{mosimage}It’s been a busy busy week. Real life has a tendency to get in the way of important things, like reading a whole week’s new release comics. But with this week’s Marvel releases being what they are, it’s time for a more focussed look at a single title: the first book in the mutant crossover Messiah Complex.
So, it’s another Marvel event I hear you say. House of M, Avengers Disassembled, Civil War, World War Hulk, One More Day, Yadda Yadda Yadda. But wait…none of those were X-centric. Nope, although House of M had a strong mutant theme, it technically wasn’t just an X event. This isn’t the 90’s. This is 2007, and the mutant world, to be frank, has been in a sorry state for a while now.
Some of the mutant books, on their own, are a long way from being bad books. X-Factor is consistently good. New X-Men has worked with a brand new cast of characters with some feeling, when they stay alive long enough for the reader to start caring for them. Astonishing X-Men is periodically a good read. And Uncanny and Adjectiveless X-Men have been on the improve since Brubaker and Carey took over their respective titles. But there hasn’t been a feeling of coherence at all, something that really isn’t helped by the big name mutants of Astonishing forceably out of the picture due to the slow running time of that book.
Messiah CompleX, hopefully, is going to change all of that. For the first time in a couple of years, the events of House of M are being addressed directly, rather than in the background as we see "protective" Sentinels hovering around the mansion. Characters that we haven’t seen interact, despite living under the same roof, are now actually talking to each other. And something fundamental to the concept of mutants is actually at stake.
It’s this fundamental cocept of what the X-Men family represent that has been largely forgotten for a while. Remember this: "Sworn to protect a world that hates and fears them"? This was the byword, the bible for X book storylines since their inception. Underlying issues of racism, intolerance, and minorities have always played a role in what the mutant characters fight for. 
When the X-Men’s popularity took off under the helm of Claremont, these themes expanded as the X-Men moved from being a white American-centric book to encompass peoples of all parts of the globe, with various religious identification, and become even more identifiable with the readership. An African goddess, a devoutly Christian demonic looking German, a man of steel with the heart of a poet from America’s chief Cold War enemy. And a troubled man with a mysterious past and anger issues. None of these new members were easy fits into a dominant society, and this is what made the X-Men so popular for a long time.
In short, the X-Men represented a way to fight against the norm, the fight to fit into a structured society. And although the space opera elements of the Shiar Empire were popular, they were always a distraction from the chief goals of the X-Men. And largely, all of the X crossovers dealt with issues of mutant-human relations. Inferno is a glaring example of a crossover that didn’t, and as such doesn’t necessarily say anything about the X-Men.
Which brings me, in a roundabout way, to Messiah CompleX. Event fatigue may be setting in, but I have absolutely no problem with this X event. Because there’s a raging need for the X-family to get back to basics, and face the issues most relevant to them. If they don’t, they’re just another bunch of costumed heroes, without the rich subtextual potential that the X-Men have.
The book itself is a mixed bag. As everyone knows, a new mutant signature has been picked up by Cerebro. It’s now a race as to who will find the first mutant baby born since House of M. Which does pose a question – how does anyone know the child is a mutant, if it’s just a baby. The X-gene doesn’t manifest until puberty, unless in dire cases. If the baby is a mutant, what has caused it’s powers to manifest?And how on earth have two other groups outside the X-Men detected it?
Plot issues aside, the writing in this book is good. Finally, Cyclops is the undisputed leader of the X-Men. He takes command, he’s strong. No self-doubt, no thinking "What would the Professor do?" We get to see Cyclops develop on his own, and not defined in the image of someone else. Strangely, after nearly 50 years, this is the first he’s read like a man to me. Elsewhere, the characters all ring true, and Brubaker leaves us with a nice teaser as to the direction of the whole arc.
The art is a different matter. There’s a lot of androgynous male faces (it’s been pointed out elsewhere how pretty Wolverine looks). Beast looks…weird. And Emma looks like a teenager trying too hard, not the woman she is. A sort of Marvel Bratz doll. Some of the panels are a little confusing too, the story not told as clearly as it could be. It actually reminds me of the 90’s, in that the craft seems slightly forgotten for the WOW factor.
Before I finish, I should note that there’s a bunch of bonus material in the book. It’s presented as if Cyclops was writing a database on mutants. Some may like these extras, but, as with One More Day, I really can’t see how it justifies the extra dollar in price. With all the online resources available, surely Marvel could have linked this bonus material to their website. It could then have been more thorough than a simple couple of lines below some pin-ups, which look suspiciously like rejected cover designs.
Overall, it’s a solid start for the crossover. A problem has been presented to the mutants, and it’s all about what it actually means to be a mutant. It’s about survival. Of course, we don’t know where it’s going to go, but, thematically at least, I think Marvel are onto a winner here.
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