X-Men #193

Released: November 30, 2006

Publisher: Marvel

Writer: Mike Carey

Pencils: Chris Bachalo

Cover: Chris Bachalo

 

I’m still not sure how I feel about this series. On the one hand, it is building a unique and cool team with a good display of exciting action and proper amounts of drama. On the other hand, the villains are rather clichéd in their origins (being exactly like the ‘World’ Grant Morrison created in New X-Men) with the typical ‘we are the pinnacle of evolution, blah, blah, so we must kill you all, blah, blah’. Well, the negative hand is slightly heavier since it also holds that few members of the unique and cool team are properly explored, or even given more than two lines yet (Karima the android first with Lady Mastermind in a close second).

 

The result is a fairly competent comic from Bachalo and Carey, with Bachalo turning in one of his most sensible issues yet, but that is still missing something necessary for me to care. Cable, Karima, and Lady Mastermind are personality cut-outs right now and it’s been up to four issues for some of them to be on the team. This issue does a good job of mapping most of the team’s powers, showing off Lady Mastermind’s, Mystique’s, Cannonball’s, and Iceman’s, but those are all the characters most people would readily know about. Cable’s abilities seem to be resigned to blowing stuff up off-panel and why exactly Mystique needed to impersonate him is unclear.

 

In short, the series really needs exploration of the most oddball characters’ reasons for being on the team. Two ex-villains, one real one, and a character that has his own title can not just be thrown together without some real fireworks and explanations—we got the fireworks down at least. I trust Mike Carey enough at this point to address these issues, but some of them really could have been looked at issues ago. We’ve taken six issues to build up some clichéd villains, with a plan that really didn’t amount to anything too original.

 

The purpose of this team’s existence is to be a ‘strike force’ of the type that has been played with since they started the ‘Adjective-less’ X-Men. And like those early 90’s days, it appears we’ll be getting more of the same 90’s style stories and villains—assorted villains with ‘cool’ names and good designs but with little in the way of individual depth and personality. Next up is Pandemic and the Plague Dogs, which just reminds me of Mr. Sinister and the Marauders or Strife and the Mutant Liberation Front or those Death Squad Commandos that Bachalo drew for Claremont. It is different than the other X-Books but is it worthwhile?

 

This series had its moments, built up properly in past fight scenes, yet they don’t add up to a great series, just an average one. There is potential here, a little tweaking in pacing and some more characterization, and this title could restore the ‘cool’ to X-Men.

 

Rating - 6