X-Men: X-Cutioner’s Song by Scott Lobdell
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
As comic book companies became more and more corporate, sales needed to be key. One of the ways these companies did this, was to have cross-overs. You sell more comics per month, introduce readers who are already familiar with one universe to experience other casts… and thus cross-overs reigned supreme in the 90s.
I haven’t read comics in a while, but used to as a teenager. X-men was one of my favorites. So while I am familiar with most of the cast, I actually don’t know who many in the other groups.
What makes this series a little confusing is that it’s mainly an internal affair. A mystery happens, and the groups ban together to race around trying to figure out who the culprit is. So much of the first half is pretty disorganized, confusing and full of odd twists and many familiar bad guys get introduced into the mix. Finally you get some inking of what’s going on, and then the story ends. Why? Because this series was to be a prelude to introducing another line of comics, this time starring Cable.
So the story is a little uninspired… and the ending not completely satisfying. Cable was already a mysterious character. Now he gets even more mysterious.
The art is pretty good. The dynamic layouts of the panels and some of the dialogue intriguing. Still this is no Genosha island. And the plot could have been better put. At the very end you see some of the more basic struggles of the bad guys, which are basically bad because their egos have run amok… which is different than saying they have no morals. The good guys, however, are the ones who respect others… and want to protect the weak and innocent. So there’s not much else there.
Still, I did enjoy reading it, most of the time.
Comments (0)