Uncanny X-Men #17
Publisher: Marvel
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Art: Chris Bachalo
Since its launch last year, I always considered Brian Michael Bendis’ Uncanny X-Men as the red-headed stepchild of the X-Men franchise. For good reason, too. Each of the major X-Books has a major gimmick: All-New X-Men brings Stan Lee’s original five X-Men to the present. X-Men is an all-female team. Amazing X-Men, up front, concerns the revival of Nightcrawler. Wolverine and the X-Men is about the new Jean Grey school. Uncanny X-Men has the unfortunate distinction of being the only book of these to feature brand-new characters, the newest Mutants in the Marvel Universe. Over the last year, Brian Michael Bendis has tried to develop these characters into something This month, Majik sends the kids to Tabula Rasa, the evolved bubble in the middle of nowhere.
Chris Bachalo’s art is as vague and strange as ever, though. Every other page is slanted, in a semi Dutch angle. When William Doizier used these in the 1966 Batman television show, they were to show the villains– each had their own camera angle. It seems that Bachalo was on a mission to show off as much negative space on the page as humanly possible.
I’ve pointed it out before in my All-New X-Men reviews, but it’s worth saying again: Bendis’ dialogue is as razor-sharp and tight as we’ve come to expect from his books featuring teenagers. It is a surprise that these are his first trips to the X-books, because he’s such a natural. This dialogue might come across as sort of childish and strange when coming out of say, Hawkeye and Spider-Woman in the pages of an Avengers issue, but it hits a perfect well done tone.
The problem with the whole run, and in turn #17, is that I can’t find anything to connect to in Bendis’ new mutants. Not the kid who can spawn golden balls from his body or the triplets who can read minds. These new creations aren’t bad, per se. But it’s hard for me to care about them when they’re too busy spouting one-liners to grow. Maybe I need to skim the back issues again. Either way, Bendis needs to let go of the trigger a little and let these kids breathe.
