New X-Men #38
Craig Kyle, Chris Yost & Skottie Young
Oh, boy, do I have problems with this book. I'll just say first of all, that the only saving grace for this issue is the art by Skottie Young, which is fantastic, but not without flaws itself. Issue 38 kicks off the four-part "Quest For Magik" arc that brings Illyana Rasputin back into the pages of Marvel Comics. Again. You're very astute if you recall that Amanda Sefton was established as the new Magik, from the X-Men: Black Sun and X-Men: Magik mini-series a few years back, but I guess she just couldn't cut it because Belasco's back and he wants Illyana. This issue isn't even really where this story kicks off though, as we are treated to a recap page about Amanda Sefton falling out of the sky, saying that "he was back," but why keep it all self-contained? It's not as if this storyarc that's been hyped to bring in new readers should make sense to anybody who wants to give the series a shot...sigh. Anyways, that's the least of this book's problems. As the story unfolds, we're treated to the students suddenly being teleported into a hell dimension with Belasco demanding their cooperation. Oh, but we don't get to see that part. We see some students outside see the school disappear. Once we actually get to hell, everything's pretty much over and the kids are mentioning events that took place when they were teleported that were cooler than anything we actually see in the comic. It's just lazy writing that works around that sort of thing. One student recalls "I was asleep, and then I heard screaming. The cuckoos. Those...those things were putting them inside those helmets...they haven't moved since." I know I would have liked to see that, but instead we're treated to Belasco yelling at the students. Much more entertaining obviously. And the lizard student Anole whose arm was cut off? We all know what's going to happen there, and that was probably the entire purpose for introducing the kid. This book is predictable, with lame fight scenes and panels that moves along at too fast a clip with too much nothing going on to care about any of the characters, ala Chris Claremont on New Excalibur. Even Skottie Young can't keep up and make this entertaining, despite his awesome art and interesting, unique designs for Magik and Belasco. It's just a big jumble that's hard to follow in a book where nothing matters. Hopefully Marvel will ditch these writers soon and give us a "Generation X" book worth reading. D-
Oh, boy, do I have problems with this book. I'll just say first of all, that the only saving grace for this issue is the art by Skottie Young, which is fantastic, but not without flaws itself. Issue 38 kicks off the four-part "Quest For Magik" arc that brings Illyana Rasputin back into the pages of Marvel Comics. Again. You're very astute if you recall that Amanda Sefton was established as the new Magik, from the X-Men: Black Sun and X-Men: Magik mini-series a few years back, but I guess she just couldn't cut it because Belasco's back and he wants Illyana. This issue isn't even really where this story kicks off though, as we are treated to a recap page about Amanda Sefton falling out of the sky, saying that "he was back," but why keep it all self-contained? It's not as if this storyarc that's been hyped to bring in new readers should make sense to anybody who wants to give the series a shot...sigh. Anyways, that's the least of this book's problems. As the story unfolds, we're treated to the students suddenly being teleported into a hell dimension with Belasco demanding their cooperation. Oh, but we don't get to see that part. We see some students outside see the school disappear. Once we actually get to hell, everything's pretty much over and the kids are mentioning events that took place when they were teleported that were cooler than anything we actually see in the comic. It's just lazy writing that works around that sort of thing. One student recalls "I was asleep, and then I heard screaming. The cuckoos. Those...those things were putting them inside those helmets...they haven't moved since." I know I would have liked to see that, but instead we're treated to Belasco yelling at the students. Much more entertaining obviously. And the lizard student Anole whose arm was cut off? We all know what's going to happen there, and that was probably the entire purpose for introducing the kid. This book is predictable, with lame fight scenes and panels that moves along at too fast a clip with too much nothing going on to care about any of the characters, ala Chris Claremont on New Excalibur. Even Skottie Young can't keep up and make this entertaining, despite his awesome art and interesting, unique designs for Magik and Belasco. It's just a big jumble that's hard to follow in a book where nothing matters. Hopefully Marvel will ditch these writers soon and give us a "Generation X" book worth reading. D-
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