A Fine Red Wine
Utopia is in great perill and the streets of Chinatown burn in violence and riots, what seems to be the work of a single mind (a genious mind nonetheless): Lobe. Fraction and Gillen are leading us to believe that this man is responsible for the spread of the virus HX-N1and in the same time developing and selling a brand new drug capable of giving it´s users mutant powers. This is a well written saga, since we cannot forget the X-Men and Lobe´s first encounter in which he stole genetic material from the mutants, and now we know why. I guess the link of both stories is getting the X-Men sick, hiring Collective Man to stir things up and creating a new group from naive teenagers seeking fame: the end couldn´t be more catastrophic, because the addiction is starting to show and Dr. Rao is getting closer to a cure, so the clash of the mutants and "mutants) will happen, but to what midiatic cost? The writer´s aproach in these themes of drug abuse is interesting, althought not new and original (Daredevil fought the MGH - Mutant Growth Hormone drug not long ago) and public relations is interesting too, but I guess the best of this issue (apart from the beautiful art) is seeing some characters´angles from a different view like Namor and Logan in a fragile and helpless state, Cyclops leading from within, powerless and trying to mantain the island status quo in the rake of power and politics, and watching some characters showing their true and old spots, and yes, I´m talking about Emma Frost. I´m not confortable about the whole Chinatown thing, despite the fact that was cool seeing some chronologic accuracy in Logan´s commitment in defending the territory (as showed in Wolverine: Manifest Destiny), about Fantomex decision aboard his ship, the fact that Hope and the Five Lights are in Utopia (I don´t like the abuse of using a character in many issues and different plots at the same time, it feels that they are not building a realistic and trusting background) and I´m not quite sure where the whole thing about Sebastian Shaw is going and how is it going to end, but this was a great book, cover from last page, and I don´t think any X-Men fan will feel sorry for buying it. I´m a big fan of Greg Land (and I know a lot of people just dislike the guy´s style), so I just going to wrap this up with some images from this issue, in an elegy of this great and not comprehended artist.
4 out 5
