Uncanny X-Men has been so disappointing for so long. Uncanny X-Men, Iron Man, and Legion of Super-Heroes are the only titles that the Revolution has every single issue of each title. Unfortunately, such dedication and “completionist” attitudes get the collector in trouble. We end up purchasing a title even when it sucks. Unlucky for me, all three titles have had their problems over the recent past.
Creative Team
Writer: Chris Claremont (Dialogue by Tony Bedard)
Art: Chris Bachalo
Art Rating: 9 Night Girls out of 10.
Story Rating: 2 Night Girls out of 10
Total Rating: 5 Night Girls out of 10
Synopsis: The issue starts back in Africa where some local thugs are raiding a small village. Storm shows up complete with not one but TWO wild tigers at her side. Ooookay… Storm proceeds to open up a can on the thugs.
We then go to the Xavier Institute where the O.N.E. is monitoring the activities and whereabouts of all the X-Men when suddenly their system crashes. Intro James Braddock. Oh boy. James Braddock renders all of the Sentinels inert. Suddenly, the X-Men are on the scene and it’s a braaaaaawl!! After some uninteresting banter and some lame Beatle’s references, the fight ends when James Braddock tells Psylocke to back off or he will kill everybody with just one thought.
Psylocke backs off and informs the rest of the X-Men that her brother manipulates the Quantum Strings that comprise reality itself. Suddenly, the Watcher appears saying that this is a significant potentially seminal moment and he must record it. Ooookay… James Braddock then reveals that he was the person who brought Psylocke back to life. He re-created her so her mind would not be vulnerable to psychic attacks and her body can’t be shifted.
That means other reality-powered villains like Shadow King or Proteus can’t lay a finger on Psylocke. James did this because Psylocke is “the weapon we’ll all soon need” in response to some cosmic threat. But, before James can say anymore, he is suddenly attacked and is pulled through a mysterious portal and disappears. The X-men stand there stunned. End of issue.
Comments
The Good: Well, I guess the fact that the entire comic for once did not center on Rachel Grey was a nice change of pace.
The Bad: Unfortunately, it appears that the next story arc is going to revolve around the other of only three characters that Claremont ever writes about, Psylocke. Basically, Claremont writes about either Rachel, Psylocke or Storm. End of story. Even bothering to make even a token attempt at developing any other characters is totally abandoned.
This new story arc with James Braddock seems about as uninteresting as the last story arc with the Shi’ar slaughtering all the Greys and trying to kill Rachel. The Revolution has never been a big fan of reality manipulating characters or reality warping storylines. They tend to get unnecessarily convoluted and tend to be rather boring.
Storm’s continuing storyline over in Africa still bores me. I have no interest or care to what is going on with that storyline. And what is up with Storm appearing with two wild tigers at her side? Is she now Shanna of the Jungle? In addition to controlling the weather, does she now have the ability to communicate and control the wildlife of Africa? Something like Aquaman’s underwater telepathy? That was just wack.
It is interesting to note that Claremont is no longer doing the dialogue on Uncanny X-Men. Bedard now has that task. Frankly, after reading Uncanny X-men #472, I can’t say I’m particularly impressed with Bedard’s dialogue. Maybe Claremont needs to take that task back. The dialogue had a rather bland generic feel to it.
Bachalo’s art isn’t the Revolution’s favorite style. I’m sure I’m in the minority, but I’ve never been a really big fan of Bachalo. His art isn’t terrible; I just don’t think it is that great. It tends to be too inconsistent from panel to panel.