The Face Of The Enemy: Reviewing ‘Dark X-Men’ #4

More often than not, stories live up to their titles. Some really really live up to their titles. Enter Dark X-Men.

Oh boy, does the fourth issue of this Fall Of X series live up to its name. Prepare yourselves as Steve Foxe, Jonas Scharf, Frank Martin, and Clayton Cowles take us all on a very dark ride. Mild to deep spoilers abound.

First, I want to give props for the opening sequence with Gambit and Rogue. When it comes to the X-Men Cyclops and Rogue are tied for my number one favorite X-Men/Mutant character. Where Gambit lies on that ranking, not as generous. I guess it depends on when you ask me, but classic Gambit would have been so far down he might as well be in Limbo itself. Current day Gambit, that would be potentially somewhere in the top 50 if I were to actually chart them out.

A large part of that is thanks to the work that numerous individuals including Kelly Thompson and Tini Howard did for the character and his relationship with Rogue. I was never fond of his gaslighting, his creepiness, his borderline incel-like behavior when it came to Rogue. A humanizing touch that made him far more than that and made their relationship healthier turned my opinion around greatly. Foxe continues that here in a very neat way.

The idea of Gambit, the rogue thief, as the moral compass is a fun thing I wish we could see more of. Out of all the minis in this line, this is one I wish could stick around ongoing. Such a depth of character and a clear knowledge and love of the characters and world. There are some deep cuts in this run and a chance for lesser used characters to shine (or die). None of it feels like its forced or just cameos for cameos’ sake, as Foxe clearly has thought about it all and how to best use them.

This is abundantly clear in the rest of the issue as we get a bunch of surprising faces, deep character moments, and a lot of dark death.

The Goblin Queen being smart enough to use Abyss (the number of “The Draco” references is quite strong in this run) as a means to get into the Limbo Embassy was so good. Also, quite sad as we witness this Maddie cut a swath of blood and bodies through the poor background mutants of the Embassy. Death actually hits hard in a medium where death became a revolving door joke years ago, because of Krakoan resurrection.

Taking death off the table as a thing to fear, only to rip that away, makes each loss in the line right now (even those we barely know) felt. It’s one of the few times where the death of mutants on any scale has been allowed the room to breathe.

While our titular mutants are mostly fine, we do see the brutal way that Azazel murders his son Abyss, pretending it was done as a means to rescue Maddie and the rest of this X-Men team. We also see that Havok is falling apart more after what was surely his death or very near death in the first issue, thanks to Gambit’s report to Rogue about his team. If the slate of the line wasn’t being cleaned pretty soon these are beats that hopefully would have carried forward with the characters. They still might, but I imagine some of these characters will be back in the proverbial toy box for a few years again.

Again we circle back to the name of the series, and the name of the game. Finding that space to make the artwork fully embrace the darkness required for this story, without becoming something too far gone. It’s a balance that Scharf and Martin have perfected.

Inherently there is already a rough weighty, dark, quality to Scharf’s artwork. Depth and detail are just there and make spaces feel open but also very confined in many respects. Fitting since characters are actually trapped quite a few times within the issue. So now we can feel very trapped right alongside them. Every single emotion from anger to terror to love is wholeheartedly felt radiating from the facial expressions and body language of the characters.

Elements of the story already make it clear how dire and serious things are for mutants right now. Out of all the books under the Fall Of X banner, this is one that takes the attempted genocide against mutants feel serious and real. Shadows dot every panel and page, keeping things tonally and truly dark around the team and the events happening to them. A weight is on the shoulders of mutant kind, pushing them down as Orchis moves closer and closer to their vicious hateful goals.

As with the previous issues, even with the amount of violent death, it never feels gory for gory sake. The framing and perspective choices help with this, as do the colors. While lighter vibrant colors pop in and out of focus at times, many of them are more grounded and darker in tone. Martin sets the mood throughout, taking us on a ride. In regard to that death mention, blood isn’t bright splashy red but is darker and clear to be blood but not fully. It allows us to sit in this moment and feel the grief or anger or disgust but not feel like we’re in an over the top slasher film.

All that terror and darkness can’t just be seen. It must be something we can ‘hear’ at the same time. Cowles is someone who manages to infuse those feelings into every bit of lettering on the page. Allowing the emotions to set the tone, as the fonts and bubbles shift in the best ways to convey the message. As voices become clear in our head, it allows us to connect with the imagery even more. Letting these characters become the fully dimensional beings we imagine them to be as we’ve read their adventures for years.

Dark X-Men #4 is now available from Marvel Comics.