|
NEW X-MEN 2001
"The Man From Room X"
Recommended (7/10)
|
Marvel Comics
Writer: Grant Morrison
Pencils: Leinil Francis Yu
Inks: Gerry Alanguilan
Colors: Hi-Fi Design
Letters: Comicraft
Editor: Mark Powers
Price: $3.50 US/$5.25 CAN |
I'm generally no fan of gimmicks, but if you can back it up with a good creative team and manage not to require a lot more of my money, I probably won't mind them as well. This annual has been marketed more on the gimmick than the storytellers, but it's a storytelling gimmick: widescreen storytelling, as done by turning the comic on its side and stapling it the wrong way. It's cute, and certainly different, and Morrison and Yu are certainly talents to contend with, but I have to say that I found the "widescreen" in The Authority more effective. However, despite some real problems with Morrison's stream-of-consciousness writing style in this issue, and ignoring that this isn't Yu's best work to date, this little experiment has worked out reasonably well. There are some breathtaking panels, wild ideas and fun character interplay, and while it's the weakest of the New X-Men books so far, it's certainly a good read.
For fans of the Claremont era who have been
let down by Morrison's new approach, this book may be a breath of fresh air.
While the trappings are somewhat strange (mutant with black hole for head,
mutant whose skin droppings become golems) and there's a higher quotient of
sexual energy from the characters, the plot reads very much like the kind of
thing Claremont used to do. A new mutant is discovered, being tormented by a
brutal regime, and the X-Men head in for the rescue. It's a time-honored plot,
and probably the only reason I was able to follow the book as well as I did was
because of that fact.
Because whether it's the writing or the art, for some reason there seemed to be a lot of jumpy storytelling going on here. One second, the X-Men are arriving in Hong Kong in an extended couple of pages, then bam! Domino has showed up, using two
other names and talking about events that aren't at all clear and dropping about
half the necessary exposition. The relationships between Domino and the other
new characters aren't clear either... are they contacts, are they foes, do they
know she's around or not? It seems like Morrison is missing several transitions
in his storytelling, and just expects everyone to keep up with what he's
thinking rather than putting it down on the page.
Leaving aside the question of what I found
to be sloppy plotting, though, the characterization in New X-Men continues to
make me smile. The interesting new relationship between Wolverine and Cyclops,
where Wolverine seems to be the only one who realizes the extent of Cyclops's
emotional damages and yet also the only one who has utter faith in him to pull
through it, adds considerably to both characters, who were growing a bit stale.
And the flirtation between Domino and Wolverine was a nice touch that
established a little bit about the relationships those characters have as well.
I also enjoy the new types of powers that Morrison creates, whether it's the
aforementioned weird skin or energy powers from the new characters or his
high-tech espionage version of Domino.
I've gone this far without talking about it, so it seems about time to mention the artwork and how it works with this widescreen presentation. It's not as impressive as Hitch's work was on The Authority, for the most part, but there are some
jaw-dropping panels. Most of the splash pages, particularly the opening shot of
Hong Kong and the overhead shot of Wolverine and Domino diving toward the pool,
are incredible. And Yu is always good with the high-tech and sleek, which means
just about every time Domino or one of the sealed-in would-be mutants show up on
panel, the artwork ticks a notch upward in quality. Overall, while it's not up
to the stellar work that Quitely has done on the title (and it's no faster,
either, since this is as late as the regular book is) the artwork here is very
impressive.
Email Randy Lander comments about this review. |
