Broken Frontier

An exploration of the X-Men’s past brings forth some shocking revelations about the lengths Charles Xavier will go to preserve his mutant agenda.

An important video made long ago by Dr. Moira MacTaggert has been delivered to Westchester to the peril of an X-Man. Finally, that video (or what is left of it) gets viewed by Wolverine, Beast and Nightcrawler. What unfolds before them is disturbing. During its infancy as a team, the X-Men found themselves on an assignment that went wrong. Xavier’s mental connection with Marvel Girl was cut off, and the team was stuck with no way home…and only Cerebro to tell Xavier whether or not they were still alive. In his haste to save them, drastic measures had to be taken; a rescue team of unproven mutants had to be assembled.

Brubaker begins on-going writing chores on Uncanny X-Men in just a few months. Once the anchor for practically the entire Marvel Universe, Uncanny has been on a rather lengthy run of mediocrity. The fallout from the House of M offers a plethora of new directions for the title, and whether Brubaker is able to break the mold and run with one of those more interesting directions remains to be seen. However, with Deadly Genesis, he has at least created something out of the ordinary by retrofitting X-lore with a dark secret Charles has kept hidden from his students’ memories since Giant-Sized X-Men #1. This is something I’ve learned by reading my fair share of Brubaker-penned books that the writer excels in.

The art is surprisingly consistent and strong on this book as well. Hairsine isn’t really known for expediency, and his pencils are often too heavily inked for my taste. He and Scott Hanna have officially broken that trend here. What I particularly enjoyed were the flashback panels showing the team in its original costumes, and Staples adds just the right colors for both the current and throwback pages. In the backup story, Woods’ art and Anderson’s colors blend almost seamlessly with those that Hairsine and company offer. That kind of consistency is to be commended.

While the X-Men are popular, I never really saw why. Perhaps that has something to do with coming into comics after the heyday of Chris Claremont and John Byrne, stories which I never got to read but I understand were defining in superhero comics. What came after has been (as the internet would tell) more miss than hit. Coming from a non-X-Fan: what these guys are cooking up with Deadly Genesis is one of those few and far between hits.