The best story arc since Hope [410] takes another
turn towards excellence in its third issue. The storytelling and
artwork reach fever-pitch as the X-men battle it out to see who
will be the dominant species.
A nicely written story sees the X-Men battle physically against
a rival group of mutant werewolves to see whom the better is, as
well as with themselves on an emotional and mental level. Chuck
Austin has developed a nice balance of the battle taking place within
the hearts and minds of the X-Men as to whom they are versus the
physical battle with a violently dominant species of mutated werewolf.
The story takes a great turn in this issue as the focus turns more
to the characterisation side than the pure action side of things.
There is one great scene in which we learn more about Husk [Page
Guthrie] and get a closer look at her relationship with Angel. Page
has always been one of the more interesting additions to the new
team and in this issue we get a great explanation of her powers
as well as her feelings about them. It is a great introspective
moment written superbly by Austin.
Sometimes the heaviness of the conscious debate about mutant infighting
and over what may happen via “natural selection” and
who will prevail as the “dominant species” gets a bit
too much. It does add a nice thinking point to the story but Austin
tends to labour over the topic one too many times.
The artwork in this series continues to impress. Kia Asamiya [Silent
Mobius] has definitely proven his skill and has been heard
to have said the he is willing to stay on board Uncanny as long
as he is wanted. With a shift towards Manga in general happening
on a worldwide scale this can’t be such a bad thing.
Asamiyas’ backgrounds in this issue blew me away. He manages
to render a brilliant organic forest scene as well as a technical
infirmary with equal skill. I really think that although unorthodox
in many ways he manages to fit in nicely on this title.
One finishing point was to note that the awesome cover art of Steve
Uy is back. Now this guy knows how to make a comic cover
work, great manga styled stuff with an awesome cell-animated feel
to his work.
Overall Uncanny is well on its way back to the top of the charts
and with the upcoming X2 movie expect to see a lot more of these
guys real soon.
Score 8/10
Reviewed By:Iain Duncan
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Comic Reviews
