Reviewer: James Hatton
Story Title: N/A
Story by: Joe Quesada
Penciled by: Robert Teranishi
Inked by: Nelson w/ Soto
Colored by: Sotocolor’s F. Serrano
Cover by: Joshua Middleton
Lettered by: Chris Eliopoulos
X-23 created by: Craig Kyle (Because this is all Marvel cares about)
Publisher: Marvel Comics
I remember 5 years ago when I wrote my review for NYX #4. The world was a different place. We didn’t have flying cars like we do now, or those nifty single-man riding conveyers – you know the Segue.
Ahh ye– what. I only posted that review in June? Well glory be nevermind – it’s just that this book moves at such a breakneck pace that I get confused.
Honestly, NYX is just a shadow of what it could have been. It had exceptional art. It had a story that felt like it cared about the concepts of teens with powers, and not teams with teens. I was high on this book. Very high. Now.. I just want to be able to take it off my reserve box – suffer through the idea that X-23 is a full continuity character – and go back to enjoying good stories again.
Story!
First, the irony. It says Quesada did the story… it doesn’t say anything about him doing the script – which seems completely plausible to me. Who did the script, then? My point is, I don’t think there was one. The voice, heart, and soul of this book has long since been crushed in the flowing ebbs and tides of time. It now feels like something someone picked up every once in awhile and said, “OH YEAH! I ALMOST FORGOT ABOUT THAT!” and then adds a seemingly random panel or voice bubble in.
For example: “Trick or treat, beootches” – some random thug yells as he kicks a door open.
We also finally learn what Tatiana’s secret mutant power is that keeps her endeared to animals and plants alike. She’s a huge furry. A furry that is triggered by huge purple crayons attacking her big scene. (We’ll get to that in art.)
Finally, the third strike is the crowd of people chasing after her screaming such wonderful cliche’s from X-Books of the 1980’s as “Dirty rotten mutant!” and “Not in my neighborhood!”. It seems that when you find out a local is a mutant, some revolt, while others try to accept. When you find out that local is a mutant FURRY, you hide the kids in the basement, get a torch and let the burning begin. Nobody wants to live near furries.
Art!
The last piece of Middleton art to be seen from NYX is this cover, which I guess is acceptable. We get a full shot of Tatiana with some cats. It’s very Madonna “Express Yourself” but each cover up until now had very fresh individualistic feels – so this one is no different. This doesn’t change my standard belief that covers should reflect internal story, but it was nice to see Middleton one last time.
I will first off give Teranishi a hand. He did what I wasn’t quite sure was possible, and that was do a decent job of replicating the style that Middleton put into this book. It surely wasn’t perfect, but I give him credit. NYX was in my top 5 best drawn comics of last year, and for someone to have to take that slack up after the whole Middleton leaving debacle, he handled it like a true champion.
Now the one huge art flaw in this book comes about in relation to Tatiana morphing into her creepier Furrygirl. The activation is so vague, it looks like someone scribbled in my comic with a purple crayon. She gets some dog blood on her hands, doesn’t go wash it, it then starts to activate (You know, like that 2 in 1 conditioner you use) and Harold comes and destroys it with his Big Purple Crayon. One page later – TeenWolf.
Overall!
What started off as a bullet train to the top of my grab pile has sunk it’s way into “DAMMIT WHEN WILL IT END!”. They obviously aren’t going to fix this book. It’s going to die a sad little death, and make us all write about it in a few years after X-23 is in every X-Book known to man because they can’t get enough of that hot Wolvie action. See Uncanny X-Men for her further adventures.
