Review — ‘X-Men’ #26 Is An Unexpected New Start
by Tony Thornley
Last issue, X-Men started a new path forward for Kate Pryde. This issue, Emma Frost gets her direction and it might be something no one else expects.
Gerry Duggan, Jim Towe, Javier Pina, Marte Gracia, and Clayton Cowles kick off the wedding of the century!
Kate Pryde is determined to kill Firestar. Emma knows there’s more to Angelica’s double cross though, and to save her life, Emma has to trust Tony Stark. However, there’s no way to continue her alliance with Iron Man without going keep undercover. So deep… that they may have to get married.
This issue was completely unexpected. The White Queen plotline was incredibly strong. Making allies of both the Kingpin and Iron Man has opened up some really interesting storytelling possibilities. The much heralded marriage between White Queen and Iron Man just being a way for Emma to go even deeper in her cover as Hazel Kendall is even better. Duggan writes Emma better than most other writers have in the past decade, and this entire plotline shows that off.
The Kate plotline though is much weaker. It really just feels like its there to reveal to the resistance that Firestar is a triple agent. I’m glad it was resolved so it didn’t drag on for months, so the story can move on to other plot threads like finding Cyclops and advancing Kamala’s new identity. It moved a bit too quick, with some heavy handed dialogue, but at least it’s not getting dragged on.
Even the weaker parts of the issue are propped up by the strong art. Towe has a strong eye for engaging panels, like the half-page splash of Kingpin before the credits page, and makes group shots as strong as extreme close ups. Some of his faces are a little samey and he does have some unusual compositions that makes the story unclear though. Pina’s pages are good, but they’re mostly just epilogue. Gracia’s colors are also incredibly strong, and he’s getting better at matching his style to the line artist’s.
Cowles makes the letters blend in at first glance. He has little tricks that makes the letters feel like spoken word though- changing the font size or color to imply a different tone and temper to what’s being said.
X-Men #26 is available now from Marvel Comics.
Overview
For an issue that was frankly a mixed bag in quality, I still really enjoyed it. It points to a very fun future for the X-Men.
