Review by Frank Plowright

Blowback is set in the period Storm led the X-Men rocking her mohawk look, and Ann Nocenti takes her lead from the way the X-Men were written during that period to present an angst-ridden and uncertain Storm. She’s just taken over as team leader, and the marked change in her look and personality don’t sit well with Kitty Pryde, now finding recent new member Rogue a more sympathetic ear.

While Storm is the lead character, the X-Men feature heavily throughout, so it’s strange this is titled under Storm’s name when the X-Men have the stronger market presence. Either way, Blowback is unmemorable in every respect. Nocenti edited the X-Men back in the day, so one might have presumed she’d have a stronger idea of how to write the characters. Everything is overwrought, with the only character reined in and a repository of sound advice being Wolverine, normally no stranger to an overwrought state. The lack of reality is compounded by the dialogue, which doesn’t transmit as natural conversation, but as a writer wanting to be smart.

If the cast and plot are unconvincing, they’re not helped by the art. Over the first two chapters Sid Kotian’s people are loose, stylised, and on pages not greatly removed from layouts with little detail or imagination. Geraldo Borges finishes Blowback, and while also loose and rushed by the end, at least his panel to panel storytelling is competent.

As so little else is worthwhile, given the patterns superhero stories follow, any experienced reader will bet the house on Storm’s new boyfriend also being new villain Blowback, but Nocenti applies a neat piece of misdirection in initially avoiding the obvious path. That, however, is the one saving grace of a story where few emotional responses are credible, the art is average at best, and the plot lacks direction.