Review of X-Men: Gold #2

Kitty Pryde and the X-Men are trying to show humanity that mutants are on their side but when the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants attack the U.N. and kidnap the Mayor of New York, talking head journalists start calling for a mutant deportation. Unless the X-Men can get this new Brotherhood under control things could very well be headed towards a species war.

Issue: X-Men: Gold #2

Name: Back to the Basics: Part 2
Published: 2017 by Marvel Comics

Blurb:

Creators:

Writer: Marc Guggenheim
Artist: Ardian Syaf
Inker: Jay Leisten
Colorist: Frank Martin
Letterer: Cory Petit

Characters:

The Good: Nightcrawler, Kitty Pryde, Logan, Colossus, Prestige, Storm, Captain America, Kid Gladiator
The Bad: Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, Cleevus, Magma, Masque, Pyro, Avalanche, Mesmero, X-Cutioner
The Undecided: Lydia Nance

My Reading:

With the attack on the U.N. Building last issue, the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants have made a statement that they are in a war with humankind and as usual when mutants threaten humans, the X-Men show up to defend humanity. Kitty, Logan, and Nightcrawler arrive on the scene first and confront the Brotherhood resulting in Magma setting Logan on fire. Kitty immediately sends Nightcrawler and Logan away from the fight and enlists Colossus and Storm to take care of the Brotherhood. But as they escape the main fight, Nightcrawler and Logan find the real mastermind behind the Brotherhood – Mesmero. He sends Kurt teleporting away while he takes “custody” of a flaming Logan. The X-Men and Brotherhood’s battle is in full force now and it’s not looking good for our heroes but then rhe Brotherhood takes off for unknown reasons…followed by SHIELD showing up.

Captain America congratulates Kitty for winning the battle but then points out that the war has just begun – Lydia Nance of the Heritage Initiative is spewing anti-mutant hatred on all television channels. She’s claiming the mutants are looking for a species war.

Beyond their presence to secure the UN Building, it was good Rogers showed up since it gave Kitty an opportunity to provide him and us with info about who the Brotherhood members are…Masque, Avalanche, Pyro, Magma, and a new one.

Then we see what happened with Nightcrawler. Apparently Mesmero used his mental powers to force Kurt to bamf until he passed out from exhaustion. We also see that Mesmero has Logan tied up captive…for now.

There’s then an interlude with a guy I later found out was X-Cutioner who blasts some ‘random’ mutant in New York.

We then jump to the Mayor’s mansion and see that the Brotherhood kidnapped the Mayor and are planning on executing him in 24 hours. We then get a quick scene at the Xavier Institute where they’re watching Lydia Nance promote mutant deportation…not something teenagers need to be seeing directed at them.

Jump back to Logan and Mesmero and you just know this member of the Brotherhood is in over his head when up against the old man. Mesmero tries to use his mental mumbo jumbo on Logan but instead of succumbing, Logan breaks the chair he’s in and uses the adamantium chains he’s bound with to choke out the mental mutant. He then makes quick work of Masque and Pyro in classic Wolverine fashion.

There’s a lot going on but finally Logan calls in to Kitty to let her know he’s got information about the Brotherhood and we’ll see what the X-Men do with that info in the next issue.

What did I learn:

• Even though he’s older, Logan can still bring on the Wolverine hurt.
• Magma used to be a part of the New Mutants.
• Avalanche and Pyro were dead or are new personas now.

My Thoughts:

Well, I’m gonna start off with something I found out about since the last time I read X-Men: Gold. Apparently there was a bit of a controversy surrounding the artist – Ardian Syaf – and he will no longer be drawing this series or I believe anything for Marvel, and I kinda doubt he’ll be drawing much of anything in the industry. It seems he decided to embed political messages about his particular religious beliefs without the knowledge of the writer or editors of the comic. These messages were antisemitic and anti-christian and attacked political leaders in his home country so once Marvel found out about it, they canned him. I suppose on an artistic level, he was a pretty good artist in the first issue and seems to have kinda coasted in this issue, but it’s pretty horrific for someone to use a comic in the manner he did…particularly a title like the X-Men that has always been about fighting discrimination and racism.

Regardless of the transition in artistic duties that will be coming in this title, I enjoyed the second issue, though not as much as the first. For a story arc that titles itself Back to Basics there sure seems to be a bunch of stuff going on that is related to things that have happened in the past and knowing X-Men continuity would really come in handy when reading this issue. The other issue I have with this issue is that it seems to jump around a lot. There doesn’t seem to be much in the way of transition scenes, we just go from one location to another, and from one group of mutants to another without much foreplay. Perhaps this is all setup for future issues but there sure seems to be a bunch of places they wanted to get to and a bunch of people they wanted to show but they had a hard time connecting things.

My Rating: B-

This comic can be found on Marvel Unlimited, Comixology or at your local comic book shop.

Daily Ramble 264.2 | Comics – Modern Marvel – X-Men: Gold #2