Amazing X-Men #4
Kurt has now commandeered his own pirate ship, now all he needs is to tame a beast and get a crew of his own. Easier said than done.
Writer: Jason Aaron
Artists: Ed McGuinness, Dexter Vines, Marte Gracia
Cover: McGuinness, Gracia
Publisher: Marvel
With each issue, it looks like the team of Aaron, McGuinness, Vines, and Gracia are showing us exactly this book managed to nab the title of ‘Amazing’. Out of all the X-Men titles we have, it’s certainly not short of those expectations at all. It’s constantly surprising, heartwarming, funny, and action-packed. A classic X-Men feel, with a more modern twist to it.
The last couple of issues had the team separated and so the story only focused on a couple of characters per issue, but as we near wraps to the end of the arc, Aaron is finally taking us 360 and grabbing all the characters who’ve been thrown apart, back together again for their final (but not really that final) hurrah. We have Wolverine and Northstar stuck in a frozen purgatory, Firestar and Iceman in hell, and Nightcrawler and Storm fending against a feral Beast. They’re all lost in their own ways, and of course as always, the glue that holds them together is the ever-compassionate Nightcrawler, to pull them out of their misery. It’s a classic storytelling synopsis given the characters we’re working with, taken right from the eighties probably, but what makes it different is a small addition; Angelica Jones. Firestar. She’s been around since the eighties, but never officially an X-Man until now. She’s our modern twist, and what a twist she is. Her being on the team serves as a reminder that the X-Men are moving forward and not simply stuck in the old ways, despite some things not changing all that much. She also proves to be fairly progressive, she’s not the one damseling in distress, rather she ends up proving to be the ‘hot stuff’ and saving her person of infatuation from distress.
As swell as Firestar is, this arc isn’t about her, so naturally Kurt takes all the well-deserved glory (he’s been dead for years after all). He goes to all his friends’ rescue, conveniently right as they think of him in a bit of a flashback moment. The first flashback moment was a little hard to grasp at first, there were no indicators that the scene took place at a different time, and many of the current cast also appeared in the flashback (classic story, classic characters). Upon a closer inspection, you see Cyclops there, and Ororo’s hair is different, and that’s actually Jean not Angelica in the panel, and oh, that’s Kurt they’re talking to. Once orientated to the fact that it’s a flashback, it all falls into place, and any following flashbacks become apparent immediately, when the initial rhythm of the story had been set.
Long time fans won’t realize how good it is to see some of these characters reunited again until it’s right in front of them on the page, but it genuinely feels so good to any X-Men fan’s soul. There’s a page (or maybe there’s a couple) in the issue, you’ll know it when you see it. And that’s what Aaron has captured so brilliantly about the X-Men spirit, is these characters and what they mean to each other, how they drive each other, and it’s together that they make the story work. There’ll be drama, there’ll be action, there’ll be humour (I fall more in love with the Bamfs each issue, how do you not), and none of it is overdone; a perfect balance because all the characters are there to shoulder the story. That and he’s also been blessed with an amazing creative team who deliver quality work each issue as well.
It’s easy to roll your eyes at something titled ‘Amazing’ and okay corny line at the end of the issue alert. But it’s also hard not to be amazed at something that honestly captures the essence of X-Men so strikingly well.
This so far has been the X-Men title I’ve been waiting for.
We’ll see how Aaron does with wrapping up the arc next issue!
Writer: Jason Aaron
Artists: Ed McGuinness, Dexter Vines, Marte Gracia
Cover: McGuinness, Gracia
Publisher: Marvel
With each issue, it looks like the team of Aaron, McGuinness, Vines, and Gracia are showing us exactly this book managed to nab the title of ‘Amazing’. Out of all the X-Men titles we have, it’s certainly not short of those expectations at all. It’s constantly surprising, heartwarming, funny, and action-packed. A classic X-Men feel, with a more modern twist to it.
The last couple of issues had the team separated and so the story only focused on a couple of characters per issue, but as we near wraps to the end of the arc, Aaron is finally taking us 360 and grabbing all the characters who’ve been thrown apart, back together again for their final (but not really that final) hurrah. We have Wolverine and Northstar stuck in a frozen purgatory, Firestar and Iceman in hell, and Nightcrawler and Storm fending against a feral Beast. They’re all lost in their own ways, and of course as always, the glue that holds them together is the ever-compassionate Nightcrawler, to pull them out of their misery. It’s a classic storytelling synopsis given the characters we’re working with, taken right from the eighties probably, but what makes it different is a small addition; Angelica Jones. Firestar. She’s been around since the eighties, but never officially an X-Man until now. She’s our modern twist, and what a twist she is. Her being on the team serves as a reminder that the X-Men are moving forward and not simply stuck in the old ways, despite some things not changing all that much. She also proves to be fairly progressive, she’s not the one damseling in distress, rather she ends up proving to be the ‘hot stuff’ and saving her person of infatuation from distress.
As swell as Firestar is, this arc isn’t about her, so naturally Kurt takes all the well-deserved glory (he’s been dead for years after all). He goes to all his friends’ rescue, conveniently right as they think of him in a bit of a flashback moment. The first flashback moment was a little hard to grasp at first, there were no indicators that the scene took place at a different time, and many of the current cast also appeared in the flashback (classic story, classic characters). Upon a closer inspection, you see Cyclops there, and Ororo’s hair is different, and that’s actually Jean not Angelica in the panel, and oh, that’s Kurt they’re talking to. Once orientated to the fact that it’s a flashback, it all falls into place, and any following flashbacks become apparent immediately, when the initial rhythm of the story had been set.
Long time fans won’t realize how good it is to see some of these characters reunited again until it’s right in front of them on the page, but it genuinely feels so good to any X-Men fan’s soul. There’s a page (or maybe there’s a couple) in the issue, you’ll know it when you see it. And that’s what Aaron has captured so brilliantly about the X-Men spirit, is these characters and what they mean to each other, how they drive each other, and it’s together that they make the story work. There’ll be drama, there’ll be action, there’ll be humour (I fall more in love with the Bamfs each issue, how do you not), and none of it is overdone; a perfect balance because all the characters are there to shoulder the story. That and he’s also been blessed with an amazing creative team who deliver quality work each issue as well.
It’s easy to roll your eyes at something titled ‘Amazing’ and okay corny line at the end of the issue alert. But it’s also hard not to be amazed at something that honestly captures the essence of X-Men so strikingly well.
This so far has been the X-Men title I’ve been waiting for.
We’ll see how Aaron does with wrapping up the arc next issue!
A Look Inside
