Hey, sorry for the delay (again) folks, but I just got back from c2e2 in Chicago, aka, NYCC’s Midwestern sister convention! I had a delightful time watching Chip Zdarsky hug/tackle people and scored some neat swag, but have very little to report aside from thinking that title for that 3rd Frank Miller Dark Knight book is a BAD idea. I do have plentiful comics to review though, so you can settle for that and what typos are in said reviews.
All New X-Men #40
Brian Michael Bendis/Mahmud Asrar/Rain Beredo
Marvel $3.99
Even with the c2e2 delay, there’s very little chance I’ll be spoiling anything for anyone with this issue of All New X-men. Everyone from your racist high school friend on Facebook to Playboy has chimed in on the issue, and I’m going to do the same, despite dropping the title several issues ago.
When then leaked pages from this issue first hit the internet, I have to admit, I was slightly concerned about the content. Brian Michael Bendis is a plenty nice guy, but he’s also a straight white guy, and the sort of story requires a certain amount of finesse and maybe even some life experience to pull off correctly. However, once I actual read the comic and saw that the leaked images left out some important pages and panels, I was quite pleased with what had gone down.
All New X-men #40 is the story of Jean Grey confronting Bobby Drake about his sexuality, which means 2 teenagers from the 1960s talking about sexual preference in the modern world. While the conversation is a tad problematic, not to mention complicated in that special sort of X-men way, it’s actually fine being so problematic in some aspects. Not everyone coming to terms with their own sexuality is a simple moment in their life, as it can be quite difficult for several reasons, and this comic is a necessary representation of that. Which is great, because even though these 2 characters are time traveling teenagers, it makes the scene and the character feel all the more realistic. It’s representation without a sugar coating, which really show just how good of a writer Brian Michael Bendis is.
Art wise, I’m really not feeling Mamhmud Asrar‘s work this issue. He’s far from bad, but his facial expressions and head shapes don’t work for me. There’s a lot of talking head panels here, and sadly instead of kids, the X-men look more like Mr Potato toys on super heroes bodies, and some odd panel choices kill an attempted joke halfway through the issue. Asrar also seems to be struggling in body language, and the constant recycling of panels doesn’t help either. Rain Beredo‘s coloring is solid though, giving the book a vibrant look that helps make looking at the dull, lifeless panels less painful. I feel bad ragging on Asrar’s art, and I know following a lengthy run by Stuart Immonen is no easy task, but this is honestly one of the less impressive looking Marvel books I’ve read in quite some time.
All New X-men #40 is a book that succeeds on dialogue alone, and manages to do a lot in 20 pages. The Jean Grey/Bobby Drake conversation is great, some lesser mutant make a welcomed appearance, and apparently Angel has glow wings or something. I guess that was a thing that happened during Apocalypse Siege Per The Black Vortex or something. Either way, while it may be a tad confusing for those not hype to the events in the last 40 issue of ANXM, it’s still a comic worth looking at just for the Iceman stuff alone. It’s a different take on comics dealing with sexuality, but an important one none the less.
