By Jeff Lemire, Humberto Ramos and Edgar Delgado
The first story arc of Extraordinary X-Men is wrapping up, and to be honest, it hasn’t been as well received as expected. The creative team seemed like a slam dunk, but haven’t brought any wow factor to the book. There is hope on the horizon though, as last issue potentially brought Cyclops back into the fold as a mutant/Inhuman hybrid. Where this leads could change the way mutants could exist for the foreseeable future.
Jeff Lemire has a habit of turning books around and making them interesting and fun. If you don’t believe it and want proof, check out his run on Green Arrow. Having said that, this series has been a disappointment and this issue is another notch in that belt. No matter which way you slice it, mutants becoming extinct has already happened and is already played out. House of M was an event that is around 10 years old that dealt with these issues and we seem to be redoing that. Storm gives a speech in this issue that is pretty much the exact same speech Cyclops gave when he formed the extinction team in Uncanny X-Men. Another problem with this issue, and arc for that matter, is that they keep hammering home that Cyclops did something terrible. This is now the fifth issue where this gets talked about and we still don’t even have a hint as to what he did. While there are many problems here, not everything is bad. Lemire continues to rebuild the relationship between Magik and Colossus, which has progressed nicely so far. We see Colossus skip out on battle to make sure his sister is all right. Mr. Sinister is written great once again this issue. Lemire has a good voice for him and it’s a shame we’ll be losing him as an adversary. The good doesn’t outweigh the bad this issue, and this series hasn’t done enough to keep anyone ecstatic about the next installment.
The pencils this issue are handled by Humberto Ramos with colors by Edgar Delgado. The art has been a problem on this book as well, as it’s often uneven or the colors are often too dark in some spots. Ramos again seems rushed for this issue and there are many panels that have people appearing very disproportionate. Many characters come off as very lanky in some panels and it comes off as odd.There are some good panels here, such as big panel of Magick holding her soul sword after helping Colossus. Ramos also does a great job with detail in panels where Logan has half of his face blown off. We are able to see lots of his facial muscles and it’s a really good panel. The colors by Edgar Delgado are decent, but as stated above, can be too dark at times. Panels involving the tussle between Colossus and Sinister are just a bit too muddy and dark.
Extraordinary X-Men had an opportunity to be something different and exciting, but instead just rehashed a tired old storyline. Jeff Lemire has one arc out of the way and will need to amaze people with his next arc if he wants fans to stick around. The art department is decent but nothing to write home about. This book needs to get it together soon, because fans won’t hang around for mediocrity.
Jeremy… are you a X-Fan? because this issue and all the others two or three years ago are going to nowhere. The X-Men are going to nowhere. If a good whiter happened in a X-Men book….. with less than nothing to create …. he/she would be like Jason Aron and will be whitting Thor or any other Avengers. Kill all the X-Men at once.
i debated on whether or not i should reply to this, because it’s nonsensical, but here is what i will say. The problem with this title is not the creative team, it is the fact that the story feels recycled. Bendis and Lemire are big talent writers, the way they want to tell an X-Men story has not been entertaining. There have been good X-books in the last few years and Cullen Bunn’s Uncanny X-Men is off to a promising start. There is no need to kill the X-Men, only a need to allow them to be interesting again