Release Date: March 12th, 2014
Rating: 5/5 Stars
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Written By: Brian Michael Bendis
Art By: Stuart Immonen
Price: 3.99
Review:
The Trial of Jean Grey, Part 5of6
This is one of the best issues of an X-Men comic I’ve read in a long time. It has a lot to do with the writing and the awesome teams coming together in this Trial of Jean Grey storyline. Mash-up The Starjammers, current and past X-Men, and the Guardians of the Galaxy and you’ve got one of the funniest, high-octane comics on the shelves.
Bendis writing a team book is fantastic. While the bullheaded Gladiator of the Shi’ar Imperial Guard insists on punishing Jean Grey for crimes she committed in the past, as her future self (?) the team of space pirates, mutants, and whatever the Guardians are, race to rescue her. The dialog is insane in All New X-men. It’s fast-paced, hard-hitting, and downright perfect. Rocket and Peter Quill obviously have the funniest lines but it’s Gladiator and young Cyclops who take the show for their badass remarks. The cracks and smart remarks aren’t forced at all and feel exactly how most of these characters would and should interact with each other. The best moment was when the team lands and meets Gladiator who, of course, threatens them and informs them to …”choose their next move carefully.” Rocket’s response right before blasting him in the face with a giant space rifle: “All Right.” Awesome. Angela in this book, while she doesn’t make sense yet, fits in crazy good with the Guardians. Cyclops, fresh out of puberty, even threatens to kill the invulnerable space spartan, Gladiator. While the cracks are showing in the Imperial Guard and their leader’s choices in this bogus trial, they still basically hand the X-Men their tails. I love it when the Imperial Guard gets introduced to the rookie X-Men because it shows how far these characters have come in the years since their creations. At their best, the X-Men are at least on par with the Guard.
Stuart Immonen’s art is perfect for this title. The facial expressions communicate fantastically and the action is full of…action. I’ve been a huge fan of his since Nextwave and he’s grown exponentially as an artist. The numbers in this book look to be taking a toll but not many artists can have 10 to 20 characters per panel per page and still maintain the level of identifying detail Immonen puts into his cast. The fights and punches and brawls all look kinetic and you can actually feel that lick Groot puts on Gladiator. Each blow looks painful and real. Drax looks angry, Gladiator looks even angrier, Cyclops looks on the verge of crying in every panel and the rest of the book is full of awesomely drawn space pirates, space cops, space Spartans, the Guardians, prepubescent X-Men, and even what looks like a very pissed off Jean Grey resurrecting the Pheonix itself!
This book is awesome if I haven’t used that word too much. Seriously though, while I may be partial to these characters, I love the story, the matchups, the characterizations, etc. My only complaint, which is a constant in an ensemble book like this, is that I don’t get 8 pages of Groot and Drax versus Gladiator. Even with that complaint, the conclusion of the Trial of Jean Grey should be a big one.