In this review of X-Men #2, Scott Summer’s X-Men team undertakes a mission to find an emerging mutant and stop an alien invasion all at the same time. When you have two of the most dangerous women carrying enormous swords by your side and air support from the human wrecking ball, it is just Tuesday.
Title: X-Men #2
Writer: Jed MacKay
Art and Main Cover: Ryan Stegman
Color Artist: Marte Gracia & Fer Sifuentes-Sujo
Variant Covers: David Nakayama, J. Scott Campbell, Olivier Vantine, Ruarí Coleman, Taurin Clarke
Release Date: August 14, 2024
Backup Writer: Ryan North
Art: Javier Garrón
Color Artist: Edgar Delgado
This review contains spoilers
X-Men #2 — The Story
X-Men #2 begins in San Francisco, where an old social worker finds Ben. He claims to be a alien abduction survivor and now he fears they are returning for him. His eyes glow and an energy is discharged.
The Marauder streaks into the San Francisco sky already occupied by thousands of invading vessels. Scott immediately separates the team, Psylocke and Magic will accompany him to the surface to find the mutant while Kid Omega, Juggernaut and Temper will handle the invaders from the sky. They will communicate via psychic comma. Cyclops team touches down and starts to fight the aliens on the ground while the others provide air support which includes launching Juggernaut into the alien ships.
During the engagement, Cyclops orders Psylocke to read the alien’s minds. He is unable to identify their species. She discovers that they have no thoughts, they are not real but projections. The ships attacking are also not real.
Soon Scott and the others discover Ben. He is actually manifesting these aliens from his mind, he is the mutant they are looking for. Like the others from the first issue, Ben’s powers just manifested today and he is an adult. Ben does not believe it when Scott says he is a mutant and he seemingly self-destructs.
As X-Men #2 ends, we learn that with the help of Kid Omega and Magic, Ben did not die. He was transported to the X-Men’s Alaska base to be cared for and studied by Hank and Magneto.
Analysis
The art in X-Men #2 is a standard super hero fair that Marvel typically puts out. There is not much of a design change of the characters with this new start except for a couple of characters. Magneto is back to his magenta color scheme, ditching the whites he wore on Krakoa. Here is seen in a suit with his helmet sitting in a throne. In essence he looks like an old school Charles Xavier except that his throne floats, magnetism and his helmet. Scott is seen in a hood-less visor with a yellow and blue suit sporting booties instead of boots and entirely too much yellow in the costume.
Making Magneto look like Xavier is not a good look for him. Personality wise at least from the first issue, he is shown to be malevolent, taking credit for the growth in the X-Men. They would not be the mutants they are today if not for their fights with him and he thinks that the X-Men should be thanking him for it.
Scott also looks entirely too young. Beast describes him as being one of the most brilliant combat leaders he has had the pleasure of knowing. He sure does not dress like that. From his questionable footwear to his eye numbing costume, he looks like a Halloween character instead of a combat tactician. Batman would mop the floor with him. Trying to promote Cyclops to Batman genius is a mistake for this character.
I do not have much of a history with Temper but her design is interesting. She has one blue eye and one red eye probably signifying her powers over both ice and fire. She is a combination of Pyro and Iceman in one character. Magic is her usual bad ass combatant. A mutant and sorcerer and one of my favorite mutant characters for both her story and look. Unfortunately even her presence does not help this story.
X-Men #2 is continuing the discovery of adults suddenly exhibiting mutant abilities and trying to discover why this is happening. With this particular mutant, Ben just creates an elaborate illusion that the X-Men have to fight through to get to him. This is in my opinion lazy storytelling. The X-Men have so many options to explore that they decide. To focus on a scared man who as his power generates illusion. This looks like the old Danger Room and so unoriginal and disappointing to read.
There are so many themes that these stories can tackle like the reintegration of the mutants into society after the fall of Krakoa. Admittedly, this is an old theme but so relevant in today’s climate. It just shows that the big two are too established now being both entertainment empires including games, movies, books in addition to comics, I feel they have lost their way in being a commentary on society and pushing the envelope on storytelling. True it is not always a good idea to push that envelope but these creators have a voice, let them speak and stop putting out quantity over quality.
This is currently, I think, the fourth team in this new era of X-Men comics, not including the several individual character titles that make up the mutant universe. Even three of the four are all labeled X-Men, from no X-Men we have now reached three teams called X-Men, not including X-factor and I presume X-Force, which might be needed to bring in Logan on his solo outing.
Unfortunately, this is cultural saturation and I fear that all of these fresh starts are a result of the fatigue that results in trying to follow a story through five or more books. Being a casual comic fan who is just in it for the stories, comics have become a rich person’s pastime and I know that is not the intention of this industry or its power. Please return to telling us stories that truly matter and make a difference in the world.
Final Thoughts
Is the Marvel Cinematic Universe forcing the Marvel comics universe to be a popularity contest? With talk of the X-Men entering the shared movie universe is Marvel hyping this by flooding the market with mutant books. Too much of a good thing becomes a dilution of the property as the studio executives have discovered in reducing the number of movies released each year. I hope the comic publishing arm will look at cinematic universe for more than their logo design.
Marvel Comics provided The Comic Book Spot with an advance copy of X-Men #2 for review purposes. Find more reviews here. If you would like to buy a copy of this title, and help support the Comic Book Spot at the same time, consider purchasing this book at Amazon, My Comic Shop, or Things From Another World.
