CREDIT: Marvel
Rating: 3.5/5 – Revisiting Another X-Men Storyline from the 1990s.
By ComicSpectrum senior reviewer Shawn Hoklas.
There’s been plenty of rumors and discussion that Marvel, because of their unhappiness with Fox over the rights to the X-Men at the box-office, have put less of an emphasis and focus on the X-Men side of the Marvel Universe. Although there may be some truth to that when it comes to some of the licensing, it’d be hard to prove that there’s any slow down when it comes to comics. Old Man Logan, Age of Apocalypse, Days of Future Past and more are all part of the Secret Wars event giving the X-Men a major role and portion of Marvel’s biggest event in years. X-Tinction Agenda is another one of those X-titles that gets the spotlight, referencing a storyline that took place in the early 1990s and proving that the X-men franchise is alive and well within the Marvel Universe.
Writer Marc Guggenheim has two X-teams battling over a disease that is affecting only mutants and ravaging the island of Genosha. On one side you have Jean Grey and the Beast holding strong in trying to quarantine Genosha so that the disease doesn’t jump borders and effect the greater mutant population, while on the other an opposing team of mutants like Rahne and Havock who played huge roles in the 1990s storyline attempt to kidnap the mutant healer known as Triage in order to try and cure the disease. Guggenheim is throwing a lot of X-Men into the mix and its fun to see characters like Rahne and Rictor get some attention again. Guggenheim has a great handle on the characters and includes some nice surprising cameos.
Unfortunately, the art isn’t as strong as the story. Artist Carmine Di Giandomenico has a loose pencil line that would come off much better with an inker. Faces on the first few pages alone lack details and attention, and that carries on throughout the entire issue. He does draw a lot of characters and the action scenes are well done, but everyone looks off and frankly a bit ugly. Having an inker soften up the edges and define the features would help Carmine’s loose style.
X-Tinction Agenda isn’t a pretty book to look at, but it has a solid story that’s similar to the event that ran from 1990-1991. If you weren’t a fan of the original storyline, the inclusion of mutants like Rahne, Rictor and the villain may not connect with you, and the art may turn you off. But if you were a fan of the original event or that era of X-Men, you should definitely give this book a try.
Reviewed by: Shawn Hoklas
(shawn@comicspectrum.com)
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