Magneto, Stands Out Amongst A Multitude Of Mutants
The volume covers two story arcs really, with the first chapter acting as a prelude of sorts to the later stories set the Savage Land and then the Shi`ar Empire...
I was quite dazzled by the scale of the X-Men now, by now I mean 1991 - The New Mutants, X-Factor, and a sea of new faces, some I`d heard tell of and some totally obscure - Rictor? Cannonball? Sunspot? And....what`s this?! Jean Grey - alive! Banshee back! Storm leader, with ol` Baldie having scooted off with an alien! Jeez - I have been away a while...
`Too Many Mutants!` is the chapter title - very apt.
Jubilee is a character I`ve heard well of, although couldn`t see it myself. Just another motor-mouth kid with an attitude - give me Kitty Pryde anyday. Gambit is another I`ve never found that appealing. Forge I liked and Psylocke`s a class act.
Bah! Humbug! Listen to me, eh? I`ll be harping on about the Good Old Days next. Truth is, I don`t like change much and I suppose I thought I was going to be cynical about Crossroads, but in fact - I enjoyed it.
The story hops about a bit over a period of five issues, and gets a tad complex with the inclusion of some surprise guests in the outer-space second half. But even the Shi`ar Empire sequence - all that space opera business and Xavier/Lilandra love story never rocked my world previously - I found exciting because it`s well written.
But the centrepiece of this volume, for me, were chapters two and three (Uncanny X-Men #274 and #275) in the Savage Land. The exploration of Magneto`s character and history, as he tussles between the righteous and the evil, I found excellent. This is an age-old super villain which I can now almost see as...good.
Just one more thing however, and I know this may rattle a few cages, as he`s held in high esteem by many - but Jim Lee really has never done it for me, yeah I know there are flashes of genius in his work, but I find alot of it very...Manga-ish, for want of a better expression. And he`s not really helped by some of the lurid colouring here.
So, despite all the new faces, Crossroads still provided entertaining stuff. And come the end, there are flashes of the past as the X-Men get their old leader back and even revert to the original blue and yellow uniforms! Chris Claremont may have come out with some fairly oddball stuff recently, but I`m glad to see that even from this small slice of their history, the X-Men prove consistantly exciting and highly readable...
...and that, True Believers, is that. My 100th - and final - review for ComicVine.....