Reviewer: James Hatton
Story Title: Chasing Hellfire (Pt. 1)
Written by: Chris Claremont
Penciled by: Andy Park
Inked by: John Sibal
Colored by: Justin Ponsor
Lettered by: Chris Eliopolous
Editor: Mike Marts
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Ahh, the months continue with Claremont at the helm of his baby, the Uncanny X-Men. Over the years Claremont has given us amazing stories and his most amazing was, fairly universally agreed upon, “The Dark Phoenix Saga”. At the beginning of that story, we saw Jean Grey and the X-Men infiltrating the Hellfire Club because of the vicious mutant Sebastian Shaw.
Now, I’m not going to say that it’s bad that Claremont is revisiting some of his most favorite themes. It’s not. It’s excellent. What IS bad is how he brings all of this to the table. Not the worst of his run by a longshot (I mean, have you read Excalibur?!) – but the good and the bad are to such extremes that… well, here, let’s break it down.
Story!
Sage has disappeared into the Hellfire Club building, which from what we see in this issue is actually a dilapidated husk of it’s former golden years. Her teammates, not knowing why she has gone and reintroduced herself to her former affiliation chooses to find her. FINE! EXCELLENT! Good – we have a hook as to why the X-Men are getting reinvolved. I’m still with you Chris.
The team has problems getting in, but thankfully another Hellfire Clubster is an X-Men, Miss Emma Frost. Emma shows up to show them how to get into the old stomping grounds, discussing how the old club used to work. Again, I am so there. I am holding on to what could be the complete reversal of the last few years of Claremont not having any idea how his old friends in the X-Men work and turning around.
Then Rachel and Emma fight.
And fight.
And fight.
They fight for pages upon pages.
They fight seemingly in another world of Emma’s creation.
They fight for the new catchall opinion of Emma Frost (HOW CAN WE TRUST HER?!) which in a world where she has been an on-again-off-again member of the team and former teacher of your Generation X for well up to 5 plus years… WHY IS THIS SUCH A BIG DEAL NOW?!?!
So, finally Emma defeats Rachel, spouting off about her untamed potential and we come back to the story. Emma and Rachel are in Hong Kong – Emma IS the former White Queen so she still holds a certain amount of power, along with her new ‘priestess’ in Rachel Summers. They have found the Hellfire Club.
Whooo, a helluva jaunt. Why? I have no flippin idea. The entire fight between Rachel and Emma seemed to go on forever, and lead them to another place entirely, with the original team of X-Men sitting in the former Club building shaking their heads. Silly.
Hopefully this blatent story padding won’t hold up what COULD be a great story.
Art!
Andy Park is good. I like him. A little too simplistic of an explanation. No, not really. He’s just a very good comic artist. He fits everything properly into his frames, adds a couple of interesting ‘outside the panel’ effects. That’s that.
Now, I can only hope, and assume, that it isn’t Park’s fault that the story breaks down when the fight between Frost and Grey-Summers, but given our history with Claremont lately – I doubt it. As a matter of fact, it’s Andy Park’s art that actually kept me running through that battle. His final visage of Rachel and Emma in Hong Kong is just.. well, I’ll admit it. Hot.
Overall
What’s left to say – the book is a mishmash of good and bad points. It has the ability to be one of the better storyarcs that Claremont has given us. It also has the potential to suck big rocks. Given Claremont’s recent reputation, I’ll let you decide.
