Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
X-Club #1 of 5
Marvel Comics
Spurrier, Davidson & Rosenberg
Over the past several years the group of scientists, known as the X-Club, has been put to good use in the pages of various X-Men comics, such as Uncanny X-Men. Generally, the group is entertaining and provides a level of witty dialogue and some interesting, scientific solutions to problems. I was very curious about this book because I couldn't see how these characters could carry a mini-series by themselves, though I like the idea of them in their own book. Overall, the book is good but it seems to be satisfying to a small segment of fans.
Dr. Nemesis, Kavita Rao, Madison Jefferies and the robot known as Danger comprise the team. This issue sets up a scenario where the X-Club and the X-Men of Utopia are putting up an elevator that reaches into space. The hook is that the creatures of the sea are not happy with the potential hazard that the elevator's anchor may cause their habitat. Of course, things get crazy at the end.
The book relies heavily on sarcasm and one-liners. This isn't to say the book is bad. At times I found myself laughing a lot actually. The problem arises when characters like Cyclops are dragged into it. Cyclops is such a serious character it just doesn't read all that well to see him joke around with the media or with other X-Men. Even if the humor is meant to be tongue-in-cheek or bordering on being cutesy. I guess it's difficult to read the book and find where it is trying to be serious and where it is trying to be funny at times. Even, the corporate master of ceremonies is trying to be funny. It's too much and it takes away from the drama that characters, like Danger, are submerged in.
The artwork is good but nothing that knocks your socks off. The book has a lot of standing around because of the nature of the story until the last few pages. It's there that we see the creativity as the art stretches out. The panel of the completed elevator is a good example of where the art was able to shine with this type of story. Hopefully as the story's pace picks up over the next few issues we will see more of what this team can produce.
X-Club is a niche team. I'm not sold on the characterization of Cyclops in here but perhaps he will snap out of it now that the team is in danger. I would like to see more of the personalities of the X-Club team develop in this series because as of now it seems like it weighs way too heavily, though understandably, on Nemesis. This was a decent start to the mini-series.
3 out of 5 Geek Goggles
