Age of X-Man: The X-Tremists #4 (spoilers/discussion)

[Anduinel]

Highlights from this issue:

- Jean-Paul frequenting a “historic” theater that’s been illegally showing romance pictures. Said theater being run by Rictor.

- Jean-Paul using his position in Dept. X to give Rictor a heads-up about Dept. X catching wind of things.

- Rictor calling Bobby a “twunk”. XD

- Bobby in general. His behavior is very “tag-along little brother”, and his attempts at being supportive are stumbling at first, but in a way that suggests he’s just not used to relating to people without his shield of humor. It’s really sincerely sweet by the end.

- Newly reconditioned Moneta being even creepier than basic Moneta. What. The. ****?



- Jean-Paul, Rictor, and Bobby drunk-cuddling while JP poured his heart out. I just… I needed a moment.



- Jean-Paul describing his heartache over missing Kyle, and not even knowing for sure what it was he’d lost to make him feel so hollow. That’s where I drowned in my own damn feels. Please stop/don’t stop torturing my fave!

- Jubilee, back to original settings and ready to burn this bitch down.



- That final shot. Go do some damage, boys! <3

I’ve enjoyed the exploration of what having holes as big as a lifetime in your memory has done to these particular characters, and this issue wasn’t an exception. We’re also in the home stretch now, seeing Nate’s hold fall apart over the different AoXM series, and his most feared enforcers having the scales fall from their eyes has been a long time coming. Now we just have to see how Fred and Betsy react, which I am very much looking forward to.

The art continues to be something of a stumbling block with this book, though. It's never felt like Jeanty really got comfortable with these characters or the setting, and while some panels look just fine, we still get way too many occurrences of stiff figures and off-kilter expressions. Sometimes, I see how the X-Tremists team looks over in books like NextGen, and just sigh longingly. Oh, well.