New X-Men is a curiously frustrating comic.  I like the characters.  I have no problem with the set-up.  I've enjoyed plenty of other stories by the same writers.  The artist knows how to produce a memorable image.  All the ingredients are there for a great little book.

And yet the reality is a comic that, month after month, fills me with the overwhelming urge to go and do something else.  What is wrong with this book?

Issue #41 is the final part of "Quest for Magik" - billed as a four-parter, but it's really five when you count the prologue issue (which is an essential part of the plot).  The basic story is clear enough.  When Magik was brought back to life during the House of M storyline a couple of years ago, Belasco sensed her return.  Now he's looking for her, ostensibly so he can finish off that whole "capturing her soul" routine from the 1980s. 

Since he knows that Magik was hanging around with the New X-Men, he kidnaps them all to Limbo in order to interrogate them.  But because they only met her during House of M, none of them have a clue what he's talking about.  Meanwhile, some of the group escape and hook up with the Darkchild, who is apparently a soulless version of Illyana created when Belasco tried to conjure her up.  Much fighting ensues, and the Darkchild seizes control of Limbo.  Somewhere along the line, Pixie gets her soul corrupted.  Yes, Pixie.   Apparently she's no longer an item of set dressing, but a character we're supposed to care about.

Now, fundamentally I suppose there's nothing wrong with this concept.  It's got its problems, admittedly.  I think the whole idea of bringing Illyana back from the dead is misconceived; her story works perfectly well as it is.  Back in her 1980s heyday, Magik's character was all about the fact that because of her past, she had a demon side that would ultimately bring her down.  Eventually it did.  That's the story.  It's a classic tragedy framework.  What do you do with a revived Magik?  Threaten to do it all over again?  Give her a happy ending?  Reposition the character so fundamentally that you might as well have just created someone different in the first place?

Actually, the more I think about this, there is something fundamentally wrong with the whole concept, isn't there?

But let's give them the benefit of the doubt on this point and assume that they've got some great idea for Magik which I'm not seeing.  There's a segment of X-Men fans who would be happy to see her return, although I can't imagine they're that numerous, considering that she was written out almost twenty years go.  The basic story concept makes a certain degree of sense: the heroes get dragged into Belasco's quest because he's been confused by a continuity glitch.  Fine.  Okay, there's a fundamental piece of plot confusion: is the Darkchild supposed to be Illyana, or a copy of Illyana, or Illyana minus her soul?  How does she relate to the House of M Illyana (who teleported away just before the storyline ended, and so presumably wasn't on Earth when everything changed back)?  I have a vague feeling that this was supposed to be explained somewhere along the line, but it doesn't exactly come across.

Leave all that aside, though.  You could make this story work.

Here's the problem.  Act one: Belasco kidnaps the heroes.  Act two: Belasco starts torturing them.  They don't know anything... so he just keeps going.  For the rest of the story.  The writers have a device to get the New X-Men into the story, and a device to beat Belasco in the closing pages, and pretty much no idea of what they're going to do in between.  So we get a bit of vaguely-defined sacrifice with Pixie - in fairness, the one part of the story that really works - and aside from that, it's just another New X-Men slasherfest.  Except without the consequences, because it's Limbo and everything just gets undone a few pages later.

There's no dynamics, there's no light and shade, there's no subtlety.  It's a one-note story that might just about have sustained two issues, stretched far beyond its natural lifespan, and utterly devoid of any sort of storytelling rhythm.  Nasty chaotic things happen, and then they just happen some more, and then they continue to happen, and then more happening, and it's all the same, same, same.  There's no pacing because there's nothing to pace - there's just one thing, stretched out indefinitely until the page count is fulfilled.  It's monotonous, in every sense of the word.

Skottie Young produces some neat individual panels, but his action sequences don't always hold up so well.  He does his best to find some sort of emotional context to draw out of the story, but there's really not much there to work with.  Given his exaggerated cartoon style, and the material he's being asked to draw, the story can't help but come across as histrionic.

I never want to read this thing again.  For heaven's sake, this title has so much potential.  There's so much talent working on it.  The characters ought to work.  Please, for heaven's sake, can it with the one-note slaughterfests and make some good comics.  I know you can do it.

Oh, and I nearly forgot: there's an "Endangered Species" back-up strip in this issue as well.  I'm going to wait until the end of the arc to comment on these things, but suffice to say that for the moment we seem to be stuck on an expository tour of the Marvel Universe.  It's not that compelling as a story, but then it's not cutting into the page count of the lead features, so we're effectively getting it for free.  If you view it as a glorified house ad for "Messiah Complex", it's fine.

Rating: C

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