DATELINE: SAN FRANCISCO! ALIENS HAVE INVADED THE CITY BY THE BAY! THANKFULLY, THE X-MEN ARE ON THE WAY! Writer Jed MacKay, artist Ryan Stegman, inker JP Mayer, colorist Marte Gracia and letterer Clayton Cowles take us into the belly of the beast as things are more than what they seem in X-Men #2!
Tony Thornley: Hey, Austin, welcome in! You ready to report on the ground level of an alien invasion?
Austin Gorton: The X-Men, aliens, San Francisco, reality-altering mutants … this all feels remarkably familiar, doesn’t it? But then again, I guess that’s the point these days, isn’t it? Anyways, this isn’t the worst “From the Ashes” comic I read this week. Which is more of an indictment of that comic than this one, which I mostly enjoyed for its basic competency. Anyways, let’s get to it!
Save Me, San Francisco
Tony: Poor San Francisco.
Aside from New York, I feel like the city by the bay has been beat up way more than any other city in the Marvel Universe. So we open with an alien invasion hitting San Francisco, and the X-Men en route.
Now this issue is more or less an all-action issue. We’ll get into some of the finer points in a second, but I do like that. One of the biggest complaints about MacKay’s initial Avengers stories were how slow they were. The first full arc was an action story but it was strangely structured with the team split up and the story bouncing around so much that it was incredibly decompressed.
Not so here.
Immediately, Cyclops leads the team into an incredibly difficult situation, and that fuels the entire plot of the issue. I also love the acknowledgement of the X-Men’s history with SF, and how “they were good to us, let’s be good to them.”
Austin: San Francisco is more or less the X-Men’s second home at this point, at least in terms of number of issues set there vs. other locales, so that was a much appreciated (and largely effortless) nod to continuity there.
But yeah, while I have my quibbles with X-Men #2, this reads much better than, say, MacKay’s Avengers #2 did. I hesitate to call it not decompressed (compressed?), but it’s definitely a different beast. It’s action-forward, but the majority of the team (the field team, at least) is in action, working together across smaller subgroups toward a shared outcome. It tells a complete story, in as much as the immediate threat is raised and addressed by the end of the issue. And it furthers the overarching plot of the series beyond just this issue by introducing a mystery that may or may not tie in to similar questions raised in the previous issue.
Tony: I think my biggest problem with this issue is that, being such an action-forward issue, there’s no time for the strengths of both the X-Men franchise and MacKay’s writing to shine through. MacKay gained notoriety by being a GOOD character writer. I never read MacKay comics for the plot, I read them for just how damn good he was at writing human characters in a fantastical world.
That said, I think there are some good character moments here. I like MacKay’s take on Quentin Quire, who has emerged from ALL of his Krakoan trauma quite a bit more noble. He’s clinging heavily to his mutant identity, sure, but considering all he went through between X-Force #1 and Wolverine #50, can you blame him?
Austin: Quentin giving grief about Cyclops being insincere in his broadcast to the people of San Francisco is a great bit of character writing. On the surface, it’s typical Quentin Quire snarking at the leader. Yet at the same time, he doesn’t like the idea of lying to the bystanders. That’s clever stuff.
Tony: Cyclops generally playing to his strengths was great, too. He was the one who said their priority is the recently activated mutant, but they also need to do the right thing. THAT is the Cyclops I know and love. (That said, the line about Scott fantasizing about women with big swords as a teenager fell flat.)
Austin: That line was awful. Snapped me right out of the story. Aside from the fact that it’s not really the kind of thing the famously-reserved-as-a-teen Cyclops would think (It sounds more like something Quentin would say), it’s also a little creepy simply because at least one of the women in question (Illyana) is someone Cyclops has known since she was 7-slash-14. It just smacks of “I’ve got a cool line and I’m going to use it whether it makes sense for the character saying it or not!”
Tony: Magik and Psylocke are both kind of set dressing still, but I’m seeing potential for growth for them both. And as much as I like the cast, it feels like the cast for the B-book, not the cast for the flagship. There’s like … one face missing that would make it feel like the flagship, and I can’t totally put my finger on who. It couldn’t be Colossus, he’d be redundant with Juggernaut. Is there anyone from the Blue & Gold era that’s lacking? Or maybe someone like Cannonball?
Man, the New Mutants are just completely missing in this era, aren’t they?
Austin: Aside from Illyana (who’s pretty much a force in her own right by now), they really are.
I get what you’re saying about the cast. In this particular issue, I don’t think it helps that Beast and Magneto only appear in the last page. A book led by Cyclops, Magik and Magneto could feel like an A-book, but so far Magneto is being relegated to the “hangs back/Professor X” role.
Cain Marko, Human Bullet
Tony: With all of that though, I had a LOT of fun with this issue. The highlight BY FAR was Quentin, Idie and Cain all going full geek and turning Juggernaut into the ordnance within a railgun. And my hell, that was fun.
That whole sequence is where Stegman, Mayer and Gracia shone. It was energetic, it was funny and the whole two-page spread of Juggernaut getting launched through the sky was fantastic.
Austin: That Juggernaut spread is utterly gorgeous. The perspective, the detail around Juggernaut’s eye, just strong work all around.
Tony: The tears streaming out of his eyes made me laugh.
Austin: Aside from being a fun bit, Juggernaut getting used as a bullet shot by the Marauder is just one example of what we might have called a pseudo-mutant circuit a few months ago. We also get Magik using something called the X-Drive to teleport the Marauder from Alaska to San Fran. At the end of the issue, the X-Men use a telepathic conference call to complete their mission (in a way that both hoodwinks the readers as well as the bystanders).
None of this is purely “mutant circuit” stuff — for one thing, it involves a lot more tech — but the spirit is something akin to the way Chris Claremont would come up with novel ways for characters to use their powers, alone or in concert with others.
Tony: Yeah, I did like that. It also played with the idea that our brain works faster than our voices and bodies do. So an entire plan could be formulated in a single panel.
These are all great examples of how there is GOOD stuff here. It’s just not totally coming together.
What’s the deal?!
Tony: So the actual plot of the issue is revealed in a slightly obvious but still impactful twist. There is no alien invasion. The mutant the X-Men are rescuing — Ben — is a reality warper that brought the alien armada to life.
I said it last issue, and I thought it about Uncanny X-Men #1. The mystery of this mass mutant activation — in adults in particular — is definitely the most interesting thing about “From the Ashes” to date. Uncanny and Exceptional both look to be including that too, and I want more of it as quickly as possible. Sure, do another action-heavy issue or three to get readers hooked, whatever. This, though, is the bread and butter that will keep me coming back.
Austin: It’s another bit of — I hesitate to say “strong” — competent writing from MacKay. Tying the action that dominates the issue into the larger mystery of the nascent series helps this feel more like a complete issue. We also get a mention of the “Iron Night.” This is presumably the event that led to this group of X-Men setting up shop in Alaska in the first place. Again, this isn’t groundbreaking stuff, but it helps this be more than just a fun punch-’em-up.
That said, in the same way that X-Factor #1 is giving me “set up the premise” fatigue, I’m also starting to feel “in media res mystery” fatigue from all the “something happened in the timeskip but we’re not going to tell you about it” business. I’m really hoping that the whole “adult mutants are activating” thing is a connective strand across at least some of the titles, both because all these books (So. Many. Books.) need some narrative threads to connect them, and because I can only take so many mysteries at one time.
Tony: At least in this series it’s not totally beating us over the head with WHAT HAPPENED IN THE TIME JUMP. There’s clearly a few things that happened, and some of it is getting fleshed out, while other bits seem to be a long-term mystery.
Austin: This is, ultimately, an exceedingly competent comic book. Like, objectively, it’s not doing anything all that groundbreaking or revelatory. It’s just that we’ve had so many sub-competent issues of late that it feels like a bigger deal that it just manages to get out there and do its thing without tripping over itself.
Tony: Despite its flaws, I’m still digging this series a lot. I have more of a reason to come back to this issue after last. So let’s see how it continues to grow.
X-Traneous Thoughts
- I haven’t run the numbers on this, but if Westchester is #1 and San Francisco #2, I think Krakoa would be #3 and the Outback #4, if we’re talking strictly about issues with “X-Men” in the title.
- Know who would be a GREAT fit for this team? Iceman. Or Cannonball. Bishop, too. (We have some options, people!)
- Mutant powers activating in adulthood vs. puberty is definitely unusual, but it’s not unheard of — Polaris’ mutation, for example, didn’t manifest till she was an adult.
Buy X-Men #2 here. (Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate, ComicsXF may earn from qualifying purchases.)
Tony Thornley is a geek dad, blogger, Spider-Man and Superman aficionado, X-Men guru, autism daddy, amateur novelist, and all around awesome guy. He’s also very humble.
Austin Gorton also reviews older issues of X-Men at the Real Gentlemen of Leisure website, co-hosts the A Very Special episode podcast, and likes Star Wars. He lives outside Minneapolis, where sometimes, it is not cold. Follow him on Twitter @AustinGorton
