Sometimes, It Just Seems Criminal That Carey's No Main X-Writer
The aftermath of the Age of X is here, and Mike Carey makes good on his promise that the Age of X would have consequences as he sets up the next chapter of his X-Men Legacy run.
With the way Carey has the characters handle the fallout, it very nearly makes the aftermath the best part of the entire Age fo X story. Everything about it comes off as intelligent and genuine. Having Emma Frost and the Stepford Cuckoos alter people's memories of the alternate timeline is an excellent way of explaining why some characters will walk away from this story without any real effects, besides the obvious reason that the writers who handle those characters have no interest in pursuing it. So many characters having their memories of Age of X wiped is a little disappointing but also understandable since there are only so many characters that Carey can write.
Frenzy is obviously one of Carey's new pet projects. He is off to a great start with her here as Age of X really shined a new light on the character. Her talk with Cyclops in this issue sets up her new status quo well, showing her stubborn nature and positioning her for some great new developments. This is probably the most interesting the character has ever been.
Legion is Carey's other new pet project and much more of a challenge. With Legion's mental problems and the ridiculous variety of powers at his disposal, he's really not a character very well suited to being a main player. Carey seems to have some ideas on working around that, but it remains to be seen how it will work out.
Rogue remains a central figure in this series, and Carey dives into the old Gambit/Rogue/Magneto love triangle that fans either love or hate. Rogue's scenes with both parties are handled very well with each making their own unique cases for her affections. There is something creepy and inappropriate about Rogue and Magneto, but to be fair, that is most likely the perverse appeal of the relationship. Rogue and Gambit is a different story. To be honest, the fire of their relationship fizzled out years ago as you can really only play the forbidden fruit angle for so long. Now, it exists mostly on nostalgia, and Gambit's commitment to it has stripped him of all rights to call himself a scoundrel. So while I definitely see interesting things that Carey can do here, my interest in seeing it play out is not very high.
A few other little nuggets of gold are in this issue as well. Whether Carey intends to use the character much or not, he has successfully salvaged Chamber from deep, dark hole he had been dragged down since M-Day, essentially wiping it all away. Hellion continues his background development as a character and further proves that the New X-Men really deserve to get their title back. For one page, Pixie is the least annoying and most enjoyable she has probably every been. And we find out who Revenant is, which leads to the series' next big story.
The art is good but not great. For the most part, it serves the story well. There are just some pages and scenes where it becomes distracting or unappealing. The page where Cannonball is having his telepathic treatment is a bit ugly with the coloring and something strange with his hair. The scene with Magneto and Rogue has something really weird going on with Magneto's lower lip, which kind of seems to disappear.
X-Men Legacy really is an anomaly of comics. It is a series with no discernible that not only manages to be a success but manages to consistently reinvent itself without missing a beat. It is basically Mike Carey telling whatever X-Men stories he feels like with whatever characters he can get his hands on, and miraculously, that works.
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