X-Men #19
As Forge and Monet take a trip into a black hole, the X-Men face off against the Brood in X-Men #19, by writer Gerry Duggan, artist Stefano Caselli, colorist Federico Blee, and letterer Clayton Cowles. This is an average story, entertaining but a bit uninspiring.
Forge and Monet, conferring with Prodigy and Sage, enter a portal to Knowhere, which has fallen into a black hole. The trip is interesting, and they see all kinds of things that are impossible to explain. The X-Men show up to Corsair’s distress signal. Firestar and Iceman kill Brood, Jean and Magik look for Broo, and Cyclops, Synch, and Talon, the future version of Laura, look for Corsair, find him, and surgically remove the Brood inside him. They escape to Iceman and Firestar, where Corsair reveals he was merely bait. Meanwhile, Forge and Monet show up on Knowhere, find their unconscious bodies already there, and see something amazing.
Duggan doesn’t completely stink this story up, which is pretty impressive. This is a rather simple plot, all action and set-up. There’s really very little else to say about it. Duggan’s dialogue isn’t as bad as it usually is, but it’s not great. The plot builds a few intriguing points, but this is Duggan; he’s going to botch anything intriguing about this story. Brood stories are just bug hunts, and this story not only gives readers that, but also sets up more of the same. Duggan is passable at simple, so this story should be okay.
If there’s any problem with this comic, it’s the Forge and Monet parts. Chasing Knowhere into a black hole, after Forge reveals that he and Cable went back in time to place the gate seed, is a nice idea, but it’s kneecapped by Duggan. To begin with, Duggan could have actually shown Forge and Cable going back in time at some point instead of doing it in exposition. That would have shown he actually planned this story. This is a problem with Duggan’s writing in general. Things seem haphazard. Beyond that, this part of the story is a huge cliche. It’s impossible to have faith that Duggan will do anything interesting with this subplot.
Caselli and Blee are on art this issue, and it looks wonderful. That goes without saying, and again X-Men impresses with the art. This issue wouldn’t be nearly as good without the team. Their figure work is strong and detailed, although there are places where the detail flags a bit that aren’t endemic to the team’s usual work.
X-Men #19 is surprising because it isn’t completely terrible. Duggan somehow stays out of his own way and doesn’t completely botch this issue. Nothing is spectacular, and the subplot makes some dumb mistakes, but the art makes up for a lot of the normal Duggan problems that are baked into the script.
