X-Corp #2
X-Corp uses the Gala to take meetings and gets more than they bargained for in X-Corp #2, by writer Tini Howard, artist Alberto Foche, colorist Sonny Gho, and letterer Clayton Cowles. Howard does a commendable job in this issue of making corporate backstabbing exciting, even if it can be a bit of a slog at times.
X-Corp uses the Hellfire Gala to take meetings with prospective board members like Thunderbird, Sunspot, Mastermind, and Selene. As that’s going on, Madrox spies on them to see who his competition is for the board member seat, and the Fenris twins show up and immediately start to talk to the one human X-Corp was supposed to be meeting with. Trinary reads one of the Fenris twins left the Gala to hit X-Corp headquarters, and Penance goes after her, while Archangel and Mastermind go after the other twin. Both are able to beat their respective Fenris, and Penance arrives for the end of Archangel’s fight, congratulating him on keeping his cool…. And when she leaves, Mastermind drops the illusion he kept over Archangel, who had changed.
The first issue of this book was lackluster at best, but this one is better. It feels like the writers of the ancillary books in the Hellfire Gala are using it really well, keeping their main plots going while using the ambiance of the Gala as background noise. Howard does the same, and even though this book’s concept makes things a bit of a slog, it’s still a pretty entertaining issue. She actually gets Penance right in this issue, which is a huge difference from the last; she still doesn’t have a good handle on Madrox, though, although he’s a little better here. Any improvements are welcome, of course.
The Fenris twins plot is pretty interesting- them working to screw over their fellow mutants isn’t exactly surprising, but the whole thing sort of just comes out of nowhere- they show up, cause trouble and then get beat on. There’s nothing wrong with that- these Hellfire Gala issues aren’t very action-packed, and it breaks up the monotony of this issue- but dropping them in and then having them immediately go all out in the mischief department feels rushed at best and jumping the gun at worst. Putting Mastermind on the board of directors is pretty interesting, and one can see that Archangel is going to use it to his advantage to give the illusion of control over his darker side. That said, Howard playing with the same tired “maybe Archangel is going to lose control and kill people” thing is disappointing. It feels like every writer that writes him does the same thing, and the only time it was really interesting was when Remender did it in Uncanny X-Force, but Howard is no Remender.
Foche’s art is perfectly fine, again. It has the same early Stuart Immonen vibe and is bland and inoffensive. There’s nothing that stands out about it, which is a good and bad thing. Good because bad art isn’t great to look at and bad because there’s nothing memorable about it.
X-Corp #2 is a slight improvement over the first issue, but only a slight one. It’s a bit boring but not terrible, and the Fenris plot puts some juice into the whole thing, even if it probably only should have been established here and expanded upon elsewhere. As an aside, David Aja, who’s doing covers, is totally aping the covers from Grant Morrison and Chris Weston’s The Filth. Like everything else about this book, it’s obvious, cliche, and a little boring. This book is improving, but there’s still a long way to go.
