This is the first chapter of the story arc that was to have featured a resurrected Princess Diana, but some early backlash saw Marvel and the creators behind this book ease off on the use of a real-life deceased celeb. To be honest, Milligan's examination of celebrity and its influence on society and the individual would have certainly been enhanced by the Diana storyline, but the resulting revised storytelling just isn't that interesting. The plot is nebulous, and the characters here are completely distasteful... and those are just the protagonists.
Henrietta Hunter was the biggest star ever to come out of the small country of Europa. Her voice and easy manner with those around her transformed her into a pop-music sensation. And then she died. Of course, in a world full of mutants, death far from the end of one's story, and that holds true of Henrietta. A supernatural return from the dead draws the attention of the Europan establishment, who were happier with the do-gooder crooner dead. Of course, a mutant celebrity back from the dead also attracts the attention of a certain limelight-obsessed group of mutants. Meanwhile, their employer feels the time is right for a big dust up between the X-Statix and another mutant team.
As always, Allred captures the hip, edgy yet kitchy quality of the title characters quite well. The designs for the members of Euro-Trash are suitably colorful and exciting but goofy as well. My qualm with the visuals stems, not surprisingly, from Allred's depiction of Henrietta, Diana's standin. She's utterly plain. There's nothing visually striking about her, and that diminishes the supposed charismatic and empathic qualities of the character.
The scripting here is rather jumbled. The transition from scene to scene is not at all smooth, and exactly why the Europan antagonists want their greatest export dead (again) is never made clear. The book is also rather inaccessible at times. Professor X lurks on the periphery of the story, and it's never explained why he's there or why he tolerates the more materialistic and brutal attitudes of these young mutants.
I think it's a safe bet that this story's nature as a hurried revision of the writer's original intent is its greatest liability. Whatever commentary he was trying to make is lost along with Diana's role. Deceased icons are often used in fiction -- especially more extreme storytelling. Christian Slater spoke with Elvis in True Romance, and John Constantine met a rather worse-for-the-wear version of JFK in Garth Ennis's run on Hellblazer. I guess for some, Diana's appearance in a satire about celebrity came just too soon. It's too bad, as I would have been interested in what Milligan had to say.
