X-TREME X-MEN: SAVAGE LAND #1
"Savage Genesis"
Not Recommended (1/10)
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Marvel Comics
Writer: Chris Claremont
Pencils: Kevin Sharpe
Inks: Danny Miki & Lary Stucker
Colors: Avalon Studios
Letters: Tom Orzechowski
Editors: Matt Hicks & Mark Powers
Price: $2.99 US/$4.50 CAN |
Given the popularity of his run on Uncanny X-Men in the 1980s and '90s, one could argue that more comics readers at the time, and perhaps still today, sampled the work of Chris Claremont than any other writer. His characterizations and dialogue drew tens of thousands to Marvel's mutant super-heroes. I remember a few of those stories with fondness, but the clarity Claremont boasted back then is gone. The confused and basically uninteresting storytelling in the debut issue of this limited series makes his recent work on X-Treme X-Men seem strong in comparison.
Soon after Rogue is overcome by nightmares of dinosaurs, she and her X-Men teammates encounter a community of intelligent, bipedal dinosaurs trying to make their way south to find a new home in the Savage Land. Though the reptilian people distrust them, the X-Men set out to help them reach their destination, but there are those in the Savage Land who would see the journey end in disaster.
Sharpe's art ranges from simply capable at best to sorely lacking in detail. The characters are drawn inconsistently, and the reader never really gets a sense of the saurids as individuals. They're hard to tell apart, and it's never really clear how many of them there are. Sure, the opening dream sequence is rather exciting from a visual standpoint, but soon thereafter, Sharpe lost me. The action does not flow smoothly at all.
Mind you, that lack of flow and clarity originates in the script. I know a lot about these characters and X-Men continuity, and even I was at a loss at several points in this book.
Perhaps the book's greatest weakness is that there's not one single character that acts even remotely human. Rogue's inner conflict is tired and uninteresting, and the Beast's lament of his transformation is handled far better in this week's New X-Men#117. Just about every character speaks with a stitled tone, and it makes for some difficult and boring reading.
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