$oss Pull-List Review 11-02-11

Wolverine and the X-Men #1 

After the events of Schism Wolverine, Kitty Pyde, Beast and other key members of the X-Men have left their home base of San Francisco and moved back to upstate New York. Their intention is to once again provide a safe haven for young mutants to hone their gifts. While the idea of returning the team to it's roots is good, the way it was handled in this first issue was not. 

The foe in this book is the always villainous New York State Department of Education who is there to decide if the new Jean Grey School for Higher Learning is a suitable place for children. Really...this is how we are going to kick things off? There are some humorous moments that showcase how wacky the new students and teachers are and a nice diagram in the back that breaks down the entire cast of the book. Other then a few bright spot this was a real dud. I'm not too impressed with this introductory story, I really was hoping for more. 

I can never decide if I like Chris Bachalo's artwork. His style is heavily influenced by anime so it always has nice energy. The way he tends to exaggerate anatomy can be distracting. He also was the colorist in this issue which I found odd. His palette was full of purple's and brown's which dragged general mood down. The last thing this boring story needed was dark, muddy panels. Maybe a different colorist could have changed my outlook on this issue.

Uncanny X-Men #544

I'm not a big fan of renumbering. I always see it as a cheap attempt to boost sales figures with a # 1 issue. That said the final issue of Uncanny X-Men was an enjoyable send off to Marvel's long running series. Yes, next month there will be a book titled Uncanny X-Men on the shelf but this marks the end of an era. The story alternates between Cyclops saying goodbye to Beast and Iceman and Mr. Sinister plotting in his lair. Sinister appears to be writing the story of the events of the past few months and it is unclear if he is reporting on the events or if he is the one making them happen. It's a nice reintroducing for villain who dominated the 90's albeit in a much goofy costume. 

Artist Greg Land teams up with my new favorite writer Kieron Gillen for this final installment. There aren't many examples of Land's infamous "tracing". He actually really hooks this book up. There is a center spread that highlights memorable moments from the X-past that I thought was gorgeous. While I'm happy that Carlos Pacheco will be handling art duties on the relaunch it would have been interesting to see if Land could maintained this high level of execution. 

Panel of the Week: Greg Land may be an alleged tracer but there is no questioning that he did an awesome job on this spread.