Writer: Mike Carey
Pencils: Humberto Ramos
The Bag
I am happy to say that this is the first time that I've actually enjoyed Mike Carey's writing. After Peter Milligin's unforgivable run on the book, Carey took over the writing, and while the "Supernova" arc seemed to be heading in a more positive direction, there were many points that struck me poorly. Thus, I finally took the adjective-less title off my pull list after years of reading and hoping that something better would come along in it. I left five issues out and then came issue #200, which I felt a collector's obligation to buy, and even was fairly interested in after reading what was to come, especially with the return of one of my favorite X-Men, Gambit. I wanted someone to fix what Milligan had done with him, and since I am also a sucker for the Age of Apocalypse Sunfire costume, I was happy to see them both in the title somehow or another (though, I am waiting for that to be explained). Issue #200 was sadly mediocre at best, but I decided to give it another issue.
Carey, in this issue, does well in making sure that the characters are themselves, which is something that I have felt that has been lacking in both this title and in his Ultimate Fantastic Four "God War" run. From the beginning Emma sounds like herself, especially with her sole thought on page three, and Carey takes a nice approach to Kitty and Colossus (though, I must say, Whedon writes them remarkably better). Also, good work on how Iceman regained his ability to freeze. To me, though a little cheezy, that's a part of the X-Men that I miss: pulling a creative maneuver to get out of a sticky situation.
Ramos does a great job with the art, overall. I enjoyed his recent run on Wolverine during "Civil War", and was happy to see him get to do Wolverine again. The action scenes were fun to look at and moved along pretty smoothly with Carey's writing. The only problem I would have is that Colossus looks a little goofy, but whatever, it's not a big deal.
The Tape
- Mike Carey succeeds in actually making the characters individuals this issue, an important quality to have in one's writing that I felt was lacking in his other issues of X-Men.
- Humberto Ramos succeeds in penciling a great ambush and escape sequence, keeping the momentum up where necessary until the end of the issue.
- The issue succeeds in holding my interest until #202 comes out. I hope that the quality keeps getting better so that the characters that I know and love can kick more ass.
The Box
How the books I've read this week stack up so far:
1. The Amazing Spider-Man #542 - A
2. X-Men #201 - A
3. The Sensational Spider-Man #39 - B-
4. Wolverine #55 - F
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