Uncanny X-Men #478 Review
September 11th 2006 14:31
Still on my X-Men kick (and in realisation that the issue I reviewed a few days ago is about two weeks old!) I'm moving over to review another of the core titles, Uncanny X-Men. After a decent run by X-Men legend Chris Claremont, the writing reins were taken by Ed Brubaker, ably assisted by Billy Tan on pencils.
Brubaker has been pure gold on every single Marvel title he's been assigned to. His Daredevil so far is simply brilliant, even better than the previous run by Brian Bendis, which was pretty damn good in itself. His Captain America is the best the book has been in at least a decade - Brubaker got away with bringing back Cap's dead sidekick Bucky, as sacreligious an act in comics as ever there was. Books of Doom provided a solid retelling of Dr Doom's rather convoluted backstory. It's an impressive resume, and one that makes me believe Brubaker is a future legend.
In the midst of all that, there was X-Men: Deadly Genesis. The basic premise revolved around events in Giant-Size X-Men #1, which was the first appearance of the second team of X-Men (the team that included Wolverine and Storm - you know, the ones you've heard of). In that comic the original X-Men were held captive by a sentient island called Krakoa, so X-Men founder Professor X recruited a bunch of guys to rescue them. But, that's not the whole story. According to Deadly Genesis #1, there was a whole 'nother team recruited to fight Krakoa, and they all got killed. One of those guys was the brother of Cyclops, long-time uptight X-Men leader. So of course this brother comes back to life and becomes a supervillain named Vulcan. He flies off into space to destroy the alien Shi'ar Empire (their former Emperor killed his mother - it all becomes so complicated when you try to explain it) and that's where Brubaker's current story in Uncanny kicks in.
I liked Deadly Genesis for the most part. It was a touch too mired on continuity, and Vulcan hasn't turned out to be desperately compelling yet, but it's a good example of the sort of comic you don't see much any more - one that builds off old-school continuity without contradicting it. It's not going to be to everybody's tastes, but it's exactly the sort of thing that I love.
Anyway, on to Brubaker's run on Uncanny, which began with issue #475. It's also a bit old-school in execution. While the overarching twelve-issue plot involves the X-Men trying to stop Vulcan from destroying the Shi'ar, Brubaker has rediscovered the lost art of telling the story in discrete one-issue chunks. In issue one, Professor X gathers his team. Issue two, they steal a spaceship. Issue three is an interlude starring Vulcan. It seemed that the entire industry forgot how to do this overnight (possibly when Bendis started writing every single book) but it's back here, and makes for entertaining reading. It probably helps that I'm a huge fan of X-Men space opera epics, like Dark Phoenix and the Brood Saga.
In this issue the X-Men land on a space station to refuel, and get a bit more than they bargained for (no spoilers here, folks!). Brubaker gives every character a chance to shine, fits in heaps of character moments, and gives us a good helping of action too. It feels like a modern incarnation of the old-school Marvel style, and that's a compliment. I'd like more titles to follow suit.
The team that Brubaker has put together is an odd one on paper, but it all seems a bit clearer when you consider the main plot. Professor X is the founder, and he's heading the mission, so he fits well. Havok is Vulcan's brother, and since Brubaker probably can't use Cyclops he's a great choice. Polaris is Havok's estranged lover, and she's just gone through a lot of stuff with Apocalypse, so there's a lot to explore. Warpath is kind of a substitute Wolverine, but he wanted to kill Professor X for a while so there's tension there. Rachel Summers just had her whole family killed by the Shi'ar, so her inclusion in the story is definitely full of possibilities! Nightcrawler is just cool, so there. It's good to see a team made up of a mix of old and new, with a few underused characters.
Billy Tan is an artist whose work I'm not familiar with, but he fits right into the X-Men style - I can follow the story, and I've got nothing to complain about, which is as much as I can ask for. There's nothing about his style that particularly grabs me, but often the best comic artists are the ones you don't notice - they have less flaws.
This is the X-Men title for people frustrated with comics where nothing happens. It's old-school in the best possible ways, and I'm looking forward to pretty much anything else Brubaker wants to write.
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Comment by Justin
And why not match them up with the good half of X-Force to make a wildly brilliant team rather than a poor mans version of X-Men?
Comment by NerdBlog
NerdBlog
The Comic Nerd
Anyway, I'm happy with how they're written here - they're in my favourite current X-Men book, so they can't go much higher than that in my estimation.
Comment by Justin
I'll have to check it out Uncanny X-Men then!