X-Men #32 Review
X-Men #32 Review
Overview:
The team learns more about proto-mutants and disagreements threaten to break the team apart.
The Good:
The story picks up exactly where the last issue starts, and the team is able to capture the proto-mutant, Ister. As far as the story goes, it is getting better as the action picks up and exposition lessens, or at least becomes less boring. One of the best things about the issue is the tension between Storm and Colossus. Storm is well known as a great leader and Colossus usually is more of the follower type, but here (and since he became Juggernaut) Colossus is really challenging her authority. It really demonstrates that not all mutants on Utopia like Cyclops’ leadership style.
The writing by Brian Wood is top notch. Most, if not all of the dialogue, is exactly what is needed to convey the message and doesn’t get bogged down too much with details and unnecessary dialogue.
The art by David Lopez with Rachelle Rosenberg is once again fantastic and goes with the story perfectly. One part that really sticks out is the way Pixie is drawn; she is a little more cartoony than the others, mostly her face and it has a slightly more manga-y style than the others and it helps her stand out and it is neat really works, most of it comes from her all black eyes.
The Bad:
Domino doesn’t do much which points out a problem that has plagues the series since Regenesis, character balance. The issues have a tendency to not really feature a character or two and it is a little annoying when it is Domino or Pixie because you can pick up most any Blue Team X-Book and find Colossus, Storm or Psylocke so if they had less panel time here it would not be a bad thing.
The villain’s motives are still unclear, completely, while this isn’t the worst thing, it is getting a bit late in the story to not have any hint of his motivations.
Verdict:
Overall a great issue that is really picking up and rapidly becoming one of the best Blue Team X-Books; Wood and Lopez make a great team and deliver a great story. While there are a few problems none of it really makes the book suck and if it can keep up the pace it will be a great book, the biggest problem is the 3.99 price tag.
4 out of 5
