Brian Wood’s previous adjectiveless X-Men run was great. It had several smaller stories that fit into a larger one, and ran on a very interesting premise surrounding a more ancient order of mutant-like humans. Now he’s back, with the rebooted adjectiveless X-men starring an all-female cast. Considering how many great X-women there are, it’s about time they had their own dedicated series similar to DC’s Birds of Prey.
This comic is off to a great start. While all the team members are female characters, this doesn’t come across as an all-female team. It’s written as a great X-Men book that happens to star female characters. Beyond that, the plot is very well set up and the characterization is spot-on. There’s a rather intriguing appearance by John Sublime, a villain from Grant Morrison’s New X-Men. The art is simple, yet it works well enough. Overall, this is the best comic I’ve read this week.
That said, it’s not quite perfect. There’s a little argument between two students at Wolverine’s school that doesn’t amount to much, at least not yet. While it’s great to see Jubilee’s return to the X-men at last, there is no mention of her ordeal with being a vampire. Is she still undead? Is she somehow cured by the events of AVX or otherwise? It wouldn’t be bad if she’s somehow alive again, considering how poorly she was handled by Victor Gischler, but this really should be addressed sooner or later. These are all very minor complaints, but they’re still worth mentioning.
While this isn’t exactly the stand-out issue that the hype was suggesting, this is still a great start to Brian Wood’s new X-Men run. It has a bit of everything you’d look for in an X-Men comic, and the last page cliff-hanger is amazing. In short, pick this up if you’re an X-Men fan – you are welcome.
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My understanding, from what I’ve read, is that Jubilee is still a vampire, at least for the time being. It doesn’t really come up here – I think she might have an amulet that lets her stay active during the day – but I’m sure we’ll see signs of it soon.
As for the issue, it’s great. I love it. Kitty’s a little too “hip” (her “OMG”), but other than that, the characterization is spot-on. I actually liked the Mercury and Bling! (you can’t forget the exclamation mark) scene. It felt like a scene that introduced what Rachel and Ororo are doing these days. Maybe it’ll be relevant again later, but if it’s not, then it’s still just a cool “here’s life at the Jean Grey School” moment.
I never liked the Sublime concept. I loved Morrison’s run, and he wrote Sublime well. I just always thought it was a silly concept. I still think it’s a silly concept. But Wood seems poised to do some very interesting stuff with it.
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