X-Men #8
The Brood return in X-Men #8, by writer Jonathan Hickman, artist Mahmud Asrar, colorist Sunny Gho, and letterer Clayton Cowles. Hickman picks up some threads from his New Mutants issues in this one and does some intriguing set up.
On Krakoa, the Magma and Mirage admire a treasure that Wolfsbane brought back from the New Mutants’ space mission. In deep space, the Brood mobilizes their Ancati spaceships and head towards Earth. At the Summers House, Cyclops and Havok worry about Vulcan’s behavior when they spot something heading towards Earth. The Brood attack Krakoa, trying to get what Wolfsbane brought back with her, identified by the mutant Brood Broo as a King Egg. As Magik and the New Mutants fight off the Brood, Cyclops takes the egg to the Summers House, where he, Vulcan, Havok, Broo, and Jean Grey fly it off into space. In Shi’Ar space, a Kree Accuser, holding the Spacejammers hostage, negotiates with Sunspot about getting the egg back. Sunspot makes a deal, and Smasher learns that the transmission is coming from within Shi’Ar space. Gladiator is informed and readies the Imperial Guard.
Bringing in the Brood in a very nice touch. So far, Hickman has been doing a lot of introducing of new threats and things of that nature, because this is a new era for mutants. There’s a new status quo- many of the old threats are now a part of the Krakoan nation, so he has to come up with new things for the X-Men to work against. The Brood is one of those classic X-Men concepts that haven’t been touched on in a very long time. Hickman can use them as antagonists without shattering the new status quo he’s built on Krakoa, and it’s just nice to see them again.
He also does some intriguing stuff with Vulcan. Vulcan has the same dream every night- his time in the Fault after the War Of Kings, floating through space. He drinks heavily with Petra and Sway, two of the mutants who accompanied him, Darwin, and Cyclops on the ill-fated mission to Krakoa that Xavier erased from everyone’s minds. Whatever happened to him in the Fault weighs heavily on him, and it also reveals something else- Vulcan never died. There would be no way he was resurrected with memories of the Fault with how Krakoan resurrection works. This is a nice bit of set-up for Hickman to play with later.
The art by Mahmud Asrar is great, as usual. It’s wonderfully gritty, and it feels like Asrar is doing a pastiche of Yu’s art style in this one. In fact, he does such a good job that it almost seems like Yu is drawing this issue until it gets to the Krakoan scenes. From there, he does a great job of illustrating the events of the issue. His character acting top-notch and his action set pieces look very cool.
X-Men #8 brings the Brood back, and it’s fun to see them. Hickman does a little bit of good character work with Vulcan in just a few pages, getting across his state of mind and revealing some things about him. He also sets up a lot of other stuff, including a Kree incursion into Shi’Ar space that looks to set up something. This issue ends in a very open-ended fashion, so it may be continued next issue, or it may not. It’s hard to tell with the way Hickman has been writing this series. Mahmud Asrar’s artworks very nicely for the story. This is a pretty fun issue, all and all.
Grade: B+
