Summary
Storm’s team of x-men (Sage, Bishop, Beast, Rogue, Psylocke and Neal Shaara) have broken away from the core x-men housed at the Xavier Institute to search for the remaining diaries of Irene Adler, the mutant Precog and true love of Mystique, Destiny. Over the course of the trip Sage explains to Neal all about Destiny and Mystique and recent history involving rogue.
When they arrive in France they settle into a relaxing vacation only to be attacked and captured by France Special Forces. Rogue and Sage manage to escape capture while the others are put through a series of tests. Storm and her team perform admirably but know they must escape before it’s too late.
The Good
Larocca’s art! Nuff said!! No? ok the colors and art in this issue give it a very high quality feel that put all other X-men comics of the time to shame…even my favorite New X-men written by Grant Morrison. Character work for Rogue, Sage, Psylocke and Beast were also good.
Storm stands out in this issue not because of Panel time or that they really used her much but because this is her team, handpicked by her and loyal to her and what she stands for more than Xavier. Her team is comprised of characters you would expect to side with her too, Psylocke and Rogue are no brainers especially after all they went through during the “Australian years”. For long Time readers as well you also know that considerable time has usually been given to showing the bond each woman has formed with Storm. Neal is there because he’s Psylocke’s new “boy toy” and he’s also the person Claremont uses to answer all the questions new readers may have about justifiably having this team away from the mansion while Grant makes the school a viable “school”. Neal also gives Claremont an excuse to pepper the issue with long winded recaps of the past. Bishop is on the team and justifiably so since Xavier went all “dark side’ during Onslaught shaking all his beliefs to the core. Beast is the brain of the outfit realizing that Storm may be “deductively’ right in her approach. Sage on the other hand was rescued by Storm when Xavier and Sebastion had all but left her to die, so we know where her loyalties lie.
On another note even though Storm was given very little panel time whenever she was used she was clearly the “star” of this Claremont run show J We shall see if this holds true as the series continues.
The issue finds an adequate balance between action and story although the exposition was a bit much for my tastes (and I like slow paced stores XD )
The Bad
A lot of exposition and backtracking- this is good for new readers but for those in the know you’ll be forced to sit through pages and pages of text and exposition setting up the “mutants are hated” cliché for the millionth time and seriously! It could have been easily cut down to ¼ of what actually made it into the book. The panels with the “special forces” chatting away were the most boring of the lot and that lasted 7 pages! Some characters get fleshed out while other are just there. It would have been to have the different character motivation for siding with Storm since this is the first issue (Like I did above) but I guess that will come eventually……
The Ugly
Overall the art was the major sell for the issue everything else was surprisingly Average 2.5/5