X-Men #16
As Forge makes his way into the Vault, the X-Men have problems of their own in X-Men #16, by writer Gerry Duggan, artist Joshua Cassara, colorist GURU-eFX, and letterer Clayton Cowles. This is yet another Duggan special, which isn’t exactly a good thing.
In a flashback, Forge asks Sinister, who owes him a favor, for help creating his suit. In the present, Forge and Caliban explore the Vault, still followed by the mysterious shadow person. Outside, a fight between Cyclops and Havok releases Perro, and the X-Men have to fight him, eventually pacifying him. Back in the Vault, Forge and Caliban find the mutant signature they were looking for but get quite a shock.
This issue is bad for numerous reasons, but as usual, it all starts with Duggan. He’s decided to give Forge the amoral scientist vibe that all smart Marvel characters have. That’s fine, but this would be a perfect opportunity to explore it beyond the barest minimums, which is what he puts into it. Now, yes, long-term storytelling is a thing, and we’ll certainly get some more payoff to it, but this little bite-sized chunk is unsatisfying. It works to get the point across, but it might have been better if there had been more Caliban gaslighting. Caliban has long been manipulated into doing things he didn’t want to do, and this issue touches on that, but it basically fast-forwards to the part where he just accepts the manipulation. There are better ways to do this part of the story, but Duggan would rather turn this into a big dumb fight.
That’s another huge problem with this book. Last issue was about “fight the Children,” and this one should have taken readers back into the Vault. Instead, Duggan has a dumb fight between Cyclops and Havok break Perro out of stasis, and the X-Men have to fight him. Duggan is falling back on bickering Cyclops and Havok, but instead of building to it in any smart manner, he just throws this out there. Havok still hasn’t recovered from the reason why he was in the Hellions, but he wasn’t dumb and violent, which is how Duggan writes him. This is such a disappointing comic because Duggan’s writing skills barely extend past dumb jokes and fighting; instead of seeing what the Vault is like now, he gives readers the simplest, dumbest plot he can. The ending surprise is okay, but this is such a badly written series it’s not funny.
Cassara is usually a wonderful artist, but this chapter doesn’t really bear that out. It’s not bad by any extent, but there’s some art that is mystifying. For example, why are Cyclops and Havok so jacked? They look like three hundred pound muscle men. What’s going on with Havok’s headdress? His usual detail feels muted. The art is missing a lot of the crispness and emotion that made Cassara great on X-Force and X Lives Of Wolverine. Even GURU-eFX’s lush colors don’t have their usual feel.
X-Men #16 is a terrible comic. Duggan’s script plays to his strengths, but those are so very weak. There were so many interesting ways this issue could have gone, but instead, he took it down the stupidest road possible. Somehow, the work of the typically fantastic art team of Cassara and GURU-eFX is mediocre. It’s almost like the terribleness of the script infected everything else in the book.
