Friday, September 7, 2012

The First X-Men #2

As a longtime fan of artist Neal Adams, I really want to like this First X-Men series (just as I really wanted to like his recent work on Batman: Odyssey).

But for some reason it just isn't working for me.

The problem isn't the art - his work is just as dramatic, as over-the-top and cutting-edge as it ever was. For example, he depicts a battle in a junkyard that's very impressive.

But (as with the Batman series) it's the story that just feels... I don't know, forced. Adams co-writes this with Christos Gage, but it feels like pure Adams to me.

It centers on Wolverine and his then-ally, Sabretooth, as they travel around the country and try to rescue mutants from the big bad government agency that's tracking them down.

Their search gathers new allies (though you have to wonder about their life expectancy, given that they're almost all new faces), and in this issue, brings them up against a pre-costume Magneto.

So far the story seems to be playing fair with the idea that this all takes place before Professor Xavier establishes his School for Gifted Students - but it's still difficult to align these characters with the ones we see in the early issues of X-Men and New X-Men.

Maybe I shouldn't get hung up on the continuity. The story is pretty straightforward, with the good guys fighting the bad ol' government guys - but it just all feels like familiar ground.

But the art is quite good.

Grade: B

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2 comments:

Dwayne said...

I guess everyone's afraid to tell Neal Adams he can't write. Batman: Odyssey was laughable... easily one of the worst comics in the last 10 years.

El Vox said...

The last thing I read by Adams was on Continuity Comics called Armor. It was ok, but I felt the storytelling didn't stand out that much from all the other superhero books that was on the stand at that time--in fact, some were a lot better (Concrete, Daredevil, Swamp Thing, The Rocketeer, among others). His art work still has some appeal, but overall seemed somehow dated or a throwback to some past era.