Astonishing X-Men Xenogenesis
Overview: A small African town has been hit with a series of bizarre occurrences, as children are born possessing strange and powerful abilities. With the mutant race dwindling the X-Men are the first on the scene to investigate the phenomenon. When they arrive, their hopes are raised by what looks to be a concentration of mutant births. But soon they find themselves confronted by the country’s ruthless leader, who has his own ideas of what the children truly are and how to deal with them. Have the X-Men stumbled across a series of new mutant births, or are they dealing with something far more dangerous?
Pages: 160 Pages
Collecting Astonighing X-Men Xenogenesis #1-5
Writer: Warren Ellis
Artist: Kaare Andres
Colorist: Frank D’Armata
Letterer: Joe Caramagna & Clayton Cowles
Recommendations: Astonishing X-Men Vol 1 — Astonishing X-Men Vol 2 –– Astonishing X-Men Vol 3 — Astonishing X-Men Vol 4 — Astonishing X-Men Vol 7 — Astonishing X-Men Vol 8 — Astonishing X-Men Vol 9 — Astonishing X-Men Vol 11 — Astonishing X-Men Vol 12
I will start off with the story. I really liked the direction this series went in. The X-Men head out to figure out what is going on in an African Country. One that has a militant leader, is bordered on all sides by other challenges, and won’t find help if the X-Men don’t offer it. Moreover, who better to help than the X-Men when the issue behind the problem is that children are being born with mutant powers. This should not be happening, as the X-Gene does not happen at birth. The story has a fair amount going on. It relies on all the X-Men to some degree. It also uses a combination of brains and strength to resolve the conflicts they encounter. The one weakness I had with the book is the artwork. I encountered multiple panels that really just were bad. The first one I kind of laughed because I thought it was a joke, but then when I noticed a few more I realized it was just the style the artist chose to use. Even then, how some characters were drawn was not consistent. If you accomplish nothing else in a comic book, it is that the characters should be drawn fairly consistent.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book. To be honest, it felt very short. Some of that could be that the wording was kept short and to the point, something I liked. I was impressed with the story but was let down by how characters were drawn. I still think this was one of the better in the series and am hopeful that more will come that are as good or better than this one.