REVIEW: All New X-Men #13

Written by Dennis Hopeless, art by Mark Bagley, published by Marvel

This is a tough review, not because of the subject matter but the part of me that wears a beret and chokes on French cigarettes frowns on the mainstream especially after reading a naff Indy. This is Kid Apocalypse and Idie Okonkwo taking Bobby Drake (AKA Iceman) to a gay club for his first night out after freshly emerging from the closet.

It’s so well observed, tactfully handled, open and refreshing. I’m sure there’s many fantards out there screening words like “classic” and “cannon” and so forth, so if I could appeal to their parents to slip the latch on the basement door it would save them getting into the real world thankyou muchly.

It’s a professional comic, made by professionals, it has a classic trope with a cool twist, excellent characterisation, an ongoing subplot that’s not shoehorned in but used naturally to fill in a few cracks in the pacing.

The art is wonderful, there’s a lot going on in some panels but some clever colour Â skills make sure you know where to look, club scenes can be a confusing mess, not here. There’s also some savvy winks to the audience regarding inhumans and mutants which was nice bit of self-awareness. There’s also an excellent use of Iceman’s powers that makes wonderful sense in the club, you just want to hug the guy.

Not a comic for fantards, everyone else go have fun. 4.5/5

[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]