Extraordinary X-Men #4

By Jeff Lemire, Humberto Ramos and Edgar Delgado

To say that the first few issue of Extraordinary X-Men have been disappointing is an understatement. A big name writer with a fan favorite artist sounded like it was a can’t-miss title. The truth is that things haven’t progressed as well as hoped and overall the title was a little dull. The fourth issue brings some much needed excitement and a potential game changing reveal at the end.

Jeff Lemire finally gets things moving this issue as the battle in Limbo ends. We also get a villain for this story arc in Mr. Sinister. Sinister is a classic villain who usually brings a philosophical reasoning for why he is doing what he’s doing. Lemire writes him well, and luckily most of the issue deals with him and Colossus. One potential seed planted by Lemire is a babbling Nightcrawler spewing crazy religious words. We as readers have no idea how this happened or what is going on, but Lemire will likely delve into that in future issues. The battle in Limbo has not been exciting in any of the previous issues, and this one is no different. There is an odd exchange between Iceman and Anole that just didn’t sit well. Anole came off like an amateur, almost like it’s his first time doing something like this, but he was actually one of the mutants that helped spring Magik from Limbo when she needed rescued. This is a small continuity error, but it matters. The most important thing about this issue is the final page. There is a huge potential spoiler that could set a very different tone for this series and a few others moving forward. If true, Lemire has injected some life into a book that needed it.

The pencils this issue are handled by Humberto Ramos with colors by Edgar Delgado. This was the worst the art has been on this title so far. Humberto Ramos seems a bit rushed on this and many of his characters look very exaggerated. Sometimes panels get so bogged down with lightning bolts or other super powers that things are hard to make out. There are some good and clean panels in this issue though, such as Cerebra turning her head to the fact that Logan doesn’t trust her. Colossus holding a dying Magik in his vision is also well done, but there are just too many messy pages in between. The colors by Edgar Delgado also don’t help that much. Many of these pages are too dark. The vision Colossus has to open the issue is colored a nice snowy white, which work well, but most of the book is a little muddy.

This has been Lemire’s best issue of Extraordinary X-Men, unfortunately the art didn’t match that. The story is finally starting to get interesting and Lemire is getting a grip on some of the characters. Humberto Ramos and Edgar Delgado need to step back and take their time. There were many panels that could have used a little more work. Despite the sub par effort from the art, this is the best issue of the series so far.