An Uncanny Achievement

The Uncanny X-Men hit a milestone 500 issues this month, a feat rarely met in comics. It is especially turn in that unlike many other comic series, the Uncanny X-Men have never renumbered nor relaunched with a new #1. The issue pays tribute to those five hundred issues of stories all while kicking off the next phase of X-comics running under the banner "Manifest Destiny."

While I am somewhat befuddled as to how I got from issue #499 to #500, I am overall pretty glad that I am there. The issue presents some truly new status quo changes for the X-Men all while injecting into the book a level of playfulness not see in its pages in a long time. The characters more relaxed and quippy attitudes are a product of Marvel's merry mutants moving to San Francisco, a city that seems to accept them. They get visits form the mayor, parties, and the ability to walk down the street without having to hide.

Even though the issue features all these new developments, a slew of old X-concepts are reworked and reimagined as well. Classic villains the Hellfire Club gets a face-lift while the Blob takes a turn that you would never dream. I have never been more excited about Dazzle than in the one panel mention she gets from teen X-Men Pixie.

While most of what is going on in this landmark issue takes the X-Men in an exciting new direction, the story telling gets a little muddy at times. Various X-Men characters seem to show up at random in the issue and the scene-to-scene transitions have the same lack of definition at times. Some of these storytelling problems are the culprit of the art teams desire to deliver highly rendered illustrations than clearly constructed panels.

Even with these storytelling issues, Uncanny X-Men #500 is a solid kickoff for the next phase of X-Men books. It has been a long time since X-Men stories have been filled with so many new possibilities. I'll have to keep an eye on the series to see if it delivers on its potential.

-Nick