According to Newsarama, at this weekend's WizardWorld convention, Joe Quesada announced a Colossus miniseries by reiterating that solo X-Men miniseries had to "be special and carry a significant impact for the character."

Well, that's a novel concept, and certainly one that hasn't been much in evidence over the last year or so.  This week alone, for example, we have Ororo: Before the Storm, and the lamentable X-Force: Shatterstar.  No doubt this policy of only commissioning miniseries with a real creative purpose was also hard at work when X-Men/Fantastic Four and Wolverine: Soultaker were greenlighted.

Ororo is... alright, and in fairness, Storm isn't as chronically overexposed as some of the X-Men.  On the other hand, who the hell was demanding a miniseries about Storm aged ten?  There's nothing about this which suggests any particularly major events are being touched on; it just seems to be a typical adventure from her thieving days in Cairo.

On the plus side, Carlo Barberi's art is fantastic, and the book certainly has a strong visual style to it.  And if you actually do want a story about a ten-year-old Egyptian thief, then Sumerak delivers something perfectly readable in that vein.  On the other hand, the character feels a little bit off.  She's really acting a bit too much like the adult Storm, and there isn't really a sense of this being Storm as a child.

It's okay, but I can't for the life of me see what the point is, and it leaves me rather indifferent.  But if the premise actually does appeal to you, then by all means give it a go, because it does the advertised job well enough.

Rating: B

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