Uncanny X-Men Special #1

By Sean Ryan, Ron Ackins & Ruth Redmond

No End in Sight is a three issue mini series that goes through Uncanny X-Men, Iron Man and Nova. Marvel has done this before with three other titles and it has been a success sales-wise and was well received too. Hopefully lightning will strike twice.

This is an adventure that is essentially about the newer mutants that Cyclops’ revolution team has found, and that is perfectly fine. Sean Ryan makes this initially a fun issue as many of the characters joke around and goof off, until their mentor is kidnapped. Ryan uses good realism as the kids have no idea on what to do after Scott is kidnapped. One of the areas where Ryan stumbles though, is that he really doesn’t allow many of the students to do much or stand out, they don’t show much personality. This issue also suffers a bit from moving extremely fast, things don’t really connect and we are not given many answers, which can be okay at times, but doesn’t come off well here.

The art by Ron Ackins is also a grab bag as well. There are some really good pages and panels, especially the first few panels where we see some unique shots of a mysterious man. However, after that, the art takes a dip and at times can be comparable to a Sunday morning newspaper comic strip. Characters begin to look disproportionate and in a few panels they resemble other people. The colors are also lacking as well, Magik and Emma look extremely pale in several panels. Ackins seems to do his best work in the early pages of the book, bu as it goes on, his art regresses and doesn’t compare to the earlier pages.

This was a bit of a disappointing start to the crossover, but it did offer some decent moments. That being said, it is not worth the $4.99 price tag. If you are a huge X-Men fan then give this a try, but for a casual reader it is pretty skippable. The addition of Nova and Iron Man could boost up the rest of the crossover and make it more interesting. Sean Ryan did a decent job, but a lack of good character moments led to this issue not meeting expectations. The art also needs to improve as it slipped as the book got into the latter pages. A disappointing start that can be rectified by two good issues to help boost this crossover.