Released on February 26th, 2020
My pick for Best Comic Book last year was the 12 part, weekly X-Men book that brought writer Jonathan Hickman back to Marvel. Technically it was two books, House of X and Powers of X, but both 6 part series were continued and connected and led to the new X-Men #1 and to a bunch of other new #1 issues (Wolverine #1, Marauders #1, Excalibur #1, X-Force #1, New Mutants #1, and Fallen Angels #1). I loved HOXPOX (as comic book fans started to call it) because it was fresh, bold, alive, and exciting. The X-Men have been boring for years and this gave it an adrenaline shot to the heart. It was a big hit both commercially and critically. So now...seven issues into the main, continuing X-Men book...has it kept its momentum? Yes and no. It's still a great book. Visually, this issue is exceptional (Leinil Francis Yu penciled and inked it). The writing is pretty much just more of the same as HOXPOX...which is kind of where the big problem comes in. As an introduction, HOXPOX was great. It had a fantastic setup and felt very bold in the act of actually trying to do something new with characters that have been around forever. The problem is that, like HOXPOX, this ongoing series is basically just a bunch of "cool" scenes without any kind of forward momentum. Yes, the X-Men fighting a big bad has been done before...but there's a reason for that. Without a big evil enemy or any sort of continuing conflict, there's kind of a big chunk seemingly missing from this book. So far the big bad is the X-Men and their newfound island, Krakatoa. They are their worst enemy. Which is new, sure, but it isn't really sustaining the book since it's bi-monthly. Everything seems to be setting up the X-Men and their newfound, bizarre cult-like family world crashing down on themselves. Which is definitely going to happen. So while this book is great and readable and engrossing and definitely unique, it also feels like just random scenes and it feels like it's either missing something or it's just moving too slowly to get to its ultimate destination. In this issue, we get The Crucible. This is a gladiator type of event where a human that used to be a mutant is sacrificed so they can be resurrected as a mutant. All of this is happening on Krakatoa, which is the island that all of the mutants live now, even the bad guys. The big idea that Hickman came up with is that this new island world has their own laws, rules, and the rest of the world can't touch them. The island is also fantastical and filled with a bunch of weird shit. So it's a cool premise. And I'm sure once this new paradise collapses it'll be a hell of a ride. But it also feels like something that probably could have been accomplished a lot quicker, right? It's definitely a great book, definitely better than most superhero books out there that are just the usual, cliched, been-there-done-that shit, but it also feels like it's missing something, that it's just a cool setup and nothing else. ***
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