From the desk of Daniel McMahon, GateCrashers CEO
Ethan,
Sending you this memo for this week’s Fun-Size Roundtable, since I will be OOO. X-Corp #1 is out and you know what that means: there is social media engagement to be had. X-Men are HOT right now, they’re printing money. Only way they could be selling more is if they slapped a Bat Symbol on one of them!
(Note: Look into acquiring rights for Dark Claw)
Anyway, BIG week for corporate so please keep buzzwords in mind.
- Synergy
- Impact
- Krakoa
- Return on Investment
- Crossover
Possible slogan for campaign: “That’s Mag-fu#$in’ Neato”
This one’s all about the business of Krakoa. Basically, Angel and Penance have been tasked with building out the corporate side of Krakoa.
It’s written by Tini Howard, illustrated by Alberto Foche, colored by Sunny Gho, and lettered by Clayton Cowles, with cover by David Aja.
Anyway, I left my review on your desk to show. I am off to Krakoa to secure GC52 press clearance for the Hellfire Gala.
Ethan Chambers
For one of my most-anticipated books of the current Reign of X era, featuring some of my favourite mutants, X-Corp #1 ended up being just incredibly average. There’s good stuff in it; Angel and Monet are a lot of fun, Jamie Madrox seems to be getting some development again, and I’m a mark for corporate shenanigans.
However, I found the story itself to be lacking, unfocused even, as if the team needed to get through as much story as possible before the Hellfire Gala next month. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the art either; it didn’t fit the vibe the book was going for. So yeah, X-Corp #1, it’s fine.
Colby E
…Well, I liked it.
Is X-Corp #1 a great comic? Not really. There’s three too many plots, a couple of the characters’ voices are off, the art feels blandly serviceable at best, and it’s frankly far too confident in itself for what’s on offer. But while the book definitely stumbles out of the gate, there’s good here too – the bones of the book’s world show for a wide world of stories, and Howard’s proven on Excalibur that once she gets pieces in place, her storytelling picks up considerably. The writing, while over-expository, keeps things humming and lands a few good gags. Most intriguing is that it’s a superhero comic with essentially no fight scenes – always worth a look, if only for the novelty.
There’s no denying that this isn’t the best opening offer for a series with so much potential, but given time and space to develop, X-Corp might just be worth the investment.
Bobby Varghese Vinu
There’s a sort of aimlessness to this issue, as I do feel like the book struggles with showcasing how X-Corp would work in a world like our own, with its own set of businesses and practices. It seems more preoccupied with just showing what I like to call the “cool biz.”, which begs the question: What is this book about?
What also bothers me the most about X-Corp #1 is Trinary. When Tom Taylor’s X-Men: Red came out, I was excited at the prospect of an Indian mutant, so imagine my disappointment when she was used as the team’s tech support character, a trope which falls prey to a disheartening stereotype that I’ve had to endure as someone who hails from India. She’s still tech support here, and there’s a bit of dialogue that makes it clear that this is a white person writing an Indian character. There’s no life to her character besides a bland artificiality meant to make her “interesting.”
So what are the positives? Well, the pencils are okay, but the colors do make me wish that there could be more life to it. The images have an artificial feeling to them, which I would like to think is intentional given the book is about a corporation, but I think this is just an oversight on the art as opposed to any deliberate meaning.
Maybe X-Corp will improve in the long run, but besides the David Aja cover (why couldn’t he draw the issue?) and the colors by Sunny Gho, this is a disappointing first issue.
Daniel McMahon
Ya’ know, really going against the grain here to say that I loved this issue. Sure, some of it is a little messy, but it feels like one of those montages of getting the gang together. I think there is so much here in the way of character dynamics being set up. Monet and Warren both have two sides to them and we get to see that on full display in this issue. I’m also a huge sucker for Jamie Madrox, so I was excited to see him. I loved this issue and am excited for more.
Simon Zuccherato
X-Corp #1 starts off with a musing on possibility, and it was an issue with a lot of them. I tend to enjoy corporate hijinks when done well, and so I’d been looking forward to this series for months. Alas, it took me around five full readings to get what was going on in this issue, and once I did, it wasn’t worth it.
The only thing that our leads actually do that seems to matter is flying their base to Brazil to gain media attention, and when we’ve seen so many other things fly in the Marvel Universe already, it’s no longer impressive for the readers. I still think this book has possibility and potential. It just needs to pivot quickly and find its focus, lest it lose all the hype that’s been built up over the past year.