With at least ten X-titles, including solo series, I had a single thought when I first saw the previews for X-Club: “Holy crap, holy crap, holy crap, EXCELLENT.” Every mutant and their grandparents get a comic series, so why not X-Club? Also: This contains spoilers.
For those of you that aren’t die-hard X-Heads that can name every X-Men’s real name but not their own social security number, X-Club is the Science division of the X-Men. Originally composed of Beast, Angel, Dr. Nemesis, Madison Jeffries, Dr. Yuriko Takiguchi, and Dr. Kavita Rao, the numbers have dwindled. Beast and Angel both left Utopia and are with Wolverine while Dr. Takiguchi simply died from old age. This leaves the X-Club with Dr. Rao (a Whedon-created geneticist for his run on Astonishing X-Men), Madison Jeffries (a former Alpha Flight member that can control machines), the newly joined Danger (Whedon’s living danger room entity), and Dr. Nemesis.
I’m your comic reviewer so I won’t lie to you. The reason I was so excited for this comic was Dr. Nemesis. Everything he says is funny. I look forward to him showing up in the pages of Uncanny X-Men and other series just to read his nonstop science hyperboles. Like myself, he is a being that thrives on having his ego feed. So a character this amazing deserves his own series. Right?!?!
Wrong. This turned out to be a 5 issue limited series. Bummer. But, let’s see how it was.
The story begins with a flashback to World War 2, showing Captain America and others destroying a German ship. Included in this assault is the original Human Torch (an android built by the mostly immortal Dr. Nemesis. I sense this will connect to the main story later. But for now, let’s wait). But, flash forwarding to the present day, we find Cyclops, X-Club, and the head of Stratocorp at a press conference detailing the creation and launch of the Stringstar, the world’s FIRST space elevator. Isn’t the future awesome?
What I notice most about this scene is how well the writer has down the characters. All the members of X-Club are portrayed perfectly and he’s added a certain cockiness to Cyclops as he continually declares Utopia’s X-Men as the real X-Men. A personal favorite is Wolverine’s one panel cameo, see right.
Despite being the all-knowing comic guru of this site, I had to take a second to look up exactly where I knew this Simon Spurrier from. Then it hit me. It’s the same dude that wrote the absolutely excellent X-Club one-shot during the Second Coming. I’m am absolutely jubilant that they got the same writer back!
But, back in the comic, things turn to madness quicker than you can say, “Emma Frost’s ass is falling out of her costume.” Danger suddenly seems to become infected with something and goes rogue, heading back to Utopia, knocking Warpath on his ass, and threatening to kill the hell out of anyone that gets in her way. Back at the press conferences, one of the protesting Atlanteans (who have much more of a right to be pissed about ocean pollution than Greenpeace) mutates and begins attacking.
The comic ends with absolute bizarreness and leaves me excited for the next issue. I plead of you, my readers; go forth and buy this comic in masses. it is excellent in every sense of the word. Plus, with a writer that truly gets the characters, I would love to see this grow from being a limited series into its own series . Before I end this review, I’d like to include some of Dr. Nemesis’ best lines from this first issue:
- In response to a reporter asking how he gets his ideas, “I self-evolved a laterally superior intellect at age sixteen and rigorously conduct a preventative STUPIDECTOMY every fortnight”
- “YOU, Camera Troll: Ask me to smile and I’ll sublimate your kidneys.”
- “EXCUSE ME, gentlemen. There is science to conduct….in the LABORATORY OF VIOLENCE.”
Seriously, they need a quote a day calendar for that dude! I’d buy it! Till next time, comic fans!
P.S., sorry for the lateness of this review. Exams attempted to sublimate my kidneys. It’s as painful as it sounds.
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