X-MEN UNLIMITED #37 REVIEW

[Erwin Rafael]

<a href="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/covers/xmunl-37.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/covers/xmunl-37t.jpg" align=left alt="X-Men Unlimited #37"></a>Reviewer: Erwin Rafael, 3rdsummers@edsamail.com.ph
Quick Rating: Good
Story Title: Sacrificial Worlds

Mutant realities collide as cover-artist extraordinaire, Kaare Andrews, and a host of alternative artists provide us a unique multi-dimensional adventure.

Cover by: Kaare Andrews
Written by: Kaare Andrews
Art by: Kaare Andrews, Dave McCaig, Mike Kunkel, Joshua Middleton, Troy Nixey, Dave Stewart, Skottie Young & Pat Duke
Lettered by: Randy Gentile
Assistant Editor: Mark D. Beazley
Editor: C.B. Cebulski
Managing Editor: David Bogart
Editor In Chief: Joe Quesada
President: Bill Jemas

I rarely enjoy eye-candy comic books, but I really enjoyed this one. :)

This issue, X-Men Unlimited dropped its multi-story anthology format. Instead, we got a single story by popular cover artist, Kaare Andrews, with art by Andrews himself and four other artists who are quite popular in the alternative scene. Usually, I get turned-off with artist-jam issues, as they remind me of all those disorderly multi-artist comic book annuals in the 90s. Lately, however, Marvel has been putting out well-conceived artist-jam issues, specifically Uncanny X-Men #400 and Ultimate Spider-man Special. Did X-Men Unlimited #37 continue this trend? Well, read on and find out.

The issue in a flash: Once upon a time, there lived a special little boy who exists in between worlds, in between realities. One day, a down-on-his-luck farmer pulled the boy into his own reality to exact revenge on a race which caused him tragedy several years before. Through the boy's special power, mutants got pulled from all realities to be offered as a sacrifice to the mastermind behind this malevolent scheme. A scheme which could only be stopped by one person's ultimate sacrifice.

This has got to be one of the more visually exciting issues I've read from Marvel Comics for quite a while. The lineup was a real who's who of underground artists I never thought would work on a Marvel title. While the story was not stellar, the art was really great all throughout. What I found specially good for this artist-jam issue was that the transition from one style to another was really smooth. I think it really helped that the varying art styles generally work on a similarly happy tone. This provided a unifying theme which prevented the artist jam from becoming a disorganized mismash of disparate art styles.

For me, the star of this show is Mike Kunkel, who recently won an Eisner for his work on the book Herobear and the Kid. Kunkel made his name doing children's books, and his illustrations involving Hutch, the little kid, was just perfect for his style. His sketchy and cartoony artwork captured the generally playful and cutesy atmosphere of the scenes assigned to him. Surprisingly, Kunkel's work also conveyed very well the melancholy present in majority of the story.

Another highlight for me was Troy Nixey's artwork. Nixey's style was more organic compared to Kunkel, which really served well the supernatural theme characterizing the scenes he worked on. His depiction of Mephisto was particularly disturbing, with an archaic feel reminiscent of illustrations in old fairy-tale books which I used to read in school libraries. I could almost imagine Nixey interviewing kids to get the perfect nighmarish vision of the lord of lies. :)

The work of the other artists were also good, but just not as spectacular. I was quite disappointed with Kaare Andrews' interior pages not because it was bad, but rather because it did not measure up to the quality of his work on the cover. Joshua Middleton handled his quiet scenes quite well, although I would have wanted to see more pages from him. Same goes for Dave McCaig who drew only one page. Skottie Young's depiction of the Wolverine fight, though, was unimpressive because while he captured the humor of the scene, his art was just a bit too undetailed and too dark.

Kaare Andrews' writing showed a lot of inexperience, although I could definitely see a lot of potential. Andrews presented us an array of interesting ideas, particularly his creation of the lead character, Hutch. He really has a penchant for doing interesting kid characters, as shown in his previous works for Marvel Mangaverse: Spider-Man and Tangled Web. Maybe Marvel could ask Andrews to write a title for their upcoming kid-comics line.

Unfortunately, the story got pulled down by lack of focus and cliched dialogue. The first half of the story involving Hutch and the farmer worked just fine, but it started going downhill once Andrews tried to incorporate the X-Men into the story. There were quite a number of contrived scenes, like the fight of the multiple Wolverines, which didn't contribute much to the story. Actually, all the fight sequences felt contrived. Granted that the gathering of X-Men from all realities would cause confusion, why the hell would these different versions feel a need to fight against each other anyway? The incorporation of Illyana Rasputin into the story also did not contribute much other than to get nostalgic X-fans talking. When all was said and done, I got the feeling that Andrews really has a truckload of ideas for good stories which he unsuccessfuly tried to incorporate into one cohesive whole. More experienced writers may have more success in producing a more coherent story, and I guess Andrews just have to learn some more tricks along the way.

Ultimately, I think the point of this whole exercise was to expose us X-readers to a variety of non-mainstream styles. Expand our appreciation of the medium as opposed to adding yet another chapter in X-continuity. We have long been stereotyped as readers who never appreciate comic book art on an X-Men book unless it's done in the style of Jim Lee, John Byrne, Joe Mad or the Kubert brothers. While I don't think that applies to all of us, I think that such stereotyping has basis, considering the hostile reactions and endless bashing non-mainstream artists get when they work on an X-title. Hopefully, X-Men Unlimited #37 would prompt a lot of us to check out the works of the amazing creators involved. X-Men Unlimited is quickly shaping up as another Ultimate Marvel Team-up, or more appropriately, a Tangled Web. Now I finally see the point of this title. ;)

Art:
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Story:
http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xhalf.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xnone.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xnone.jpg

Overall:
http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xhalf.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xnone.jpg

Buy this issue online now from X-World Comics (http://www.x-worldcomics.com/x/bstore/newbooksmain.html) and save!

[windrider]

well i can kindda explain the whole fighting i think naturally there would be a more agresssive version of the characters like when phoenix attacked the normal version jean grey i felt that phoenix and all the other characters jeans, wolverine, storms etc.. wanted to prove who the best one is and probably having met shapeshifters like mystique they probably questioned the look a likes but they didn't get the answers that they wanted. so the most basic thing to do was beat the answer out of the look alike and also if you looked closely at the fight scenes not all of the characters were fighting we see rogue in her revolution outfit flying around and storm doing the same. and i think magik and her magical powers could have had to do with the fighting.

[strangerx]

Maybe some of the different versions were evil? Or maybe they just have physcological problems and deep down don't really like themselves?

Either way, I thought the book was a pretty good read, but I think once Kaare writes some more stories and gets a better feel for it he will easily become a way better writer. Thats something that I'm looking forward to. (I love his Hulk covers)

The art in this issue mixed really well I thought.

[Kevin Woodside]

I really enjoyed this issue. But it seems (as what appears sort of a trend at Marvel) that the action was not all it was cracked up to be.

Still, this issue rated fairly high on me. The overall story seemed to work and it was just visually exciting.

Me likely.

~W~

[Erwin Rafael]

Originally posted by strangerx
Maybe some of the different versions were evil? Or maybe they just have physcological problems and deep down don't really like themselves?

LOL that's it!!! maybe a lot of those X-Men were psychos with insecurities!!! :LOL:

Either way, I thought the book was a pretty good read, but I think once Kaare writes some more stories and gets a better feel for it he will easily become a way better writer. Thats something that I'm looking forward to. (I love his Hulk covers)

yup, i'm looking forward to that, too. he has the ideas and he has the imagination. some more practice should do it.

[mrsage]

Originally posted by Erwin Rafael
[B]
LOL that's it!!! maybe a lot of those X-Men were psychos with insecurities!!! :LOL:


You're right. The X-Men depicted here are so arrogant that they just wanted to be the one and true X-Man (like in the case of Wolverine).

If they just removed the multi-X-Men battle scenes and replaced it with them cooperating against Mephisto (as did the Xavier(s)) then I might rate the story with 4.

[hellshock]

I agree with your review.

The art was great, but I've found everything Kaare Andrews writes to be lacking something.

To me, it seemed like he had an idea to start off with, and an idea to end it with, but nothing in between.

[xgene]

I quite enjoyed this issue (I only pick up Unlimited on a semi-regular basis). The fights between the alternate characters were quite fun to see especialy the Little Wolive Fastball Specials. The mix of art though, IMHO, was much like the Uncanny #400 - some good and some bad.

[Benjamin Ong]

Nice review, friend :)

Btw, read this issue while listening to what Kaare himself has to say at: www.kaareandrews.com

;)

[Benjamin Ong]

I read it yesterday. Beautiful, BEAUTIFUL art! This is the most visually attractive X-Men issue that I've seen of late! The many artists who contributed to this story didn't spoil the entertainment level compared to previous efforts.

Kaare is da man! His future is so, so bright...!

[Al Harahap]

Originally posted by Erwin Rafael
Ultimately, I think the point of this whole exercise was to expose us X-readers to a variety of non-mainstream styles. Expand our appreciation of the medium as opposed to adding yet another chapter in X-continuity.

Just finished reading this. Good review, Erwin. I think you really hit the spot with the above statements. I try to avoid being over-general in looking at an issue and try and be as specific as possible, though I think that approach not only works really, really well here, but is necessary and perhaps the most important aspect of this particular issue. Good stuff!

And I do agree with you on the story and art. The story is rather confusing, and I think meant to just be a good vessel to exhibit the multiple non-mainstream styles presented. Whereas "artist-jam" issues usually bug me too, but this one was so beautiful that it almost didn't matter.

[Benjamin Ong]

I invited Kaare to drop by but I guess he's busy :( I'll keep trying, though.

Nice to "see" you again, Al Harahap.

[theprofessional]

I loved every bit of this story, it was a pleasent surprise and probably my favorite issue of Ultimate x-men ever. I thought the story was great as well. There were a few cliches but that was sometimes the point. As fer the wolverine fight, i thought it was perfect. It was an effective way of showing why all theses x-men might be fighting each, how things can get out of hand, and of course he could do that for each character so why not use the most popular one. deffinately something different, while still familiar, and well paced within the constraints of a one-shot.

[roguechere]

The story was unique, "Illyana" looked really cool, but for me, the ending was just too sad :(
:rogue:

[steve2275]

YAY COLOSSUS

[Mike Gonzalez]

X-Men Unlimited hasn't been good since this story came out. Joshua Middleton is awesome.