Amazing X-Men #8
Written by: Craig Kyle & Chris Yost
Penciled by: Ed McGuinness
Inked by: Mark Farmer
Colored by: Rachelle Rosenberg
Lettered by: VC’s Joe Caramagna
Published by: Marvel
Cover Price: $3.99
Note: This is a review of the digital version which can be found on Comixology.
Warning! This review contains quite a few spoilers!
Summary (contains spoilers): Our story starts 52 hours ago in a meat packing plant in Ontario. Two guys get in a fight over a girl, and one accidentally kills the other. In order to hide the body, the killer tosses his victim into a meat grinder. Presumingly to be eaten by a bunch of Canadians…and when a Canadian goes cannibal, he gets possessed by the spirit of the Wendigo… Hey don’t blame me, I just review the comics, I don’t write them.
Meanwhile, Wolverine (who’s healing powers are still on the fritz) decides to take a vacation from the Jean Grey School to go see his friends Guardian and Vindicator up in Canada. Vindicator tells him that they had a fight recently, and Guardian hadn’t been seen in days. He went on a mission for Department H looking for a missing person and never checked in. Wolverine just happened to bring his costume with him, so he agrees to help search for him.
They track Guardian down to a town which seems to be completely uninhabited. Wolverine uses his senses to discover that Guardian had been attacked by a Wendigo.
Vindicator tries to call her teammates in Alpha Flight for backup, as more Wendigos attack them both.
Review: While I was reading Moon Knight this week, I kept getting annoyed by Marvel’s bait and switch tactics. Warren Ellis and Declan Shalvey are only doing the first six issues of this great series, and then they are gone.
It seems like too many Marvel titles- lately start with one creative team, who are gone within an arc or two. BUT, this issue of Amazing X-Men shows what that might not always be such a bad thing.
I had no real problem with what Jason Aaron did in the first 6 issues of Amazing X-Men, though I did think some of the scenes with Storm retroactively fawning over Nightcrawler were cringe-worthy. Aaron brought back Nightcrawler (who has always been one of my favoritr characters) and the story itself (the X-Men fighting in Heaven and Hell) was entertaining, and full of strong character moments and great action scenes.
But, the whole time I was reading it, I had to keep asking “Did we really need ANOTHER X-Men team title?” All-New X-Men, Uncanny X-Men, X-Men, Wolverine and the X-Men, and X-Men Legacy are not enough?For me, the only reason Amazing was on the shelf was just as an excuse to have the always terrific Ed McGuinness drawing an X-Men book. And they probably could have just moved him over to one of the multitudes of X-titles out there.
But, when I found out that Yost and Kyle were coming on board, I immediately changed my tune. I have always loved their work on the X-titles (NEW X-MEN FOR LIFE), and if anyone could give this book a purpose, it was them.
I will be the first person to admit that the story behind this issue was pretty ridiculous. Man gets killed in a meat packing plant and ends up as hamburger. People eat those hamburgers and become Wendigos. I have no idea how you can maintain a 5 issue arc from that premise, but I always liked the Wendigo, and it is nice to see Wolverine having an adventure with Alpha Flight again. And I don’t have an issue with a silly premise as long as it gets us to a good story, and Yost and Kyle have earned my faith time and time again.
The character moments in this issue are what really made it work. I loved seeing Colossus and Nightcrawler discussing their mutual resurrections.
And Storm wondering why Xavier ever recruited Iceman (and Iceman conceding the point) made me laugh out loud.
I also liked how they used Wolverine’s heightened senses to do the flashback showing how Guardian got attacked by Wendigos. I was reminded of the video game Wolverine’s Revenge, which I always thought made an awesome use of how Wolverine’s powers worked.
As I said earlier, Ed McGuinness is a talented artist, and I’m glad to see him on a high profile project like this. He draws real clean, tight characters and action. In a lot of ways, I am reminded of Jim Lee’s art when I look at Ed McGuinness, and I have always considered Jim Lee the best pure superhero artist in the business.
I end up reading a lot of X-Men books every month. I have always liked the idea and many of the characters. Amazing was sort of mid-tier for me. Not the worst comic I read, but not one I found myself getting overly excited about each week. It is never the first book I read, and never the last book I read. But, Yost, Kyle, and McGuinness seem determined to change that. The story was strange to say the least, but definitely puts this book back on the right track. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
Final Score: 8.5: Amazing X-Men is in position to become the best X-Men team book. That market is a little crowded right now, but Yost, Kyle, and McGuinness give this book one hell of an edge.
