An all new era of mutant prosperity calls for all new business solutions – but are the world’s elite businessmen ready to welcome Krakoan into their boardrooms? The corporate world is a dangerous game – but Warren Worthington III, Monet St. Croix and their new board of directors are prepping to show the world just how cutthroat they can be. X-Corp #1 is written by Tini Howard, art by Alberto Foche, color art by Sunny Gho, lettering by Claytown Cowls and design by Tom Muller.
Armaan Babu: After being welcomed into ComicsXF back in…March (wow, two months ago? It feels like so much longer), this was the very first comic I was assigned to, along with you. I’ve been looking forward to this day for a while now, but it comes with a certain amount of disappointment – this comic mystifies and frustrates me. What are your first impressions?
Corey Smith: I’ve read through this debut issue twice now, and I’m afraid that “mystified and frustrated” definitely sums it up. For as much as I was looking forward to reviewing this with you (I have trouble wrapping my head around the fact that it’s only been two months, myself), and as excited as I was about the concept in general, I can’t help but feel like there’s a lot of missed potential. While I’m hoping that it has more to do with the extra-sized issue than anything that’s going to continue throughout the book, I can’t say this first issue left me feeling confident!
AB: I’m not sold on this book, which is not the best thing to be saying for a comic that’s all about the sale. Let’s get right into what did, and didn’t work!
Bored Meeting
CS: By all accounts, the cast and premise alone should be enough to carry the issue. Monet and Warren were by far my favorite part of the X-Men Empyre tie-in issues last year, and I love a good corporate drama.
AB: I’ve never had the chance to warm up to Warren, but I’ve enjoyed Monet and Jamie Madrox from the X-Factor days, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t pleased to have an Indian on the team with Trinary. Plus, I love the nitty gritty of the Krakoa era – the fine print of just how things work now. I will give the book this – I enjoyed the character work.
CS: The characters were absolutely the strong point of the issue! Howard has a strong grasp on the character dynamics, and each has a distinct voice, all of which play off of each other nicely. I feel that Monet in particular was a standout, or “simply superior” as she’d put it, and her constant undercurrent of barely controlled frustration and impatience was generally entertaining, even as I wished the book itself would slow down. Warren had a couple of great moments as well, especially once the initial himbo layer dropped in the middle of a particularly unpleasant sales pitch. While I didn’t enjoy X-Men Red enough to keep reading it, Trinary seems like she’s a fun character too, and I’m excited to see if this book lets her shine — though hopefully with a little more grace than she was portrayed in this issue.
AB: Before we get into the ways this book didn’t quite work for us, a quick spoiler-free sum-up of what X-Corp appears to be all about. Warren and Monet have been put in charge of X-Corp – the mutant-owned company that served largely an embassy for mutants, whose purpose was made obsolete by Krakoa becoming a sovereign nation. Now, with Krakoa’s advancements in medical technology, and planned ventures into other fields, X-Corp has a lot more to offer the world – but it looks like the upper crust of human society don’t quite like the way mutants do business. Does that about sum it up, you think?
CS: That’s pretty much it! Where S.W.O.R.D. opened up with the team already established and operational, X-Corp takes the opposite approach, with Monet picking some new members to join herself and Warren on the company’s new board. While X-Corp itself has obviously been around for a while, the Krakoan incarnation is set up to play a big part in the new status quo, especially with their work on the world-changing drugs that the Hellfire Trading Corporation has been focused on over in Marauders. While Mutant culture doesn’t have much use for money these days, their global presence means that they’re very concerned with getting paid, and it looks like this is going to be their most effective way to do so.
Someone Didn’t Get the Memo
AB: Actually, that last bit is one of the things that confused me about the issue. As is brought up a few times in the issue, X-Corp doesn’t have a traditional business model – Krakoa threw the rule book right out the window. It’s got an infinite supply of resources, everything in Krakoa itself is freely available – as far as I can tell, there’s nothing the world has that mutants need, except, apparently, the one thing it can’t have: the respect (or at least comfortable diplomatic relationships) with humankind. That seems to be X-Corp’s real purpose to me, but if that’s what the book’s exploring, it’s all come out a bit muddled.
CS: I’ll admit, there is every possibility that I’m being more generous than is actually warranted right now! I suppose it’d be more accurate for me to say that we’ve been told this is how they’re going to get paid, as far back as Magneto’s speech in X-Men #4, but what we’ve seen so far is mostly just ways to show off, and flex mutantkind’s muscles on a global stage. I’m optimistic that we’ll get to see something more in line with what I was expecting around issue #3, since we’re in the unenviable position of having one issue before a line-wide crossover, and hopefully I won’t be eating my words come July.
AB: You know, now that you mention it, it does feel like part of the reason this issue felt like such a whirlwind is because it’s cramming a lot in before its Hellfire Gala tie-in. Pacing and presentation are two of my biggest quibbles with this first issue. It starts off gorgeously, as we’re introduced to yet another mutant island, and given a quick tour of its insides as part of a promotional video Angel and Monet are shooting. As soon as they’re done with that, though, both Monet and Angel begin a very hectic day, filled with multiple meetings, multiple dangers, and Multiple Men. It’s got the kind of pacing that might work for a more action heavy concept, but a lot of the ideas presented here are ones that need time to breathe – time we just do not get.
CS: When the book was announced, Howard said “you’ll know exactly why you’ve waited until now to see what they’re up to,” but I’m genuinely baffled as to why this needed to come out the month before the Gala, especially considering the fact that X-Corp has been a constant presence in the background from the start of the Krakoan era. Maybe the issue’s big reveal (and I’m being generous to call it that) will play a part next month, but right now I’m definitely just scratching my head. I think you’re right about the book trying to cram too much into one issue right now, though — I’m assuming a typical arc will have a more even blend of corporate shenanigans and superhero capers, but this issue felt like it had too much of both, and not enough of either. With luck, it’s just a problem with the timing of the book’s launch.
An Imperfect Launch
AB: Hopefully, though the pacing isn’t this book’s only problem. I hate to say it, but the art isn’t quite working for me. I love the environments Alberto Foche builds – X-Corp island is gorgeous, as are some of the other places we visit this issue – but the facial expressions of every character undercut the writing at almost every turn. We’re given simplistic, sweet expressions, which are adorable, but at odds with the characters the writing is building up. Moments that should land just don’t – and one of the big action sequences towards the end remains confusing despite multiple readings. Between Gho and Foche, we have art that’s gorgeous to look at but doesn’t do the storytelling any favors – did you have a similar experience?
CS: I’ll be honest, I cut the art a lot of slack, solely because they fixed Monet’s whitewashing in the initial previews, but I agree. Everyone seemed very babyfaced, especially Warren, who looks about a decade younger than he probably should. There were a handful of times where characters’ face shapes didn’t line up with how they were portrayed a few panels before, as well, and while I understand what happened in the climax, I’m confused as to how it happened. While I largely enjoyed the coloring, there were certain effects that were so out of place that they drew my attention away from where it should have been.
AB: I think you’ve hit on what the biggest problem here is – for a first issue, there’s very little clarity on just where one’s attention should be, and the book doesn’t make it any easier on itself. It goes out of its way to cut across multiple regions to give it an international feel without actually doing anything with the settings. It establishes multiple time zones but doesn’t pay any real attention to them, which is why we have brilliant daylight in Brazil when we’re told it’s 9 PM there. We either have two villains, one weak villain, or no villain at all aside from the vague concept of super rich humans, and no clear idea of what X-Corp’s actual goals are, capped off with an underwhelming reveal. I don’t know if X-Corp knows what story it’s trying to tell – but I will admit that there are some really interesting ideas seeded in, ones I hope will grow in the issues to come.
CS: I know I’ve already compared this opening issue to S.W.O.R.D.’s, but I’m still struck by just how poor it looks in comparison. That was a book with a clear mission statement, even though it had characters I largely wasn’t interested in at the time, while X-Corp has one of my all-time favorite characters, but doesn’t seem to know what it wants to do with her. Both debuted one month before a tie-in, as well, so I’m not entirely sure that’s the problem. I want this book to wow me, and I’m just hoping it manages to sooner, rather than later.
Mutant Memos
- Krakoan reads: Hell Fire Gala
- “Beto” was looking kind of funky – he’s still my bet for the final member of the board.
- Corporate leaders who transform into more dangerous forms – how long d’you think before Dario Agger, Roxxon CEO shows up?
- “Imagine how rich we’d be if we didn’t have to buy what was owed to us” is a hell of a line.
Armaan is obsessed with the way stories are told. From video games to theater, TTRPGs to comics, he has written for, and about, them all. He will not stop, actually; believe us, we've tried.
Lex Smith
Lex Smith is probably tired right now. They're definitely trying not to think about everything they have to write! When they're not staring at a blank Word document, odds are they're tweeting, playing Pokémon or wondering how they ended up with such a smart-ass kid.
