The Uncanny X-Men #11 review I want to write (and you want to read) boasts that Brian Michael Bendis' and Frazer Irving's most recent collaboration on the mutants' flagship title lives up to the expectations set by their earlier collaboration on the series. Unfortunately for all of us, upon closing the last page of this middling installment into an otherwise excellent series, we know that this won't be that kind of Uncanny X-Men #11 review. Though Bendis and Irving are still doing competent work, their marriage here falls short of the bliss we experienced during their previous union on the series, which (for those of you just coming on now) concerned an epic fight against Dormamu and his army of demons in Limbo.
Though Uncanny X-Men #11 reviews a much larger cast of characters from Bendis, his earlier work proves that he's infinitely better operating on smaller scales, as the characterizations he offered during the Limbo arc represented the best in his entire career. This excellence gave Irving the opportunity to pencil up some of the most powerful, iconic panels I can recall in recent memory. In comparison, Uncanny X-Men #11 feels at its worst scattershot and pointless, and at its best a clunky prologue to something far more promising paved with good intentions and the rare great moment. Even more disappointing, especially considering he's one of my favorite pencilers of all time, Irving proves that he's too far out of his comfort zone, if not his depth, here.
An Uncanny X-Men #11 review that begins like this one may not make it sound like there's anything to like about this issue, but there's actually quite a bit. It is a joy to watch Bendis and Irving juggle a crowded tableau overstuffed with story and character -- even if they don't always do so perfectly -- and watching both of them take a break from the bloat to zero-in magnificently on a smaller, more specific moment reminds us why they're working together on the flagship book, and why Brian Michael Bendis was given the keys to the franchise. Mystique-Dazzler's adventure in Madripoor offers an excellent diversion, and the devilishly glee on her face when she reports in to Maria Hill made me realize that I've never seen Irving draw anyone really smiling like this before, and that he depicts happiness without falling into the chibi-nadir of pencilers like series-regular Chris Bachalo.
Though the quick foray into Madripoor was a lovely B-plot for Uncanny X-Men #11, if a little on-the-nose after its introduction from Maria Hill ("Where's Mystique?! Where's Dazzler?!" she asks in rapid succession for the first-time ever), Brian Michael Bendis' main storyline left a little much to be desired. That isn't to say that it wasn't effectively paced and choreographed (the action in this series, in particular the battle stagings, are consistently sublime), but rather that we've already seen this villain before (and better) when his name was Bastion. So moments wherein Magneto and the Cuckoos reveal that he's not quite man and not quite machine are neither shocking nor terrifying. We already know that this is a fight that the mutants have been winning for the last fifty years.
All in all, I'm ready for Battle of the Atom to get started, as the quality of otherwise terrific books like Uncanny X-Men always goes down as the story approaches the blockbuster event. And though it's important to point out that this book's writer could give a masterclass in stalling (and through this issue, pretty much does), comics are getting expensive. Even if writers know when they're stalling, audiences are always paying the same price. But perhaps Fabio's big moment in the fight against a sentinel of terrifying, inconsistent strength is worth the cost.
Grade: B-
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