So, five hundred issues of Uncanny X-Men.  Okay, in many ways it's a pretty meaningless number.  It counts the reprint issues; it doesn't count X-Men.  But still, five hundred issues.  It feels quite satisfying, doesn't it?  And Marvel have chosen to use this anniversary to kick off the San Francisco era.

Now, pretty much since M-Day, I've been complaining that the X-books' biggest problem is a lack of direction.  The titles have been wandering around in circles, without giving much impression of having a long term plan.  Well, that issue is finally being taken in hand.  True, we've had a bit of wheel-spinning over the last few months, as the titles seemed to be killing time between "Messiah Complex" and this anniversary issue. 

But now we're in San Francisco, with a new setting, a new sense of purpose for the team, and a new co-writer in Matt Fraction.  All this is extremely promising.  Not only does it allow the series to strike out in a new direction at last, but putting the team in a more sympathetic location should allow for a change of pace from the X-Men's usual angst-ridden ways.  And Fraction has written some consistently excellent stories for Marvel, particularly his collaboration with Brubaker on Iron Fist.

In fact, I've seen some mixed reactions to this issue.  And I can kind of understand why.  There's a big shift of tone from what came before - and in many ways that's a good thing.  But it's a new sensibility, and a somewhat quirkier one.  Aside from that, though, it's not the best thing that Brubaker and Fraction have written.  It shows plenty of promise for the new direction, but it isn't an especially great issue in its own right.

It's a straightforward story.  The X-Men have moved into their new base in San Francisco, and a local artist is putting on an exhibition of "mutant kitsch" with three decommissioned Sentinels.  The X-Men show up at the opening night (whether to object or simply to make sure that the Sentinels are safe isn't altogether clear)... and then Magneto shows up to activate the Sentinels for a big fight.  As you'd imagine, this being the start of a new direction, the whole thing turns out to be a scheme to allow a bigger story to kick off in the background.

Fine in principle, but with a flotilla of subplots taking up space, and a chunk of the book devoted to a tour of the new facility, it ends up feeling a bit rushed.  Even though the arch-enemy is there, and unexpectedly back in action, it doesn't quite have the sense of scale you'd expect.  The pacing is a bit choppy - we have random X-Men showing up during the fight without warning.

And there's a central plot point that doesn't work.  Be warned, I'm about to spoil the ending.  Magneto is apparently causing a distraction so that the High Evolutionary can mess about with the Dreaming Celestial for some reason.  But he doesn't seem to cause the X-Men any delay at all, making the story rather pointless.  Besides, the Dreaming Celestial is primarily an Eternals character - so if you're going to distract anyone, shouldn't it be those guys?

Mind you, I like the idea here.  In Magneto's eyes, the X-Men are flouncing around as shiny popular superheroes, but doing nothing of value to address this whole M-Day thing.  They're just complacently assuming it'll all work out.  And Magneto is finally doing what somebody should have done years ago: taking steps to sort it all out.  Excellent.  This is where we needed to go.

Art comes from Greg Land and Terry Dodson, each of whom seems to have been assigned pages more or less randomly.  They're a slightly awkward combination; Dodson is basically a cartoonist with a sideline in cheesecake, while Land goes in for a sort of airbrushed hyperrealism.  They're both shiny and bright, and Justin Ponsor's colouring helps to provide consistency, but not quite sure about having them work on the same story.

More to the point, while Dodson is as good as you'd expect, Land has more issues.  Now, a lot of people really can't stand Greg Land, and object strenuously to his perceived overuse of photo-reference.  So far as it goes, that doesn't particularly bother me.  It's all in how you arrange it.  Yes, his work is overly prettified, but from a certain angle, I can see the appeal of that.

However, there are some very odd visual choice in this issue: when the characters are standing around for three panels discussing the awesome view, why doesn't the art show it?  Granted, that could have been in the script, but I can't imagine why.  But most fundamentally, Land's characters can't act.  There's something almost disturbing about the clumsy facial expressions.  Just look at the Mayor of San Francisco, sporting the same inane rictus grin for four straight pages.  It's frankly weird and makes everyone look vaguely inhuman.

So, this is a flawed issue.  All involved have done better, and will no doubt do better again.  But the important bits - the general direction, the long-term plots - those are all in place.  On balance, I'm still optimistic about this.  These guys have a vision for the X-Men which actually involves doing something different with them, and generally cheering up.  And I thoroughly approve of that.

Rating: B+

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