Right Choice, Wrong Execution — Reviewing ‘X-Men Blue: Origins’ #1

Origin stories are a dime a dozen when it comes to comic book characters who have existed for numerous decades. Those stories have been told and retold, modernized, or completely retconned over the years.

Amidst the genocidal horror of Fall Of X, the origin of one of the most stalwart X-Men members gets a change in X-Men Blue: Origins #1. A story from Simon Spurrier, Marcus To, Wilton Santos, Oren Junior, Ceci de la Cruz, and Joe Caramagna.

Oh, geez. This is going to be one of those reviews. Sometimes a comic book issue comes out that you has to let sit and marinate. Really soak up the thoughts and critiques to make sure they are at their peak before releasing them.

Essentially this issue stands as Uncanny Spider-Man #4.5 in a way. I say that because in Uncanny Spider-Man #4 (review here) there is a whole fade-to-black loss of time, in which this issue takes place, before the issue moves forward. An issue within an issue. This is just one of the number of problems associated with this endeavor.

It’s connected to one of the biggest problems, which is that Spurrier was the wrong person to write this. Plain and simple.

“Oh but Scott, people should be able to write stories even if not their lived experience, blah, blah, blah.” Yeah, no. Sorry. Sometimes a person is the wrong person to write something. End of story.

As I stated, this being an offshoot from another book and the writer is an intertwined problem. It infects everything Spurrier is writing is about Nightcrawler, his trauma, his feelings, and his struggles. Many probably will point to the Uncanny Spider-Man book being a Nightcrawler solo, but that doesn’t change my point. Truly, I’ve not hidden that I think Spurrier has been the wrong person to handle Kurt for the past few years. Period.

We’re told a story here about what Mystique and Irene went through, and their pain and suffering and trauma, and everything else is just a side note. The story is about putting Nightcrawler through the wringer, bringing him peace, and allowing him to be all about faith and forgiveness or whatever. This story about queer love, trauma, creation, and more is all wrapped up through the lens of a cisgender heterosexual white male (both the creator and the protagonist). It de-centered the characters this story should have been about, to service one that barely features in that past told tale.

Let me be clear: it’s about damn time that Marvel made this origin change.

Way back when X-Men writer extraordinaire Chris Claremont wanted to make Mystique and Destiny the parents of Nightcrawler. Of course, all kinds of bigotry and close-mindedness kept this from happening. It also kept the duo from being officially a couple (married or not) for a time. Those bigotries haven’t gone away, they’ve just changed how they are expressed, but there has been movement. Raven and Irene have been openly a couple for many years and confirmed as married.

Don’t even get me started on the shoehorning of Xavier into another character’s origins (doing shady shit as he always does now), or how Destiny manipulates things because of visions. So glad everyone else gets to be made out to look horrible just so Kurt can continue his journey to both gain and provide absolution. At least care was taken to not completely retcon out The Draco — because we can’t have that.

In the end, this big trans/queer story is clumsily handed. It’s rife with female hysteria, plenty of stuff bordering on or slipping into misogyny, and good old Kurt makes sure to drop in some transphobic and homophobic ‘shocked’ face stutters in there. Take this story away from this writer, place it away from this title, give it to a writer who understands, and center it around Mystique and Destiny as actual people it might have actually been the ‘collector’s item’ the solicit proclaims it to be.

If only there were quite a few more discerning queer writers still in the X-Fold, like there used to be in the most golden portion of the Krakoa era. Instead, we get this.

Visually it looks pretty good. What Santos and To, with Junior’s inks, present on the page is pretty engaging, detailed, and moves smoothly. It has weight and a strong presence that fits with the very important hefty feeling the story needs. There is just a bit of hyper-sexualization, especially in the pages concerning Mystique and Destiny. These pages do the heavy lifting to showcase the emotional weight of the moments and do a better job centering characters than the overall story beats.

Much of this issue relies on flashbacks, and the vast majority of them are narrated. Therefore, the artists make sure that everything being stated is clear in the character’s movements, body language, position, facial expressions, etc. As Mystique tells Kurt (and us) the tale, we’re shown it. Together the duo of artists make sure that it all flows and feels cohesive.

There is a smoothness or slickness to the whole affair. Colors feel cool and tend to be on the more vibrant side in many cases. There are plenty of toned-down elements though, keeping that feeling of normalcy for the settings/spaces. There are plenty of darker elements that de la Cruz sprinkles throughout, keeping with the heavier tone of the story.

Being a heavy narration/story-telling issue, there are a ton of words on the page. Caramagna makes it all work, slipping and sliding the narration boxes around to best frame and work with the various flashbacks. Same with the dialogue, which mainly exists in the present-day portions but pops up in a few flashbacks. There is a lot to take in, but it never feels overwhelming, mostly because of the placement and choices made. Not a whole tone of flashy or unique elements sprinkled in, as the lettering is pretty straightforward, but personality, tone, and volume are clear.

X-Men Blue: Origins #1 is now available from Marvel Comics.