X-Men: Worst X-Man Ever
When thinking of Marvel the first thing that comes to mind is X-Men, then Spider-Man, but first (or forth) X-Men (or a specific X-Man [hairy, short, has knives in his arms]). This is more of a story about what it would be like if you were plucked out of your life and placed into this MARVELous new world. Through years future & past, the spectacle of Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters has been a haven for mutants of any age. And with a community of empowered and powerful beings there’s always a chance that bad luck will arise within this fellowship. Bailey (our title holder for “Worst X-Man”) might just be the most unlucky mutant to walk the Earth, since his power is, well, it’s a surprise. Nothing all that special, like our main character, but it’s one thing that keeps the plot rolling in the direction that it’s in. Since everyone within the mini-series knows that he’s capable of doing something that is most dangerous and hard to control. There’s a lot of mutants out there that have time to play with their inherent genetic skills, but not all mutants have that luxury and that’s kind of the point of this whole tale. Let’s take a moment from this book, so I’m talking to you, yeah, the reader of this review, yep you, you have a chance to use your superpower, just once, for one time only, how will you use it and what would you do? That’s the simple question posed within this story and one that gradually Bailey concludes. Bailey is the one that walks us through his life, nothing really uncanny or astonishing, but it’s him, just an average teenager doing average teenager things (the opposite of xtreme). With all the amazing teams, adventures, and powers that the mighty Marvel mutants have, there’s not too many slice of life stories. Even another Marvel favorite, Spider-Man, has some downtime with his City and cast of characters, away from all the drama and villains. It’s nice to sometimes take a break from making a better tomorrow for mutant-kind and just seeing someone’s life who went to Xavier’s school, since most get a one bedroom apartment six feet in the dirt. Bailey gives us many details of his life, makes us aware of things that were plots happening back in the day to other X-Men teens, and he doesn’t leave out the awkward parts. I feel that’s the linchpin for all of this, if this was a retelling from an older Bailey it would have done better, I’m getting ahead of myself. The fifth issue (which is my favorite) the story felt right, the pacing, the dialogue, the plot, the characters just clicked into place, then boom it was done. What was different between the other issues was this is an older Bailey. There was a time skip, a pause, in the life of Bailey, which I really enjoyed, for a second we caught up to him and where he’s currently at in his life. Just gonna break in here and talk about the accompanying illustrations by Micheal Walsh, as the visual storyteller. His work makes for a gorgeous presentation, that was motivating, to see what he had in store for the next issue, since I was enamored with the backgrounds to the costumes to the character designs, everything was a delight. Back to what I was saying before. This was a nice jump and the documentary motif is perfect, overused, but for this series fits just so well. I would have liked it to be placed throughout the other four issues. Pretty much, it would be like a coming of age TV show where the older version of Bailey taking the role of narrator, but also blurring the lines between who’s speaking so a lot of the fourth wall breaking younger Bailey does make more sense. There was beautiful moments of satirical commentary on the X-Men publication as a whole that I feel fell flat, since how would this younger character know, it was good, but alien within the plot.
For what it’s worth this isn’t a series for someone new to X-Men, not someone fresh from a movie, nor even one of the many TV shows, this is a comic for comic X-Men fans. Not to say someone without decades of consumption wouldn’t enjoy it, but it’s not written for those people. In short, it’s a love letter to a never ending series that will reinvent it’s self, it’s characters, it’s team for decades beyond us all. There are very few Slice of Life X-Men stories out there, and this is one of the best, since this is a personal journey with no real destination, at least no desired finale, which makes Bailey’s story a good limited series.
I trust you enjoyed the inspection, thank you for reading.
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