X-Men ’92 #3

By Chris Sims, Chad Bowers, Scott Koblish and Matt Milla

The funny thing about the X-Men line is that they’ve gone through many different teams and lineups, but it seems that the definitive team is the one featured in Jim Lee and Chris Cleramont’s re-launch. This team was popular enough to get it’s own Saturday morning cartoon and was also responsible for getting many kids from the 90’s to read comics. While there’s no doubt that we love that group, the characters have moved on and evolved; some are dead, some started a revolution and got possessed by the Phoenix force, etc. With a big thanks to Secret Wars, we are given the chance to revisit that magical time with X-Men ’92.

The writing duo of Chris Sims and Chad Bowers have really done a very good job of capturing the essence of the 90’s. One of the things they nail this issue is the characterization of many of the characters of the time. The psychic rapport between Scott and Jean is alive and well, Storm is as smart and noble as always and Jubilee is a wise-cracking teenager. Their integration of Cassandra Nova into a period she didn’t exist in continues to be interesting. Sims and Bowers make her clever and sadistic at the same time, which is a dangerous combo. The writing duo also bring in an X-Force team consisting of characters that were fairly popular in the 90’s. It’s cool to see many of these characters in their old uniforms and fighting Cassandra Nova. This has been a surprisingly good book. Sims and Bowers nail down the voice of every character and make you feel like you are reading the old series.

The pencils this issue are handled by Scott Koblish with colors by Matt Milla. Many of the problems that the pencils faced last issue are still here. Scott Koblish isn’t a bad artist, but there are definitely some panels where faces and other body parts are distorted. Koblish’s art style is rugged, some panels have a ton of detail and others lack it. He seems to shine in close-ups, where he can really show many of the facets of a person’s face, like an evil-looking Cassandra Nova. There are some good panels in this book too, like the ones involving Jean and Scott using team work to attack Nova. While this is a decently drawn issue, there are many distorted images that could take you out of the book. The colors by Matt Milla are very good, as usual. His light colors help the book feel like it came straight out of the 90’s. Milla is consistently one of the best colorists in the business and X-Men ’92 is a prime example why.

As far as capturing a time period goes, X-Men ’92 nails it. Sims and Bowers get so many things right about this age of the X-Men that should have any fanboy smiling. The art is a bit (lame pun) sketchy, but Matt Milla kills it with his colors. This is a book for people who loved 90’s X-Men and it’s a great opportunity to go back with a fresh story.