Review by Ian Keogh
The X-Men’s world is vast and complicated, stretching beyond Earth and beyond time. One example of the latter is a place called the Vault, a sealed dome located deep in Ecuadorian jungle where time passes at an accelerated rate. It’s been sealed to prevent those within emerging and pursuing their world conquering agenda with infinitely advanced technology and powers developed over hundreds of generations, but how will the fall of the X-Men affect matters? Well, for starters the technology keeping them in stasis dreaming they’ve achieved their aims fails, and they’re not happy at the deception.
Also not happy is Cable, captured and experiencing ongoing torture at the hands of Orchis scientists. Fortunately, rescue is at hand via Bishop, despite the two rarely seeing eye to eye. Bishop has been targetting Orchis facilities one by one and he needs help. Meanwhile the Children of the Vault have changed their approach, concentrating on winning minds instead of killing bodies.
In previous appearances the Children of the Vault have been formidable enemies of the X-Men spurred by a unique ideology, but Deniz Camp has applied thought to what it must be like to emerge into the world that’s considerably out of step. He also considers individual views within what are now the Children of Tomorrow. Beyond that, how would the world react to an offer of a better tomorrow, both individuals and entrenched political systems? It all adds up to some interesting reading in the small details, and make sure to read the text pages. Meanwhile Cable is the big brute we all want him to be, and Bishop is more considered.
Luca Maresca draws with efficiency, but little style. Everything necessary is there, the heroic poses are present and correct, and the storytelling is exemplary, but there’s not a page to set the pulse racing.
What eventually becomes the pivotal issue is the brain virus with which all humans have been infected. It has a clever and insidious purpose. Everything about the plot for Children of the Vault is extremely smart, so smart that you’ll wish Camp had been given more space to explore his ideas, but then the sparkle would have been sucked from them by Maresa standard superhero stylings.