General: When Jesus was born, there were wise kings, gifts, angelic visits, and immaculate conceptions. When the X-Office at Marvel kicked off its brand new crossover Messiah CompleX, they hired old artist Marc Silvestri , released tons of interviews with major comic book industry entities, discussed tidbits about the X-Men status quo after the event, and revealed two new titles that were pending. Jesus was born, and it was great, but apparently the infant of God was just about the same as a normal infant with more pomp and circumstance. Similarly, Messiah CompleX is a competent start to a new huge Marvel event, but is ultimately nothing amazing in and of itself.
Writing: Writer Ed Bruebaker does a nice job conveying the stakes involved for the X-Men as they become aware of the first mutant baby born since the events of ‘M-Day’ where 99% of mutants lost their abilities and the X-Gene was seemingly erased from the genetic code. However, there’s no immediate sense of danger for the protagonists, just foreboding about the poor start to said mutant birth.
Art: Silvestri’s art is Silverstri’s art. It’s generally good, but for some reason his renditions of our blue-furred X-Men manages to piss me off. Nightcrawler has a Roman/Caesar esq gel cut and Beast looks more akin to an alien in an X jumpsuit than a superhero.
Overall: If you have kept up the hype, there’s nothing compelling about this issue. You can probably jump in later without confusion. Personally, I am pleased with the purchase because I am a completist and I respect Bruebaker’s ability to take a number of continuity-mired comic book characters and events and make a story that should be understandable to newcomers without dumbing down or oversimplifying the complex past events of X-history. One thing that annoyed the hell out of me was the 3.99 price tag for what boils down to eight pages of pinups and bland Cyclops commentary. I think that this ‘in character-look’ at the players of Messiah Complex is intriguing, but for an extra buck I could have used more story… thank you very much!
Messiah Complex #1: +35
General Feelings towards Crossover: Optimistic, after all, that whole Jesus thing turned out to be a pretty big deal despite an eventful infancy and that dissappearence between the ages of twelve and thirty!
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