There has got to be a limit to the “teenage X-Men” concept,
right? I thought I’d tire of it in the All-New X-Men title, but strangely enough,
I haven’t. But I am tiring of it here. It is not that I don’t like the ongoing
adventures of teenage Scott Summers and his dad (Corsair). It is that I’d much
rather see the “real” Cyclops having these moments to bond. This seems like
such an odd exercise…
That said, this isn’t a bad comic. Corsair is such a fun
character, it is hard to make him uninteresting. Even better, Greg Rucka tackles
Corsair’s two largest problems head-on. First of all, how the heck are we
supposed to root for this guy who never went back and checked in on the sons he
left behind? Didn’t this guy have any sort of connection or conscience after
his alien abduction? And second, isn’t Corsair supposed to be dead? It has been
a long time, but I swear that Ed Brubaker killed him during his run on X-Men.
But here he is, alive and well and leading the Starjammers once again. Both
problems are addressed. The death issue isn’t an insurmountable one, and in
Rucka’s hands, resurrection can lead to some interesting new character flaws.
This is almost strictly a sci-fi comic. Other than a few
Marvel U trappings (brief appearances by the Starjammers, the use of a Badoon
spaceship) this could be any father and son series set in outer space. It’s
pretty interesting that my main complaint about this book (that it features a
confusing past-era version of Scott Summers) is almost totally incidental to
the actual plot. Of course, the relationship does color the interaction of the
characters; this is Corsair’s second chance at fatherhood. A chance to do it
right. But as for the actual plot, the characters’ history is not important at
all.
Actually, my favorite thing about this series is the
discovery of Russell Dauterman. His art is cartoony but still very kinetic and
dramatic. The action is full-on comic book mayhem. I like his work better in
the new Thor series, but man, he’s quite the discovery! He’s clearly good at
drawing aliens and alien tech, which made him a natural fit for the odd world
of Asgardia and Thor.
For me, this is an AVERAGE comic. I’ll keep reading it on
the Marvel App, but it isn’t exactly one of my favorites.
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