X-Tinction Agenda #4

By Marc Guggenheim, Carmine Di Giandomenico, and Nolan Woodard

Many of the Secret War tie-ins are coming to an end (although the main series is nowhere near done). This week we finish X-Tinction Agenda, which has been a pretty decent overall series. As we finish the series, you’ll notice some big changes from how the original ended. The questions still remains: will your favorite survive?

Marc Guggenheim has done some good things with this series. One of the coolest things he’s done is use a cast of less popular mutants; Havok and Boom Boom are big players here, while Wolverine and Rogue have very little panel time. Some big characters die this issue, but with Guggenheim, nothing feels forced; everything feels natural. Guggenheim continues to write Longshot as a great character in this series. He didn’t have a ton of panels, but he definitely had some good ones. If there is a gripe here, it’s that the character of Bombshell falls kind of flat. He was never a character you would gravitate towards and he comes off as generic again. As a closer to this series, Guggenheim certainly sends it out with a bang, or a boom boom.

The pencils this issue are handled by Carmine Di Giandomenico with colors by Nolan Woodard. The same problems that have plagued Carmine this entire series are still here in the final issue. Some characters’ bodies look ridiculously thin and odd-shaped and in some panels there are a lack of details. Where Carmine excels is in close to mid panels with characters. There is a panel where Longshot rushes to battle while Rahne is close in the frame; it’s a really well drawn panel. The details in the faces are great and Longshot’s body doesn’t seem distorted in any way. The colors by Nolan Woodard are very strong this issue. He uses lighter tones that make the art seem dated and like it’s from the late 90’s. The art for X-Tinction Agenda is pretty decent. It could be better in some spots, but ultimately won’t ruin the book for you.

X-Tinction Agenda was a pretty interesting series; Marc Guggenheim did a solid job on the script and he also gave some forgotten mutants a chance to shine. While the pencils had their share of problems, the colors helped make the art work for the story. If you were a fan of the original crossover, you won’t be disappointed by this.