasts a sickening after-school-special, heavy-handed sweetness.
