I really like the feel of this book. But then . . I expected nothing less with Chris Claremont writing it. Chris seems to be an idea guy. He's handled pretty much all the various X-teams, and he's come up with some neat ideas for various publishers. I like that he's kept this idea 'in-house', as it were. It's kind of a 'What if?' . . what if we went a generation or two forward, and picked up with some of the kids of the originals? Some of them are obvious like Pavel Rasputin, Olivier Raven and Becka Munroe, but then . . some we're still just learning about. Like 'No-Name'. We find out this issue, finally, that her real name is Anne-Marie. We're not sure what the implications are yet, but . . Hank notes that that's the same name as Oli's mother. "I know. That's partly why I kept it to myself." But really, that's all the explanation we get . . for now. And of course we have Megan Frost, Rico and Hank McCoy is their mentor. Also, I was surprised to see that Val Cooper is still around. And she's still the government liaison to the school. We don't have an exact time-line yet, but . . somewhere in the 'near' future, the X-mansion is destroyed, and many students, along with Charles, are killed. I guess it's kind of like the state of the school right now,but . . a little different. These stories, and characters, are 10 years after that. So, as were learning about these characters, were also getting hints as to what's happened during that time. This issue is spent mostly bringing readers back up to date on the characters. It basically recaps the last series . . the trip to Genosha, and our teams encounter with Shadow-X. If you hadn't read the last series, you can still fall right into the story with this issue. I don't think Chris left anything out. The big thing this issue though is that the team has to make a decision . . " . . to go home, back to school, or stay out here on your own. On the road. If you come home, you do so knowing . . . giving your word . . that you agree to Scott's rules . . no more fooling, no more excuses, no more exceptions. The X-Men are done. If you want to be super-heroes you cannot do it as any sort of adjunct to the school. You want to be heroes, you can't be students. You want to be students, they being heroes will have to wait." Hank's left it up to the kids to decide. But then . . in typical X-Men fashion . . the debate is taken out of their hands. They run into another teen-mutant from India, Sati. She's got a would-be goddess, Kalima, trying to control her country and she's decided that Sati is to much trouble. So she's attacked her with some goblin type creatures, the Ravarati. After introductions are made, it's either help out this person in need, or . . go back to the school. It's really not a decision at all. Chris has a great bunch of characters here. Of course he's got a great 'pool' to choose from. A 'pool' that he's intimately knowledgeable about. He rather easily seems to have this story . . this possible future . . fitting right in with X-Men continuity. Or, I guess I should say possible continuity. I was pretty happy with the first mini-series, and it looks like this one is going to be everything if not more than that one. I also really like Jonboy Meyers' pencils. This book has a great look and feel to it. I can't wait to see where their adventures take them this time. Thanks, Chris . . for bringing them back.
No comments:
Post a Comment