Monday, December 24, 2012

All-New X-Men #4



This is more like it. It took three issues, but Bendis addresses a lot of my concerns in this chapter. The Kid X-Men face off against their older selves and then promptly return to the X-Mansion. This story was never going to be as strong if the kids were out in the world hiding from the X-Men. The whole structure of the book is the tease of seeing the young mutants interacting with their older peers (and older selves). 

I’m still not sure what Cyclops’ status is. I will admit I’m excited to see him leading the Brotherhood, but he needs some more “classic” X-Men to side with him or else Cyke is going to end up looking like the bad guy. I don’t think that’s the intent. Cyclops is a flawed, possibly broken man, but I think he’s still a hero. (Magik? I’m not so sure.)

There is no way that Bendis is going to walk onto this book and kill the Beast, right? Hank McCoy doesn’t look good at the close of this issue, and I’ve heard rumors of an original X-Man dying. I suppose it could be young Hank, but don’t ask me how that would work. Plus, I thought Beast was on the New Avengers taking Charles Xavier’s place?

Stuart Immonen stacked the deck last issue. By adding the new “swirl effect” to modern Cyclops’ blast, he’s guaranteed a way to make battles between the two Cyclops’ will remain clear. Is it me, or is the lack of sound effects a tad disappointing. I want some classic “Zapt” and other Cyclops sound effects, at least from the kid! Immonen’s artwork is beautiful and striking on its own, but some nice sound effects would really drive home the “out of their time” era of the original X-Men! 

Good

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