Review by Karl Verhoven
Almost the first matter Gerry Duggan deals with on assuming control of the X-Men is to deliver a statement, and more than that it’s a visual statement, a gift to artist Pepe Larraz. Theses days the X-Men travel via teleportation gates attuned to mutant DNA, and via Cyclops, Duggan has the X-Men adorn their New York gateway with a massive tree the size of ten storey building. As well greening an area of New York, it’s grown with pods doubling as both living and office quarters.
Duggan also reboots the core X-Men team, although with the mutant situation fluid across so many series, it’s a lesser statement. Rather than rely on the villains of the past, he introduces new creations via a group of aliens who’ve had enough of humanity, but are keen to keep Earth intact. Duggan’s new twist on an old SF scenario is that it’s organised by a bunch of gamblers betting on the outcome. “I knew somebody would get rich knockin’ the Earth over”, explains Cordycep Jones, “I didn’t know so many of youse was going to go bankrupt too”. Both Jones and his organisation are an injection of absurdity into X-Men.
Larraz’s approach to the art is indicated by his designs for aliens. There’s no denying they’re suitably alien, but there’s so much to them it’s difficult to make anything out. Jones, for instance, is like a fat guy in a radiation suit with some metal device bolted to the chest, out of which some plant stem structure arises supporting a head that resembles a giant clam with teeth. Similar visual overload applies to the alien insects on the sample art. Technically it’s good, but the page design is messy. Larraz is at his best when featuring Nightmare invading the X-Men’s dreams.
Duggan picks up on the already running plot of shady secret organisation Orchis looking to wipe out mutants and adds to their number, while also showcasing each of the people appointed to the main X-Men team at the Hellfire Gala. By the end of this volume Duggan’s introduced considerable change through aspects of humanity catching up to the quantum leap the mutants have made. Two prominent dangers build throughout, and by the end one has been dealt with, although in a frustratingly easy way.
This is engaging and intelligent superheroics, and some reservations concerning the art don’t dent that greatly. What does is the feeling of plots being introduced and then forgotten or being solved somewhere else and not referenced. Neither option is satisfactory. However, what has a major impact on Cyclops is explained in Vol. 2, and perhaps the ethical implications of that all too easy solution will be explored.
