The Fallen One Brings Death: Reviewing ‘Dark X-Men’ #2

Replacing the X-Men is just such a dark bloody affair. Well, it is if there are numerous Madelyne Pryors involved. As Orchis makes their next move, one of those Madelynes must hold it together to save the man she loves and control a morally diverse team of mutants.

Sounds pretty easy though, right?

Dark X-Men #2 continues the Fall Of X series that gives deadlier elements amongst the mutant population their chances to shine. All the darkness and bloody gore is brought to us by Steve Foxe, Jonas Scharf, Frank Martin, and Clayton Cowles.

I’m digging everything that this series has to offer. The X-Line has been lacking in something of a darker and heavier nature since Hellions and the most recent Sabretooth And The Exiles wrapped. A series following Maddie and this band of characters, some rough around the edges and some just outright monstrous, needs to really feel the part. Darkness and heaviness should be felt with every turn of the page.

Not a big ask for Scharf and Martin here.

Tons of depth and detail give life to the characters and spaces, while Scharf makes sure to give everything a rough sharp edge at the same time. It is beautiful to look at, but if you’re not careful it will most definitely cut you.

Everything about this book, of course, is the furthest from reality it could be. Yet, there is a realistic feeling to everything with how the artwork presents it. We see characters close to death or dead in stories all the time in various mediums but outside of horror/zombie stuff, they mostly look okay. Havok looks like he was hit by a couple trucks with claws that ran over him again and again. Scharf makes sure we know right away that Havok either was super close to death or actually died and was magically resurrected because he looks rough as hell.

That’s nothing compared to the horrifying skull-faced zombie Archangel.

Martin fills the pages with heavy shadows and tons of very sharp almost blood-like red tones. That red and a few other elements are the big popping colors on the page. Most of the other colors are heavier/darker but also toned down. This isn’t a superhero book after all, despite all the costumed folks within it. It’s essentially a horror story within the sphere of superheroes and it looks and feels the part.

To better flow with what the rest of the art is delivering, Cowles brings some of his usual special magic to the lettering. A much rougher font choice is in play through most of the dialogue and captions. Plenty of red seeps into the lettering, especially the undead Goblin Queen. There is a heavy scratchy sort of effect going on that really hammers home the starker tone of everything.

Another excellent choice is how jagged and odd the speech bubbles become for the nearly dead Havok. The man was stabbed through the neck so it makes sense his voice would come out differently. These little visual cues to the bubbles and the font ensure we know that and can accurately depict that voice change in our heads.

Even though this is heavily dark and horror-like, there are so many X-Men-like moments and elements still spread throughout. Foxe shows off a deep knowledge and feeling for these characters. Each one is quite distinct and it creates drama just from the fact that the personalities are so wildly opposing. As much as people like Gambit and Maggott might want nothing to do with Azazel, Emplate, and Zero their backs are against the wall with the Fall Of X goings on around them.

Death became a routine thing during this era because of resurrection. It changed the tone of it and made it hit a lot less hard when we knew characters would come back. Currently with the Five missing, mutants are back to being as vulnerable as everyone else. Foxe plays with that here as the amount of death is big, but each one still has power to it. Sunder the Morlock is a character we hardly ever see, yet his death hits hard as Callisto and us the audience watch on in horror.

Doesn’t help who administers that death, and their complicated fate.

Dark X-Men #2 is now available from Marvel Comics.