Dark X-men 1: Review & Spoilers

[DurararaFTW]

So this issue is divided into 2 parts. The first one is written by Steve Foxe with art by Jonas Scharf and is 22 pages. The second one is by Foxe with art by Nelson Dániel and clocks out on 9 pages.

So lets start with the first one.
We get the preview pages. Maddie is reflecting on how Limbo reflects her and how it’s changing as she is after the events of Dark X-men. Alex wakes her from her dream, there are protesters outside of the embassy, again. We get some exposition and a double pages showing us some of the residents of the embassy. Then to end the preview pages we get the demon cerebro or as Maddie calls it the Mercy Crown. She lets Alex know that she felt Jean die but no one else( I assume no other telepaths died and the numbers were low enough not to register), so she believes that the roughly 250000 mutants are still alive somewhere and she aims to find them. End of preview.

In Queens Carmen is visiting a friend from her Children of the Atoms mini which I didn’t read so now clue as to which one it is. They have short blond hair and glasses. Carmen is disguised as a friend called Benny and the father welcomes “him” happily. Sadly that turns when he snopes on them and sees Carmen shapeshift back into her default mode. He does what any proud citizen would do and directly reports it to an authority.. or whatever you would call Orchis. Yeah the dad is not father of the year material.

A data page follows with a chat from some of the Children of the Atom cast.

Troops storm the basement and arrest and detain Carmen while the father stutters out that he don’t want them to hurt his daughter and that he just wanted to protect his family. Which seems very odd on the behalf that no one knew except his daughter and then him after he snooped. So basically he represents the spineless majority who makes up the USA after Orchis has taken over.

Carmen wakes up after her arrest in a prison transport, on her way to a re-eduction camp. Fortunately Gambit has other plans and we get a cool scene where he throws out some charged road spikes to blow the transport up. Warren then swoops in and rips open the doors. The art here really sells it. Carmen even gets a kick in towards a guard that was less then sympathetic. We then get to see Carmens rescuers: Remy, Warren and Japheth. Good old Maggot is here and looking cool in shades even though it’s night time. Perhaps he needs theme for his eyes? He is all blued up so his physiology is enhanced.


The guard that Carmen kicked is sadly not down for the count. Instead he does his own kicking at another guard. In this case to kickstart him. Lot of kicking jokes here….

We get a data page which is the incident report that Orchis has filled over this prison transport break out.

It’s Albert who pops his claws. The guard tells us that Elsie Dee was not deemed controllable so she was scrapped( sad emoji).

Even sadder is that Albert attacks them and impales Warren. Reinforcements arrive and things don’t look good. Then Azrael bamfs in(I forgot he also bamfs, poor Kurt). The Dark X-men has arrived. We get Maddie, Alex, Azrael, Emplate and Kenji. Carmen asks Remy if they are on their side and he responds “Dat’s complicated chére”. Chere might not be the right word to use according to google I did but at least it’s the right gender.
We get some nice banter between Remy and Alex. Carmen is worried about Warren because he’s not breathing but Maggot calms her down saying that Warren has an healing factor.


There is a difference here in that Azrael, Maddie, Kenji and Emplate are killing Orchis guards while the others are not. Maddie even has a car eating up a guard. Alex doesn’t approve of this but then he gets Alberts claws through his throat and that sends Maddie over the edge. She scraps Albert and ignite some guards and then orders Azrael to teleport them back. Remy sees an opportunity and asks for them to piggy back. Before they are teleported away Maggot notices that they are not teleporting Warren, which he of course wants them to do.


So we end with Orchis delivering the body of Warren to some higher ups. The cliff hanger is the reveal of a prisoner they have. I don't’ know her but she looks like a darkchylde version of Maddie.

The second part is a prequel that shows us Alex doing administrative work with allowing people to take shelter at the embassy. It’s a cavalcade of mutants with a checked past visiting with the highlight being the mastermind sisters who don’t want shelter, they are just there for tea with Maddie.

We then get into the dynamic of Alex and Maddie with the angle that Maddie knows that Alexs wants approval&purpose and she is using him in that regard.

We also get a scene with Chasm where Ben rightfully admonishes Maddie for letting Jean fix her but not offering the same solution for him and Peter. Well Dark Web was a mess for Ben and Peter and Chasm is better not touched and retconned as fast as you can say: Nick Lowe!


Overall the issue is sort of a mixed bag. Scarfs art is beautiful and I love me some good use of shadows. On the other hand it’s too decompressed. The action scenes would do with one or two more panels just to see such a varied cast in action. I wanted more from Warren and Maggot, Warren especially since he is taken out so early.

If you remove the second part and compress the first part a bit I wouldn’t be surprised if Foxe and Scharf could fit in issue 1 & 2 in this issue.

The second part is mostly humor and a chance to show some different mutants that we don't get to see that often. I sort of like it but since the first part was over rather quickly it sadly makes you wish that some of these pages would have been used to add to the first part. Which is unfair towards the second part.

I don’t know how others feel but I had too much Alex and Maddie in this issue. I want more team and less focus on them. Especially the first pages did very little for me, which of course was a bit bogged down in recapping that FoX is under way.
Especially I wanted more Warren, Maggot, Gambit and Gimmick. That is a fun team and I really love the potential there and I want more from Maggot. Scharf draws a cool Maggot!

Overall there is nothing wrong with the writing, I would say it’s Foxe’s best so far. The art is really good from Scharf and good but goofy from Nelson Daniel. It just read a bit to fast.
I felt that Children of the Vault last week was stronger. Perhaps I will give this one a:

7,5/10. A setup issue.

It's Azazel.

[Malachi]

It's Azazel.

So it is. I thought so briefly when typing it up but convinced myself it must be Azrael.

[Shortpack!]

Someone really needs to call Alex out on his gross codependence when it comes to Maddie. It's even worse now than it was in the lead-in to Inferno.

And he accused Lorna of being crazy? Please... I'd take the entire House of M - including Joseph - and they're miles ahead of Alex when it comes to Maddie.

[Frontier]

I really hope kain comes back to knock the stupid out of his brother

And maybe break him out and pull a fast one on Maddie...

[JB]

I'm hoping Foxe is taking Alex somewhere rather than keeping him in this loop like so many other writers have. I'm hopeful that by the end of this he has a triumphant moment and his whole vibe changes. He's too handsome to be a chump.

[dragon1440]

Damn these FoX issue #1s are all quick reads! Good strategy to get folks coming back for more.

While the issue wasn’t perfect (the betrayal from Buddy’s dad was forced, leaving Warren behind was wild cause they were right next to him, etc.), overall it was really entertaining. I think with more than a mini Foxe could end up writing a really compelling series.

Regarding Alex, his characterization isn’t exactly off because he’s had a long history of being a directionless mess BUT I think someone needs to write an arc where he actually works on himself at some point. Shoot it could even end with him deciding that the superhero life isn’t for him and retiring, because that’s better than this cycle he’s been in.

I think they left Warren behind on purpose. They mentioned his healing factor which is not throw away dialogue I think. I think that once he is captured he will be fine and attack from within base, using being hurt as a cover to get inside.

[Micabe]

Someone really needs to call Alex out on his gross codependence when it comes to Maddie. It's even worse now than it was in the lead-in to Inferno.

And he accused Lorna of being crazy? Please... I'd take the entire House of M - including Joseph - and they're miles ahead of Alex when it comes to Maddie.

Didn't Maddy put a Whammy on Alex during Inferno? Oh, and Lorna lost her mind for a stretch around the time she started going about her alleged father

[Hi-Fi]

Regan? REGAN!?!? YAAASSSS!!!

To be clear, it's just for one panel, which she shares with Martinique, but still... Regan!

[Sr. Bungle]

I'm hoping Foxe is taking Alex somewhere rather than keeping him in this loop like so many other writers have. I'm hopeful that by the end of this he has a triumphant moment and his whole vibe changes. He's too handsome to be a chump.

Maybe Maddie wanted to use Ben as a replacement Alex, they're too similar

[HomoSuperior]

Okay. I'm in. This was fun and intriguing.

WHAT is up with the one true goblin queen (and her pet Nightcrawler)?

Are we going to learn Limbo has "split" Maddie into different versions, kind of like it did Illyana back in the day?

[Technopriest]

He forgot to tell her that she was his partner in crime and now she's his jailer.

Not only partner in crime, she planned the whole thing and pretty much let Ben take the fall. It's hilarious that she acts like it's a mercy she is her jailer when she is actually even more responsible for what happened.

[Til]

I thought it was a good first issue. I like the collection of mutant misfits they've got in the Limbo embassy. I will admit, I was disappointed in how quickly Warren got taken out. I was hoping to get more from him than a single line of dialogue. Then, to add insult to injury, they just left him behind. My boy gets no respect.

[Micabe]

How did this particular group of mutants get banded together and just where was Madelyne hiding all this time or is she along with the rest of them time-displaced?

[gonnagiveittoya]

The saddest part is Orchis saying they killed Elsie Dee

[JB]

The saddest part is Orchis saying they killed Elsie Dee

That's a major crime. Foxe hit me in the heart with that bit of information.

I'm thinking Warren is going to wreck shop when he eventually gets up. He can do a lot of damage inside of anywhere haha. He looked so good in this. Sidenote: Foxe retweeted an announcement that the issue is going to second printing. Noice.