I don’t love the art. The main character has never been one
that interested me. The plot doesn’t exactly hook me. And yet Simon Spurrier
has me interested in catching up on this title because of the unique voice that
infuses every bit of this title.
This trade focuses on Legion’s run-ins with Pete Wisdom and
other English supporting characters. I liked that Spurrier really scrapes the bottom
of the barrel, including Alchemy, a character from a throwaway issue of
X-Factor back in the day. He also includes a blowing up kid who I don’t even
recognize. 13-year-old Timbotron would be mortified that there were X-Men
characters he didn’t know…
Spurrier plays some fun tricks on both the reader and
Wisdom. Thanks to Legion’s increasing mastery over his powers, the different
things he can do become more and more varied. It’s a wise choice to use Wisdom as
a POV character. Even after all these issues, I immediately found myself more
drawn into the story when David Haller/Legion was being portrayed as the
antagonist rather than our hero.
After wrapping up the England-based story, Legion heads off
to America to face down the man who killed Professor X; Cyclops! Once again,
Spurrier’s irreverent tone is quite enjoyable, somehow building up the respect
due to Cyclops even as Legion tries to mock and belittle him. It is an easy
target to doubt the use of “child soldiers” on X-teams, but Spurrier still does
a nice job with it when Cyclops uses his entire team.
Make no mistake; this is a very weird comic. The art,
by Khoi Pham, looks a bit more mainstream than Tan Eng Huat’s at the beginning
of this collection, but it is still out there. The backgrounds do lack a bit, and
the faces can get mighty lumpy at times. I’ve seen both artists do stronger
work on other titles. Huat’s art does have a certain mad energy to it that goes
a long way in his issues.
This is a FAIR comic, but certainly one worth reading if you are looking for a little something different from your X-Men comics.
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