NYX #4 should have been out in January, but instead it's chosen to be fashionably late.  In the interim, District X has been released, and I have to wonder whether there's really a need for two inner city X-Men titles. 

At any rate, five month gaps between issues are never a good way to help momentum or pacing.  Hands up everyone who can remember the plot?  Without looking?  Hmm.

Well, NYX seems to be sticking with the formula of introducing a new character every issue.  This month, the new characters is Tatiana, who is kind to animals.  And... yup, that's basically what she does.  She's kind to animals for several pages, and there is Pain At Home because mummy is sleeping with bad men.  There doesn't actually seem to be much in the way of plot and, quite honestly, I'm not remotely interested in her.

Meanwhile, in the other half of the book, Kid Nixon tells us what she was up to between issues #1 and #2, which basically involves her trekking to Pittsburgh and then coming back again.  Things get a little more interesting when she meets up with her brother and decides that the family are doing better without her.  And then, at last, we get to the point by explaining that Kid is being steered around by her father who appears to her in visions.  (Except, hold on, we established that last issue, didn't we?)  X-23 sits politely through all this and belatedly starts offering an explanation for the guy she apparently killed last issue.

So, in other words, after five months away, the book returns with an issue that advances the plot only incrementally.  And with future issues also being shunted back, I despair of this title getting anywhere at a sensible speed.

The saving grace, of course, is Joshua Middleton's art.  As always, he brings a sort of pristine quality to the work, where even the homeless kids and the slums look intangibly perfect.  It may not really play into the story, but it makes a change from the grim and gritty look.  For Kid's flashback, Middleton changes style, introducing more blurring and pencil shading.  With some suitably odd lighting effects in the colouring, it gives the scenes a nicely woozy tone.

Great to look at, rather underwhelming to read.  Far, far too slow for a comeback issue after such a long break.

Rating: B-

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