Chuck Austen debuts as writer on Uncanny X-Men with an issue that's perhaps most notable for what it isn't.

It would be fair to say that Joe Casey's run was not, overall, a commercial or critical hit.  Despite the rather warmed over plot elements, though, it did have a somewhat distinctive style to it.  Austen, in contrast, has produced a superhero story which is perfectly competent but remains in well trodden territory.

In the main plot, Xavier goes to meet a water-breathing mutant teenager who's a victim of bullying, and recruits him into the school.  Nothing wrong with it, but it does have the feel of a stock plot.  It's the sort of thing the X-Men do in throwaway X-Men Unlimited stories.

In the subplot, Archangel's team of X-Men fly to Scotland to answer a distress call and get attacked by a supervillain.  Again, this seems like a generic superhero plot, and it relies for its impact on the surprise value of revealing the villain at the end.  Nonetheless, weren't they doing this story back in the 1970s?

After Morrison and Casey were such a clear break from the past, it's interesting to see that Marvel have gone for a relatively conservative approach with the new writer.  Perhaps the logic is that there's no point mimicking Morrison's approach on Uncanny, as that just dooms the writer to being seen as Morrison Lite.  Instead, they're using this as the X-book for people who want something a bit more conventional.  (In which case, what's X-Treme X-Men for?)

Although the plot is uninspiring, Austen does do some sound work on fleshing out the character dynamics within the team.  That's a solid and traditional approach to team books, but for good reason.  Much of this issue is devoted to overhauling Stacy X and trying to win her our sympathy as a rookie out of her depth.  It's a fairly successful attempt, too.  With Chamber out of the book appearing in his miniseries (yes, it's so traditional that it actually acknowledges the existence of other X-books), M is brought in as his substitute, providing a Stacy with a suitable foil.

Ron Garney has streamlined the X-Men's costumes from the rather clunky Ian Churchill designs.  The revised designs play more to his strengths, without abandoning the "uniforms rather than spandex" approach that the X-books have adopted over the last year or so.

Plays a little too safe for my tastes, but if that's what you're looking for then Austen and Garney do it well enough.

Rating: B

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