X-Men: X-Tinction Agenda by Chris Claremont
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Of all the comics that really got me into comics besides Batman, was X-men. The city library had a few comics, for some reason, that were ripped, in bins that you could check out. They didn’t have all of them, but they did have parts of this Saga. With the rich backstory, told in brief, and Jim Lee’s fabulous penciling, many of the panes in these pages burned into my memory as the epitome of action, drama and visual storytelling.
I’m happy to re-read this set of comics, from beginning to end.
The story is compelling. This time, a sovereign nation built on the backs of mind-controlled mutants seeks to protect its “property” this time enveloping members of the X-men. Controlled by the mastermind evil Cameron Hodge, who hates with his last breath, who made a deal with a demon that he could never die, and then at the center of a super-cybernetic suit, the X-men seem to have met their match.
Of course, as a comic series, the story must go on! And the last issue was unsatisfying to me, wrapping things up neatly. The bad guys of course, are so bad, they cannot cohere their values to work together. The good guys, of course, despite differences are able to work together and achieve unity. That’s the main difference between them. In fact, these good guys are so good, they seek unity in all sentient beings, including mutants and humans… eventually turning members of the bad guys over to their side.
Considering the political implications of “what is human” and this nation’s human rights violations, the story wraps up too quickly once the action sequence is done. The President in chains, and bad guys turned good all getting their just reward (the other main bad guy loses his life in stopping the real main bad guy)… the ending really soured for me what I recall being a rich tapestry of character and political questioning.
Despite twisting the characters for good at the end, all in all though, quite good, as most of the time, re-reading old comic sagas never turn out well. I enjoyed much of the early artistry and story telling best of all. The ending’s main failing was that it turned generic at the end, as very apparently the story “blew its load” and then quickly turned around to fall asleep.
