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Someday, I will be hunted down by some songwriter whos
tune I mangle for a witty title. Until that day, I make profuse
apologies to Creedence Clearwater Revival.
If you have been following the X-Verse mess lately, youre
aware of X-Men: Black Sun, or as my friends and I have taken
to calling it, "BS". Which is a fairly accurate description of the
series.
BS was meant to be a celebration/event of the All-New All-
Different X-Mens 25th anniversary. And on that level, I
suppose it succeeded. It had the obligatory fight between the
originals (what is left of them) and the All-New team from Giant-
Size X-Men #1/Uncanny #94.
More importantly it seems, this was also used to bring back
the name of Magik. This kind of undermines the whole
celebration since Magik was never an X-Man. Oh, and if
youre worried about spoilers, I suggest you stop reading now,
since eventually I shall reveal who Magik is.
Claremont wrote the first and final issues of this miniseries,
and while the storyline itself may be highly contrived, it is a
definite improvement over the core books. Scary, huh? The
other three books were just plotted by him, with scripts by Len
Wein, Roy Thomas, and Louise Simonson. All fair choices for
the event, due to high involvement with the X-Characters over
the years. Wein wrote Giant Size X-Men, Thomas handled the
original X-Men during the late 60s, and Simonson with the
New Mutants and X-Factor.
The art is passable as well. Ive come to expect sub par art
on events like this, which is rather sad. The art probably would
have fared better if it had not been rendered in really bright
colours. Kind of kills the mood for a story with demons running
around.
Now for the whole point of the miniseries. The return of
Magik. How did they handle it? Rather well, Id say. They
gave ample hints as to the characters true identity, all leading up
to the big revelation that Magik...is not Illyana.
Yup, you heard it here last. Magik is Amanda Sefton,
Nightcrawlers occasional girlfriend, who was last seen running
the show in Limbo, and wielding Magiks soulsword. So the
revelation all came together rather well.
All in all, not a horrid series. Not a great one either.
Perfectly OK to skip this one. Especially since each of the three
middle issues generally have the same plot. Demons attack
original member of the X-Men, Magik shows up to try and stop
them, fails, moves on to her next target.
There were also some major continuity problems with this
story, the largest of which being when the heck it took place.
The editor finally revealed online that it took place prior to X-
Men vol. 2, #100, for anyone who is interested and/or confused.
This is something that should have been mentioned in the book
itself, rather than an online revelation, reaching only a small
number of fans.
Next month, I will either be overjoyed at the return of Rachel
Summers over in Cable (Buy this book! Its got the same
addictive chemicals in Ellis comics, and no Liefeld art!), or
droning on about the recent editorial changes at Marvel.
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