X-Men: Ronin is the return of the Mangaverse X-Men.  Oh god.

I reviewed the Marvel Mangaverse: X-Men one-shot back in January 2002, when I gave it a D-.  Hated the thing.  Now, it was by a completely different creative team, but since it had no discernible point or concept, I have precisely zero interest in seeing the characters again.  But out of loyalty to you, my readers, here we go anyway.

More promisingly, this story is written by J Torres, who is often very good.  The artist is one Makoto Nakatsuka, a name that means nothing to me.  A Google search establishes that Nakatsuka was involved with a series called Kinnikuman, which appeared in English as MUSCLE.  Still means nothing to me.  Let's be honest, Marvel could hire somebody off the street and tell us they were a Manga superstar, and most of us wouldn't know one way or the other.  They seem to have come very close to managing it with Namor, come to think of it.

Anyway, the good news: this is vastly better than the original one-shot.  It at least has reasonable characterisation and a plot, and it establishes what the X-Men actually do.  That alone makes it vastly better.  But I'm still none the wiser as to the point of the whole thing.  Yes, I get that the point is to do a manga-style X-Men, but why?  You could do anything manga-style if you wanted to.  You could do the Inland Revenue tax code manga-style.  (It would be basically the same, only with capital gains relief for giant robots.)  There still wouldn't be any point, and nothing I've seen from the Mangaverse line has ever persuaded me that it's anything more than an elaborate parlour game.

The story involves the Hellfire Club trying to recruit Jean Grey.  In this reality the Hellfire Club apparently started off as something to do with the yakuza.  This seems to have made no difference whatsoever to their membership, or their decision to name themselves after an English gentlemen's club from several centuries ago.  Although for some reason the yakuza are very interested in telepaths and mutants, rather than, say, racketeering.  But, you know, it makes them a bit more Japanese, so it must be a good idea.

The plot is passable and would make an acceptable episode of the animated series.  The pacing is wonky; the story starts off with one of those eight-page dialogue-free action sequences that work in lengthier manga stories but just take up valuable space in the 22-page monthly format.  The art is decent, although I'm not blown away.

It's alright.  But I just don't understand the point of the Mangaverse.  The premise leaves me cold.

Rating: C+

back | continue