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UNCANNY X-MEN #401
"Golden"
Neutral (4/10)
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Marvel Comics
Writer: Joe Casey
Pencils: Ron Garney
Inks: Mark Morales
Colors: Hi-Fi
Letters: Comicraft
Editor: Mark Powers
Price: $2.25 US/$3.50 CAN |
Though the silent storytelling edict in general hasn't harmed most stories that I've read this month, Uncanny X-Men stands out as an exception
to that rule. There's really no reason that the story should be silent, and
Garney's storytelling is nowhere near strong enough to tell the story. In
addition, while Casey's dialogue doesn't stand out in my mind as one of the
strongest elements of his writing, it's clear that the lack of dialogue hurt the
clarity of the story. I'm mildly intrigued by the premise of this issue, the
formation of a new team composed of ex-heroes and villains, but it's hard to
figure out what's going on and visually flat in execution.
Though I enjoyed his early work with Mark Waid on Captain America, as time has
gone by, I've become less and less a fan of Ron Garney. His work seems to have
deteriorated, and this issue is a good example of what I'm talking about. Though
the opening sequence is strong, Garney seems unable to convey subtle emotions
and moments, such as the character drama called for in Casey's script with Lady
Mastermind or the Blob's reaction to his kidnapping. In a regular story, this
can be compensated for with dialogue, but in a silent story, this is death. In
addition, there's a distinct lack of style and nuance in the designs of the
costumes and characters. The black uniforms of the X-Corps "recruiters" and
Wolverine lack any kind of detail, appearing mostly as black body stockings with
no distinguishing marks. This lack of detail also crushes the flashback sequence
with Lady Mastermind and Toad, neither of whom are even remotely identifiable,
such that I didn't understand the sequence until I read the script.
Of course, it's not fair to
lay all the blame on Garney's artwork. Where most writers at Marvel seem to have
planned ahead and tailored their stories to "'Nuff Said" month, Casey has plowed
ahead with a story that desperately needed verbal exposition and
characterization to work. Lady Mastermind is hardly a familiar enough character
to be recognized on sight, and the formation of a completely new team, complete
with any explanation of their purpose, is next to impossible without dialogue
cues.
This issue also continues the
integration of Stacy X into the X-Men, and though the storytelling in the
sequences between Stacy, Wolverine and Nightcrawler is fairly clear, I can't say
that they wouldn't have been better without dialogue. The basic meaning is
clear, that she's going to be a difficult fit and that Wolverine is helping to
smooth things over, but the lack of sound in the sequence "reads" more like a
technical difficulty than a purposeful choice, since there's no Earthly reason
why there should be silence.
There are some nice ideas
here, and I'm as curious about this new X-Corps as I was about the X-Ranch and
the Church of Humanity. Unfortunately, Casey's work on this title has been
uneven under the best of circumstances, and adding complications such as a
silent gimmick or another new artist hurts even more.
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