X-Men Unlimited #37 is a bit of an oddity.

Abandoning the usual anthology format for the first time in a while, this is a story written by artist Kaare Andrews, and illustrated by Andrews and an assortment of other artists who you wouldn't normally expect to find within a mile of Marvel interiors.

The catch with the story is that what it really wants to do is have an excuse to bring together millions of different versions of the X-Men in one gloriously excessive fight scene. This will make for eye candy, and that's fine, because eye candy is all good as part of a balanced diet.

But Andrews has decided to include an actual plot, rather than just play the story entirely for laughs. Consequently, much of the issue is taken up with a convoluted plot about a boy who's the son of an alternate version of Illyana Rasputin, who's been trapped between dimensions all his life but is finally brought into the real world by Illyana and a man who hates mutants for killing his son. (Why both of them are needed isn't entirely clear.) All of this is eventually explained as an exceptionally roundabout scheme of Mephisto's, and the kid nobly sacrifices himself in the manner that tragic child heroes tend to have.

The issue is at its strongest when it's just having fun with the absurdity of the central concept - which brings together versions of the X-Men as diverse as the Ultimate team, the X-Babies, and the roughly sketched versions from Bullpen Bits. Most of them are in non-speaking cameos, though, and I can't help wishing the story had just run with this fundamentally ridiculous idea as a comedy story, rather than trying to weld on a heart-tugging story about tragic lost children. The result is a story that falls between two stools, trying to be a tragedy when the central concept desperately wants to be a comedy.

The art is largely excellent. Andrews himself provides most of the excessive battle scenes, and they're suitably epic and chaotic. Troy Nixey, last seen working on the eccentric Oni miniseries Trout, draws Mephisto's scenes, and gives him an effective, distorted appearance. The more serious side of the plot is handled by Mike Kunkel, best known for his own book Herobear & The Kid, and Joshua Middleton, who I believe is about to do the Sky Without Branches mini for Com.X. Kunkel's art here resembles rough sketches for animation (complete with rough head shapes left in), and has a great sense of character to it.  Middleton's more subdued and realistic style is perhaps a touch out of place on such a demented plot, but it's beautiful nonetheless, and doesn't seem quite so odd on the pages he's been assigned.

Like many jam books, the story risks feeling disjointed as a result of having such a wide and strikingly different series of art styles. But the pages have been sensibly assigned to minimise that, and as a result the issue holds together amazingly well.

The only problem with this issue is its attempt to get us to take the plot seriously, which results in characters delivering dialogue like "One child found the courage to save our reality.  The courage to find the true nature of goodness." It's not a terrible plot, really, despite the melodrama. But it never quite meshes with the huge battle scenes, and they're ultimately the selling point here.

Worth picking up for the art, nonetheless.

Rating: B+

back | continue