Uncanny X-Men #6 // Review
The X-Men confront X-Man in Uncanny X-Men #6, by writers Ed Brisson, Kelly Thompson, and Matt Rosenberg, artist Yildiray Cinar, colorist Rachelle Rosenberg, and letterer Joe Caramagna. Can the X-Men get Nate Grey to see reason or will he destroy them all in his quest to save the world?
Psylocke’s mind powers have released Archangel, breaking X-Man’s hold him over. He chases off Magneto and confronts Psylocke, angry at her for taking away his peace of mind and making him into the Angel of Death again. The X-Men ask him to take them to X-Man’s hideout and he grudgingly agrees. The X-Men confront X-Man, but are unable to sway him. They attack, but he easily stops them. The young X-Men show up and try to reason with him, but Legion attacks X-Man and things change for worst.
This issue is a whole lot of filler and it shows. The problem with Uncanny X-Men so far has been this isn’t a story that should be ten parts and issues like this show why. Nothing really happens in this one. Sure, both teams of X-Men confront X-Man, but it all comes to naught. The older team tries to talk to him, then fight him, and gets handled, then the younger team shows up and does the same thing. The results are different and may lead somewhere interesting, but as cool as what comes next might be, it really won’t matter in the long run.
That’s another problem with this story so far- it doesn’t really feel like it matters very much. There’s some great characterization and it’s nice to have a X-book with everyone working together again, but this story just doesn’t have much staying power. It’s obvious the writers are fans of the Marvel’s mighty mutants and X-Man is a big enough “threat” to justify a roster of this size, but the stakes are getting lost in the morass. There’s so much going on, but none of it feels like it has any weight. X-Man reveals his reasons for what he’s doing in this issue, but it barely leaves an impact because this a character who most readers have fond memories of, but little else.
Yildiray Cinar’s easily the weakest of the three artist working on the book and this issue keeps that up. It’s not that he’s a bad penciller, but there’s just nothing special about his work. Nothing he pencils in this book really stands out. Rachelle Rosenberg’s colors are the best part, but they can’t make Cinar’s uninspired pencils any better.
Uncanny X-Men #6 is the disagreeable issue of the book so far. This one is just pure filler, stretching the story out. The ending has potential, but the rest of this book does nothing special. This comic shows the overall story is lacking, but unlike some of the issues, there’s no great characterization or character interplay to save it. It’s a mediocre comic.
