Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
Uncanny X-Men #524
Marvel Comics
Fraction & Dodson
Second Coming, Chapter Six, takes a bit of a breather in the action and plot development as the X-Men bury their dead. Well, they have a sendoff for one of their dead, not all of them. The issue is meant to be a tribute to the X-Men mainstay that died in the previous issue. However, the characterizations within the issue are not at all what I would think are the modern, common, characterizations of them. In that regard I found this issue to be a huge miss. I understand the meaning behind the lines of dialogue and I just wasn't sold on it. In case you missed last issue, you may want to be warned about spoilers. This is your warning.
As you may recall from the previous issue, Nightcrawler was killed in the act of saving the Messiah, Hope, and helping to escape to Utopia Island. As you might expect the X-Men have their moment to absorb this huge loss.
The best part of the comic is Cyclops meeting Hope with Cable right there in the middle. Cyclops has grown as a leader, hinging everything by giving Hope to Cable in the first place. Here, in this issue, we see the circle complete. Cyclops has succeeded in his decision to give the baby to Cable, have him raise her, and safely return her to the proper timeline when she is old enough. This was a great showcase for that growth.
From there it is downhill. Magneto, Kitty Pryde, Beast, Emma and Wolverine, especially, all have strange dialogue and don't seem to size up with the magnitude of the death of Nightcrawler. Whether it's Emma calling, perhaps playfully, Cyclops "dummy" or Beast flying off the handle at Cyclops and laying the death on his feet all felt very uncomfortable in this setting. I understand that the stress of the situation might make the characters act and react out of the norm, but this just didn't add up at all.
Wolverine was the biggest departure. I understand that the character is so overused that he could potentially do anything this side of being a road scholar and it would appear normal to some reader somewhere. However, he has a history of taking young women under his wing and mentoring students, so for him to explode at Hope and tell her that she better be worth it seems like the exact opposite of what he would most likely do. His closest friend was killed protecting Hope, I would expect him to take her under his tutelage to make sure Nightcrawler's death wasn't in vain.
The artwork has virtually no action so the task is tall to bring out emotions. I felt the art team did adequate work but I never really felt the sadness I would have expected to feel in this issue. I don't know if this was the direction or the art team as a whole, but I just didn't get the sense that a major character was dead by looking at the art.
A serviceable issue is not what I would have wanted for the Nightcrawler send off. Yes, some people might find Wolverine's characterization to be in line perfectly, but it was a miss for me. The issue itself never elevated to a serious funeral issue and was a breather from the regular crossover. I was disappointed with this issue. Perhaps you were not. More power to you.
2.5 out of 5 Geek Goggles
