Hello again folks! This month, my eye was caught by the first issue of the new miniseries from Joe Casey and Steve Rude, X-Men: Children of the Atom. I was going to wait until I had the entire series in my hands before I made comments, but this first issue just struck me so much, I wanted to comment on it now, while all the thoughts were still fresh in my head.
First off, the art is sheer beauty. Some may say it's not up to par for Rude's usual work, but I believe he used a bit more stylized lines, to give this a bit of a Kirbyish feel, harkening back to his run on the X-Men. He doers some excellent and interesting panel layouts, and his Jailbait Jean is just gorgeous. Er, I mean, is just so cute!
Casey's writing is also first rate. I've heard a lot of comments that the anti-mutant angst stuff is over done, but I personally feel it's just right, and really sets the tone for the series. All the characters behave as we expect them to, which we haven't seen in awhile. One of the more interesting things he did was to the young Beast, Hank McCoy, whom we've known is a football superstar at this time, but Casey has him hiding his vast intelligence, which is an interesting twist on a mutant hiding their powers. He didn't hide them, and in fact, was virtually worshipped because of them. What he hid was his natural abilities.
Ah, but you didn't think I would simply praise an x-title, would you? Don't worry, I got bad things to say.
Plain, simple, and to the point: this book was a continuity nightmare.
Casey made comments that he was going to throw out the Origins of the X-Men backups that ran back in the 50-60 issues of the series. (If I got that wrong, I apologize to Joe) I never thought that what he gave us would be this.
Anti-mutant hysteria in a world which has canonically been shown to not know what mutants are until AFTER Magneto's attack in X-Men #1? Bobby Drake (from Long Island), Hank McCoy (from Iowa), and Scott Summers (from Nebraska) all attending the same school? Bobby's immunity to cold suddenly disappearing? Scott no longer in the clutches of Mister Sinister when Xavier comes looking for him?
Another complaint I've seen is this can't be pinned down to any one time period. There are elements of the 80s and 90s in there. I have no problem with this. It gives the past of the Marvel Universe a timeless quality, and doesn't pin it down to one particular era. You could pick this up in ten to twenty years, and it will still make sense, and not be outdated. This was a wise choice on Casey's part, and Rude probably just wanted to have some fun and draw some little easter eggs for the fans to find. Like two particular FBI agents that should seem familiar to people.
This is a well-written story, with gorgeous artwork, and I highly recommend it. But be warned: If you are a continuity buff, and hates needless retcons and errors, stay far away from this book. I've been very tempted to take a big black marker, and write What if...? on the front page, to make my brain feel better. It would have been the cover, but it's lovely painted artwork by Rude, and I couldn't mar that. I'm hoping that Casey will find some way to explain all these things in future issues. I just don't see why it was necessary to throw out these origins, when they worked fine, even in the context of today.
So, in short, enjoy the book for what it is, and don't think too much about it.
