Wednesday, December 8, 2010

X-Men: Nation X TPB (part 1)

I get a nice feeling when I read good X-Men comics. The X-books were one of my favorite comics as a kid, so there is something cool about the mythos still developing in original ways. Matt Fraction knows his X-books better than I do; he knows all those New X-Men kids and their weird powers. This trade has a couple stories, and they're all pretty entertaining.

X-Men: The List brings back Marina, Namor's wife from the Alpha Flight days. I really thought she was dead, sliced up by Black Knight's sword. Norman Osborn genetically engineers her to attack Atlanteans, so Namor ends up having to take her out. Being Namor, he does it in a permanent way so that he can make statement to Osborn. The art by Alan Davis is wonderful, as expected, Namor's black suit looks awesome.

Uncanny X-Men #515-517 are pretty thrilling. Fraction brings in Magneto, making things really interesting for Cyclops. At this point, Cyke's main advisors are White Queen, Namor, Dr. Nemesis, Professor X, and Magneto. While Professor X and Dr. Nemesis might be jerks, they are at least good guys. The rest are all reformed villains, so I'm starting to worry about Cyke's inner circle. Magneto arrived just in time, because a mysterious new villain team has forced Scalphunter to carry a deadly cargo to the island.

The X-Predator was established as a pretty powerful villain in Messiah Complex, so seeing seven of them heading towards the X-Men's island is pretty intimidating. Fraction does a fantastic job breaking up the huge X-roster into multiple teams to take on the X-Predators. My favorite battle, of course, is when Rogue absorbs a slew of powers and takes out one of the beasties single-handedly.

I'm not a big Greg Land fan, but he does a decent job with the X-Predator battles. His Wolverine is always cool looking, and it is amusing seeing the X-Ladies contorting around like adult film stars.

Good

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