Saturday, April 27, 2013

365 Comics... 117: Uncanny X-Men #005 (2013)

Beyond the monthly (or twice monthly) X-Factor pickup, I haven't read an X-Men book in probably about ten years (whenever it was that Whedon's Astonishing X-Men run ended... it was before that).  I didn't really grow up with the X-Men (I had one mid-'80's issue of Uncanny and that was it until I bought something like 38 copies of the Jim Lee X-Men #1 in 1990) so I have never had a tremendously strong connection to the team it's endlessly expanding cadre of characters, and those art-focussed '90's X-Men comics (X-Factor excepted) didn't do a lot to endear me to the Mutant world.  I dabbled, sure, (Morrison & Whedon most notably) and I watched the movies and cartoons (both with mixed feelings) but the dizzying myriad of titles, characters and unending supply of crossovers has proven a largely insurmountable obstacle for me to get into the books.  I knew it would take one special creator to get me back in.  Where some favourite writers s of mine, like Kieron Gillen, have failed to lure me in past the formidable continuity hurdle it shouldn't come as too big a surprise then that it's an artist that lures me back in. Afterall, if I am only coming in for the art then what does the story or characters matter?

I was wondering if Frazer Irving would lure me into a sinkhole of "I need to know more" and I would go into an X-buying frenzy, pulling every remaindered trade and dollar back issue I could find... because I can get like that.

Alas, I didn't really get what was happening and I didn't really care to know more.  This X-Men stuff just doesn't seem to be my thing... most of the time.  I'm so underwhelmed by this issue that I may not even ride out Irving's next two issues (and of no fault to him... his art is popping as always.)

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