Does a mallrat eat chili dogs?
The good news for fans who might be less than thrilled at the current state of the X-Men franchise is that there's now a second option for those who prefer standalone, humor-oriented books. X-Men '92 picks up where last year's Secret Wars tie-in left off, chronicling the ongoing adventures of the merry mutants in the tradition of the beloved animated series. This series works as a heavy dose of nostalgia, but more importantly, it's just plain fun to read.
The new series deviates a bit more from the framework of the cartoon than its predecessor did. The traditional team lineup has changed, with Bishop and Psylocke replacing Cyclops and Jean Grey and the casts of Generation X and X-Statix now settling into the mansion. These changes seem to be for the better. I blame X-Men: The Animated Series for leading me to believe Cyclops was a terrible character for several years, and there's not a lot to be gained by having that stuffy teacher's pet version of the character hogging the spotlight. Psylocke and Bishop make for fun additions to the group dynamic. And the addition of a real student body to this incarnation of the X-Men doesn't hurt either. Characters like Chamber add a bit of extra flavor to the book without distracting from the core cast.
Plus, '90s Doop. 'Nuff Said.
The tone is also more overtly comedic. Writers Chris Sims and Chad Bowers achieve a delicate balance in this first issue. The dialogue is very reminiscent of the cartoon, what between Storm's overwrought proclamations, Rogue's colorful, Southern-fried similes, Gambit's nigh-indecipherable patois and Wolverine's perpetual tough guy posturing. It's all very '90s in the only way it's really acceptable to be '90s in superhero comics these days - with a healthy dose of self-awareness and a tongue-in-cheek fondness for the source material.
While Sims and Bower carry over from the previous X-Men '92 series, this book receives a significant visual overhaul thanks to Alti Firmansyah. In some ways Firmansyah's style is a natural fit. It's just cartoonish enough to pay tribute to the animated series without losing sight of the bombastic, hyper-kinetic approach that made the '90s X-Men comics so distinctive. The individual character designs are sleek and expressive. The problem generally comes with how those characters are arranged on the page. Far too many panels in this issue feel cluttered and crammed full of figures. The often sparse background details don't do much to create a sense of order or perspective.
The Verdict
Marvel hasn't always found success in trying to tap into the lingering nostalgia for the X-Men's '90s period. This new series is largely successful, thanks to its lighthearted tone and a storytelling approach that honors the source material while also poking fun at its many excesses. It's unfortunate that the art isn't quite up to the task of capturing that distinctive era, but hopefully that's an element of the book that will improve with time.
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