The fuck am I supposed to say about this? We knew it was going to be a regressive comic, but good lord I didn’t think we’d get “revisiting Wolverine on an X-shaped cross” on the bingo card.
X-Men #1
VC’s Clayton Cowles (Letterer) Marte Gracia (Colorist), Jed MacKay (Writer), JP Mayer (Inker), Ryan Stegman (Penciler)
Marvel Comics
July 10th, 2024
Truly, the most egregious part of that revisitation is the abject lack of horniness about it. The original instance, from Uncanny X-Men #261, is a classic, both for its dramatic Marc Silvestri cover and for the panel in which Donald Pierce gently caresses the beleaguered Logan’s cheek as Logan sulks up at him. The new iteration lets him have more clothing and also washes the entire scene in blues, greens, and purples, obscuring detail and generally making the entire ordeal look unattractive.
Listen: an X-shaped cross, or a St. Andrew’s Cross as it’s better known, is inherently a horny object, being a literal kink item found in professional dungeons all over the world. Its use in Claremont-era X-Men books was the latest iteration in a wealth of tradition documented many times over. In the 2024 comic, it’s stripped of that, and simply presented as, “Hey look! It’s like the X-Men you know!”
Context is, I suppose, the most relevant subject in the discussion of this book; certainly, the story merits nothing worth paying attention to. Scott and crew zoom in with their aircraft to save some new mutants! Just like they did in the start of Morrison’s New X-Men! Or like when they teleported in to save young mutants in the Bendis run! Only, TWIST: There aren’t any new young mutants, just Orchis agents who have manifested X-genes as adults. Now there are BAD mutants for the GOOD mutants to fight! Also they still have to save at least one person: It’s Wolverine, and he’s got to be saved from the most kinkless dungeon in the world! Meanwhile, Beast meets the Chief of Police of the town the X-Men are now based in, which is…Merle, Alaska. He looks like classic Beast again, but worse (because Stegman), and thanks to his last resurrection on Krakoa, has no memory of his genocidal turn. At least, the most recent one.
Stegman’s art is, well, Stegman’s art. If you’re into that sort of thing, Godspeed, but it looks atrocious here. It’s understandable why he might be considered a good get for Marvel brass–he has that excessively-lined Jim Lee quality, which fits the current rebrand’s whole deal. The trouble is, his linework isn’t as clear. It’s smudgy, messy. Everything looks dirty, even when it’s brightly colored (see below).
What was I saying? Oh yes, context. In the context of the Krakoan Era, the concept of X-Men wearing old costumes as “mutant fashion” was a bit of fun; it worked alongside the broader, more progressive story beats as a visual indicator of “we’re headed to new places, but we’re not forgetting where we’re from.” Here, when Xorn pops up on the page wearing his twenty-year-old New X-Men look, in a story that has been explicitly marketed as a more conservative reset, it feels boring and lazy. Regressive. Similar feelings are inspired by Cyclops and Quentin Quire both looking entirely too young, and by Magneto once again leading the team, but this time being in a chair like Xavier usually is! OOOOH, EXCITING.
Listen. No one has any expectations or illusions about this book. We knew it was gonna be this way, and it sure is this way. Go read something else instead.
