December
3 Crossing the Line 1 — X-Men: Messiah Complex

Books and creators: X-Men: Messiah Complex #1, written by Ed Brubaker, art by Marc Silvestri, Joe Weems and Marco Galli; The Uncanny X-Men #492, written by Brubaker, art by Billy Tan, Danny Miki and Allen Martinez; X-Factor #25, written by Peter David, art by Scott Eaton and John Dell; New X-Men #44, written by Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost, art by Humberto Ramos and Carlos Cuevas; X-Men #205, written by Mike Carey, art by Chris Bachalo and Tim Townsend.

Marvel, color, 32-48 pages and $2.99 to $3.99 each

So? Crossovers are a fact of life in superhero comics. No matter how often fans complain about them — how they fail creatively and require buying more books than normal to get the whole story — the votes that really count, i.e., sales, show otherwise.

While universe-wide crossovers like Infinite Crisis and Civil War have dominated of late at DC and Marvel, this fall sees the return of crossover to the families of books that used to define event publishing for superhero comics.

The X-Men pioneered this kind of crossover with 1986’s Mutant Massacre, and are back at it with Messiah Complex, the first such X-event in several years.

Following the depowering of all but 198 mutants in 2005’s House of M and Beast’s attempts in the Endangered Species backup series to save the small mutant population from eventual extinction, Messiah Complex sees the birth of the first new mutant and starts a race between the remaining mutant factions to find the child.

As far as concepts go for crossovers, this so far is working quite well. Having a point is more than half the battle when it comes to crossovers. Having a focus also benefits the crossover structure, which in this case goes between four different books, all of which have to both advance the overall story and spotlight its own cast of characters. That’s why parallel plots are common in crossovers, and they work here because the stakes are large enough to justify giving each group its own thing to do in pursuit of the overall goal. It also cannily revisits popular characters and, in some instances, restores at least some of the status quo on characters such as Mr. Sinister and Gambit.

Combine that with very good art from the likes of Marc Silvestri, Chris Bachalo and Humberto Ramos; excellent and consistent coloring; and a distinctive cover design, and you’ve got a good chance of achieving the nominal goal of bringing back lapsed fans for at least a look.

In the end, this appears to be a series that will neither excite fans the way 1995’s Age of Apocalypse did nor bore them as did Operation: Zero Tolerance. The biggest disappointment is that for all the effort put into making this coherent and competent — qualities that most X-overs have struggled to achieve — it isn’t even trying to deliver the kind of change the X-Men truly line needs to redefine itself as an exciting and accessible reading experience that can draw in new readers. That may be an unfair judgment, given that Messiah Complex was never intended to be that kind of story, but when all you’re shooting for is to recapture old fans, there’s little chance of sparking the kind of idea that’s going to truly capture the imagination of readers of any kind. Grade: B