There’s Something About Jean: Reviewing ‘Immortal X-Men’ #17

Calling things within the X-Line of titles complicated would be a woefully lacking understatement. Immortal X-Men #17 helps prove this. Fresh off the end of the Jean Grey miniseries and the rest of Fall Of X, things become even more twisted.

The second to last issue of this formerly Quiet Council-centric book is from the regular team of Kieron Gillen, David Curiel, and Clayton Cowles with the addition of artist Juan Jose Ryp.

Honestly, even as a big lifelong X-Men fan and of the Krakoa Era in particular, I’m having a hard time with this concluding event of the era. While there is, of course, a plan in place leading to the final rise and fall of Krakoa, it looks more like a misassembled puzzle currently. Some ties between books are clear but at the same time, most of them are doing their own thing with wildly divergent flavors.

I’ve been a fan of this series since it began, and my reviews will show that. This issue, though? It’s hard to even fully state where I stand.

Bored. Sadly, that is a word that would partially explain where I am. Trust me, I hate saying that. It’s not bad overall, let’s get that straight. Putting comics onto any sort of scale of quality isn’t typically what I do, but even if I did, this would be somewhere in a very sensible middle.  It just didn’t really entice me the same way this series has in the past. It’s Gillen written, so that puts it above a lot of things just because of the skill of this writer.

I’m just sort of over the Sinister stuff, and Xavier isn’t a character I care all that much about. I do appreciate the call back to X-Men Legacy and the Sinister/Xavier connection from there which were also addressing older issues. Most of the issue was about the White-Hot Room and Jean and the mutants trapped there. Jean was a non-factor as she was still trapped in her mind, while Hope and Exodus fought off the nightmare Apocalypse.

It’s one of those issues that propels tangled plot lines that have been juggled for months. None of them really reached any sort of climax or really revelatory space. Part of the issue is how the whole of Fall Of X feels like it was rushed a bit to get things to the Krakoa era conclusion, due to the upcoming editorial change and line relaunch. Not saying these were not plots and plans the writers had, but it feels like they might have assumed they had more time.

Who knows? I could be totally wrong. We’ll probably never know, honestly.

Oh, can’t forget. While in many ways I like the usage of the old quotes of Jean from issues past, it does cause the series to lose something. Each issue came with narration from characters, giving us some insight into what they are doing or going through. Here, it helps make Jean feel even more like a prop than a character.

Ryp is an artist that I never knew before his time on Wolverine. It’s an art style that I haven’t been the kindest to in the past. During many of the Wolverine issues, I spoke about how static it could be at times, sort of creating montage and pinup style pages. (Nothing wrong with those, of course.) While it began to grow on me a bit in that series over time, it feels wrong for this story.

It’s a bit too heavy at times and slick, and something feels slightly off. It could be that it’s just such a rapid departure from the work Lucas Werneck was doing on the series (who departed to handle the upcoming Fall Of The House Of X miniseries). There is the aforementioned static feeling, many of the moments feeling more like a captured image than something with motion. Even for being in the White Room and it being a desert landscape, the setting feels very empty in many spaces.

Curiel’s colors are solid as usual, even if they are slicker here to match the artwork. They are far more muted with the focus of this story rather than big bold vibrant. Here is where the setting in a way harms chances for the more inspiring or vibrant colors. Sandy spaces aren’t exactly the most dynamic of spaces, but the colorful characters within the space do bring some pop. Especially old Apocalypse and all his big blues and yellows. Not to mention all the fiery Phoenix-related stuff we get.

I mentioned Jean’s narration quotes previously. They are one of the elements that Cowles does some fun visual flairs with, allowing the Phoenix stylings to carry through them. They are loud and bold, just like elements that are sprinkled into the lettering all over the issue. Characters have plenty to say here and Cowles makes it all flow, giving them solid voices.

Immortal X-Men #17 is now available from Marvel Comics.