Fanboys Anonymous

A Steely Façade

World War Wendigo (3 of 5)

"War! Huh, what is it good for?"

Well for one thing, it's great for bringing together a bunch of mutants who otherwise could be doing in their own thing.

I suppose the other thing it is good for is inducing a slight bladder weakness when the X-jets bathroom is inaccessible (more about that soon).

The Amazing X-Men thrive on this sort of war though. The follow-up arc to Jason Aaron's return of Nightcrawler is now picking up pace. We are three issues deep and past the point of no return.

Craig Kyle and Chris Yost are doing some fine work here. When it was announced that Jason Aaron would be leaving the series, I only worried for like a micro-second, as soon as the replacement writers were revealed.

The World War Wendigo is an engaging story that spans multiple teams such as the X-Men and Alpha Flight and even has a couple of Avengers thrown in for good measure. It is also great to see the humor and good natured joviality return. Iceman and Firestar have a few funny one-liners, but there is an on-going interaction between these characters that sees them fulfill the comic relief.

War brings out the beast for some.

The toilet gag set up in issue nine of Amazing X-Men is flushed out here as the student Rockslide is revealed to have stowed away in the jets toilet. Rockslide survived the exploding wreckage due to his mutant ability. This is a nice nod to Yost and Kyles previous runs with some of the students from the Jean Grey School during the New X-Men.

There is a lot of action in this issue. Characters are fighting Wendigos all over Canada and struggling to hold back the tide of war. The only way to stop them comes from Talisman who is now fading fast.

The story continuity is polished though, and the writers' experience shows as we are taken from one cover to the next and left waiting for installment number four.

While Ed McGuinness has skipped this issue, the art makes a smooth transition to the capable pencils of Carol Barberi and Iban Coello. The colors by Rachelle Rosenberg just make this move seem unnoticeable.

Who's holding up the line to the bathroom!

The paneling and layout are dynamic with a nice pace of four to six panels on average per page. This helps the story tick along nicely but still provides ample room for the artists to showcase their wares.

While The Amazing X-Men doesn't come across as a total character-driven series, the story in itself is driving home enough to keep you going. That said, there are plenty of other X-books to develop characters in this team and the moment. At last count, three of the main group all have their own solo series currently running in conjunction to the team books.

I trust you're enjoying World War Wendigo as much as I am, so feel free to let me know what you hope to see coming up in next issue of The Amazing X-Men. Tell me in the comments what you think.