New X-Men seems to have been cancelled.

Which is to say, the February solicitations came out last week, and New X-Men isn't there.  Instead, writers Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost seem to have moved over to the new X-Force series, taking only X-23 with them.  As for the rest, I can only assume that they're being folded into one of the other X-Men titles - perhaps Mike Carey's re-titled X-Men: Legacy - or they're being consigned to limbo.

Either way, it feels odd to end the book like this.  New X-Men and its forerunner New Mutants have been something of a wasted opportunity.  Both incarnations of the series featured some very promising character with tons of potential.  The original version didn't work because not enough happened.  The current version hasn't worked because too much has happened, and the characters have been lost under an avalanche of slaughter and despair.  Somewhere in the middle lies the original New Mutants, or Generation X.  And these characters, in that sort of book, would have been great.

So much for that, it seems.

Instead, the New X-Men get to spend the next few months in the "Messiah Complex" crossover.  The concept here is simple.  The kids aren't really that bothered about the mutant baby.  But they're very upset about the Purifiers who, after all, are the bad guys who killed off most of their classmates.  So while the real X-Men's plans have been going more or less fine, the New X-Men blunder in on their own to screw everything up. 

Perhaps this isn't the most flattering role for the New X-Men to play, but at least it makes sense.  And, as with X-Factor last week, at least this story really does star the title characters, while genuinely advancing the main plot.  So far, so good, in that respect.

Humberto Ramos takes over on art for this story.  He's not one of my favourite artists, and given his extremely distinctive style, it's a questionable decision to hire him for a story which involves him drawing every fourth chapter of a trade paperback.  But he's toning it down a bit here, and he tells the story well enough.  That said, some of his characters are decidedly off-model.  I had to identify Hellion from the context, and a scene in which Armor shows up to join the squad fails because she isn't recognisable as the same character that John Cassaday was drawing in Astonishing X-Men.  The script doesn't identify her until several pages later.

There are some other annoying elements here.  The New X-Men learn about the Purifiers' involvement in the story from the same news reports that Cyclops was watching two chapters ago.  But since then, Rictor's had enough time to create a cover identity and infiltrate the Purifiers.  How did it take the New X-Men so long to see the report? 

Then there's the subplot about Madrox and Layla in the far future.  Once again, we're back to mutants in concentration camps.  This has been done to death and it's just not very interesting any more.  I'm hoping that the idea is for the other future timeline to show a more inventive approach.  But we don't need to see this yet again. 

And most annoying of all, the story ends by threatening the death of a lead character yet again.  This is getting beyond a joke.  There have to be more interesting ways of building tension than slaughtering the cast.  New X-Men kills off its characters so frequently that it's ceased to provoke any reaction beyond "Oh god, not again."

Still, for all its faults, the issue is well paced, and the wider crossover storyline is ticking along nicely.  It's not an especially good issue of New X-Men, but it's fine as the fourth part of "Messiah Complex."

Rating: B

back | continue