Broken Frontier

The X-Men go down to Chaparanga to stop Subject X before he gets off world.

The fact that the sentence above almost completely summarizes the comic book at hand is a huge problem. I love Warren Ellis, his twisted futuristic mind finds ways to make my scream with glee every time I read something he writes. Even this time there were little touches like Emma and Scott’s new language protocol or the idea of a little girl performing a cannonball special with Wolverine. Those little things are what makes reading his books such a delight.

However, his best work, like say Planetary, wastes not one page, not one panel to tell the story of the issue and to fill in the larger puzzle of the series as a whole. Here there are splash pages that don’t progress the story in any shape manner or form. To add insult to injury, there isn’t much that happens. This could have easily been the front half, maybe even the front quarter of a much better comic book. Given that almost nothing happened in the last issue other than scenery and status quo set up; one wonders, is Mr. Ellis writing to the trade? Does his mind even think that way?

What is here is compelling enough and will be sure to get the fans talking about his great ideas. There are great ideas. A graveyard of space ships on Earth that has lead to a criminal’s wildest dream about escape from the law and given the poor people of the local community a vast resource for stupefying wealth. These are worthy of the master’s time. I just wish it didn’t feel like it was just getting started when I get to the words "to be continued..."

The characterization seems spot on though. Gone is the weirdness of the last issue. Everyone seems like themselves again. The only slight quibble is how Scott can be a surfer dude in Uncanny, a ruthless warlord in Cable and X-Force, and the pensive realist here, it is unnerving and just points to the lack of strong editorial control at the two big shared universes at the moment. The writers are running the houses and while that makes for awesome stories, it makes the cohesiveness of the brand suffer.

Bianchi has a wonderful style. He has a great sense of design and his layouts are as close to groundbreaking as one will find in modern comics. The ink washes make for a unique look. It’s always the coloring that disappoints though. Oh, I don’t want the bright pop of a Top Cow production, but some vibrancy would be appreciated. Peruzzi just finds a way to make all the dynamics of the line work drab and muddy.

This is an enjoyable read. It is as it has been the best of the X-Titles that don’t have a team lead by Madrox. However, it is seriously flawed in a lot of the ways that most modern mainstream comics are.