Open Mike Night: Uncanny X-Men (2016) #1/A-Force (2016) #1

Open Mike Night by Mike Maillaro and Mike Weaver

Uncanny X-Men (2016) #1

Written by: Cullen Bunn
Penciled by: Greg Land
Inked by: Jay Leisten
Colored by: Nolan Woodard
Lettered by: VC’s Joe Maramagna

Published by: Marvel
Cover Price: $3.99

Maillaro: For me, Uncanny X-Men should always be the flagship X-Men title.  I was a little surprised when I first saw the preview for the new version of Uncanny X-Men.  Magneto, Sabretooth, Psylocke, M, and Archangel as basically an X-Force team willing to do whatever it takes to protect the last vestiges of mutantkind.  Even with the top-shelf creative team of Cullen Bunn and Greg Land, it just didn’t feel to me like this book would ever be the banner waver for the X-Men line.  It seemed like that would more naturally belong to Extraordinary X-Men with characters like Storm, Iceman, Young Jean Grey, Nightcrawler, Magik, and Colossus running a new version of the Xavier Institute.

But after reading this issue, I may have to reevaluate my perspective of what Uncanny X-Men is.  I was genuinely surprised by how much I enjoyed this issue. I complain all the time about books that seem to have forgotten how to do a first issue.  Uncanny X-Men #1 is basically a textbook example of a good first issue of a team book.  Start with an action sequence, introduce every member of the team, give us a solid context on why they are together and what they are all about, and then end on a cliffhanger that helps set up future stories.  

Weaver: I don’t think I have the same kind of sentimentality for Uncanny as a title.  When I first got into X-Men, it was only one title, and I remember when the New Mutants came out, then X-Factor, adjectiveless, X-Force, and so on.  When X-Men was one title, it encompassed some line-ups and stories that were more gritty, like this one, particularly when Wolverine was involved.  Granted, not quite to this level, where there is a strong implication that at least Magneto is killing people (I don’t think anyone is confirmed as dead within the story...from the X-Men’s hand).

So with the Terrigen Mists affecting the globe, some mutants have turned to a form of cryogenics in order to wait out the poisonous mist.  These mutants were frozen/drugged/whatever voluntarily, but the X-Men release them because the company that was storing them was up to some shady side business, oh, and a belief that the mutants in question should basically man up and deal with the Mists rather than running.  I agree that this issue gives you a great first look at the team because the event lets you see their moral standings both as a group and individually while throwing around action and everyone’s powers being seen. Not much more I could ask for here.

Maillaro: Yeah, back in the day, Marvel teams tended to have a more variety of names.  X-Force, X-Force, Excalibur.  These days, they just call all their books X-Men with different adjectives.  Whether it makes perfect sense or not.  They are doing the same thing with the Avengers line, come to think about it. I sort of get it from a marketing standpoint, but it does sometimes make me forget which book is which.  

Another thing I really liked about this book was that they managed to make everything real accessible.  There was a lot going on here from a wide variety of books.  We find out about the Terrigen Mists (from Infinity/Inhumanity) and how that is causing difficulty for mutants.  We see the ramifications of Magneto’s attempts to save the world during Secret Wars having a huge impact on his well being. Sabretooth being “good” because of his inversion during Axis.  And I don’t quite know what happened to Archangel to turn him into basically a mindless drone.  It all worked well here with the reader getting enough information to understand what was going on, but never feeling overwhelmed.

Weaver: Yeah, I hope that the Archangel situation gets more clearly addressed, but I’m not opposed to how it was introduced even if it was never explained anywhere.  A teammate focused mystery plot is a good secondary plot to have in your back pocket.  See: Wolverine.

Actually, that’s the real interesting thing to me.  Every page, I was reminded of what made Wolverine a good character back in the day despite him not being here at all, or even mentioned.  This team basically takes the main traits of Wolverine and spreads them over the cast.  The Weapon X mindless killing machine, the wise-cracking physical combatant, the elements of “by any means necessary” that always got him in trouble with his teammates, and so on.  I think it’s a good pattern, and spreading it out means that you can focus on each individually more.

Maillaro: Yeah, since Wolverine’s death, Marvel has actually done a good job spreading him around a bit. Sabertooth carries on some aspects of him, X-23 others.  I didn’t think about it all that much reading it, but when you say it I can definitely see it here.  I loved that warm, friendly Sabretooth still comes off as scary. They had done a little of that with “inverted Carnage” during Axis, so I’m glad to see that continued here.

I also thought this issue opened up some interesting moral questions.  Actually, some of them are similar to season 3 of Agents of SHIELD.   Magneto seems to think that mutants “running away” from almost certain death is cowardly.  And he’s gathered a team that seems to be at least willing to go along with this. Putting more complex characters like M and Psylocke instead of outright evil characters on the team makes this a very interesting read to me.

Weaver: The discussion between Psylocke and Magneto at the end really highlights the complexity.  Psylocke isn’t here so much to be yay Magneto as she is suffering from extreme guilt over what happened to Archangel, whatever that was.  I don’t know a ton about M besides the first half dozen or so issues of Generation X, and this doesn’t give me a lot of her current psychology as she’s mostly just massively powerful person bragging about her awesomeness (which is what I’ve always seen the character as, so I’m not complaining).

Talking about it, I feel like they really pushed a ton into this issue, and it’s nice to see some people are still doing that for the first issue of a series.

Maillaro: I know a lot of people hate on Greg Land, but I’ve been a fan since Sojourn.  I really don’t see a lot of the criticisms people tend to have (including “he steals poses from pornos”).  I thought the art here was rock solid, I especially loved how he drew the team and the Dark Riders at the end.  I think I could easily go a 4.5 for the writing and a 5 for the art on this one.

Weaver: I really hate the “steals poses” complaint about basically anything, because there’s only so many ways a body can work.  We get a lot of flak for having superheroines in impossible poses, why not use actual people for reference.  Even if it’s actual people in porn.

I think I’m going to do just a bit of Land hating and drop it to a 4.5 all around.  He didn’t do anything wrong, but it didn’t blow me away.

A-Force (2016) #1

Written by: G. Willow Wilson
Art by: Jorge Molina
Colored by: Laura Martin
Lettered by: VC’s Cory Petit

Published by: Marvel
Cover Price: $3.99

Weaver: Singularity from Battleworld awakens in our world and seeks out the compatriots she had during the Secret Wars title while simultaneously running from some Antimatter thing.  She finds Captain Marvel and She-Hulk individually, neither of whom know who she is because she associated with a different reality version of each of them.  In the end, Medusa shows up as well...but not as an ally.  Not yet anyway.

While not as good of a first issue as Uncanny, I think this holds up pretty solidly.  You get the villain, you get the heroes starting to get together as a response to it, and some character establishment with the four team members that show up.  What you don’t get is any kind of resolution, even a small one.  They’re not together, they haven’t beat the enemy, it’s like ending the movie halfway through.  Which is okay because we know there’s obviously going to be a second issue, but I really like issues that can stand on their own, especially first issues.

Maillaro: Yeah, I had a lot of mixed feelings about this one.  It felt like we spent a little too much time on Singularity.  I know that might sound odd since she is the star of the book, but when I’m reading a team book, I like when we get a wider sense of who the team is as individuals.  I actually thought the writing and characterization we got here was real good,  but it just felt like the issue was over before we really got enough.  

I also get a little tired of when writers try to make characters sound unique by having them miss words.  It was even odder since her internal dialogue was normal, but whenever Singularity spoke out loud, it was like “Met. fought. helped. friend”  

Weaver: In a few of her earlier spots, she even had every word be an exclamatory sentence, which also irritates me a little.  But to me, it makes sense that her internal monologue was more developed than her speaking, since English is not her native tongue.  She thinks in her personal native language, and translates what of it that she can into broken English.

There’s a really awesome Superman joke in here too.  I like the reaction to Singularity’s appearance coming out of a shuttle on Earth.  It was well done and well timed.

Maillaro: You know far more about languages that I ever will, so I will concede that one to you.

Yeah, I thought the Superman joke was great too.  I also loved when Singularity tells She-Hulk “clothes are silly” and She-Hulk “mostly agrees.”  GWW’s work tends to have a lot of moments like that. Honestly, there was quite a bit I enjoyed about this comic.  The twist at the end with Medusa being “evil” worked so well, especially building on what we saw in Secret Wars A-Force.  I have basically been ignoring the Inhumans books, so I had no idea what the status quo with her was.  I just was kind of hoping for a little more.  I have been getting ridiculously picky about #1’s, especially with some many of them coming out.  It didn’t help that I read this one right after Uncanny, which was a prototype perfect first issue.

Weaver:  I was thinking the same thing.  Would I feel better about this issue if I read it in a vacuum and not right after Uncanny? Probably, but I still don’t like only getting bits of the story...yet the bits we get are good, and the cliffhanger was unexpected and really brilliant.  So it’s hard to score it.

But, scoring it is what we have to do.  I’ll give it a 4 on writing and a 4 on art.  Side point, I liked how the blurb at the end with the creative team talking about their perception of the title included the colorist and the letterer.  The unsung heroes of comics.

Maillaro: Yeah, they are inconsistent, but Marvel has done those kind of “letter pages” a few times.  It’s always great to see some insight on how a book gets created top to bottom. Image does this a lot, come to think about it.   I think your scores are fair.  Jorge Molina’s art was serviceable, but I didn’t think it was all that memorable.  

Maillaro: For next week, the only new series I’ve got are Agents of SHIELD #1 and Green Lantern Corps: Edge of Oblivion #1.  Or Power Rangers 0.  We could do Scarlet Witch #2, which was a nice surprise (I will send you Scarlet Witch #1 to read first).  And just for a nice pairing, her first appearance was back in Uncanny X-Men #4?

Weaver: I’m definitely up for a double dose of Wanda.  I have to say that while I enjoy the TV show mostly, I’m not interested in a comic Agents of SHIELD, or Green Lantern Corps.

Maillaro: Yeah, I didn’t think either of those would appeal to me to write about, but I always try to look for number 1’s, so I mentioned them.  Wanda it is!  

Final Scores