Title: n/a
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: David Hine
QArtist: Jorge Lucas
Colorist: Tom Chu
Letterer: Dave Sharpe
Editor: Mike Marts
Editor In Chief: Joe Quesada
Publisher: Dan Buckley
David Hine is going to make me like X-Men again. Few have been able to do it since Claremont came back. Greg Pak with Phoenix Endsong. Whedon’s Astonishing. Finally, the book that was my first #1 here at Comics Nexus, District X, by none other than David Hine.
Now he is taking over Colossus, a character that was brought back by Whedon, but barely established why. As a matter of fact, the best description is given on the page one of Colossus: Bloodline.
Colossus “died” saving the world from the deadly Legacy Virus. Recently, however the X-Men found Colossus alive. It turns out he was being used in experiments to find a cure to end mutation.
That leaves LOTS of storytelling room, and Hine has found an excellent angle on the Rasputin legend.. something that I would have liked to have had when Colossus returned, not a year later.
STORY!
People are dying in Russia, and there is a connection between them. They are all relatives, distant or otherwise, of Piotr. While that is true, the main focus is that they are all the ancestors of the Russian madman, Rasputin.
After a few murders, we learn there are three left. Colossus’ cousin, Larisa Mishchenko, the crazed Uncle Vladimir, and Piotr are all that are left. They now have to find their Uncle and hopefully save him before whoever is murdering them finds him first.
Half of this issue gives us a nice bit of revisionist comic world history about Rasputin himself. How his children were fathered, and about the madness that existed in the man himself. All of this tying around a mysterious figure known as the Pale Man. I will say that the surprise of who the Pale Man is at the end of the issue makes me smile like a giddy schoolgirl. One of the most underrated villains of the last decade is back with a vengence. No, I’m not telling you who.
The power in this issue though, is how Hine has taken the experiences of the Rasputin kids – Illyana, Mikhail, and Piotr – and tied them together. Stating that the madness that existed in the other two very well might relate to the madness that existed in the mad Russian himself. It is one of those interesting spins that makes Colossus that much more of a tragically flawed hero.
Nowwww… why this book won’t get a 10…
ART!
The art in this title waxes near the horrendous so much, that I was almost tempted to go look for the first issue and see what that looked like. The art itself, really, isn’t the problem, but some computer issue that went into it.
Some panels seem stretched, where others seem outright pixellated. The coloring job is disgustingly uneven, and one panel in particular (of Darkchylde) looked as if it had been drawn in RoseArt markers. Again, this might be the pixelation’s fault.. but it hurts the title.
OVERALL!
As a storyteller, Hine is once again keeping me enthralled. For as much as I fear this story really won’t touch into main continuity very much, especially with the end of House of M right around the corner – I am enjoying it for what it is. Something that is hard to do with mini-series.
Sadly, the rating of the title is lower than it could have been, given that the art is … well.. messed up somehow. I’m not going to blame Jorge Lucas because it might have been something in post production.
