All-New X-Men: Out of Their Depth

The All-New (a.k.a. “original” or “classic”) X-Men continue trying to find their way in twenty-first century America, encountering the next generation of other classic characters (Lady Mastermind, Rachel Grey/Summers) as well as some now grizzled vets (Wolverine and Sabretooth still thrashing it out like the comic-book Monsters of Rock they are).

To be honest, I started to feel the storyline was getting tired here though. The plot Mystique was hatching with her gang is revealed to be not all that interesting, or even worth bothering with. Madame Hydra is both surprised and unimpressed by it. The subsequent battle is full of lots of mind games, and Wolverine’s classic “Now it’s my turn” fell flat. As for the rest of it, there was too much talk, even though the story does call for a lot of it as all the characters have to come to grips with who they turned into in the new timeline. The Avengers as the senior superhero body were unwelcome cameos. And like so much Marvel product at this time you just want to throw your hands up at the amount of backstory and other stuff you’re supposed to be totally up to speed on to fully make sense of it. I mean, I suppose every long-time X-Men fan has a basic understanding of the Dark Phoenix storyline from way back when I was a teen, but you also have to know about Cyclops killing Charles Xavier in the Avengers vs. X-Men storyline and other stuff that’s happened since. There are so many timelines, alternate worlds, and threads of the multiverse going on with Marvel now that it feels like it’s sinking under its own weight a lot of the time. I think this series does a great job dealing with the problem, but it’s still a problem.

Brian Michael Bendis handles all this well, but it’s not a job I’d wish on anyone. There are just too many balls in the air, too many characters, and too much schmaltzy drama. I mentioned in my notes on Marvel Masterworks: The X-Men Volume 1 how the horny teen X-Men were all hot for Jean Grey and that even Charles Xavier was feeling thirsty. In the last comic included here we have Hank McCoy (the Beast) finally getting some romance action with her. I guess when you look like a comic-book superheroine (Covergirl looks, Playboy body in sexy outfits) you just have to learn to deal with all the attention, but you’d think she’d be starting to feel tired of having every guy she meets falling in love with her, in every different timeline.

The art by Stuart Immonen is solid in the Marvel house style at this time. David Lafuente does All-New X-Men #15 and he provides a nice change-up with a Manga-flavoured look (pointy noses, spikes of hair) that fits with the teenage vibe to that issue. I especially liked Jean in fuzzy pink slippers bumping into her daughter in the residence building. That was a great moment, nicely presented without any dialogue. In any event, at this point they were heading into crossover territory so things were about to get even messier with even more timelines coming into play. Which is not really what I was hoping for.

Graphicalex