X-Men: Messiah Complex

Collects the X-Men: Messiah Complex one-shot written by Ed Brubaker and drawn by Marc Silvestri, Uncanny X-Men #492-494 written by Ed Brubaker and drawn by Billy Tan, X-Men #44-46 written by Mike Carey and drawn by Chris Bachalo, New X-Men #44-46 written by Craig Kyle & Chris Yost and drawn by Humberto Ramos and X-Factor #25-27 written by Peter David and drawn by Scot Eaton.

Before getting to the meat of this review, I will just provide a link to a former post where I aired my opinions on Marvel's policy of pushing back the publication date of tpb's that are also published as HC's, in effect messing up the publication order of tpb's. Grr, I'm still angry...

Ok, happy I got that off my chest (again). So, was Messiah Complex worth the wait? Yes, I think it was. X-Men have been keeping a high level of quality lately, in the sense that I got what I expected and a little bit more from books such as Rise And Fall Of The Shi'ar Empire, Supernovas and Endangered Species. Obviously, Astonishing has been in a league of it's own here, so I'll keep it out of the equation in this context. Messiah Complex ties up all the recent story lines of the various X-books (sans Astonishing), and makes way for a new beginning for them all.

The big X-issue since M-Day has been the lack of any new mutant appearances. As was made very clear in Endangered Species: the mutants are a dying breed. So when a new mutant birth suddenly takes place, several groupings suddenly find themselves hot on the heels of each other in pursuit of this mutant baby. As if having to deal with the Marauders and the Purifiers wasn't enough, several key members of the X-Men also turn out to have their own agendas, and, to no one's surprise, the whole shebang ends in a giant no-holds-barred all-against-all old fashioned fisticuffs. Is it formulaic? Yes, it is. Is it entertaining? Hell yes, it is. This book, and the books that lead up to it, shows the effectiveness of the X-Men formula: convoluted plot lines with multiple back-references spiced up with a huge gallery of characters, some time traveling, lots of action and regular surprises to keep the reader on the edge of the seat.

One of the things I particular liked about this crossover, is that each involved series is dedicated to the same degree. You may be reading an issue of X-Factor or you may be reading an issue of Uncanny X-Men, but you won't notice, because during the crossover they're virtually the same. Each team (X-Men, X-Factor, New X-Men) are equally featured in all chapters, and the same goes for the numerous subplots. Essentially, each monthly series was put out of effect during this crossover, giving way for a more unified story. This goes against the idea of several parallel monthly series, but works perfectly well in the tpb format, and goes to show what a powerful storytelling format this really is.

What makes it all work is how well coordinated the whole thing is between the writers. Not only are the events of the story well coordinated, care has also been taken to not have the characters act differently depending on who was writing a particular chapter. The main X-books (X-Men, Uncanny X-Men) does not give much room for individual expression on the part of the writer, and some may think of this as a bad thing. But this book is a good showcase of why this can also be a good thing. In any case, a series like Astonishing X-Men perfectly makes up for this.

Unlike the writing, the art of Messiah Complex is very heterogeneous. Bachalo's and Ramos' styles may have some likenesses, but throw in Tan and Eaton in the mix and you have a book with very differing visual styles. The cohesiveness of the book does take a hit on this account, one only has to look to Endangered Species to see how this could have been done better, but on the other hand, each of the four main artists does such a good job individually that it becomes a minor point. Even Billy Tan, whose work on Rise And Fall... didn't impress me, seems to have improved massively since then, and delivers some really good work in this book. I also want to point out the great covers by David Finch, who shows off what he can do without the time constraints of 24 pages per month, wow... It's a shame someone decided it was a good idea to slap Silvestri's cover to the one-shot on the cover of the tpb as well, because it is not only boring, it is vastly inferior to any of the covers done by Finch. Sometimes I just don't know what those Marvel guys are thinking...

Messiah Complex is by no means perfect. A lot of loose ends are left dangling, and I assume they will be dealt with in Divided We Stand and later. I would like to have seen the motivations of the X-traitor (whose name shall remain unrevealed here) explored more thoroughly, and maybe a little cohesiveness between the sub plots would have been nice. But at the end of the day, Messiah Complex delivers a very entertaining story, and if the X-books can keep up this level of quality, I would say the future for the mutant race looks bright.

Btw, if you want to read Messiah Complex, but haven't read X-Men, Uncanny X-Men, X-Factor and New X-Men for the last four to five years, I suggest you also pick up the X-Men: Divided We Stand tpb, which includes X-Men: Messiah Complex - Mutant Files #1 in which you will find explanations for most of the madness in the story.

7/10