Marvel’s summer event is kicking into high gear with X-Men #13 spinning out of A.X.E.: Judgment Day #2. The Eternals are attacking in various locations, including Krakoa itself. Their goal? To eradicate all deviants, which includes all mutants. We saw glimpses of the fight Jean Grey was going through off the coast of Krakoa, but X-Men #13 brings us even closer to that fight.
As promised, when X-Men was relaunched, this is a superhero fight comic at its core. From the word go, we’ve got Magik, Jean Grey, and Synch battling a 20-story tall Hex off the coast. It’s an epic opening with a great sense of scale, thanks to C.F. Villa’s pencils. To see Forge as calm as a cucumber ready for a very big gun shows the X-Men aren’t afraid nor even that nervous. Cut to Jean floating over the dead Hex threat, and in the distance, we see three more on their way. It’s a great way to create a bit of dread and high stakes for the rest of the issue.
Gerry Duggan does a good job fitting in little details about the characters or the story. For instance, we get to see Ikaris speak to Jean through their minds, and while he’s fine with the plan the X-Men have concocted, he makes it clear no Eternal can die. If you haven’t been reading the main event or Eternals, you wouldn’t know that his demand isn’t because he cares for the Eternals so much as he knows that when one dies, an innocent human dies. There’s some tension here as even later in this issue, Magik says she doesn’t trust him. Not everyone is being honest with each other even though they are allies.
Much of the rest of the issue is devoted to a mission to defeat an armory beneath the Earth’s crust. A tidbit of Eternals culture is relayed–the fact that there are supply routes and the Hex connect to them from armories around the galaxy–further adding some color to the mission.
Why does he need to be so secretive? Spill the beans, dude!
Credit: Marvel
Many fight scenes feature teamwork, Synch changing powers as needed, and plenty of banter. Duggan and Villa keep the action interesting with different layers to the fight, cementing the fact that it’s not an easy battle, nor is it a boring one. It’s also nice to see these characters may be the new X-Men lineup, but there are still some conflicting opinions and attitudes to wrestle with.
Villa’s art is great, and while it’s a little rougher in its style, it has an unmistakable manga influence. Most importantly, you never get lost in the action scenes. You can see where folks are and how they’re contributing. The rougher style did confuse me once or twice with what was going on–I’m looking at you, Iceman getting cut in half–but overall it’s excellent.
It goes without saying that if you haven’t been reading Judgment Day, you will likely be completely confused by all this. Duggan does a fabulous job setting up the threat and the goal, though, so you could feasibly go in blind, but the high stakes might be lost, and the cliffhanger would be downright confusing. So far, Marvel has done a good job making the tie-in stories feel important and necessary, which hasn’t been the case in recent years. Crossover events are a staple of comics and to see them connect so tightly is refreshing.
X-Men #13 is a really good fight comic. It sets up the team’s goals for the issue, has them commit to those goals, works together, and keeps the stakes high. In some sense, the battle in this issue is self-contained though reading the main event is highly recommended. X-Men is a good tie-in, but an even better team book.
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