Necrosha One-Shot

The Necrosha one-shot is the beginning of a new X-Men crossover that will carry through three specific X-titles: X-Force, New Mutants and X-Men: Legacy. The story is of psychic vampire Selene, formerly Black Queen of The Hellfire Club and one of my favorite villains of the Marvel Universe, and her attempted rise to godhood. In this crossover, she makes use of a techno-organic virus that raises the dead and, with the aid of her inner circle, gets revenge for past transgressions and establishes Necrosha, her army of the dead. In this one-shot, there are three chapters by different creative teams that continue in each of the three titles this crossover effects.
.
Necrosha: Chapter One
Craig Kyle, Christopher Yost & Clayton Crain
.
This chapter carries the main story of Necrosha (continuing in X-Force) and centers around Selene and her big plans. Selene establishes the members of her inner circle, appropriate evil mutants like Wither and Mortis, lays out her plans to ascend to godhood, and makes a strike against Utopia. This is a fun premise, even if it is a complete rip-off of Blackest Night. Seeing some of the characters they choose to bring back to life (Doug Ramsey, Emma Frost's Hellions), one can really see the potential in a story such as this. Unfortunately, I think Kyle and Yost are some of the weakest writers Marvel has on staff, which is apparent in the clumsy way they establish this crossover. There's no tension, it's unfocused, and it all comes off as a cheesy pseudo-horror movie minus the scares. Add Crain's extremely dark art that's reminiscent of Greg Horn and you pretty much have a mess. The premise alone is not going to save this story, and from the looks of it, it's not even in the same league as the execution of Blackest Night, instead crashing on arrival in one big, confused heap of a mess. One good idea in there is on the final panel of this chapter: that of using the ghost city of Genosha for Selene to establish Necrosha, but even that's just another pale imitation of using Green Lantern's Coast City.
.
Binary
Zeb Wells & Ibraim Robertson
.
Of all of the titles that this story is going to cross over into, it seems that this story, which will continue in New Mutants, is kind of its own thing, using the concept of bringing a loved one back from the dead to focus on. Here, Doug Ramsey takes center stage as he will come face-to-face with his old comrades, particularly another former teammate who has risen from the dead herself, but not via Selene's recent virus: Magma. This chapter is a bit lousy, bringing nothing interesting to the table, and making what should be a pretty intense moment, that of Doug Ramsey crawling out of his grave, seem ordinary and utterly boring.
.
The Foretelling
Mike Carey & Laurence Campbell
.
I think this is the best offering out of the bunch, boding well for at least one story thread of Necrosha, as this story will continue in X-Men: Legacy. Here we see Selene bring Destiny back to life to foretell the outcome of her schemes. Destiny then contacts her daughter to warn her on Utopia. It's a simple little chapter, but it's actually executed well, which can't be said of the other two offerings. There's some decent pacing, a chilling little story, and it all comes together nicely amid some dark (but pretty) art, making Destiny a sympathetic character in whatever role she will play in the coming events.