Marvel Comics
Uncanny X-men #493
By Hervé St-Louis
January 14, 2008 - 22:37

Marvel Comics
Writer(s): Ed Brubaker
Penciller(s): Billy Tan
Inker(s): Banny Miki, Allen Martinez



uncannyx-men493.jpg
While one of the X-Men team is licking its wounds after a magisterial confrontation against Mystique and Mr. Sinister, another team is attacked by rogue sentinels who only want to destroy mutants. Meanwhile, Cable who kidnapped the first mutant baby born since the Scarlet Witch removed mutants from the world is trying to lie low. But Cyclop has a plan to capture and subdue Cable once and for all. Will it work?

Not having read the previous chapters in Messiah Complex I was quite capable of understanding what was going on. Whereas normally one should praise comic books that offer easy jumping points for readers, the fact that it was too easy means that the story is padded and stretched over several chapters across several series and that none of what we read, ultimately matters. Unlike past issues of Uncanny X-Men where each became a classic, this issue will not be remembered in five years. It will be but generic sub chapter in grander tale that seems like it will never end. The story was not bad. It was entertaining. However, this story did not cover any new ground or creativity heights.

I didn’t like the artwork in this issue. It felt like it was pencil washes but there was so many details and action in every page that a reader loses his focus on what really matters. Instead of guiding readers through what are the essential elements of the comic book, Tan drowns them with useless visual information that looks less polished. As for the inkers, were they even involved in the development of this issue?

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