The X-Men and their sundry spin offs have (mostly) been a never-ending series of stories about mutants running from hatred. Enter writer Peter Milligan and his fabulous comic, X-Statix. Under Milligan's sharp and biting pin, the merry mutants of X-Statix have taken Professor X's dream of peaceful co-existence between mutants with supernatural powers and normal humans to new heights. Members of X-Statix pimp and preen for the cameras like rock gods and other false idols of a postmodern world.
Milligan is writing the X-book that comics cognoscenti want to read, and cognoscenti doesn't refer to fans who are still charting obscure references in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. X-Statix is occasionally, frighteningly bizarre, but mostly fun. Milligan is also roughing up America's obsession with pop culture and celebrity the way Howard Chaykin tackled sex, violence, politics, and the media in his sublime 80's masterpiece, American Flagg! For this, I can forgive Milligan those moments when his dialogue reads like poorly recycled Chris Claremont.
Mike Allred doesn't draw eye candy art, but his style, which recalls 60's era pop art comics, has an illustrative flair that makes him an outcast among mainstream artists. He gives this issue's tale of a father/daughter combo who morbidly worship death and Statix's Dead Girl a sense of verisimilitude many allegedly "cutting edge" artists can't touch, a surreal and noteworthy effort rare in MARVEL product.
