The X-Axis, 12 June 2005
Part 2 of 6: X-MEN #171

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Peter Milligan's run on X-Men has been remarkably variable in quality so far.  Most writers, at worst, vary in quality from story to story or from book to book.  Milligan is usually the same. 

But his X-Men fluctuates all over the place, depending largely on whether the issue involves characters or plot.  He's pretty good on the characters, even if they sometimes have a dash of ironic distance to them.  He's not so good at the plotting - straight ahead superhero stories just aren't really his forte.  With "Golgotha", the result was a story of incredible inconsistent quality.

His second arc, "Bizarre Love Triangle", gets off to a more promising start.  That might be because it's basically a character story, and plays more to his strengths.

A previously unknown new mutant calling herself Foxx turns up at the school after shaking off hunters.  We're apparently meant to regard her as unbelievably beautiful (although frankly, I'm not seeing it, myself).  She gets shoved into Gambit's class, and promptly sets about seducing him in the least subtle manner conceivable.  Meanwhile, Emma Frost is trying to help Gambit and Rogue touch each other in a sort of telepathic virtual reality, and that's not going too well either.

The mystery here is who Foxx actually is, since it's pretty obvious that there's more to her than meets the eye.  Just in case anyone hasn't picked up on that, Milligan throws in the "You have needs that my... needs that Rogue cannot satisfy" line.  This being Milligan, she's presumably either a shapechanger (that'd be Mystique, then) or some sort of mental projection from Emma's telepathic experiments.  Of course in either event there's the obvious question of why the telepaths don't rumble her immediately, but then Emma Frost turns up at the start and seems to have some very clear ideas of what she's doing by putting Foxx in Gambit's class, so Milligan's presumably thought of all that.

The art is generally pretty decent, although it really doesn't sell me on the supposed attractiveness of Foxx.  The characters are kept reasonably three-dimensional, and actually seem to be aware of events in other books for once.  Although from a scheduling point of view, was it really necessary to clarify at this stage that the story takes place after the current Rogue storyline, thus blowing the cliffhanger from issue #11?  It could easily have been left ambiguous until next issue, by which point it wouldn't have been a problem.

A good issue, though.  Milligan gets my hopes up again.  But of course, we've been here before...

Rating: A-

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Copyright 2005 Paul O'Brien.  This web site is a work of critical comment and review. All characters and publications referred to, and artwork reproduced, are ™ and © their respective owners.
 

X-MEN
(2nd series) #171
Marvel Comics
August 2005
$2.50 US / $3.50 CAN

BIZARRE LOVE TRIANGLE,
part 1 of 4:
"Dangerous Liaisons""
Writer: Peter Milligan
Penciller: Salvador Larroca
Inkers: Danny Miki with Allen Martinez
Letterer: Cory Petit
Colourists: Liquid!
Editor: Mike Marts

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