Pinafore is it Anyway

Tag : Children Pinafore
The members of X-Men have left the demolished sanctuary of theirWestchester estate in New York and crossed the country to settledown in San Francisco. They have built a new facility forthemselves and with it new hopes and dreams of mutant-kind'sexistence. Meanwhile, local artist Guy DeMondue decides to build ashocking installation for the mayor's X-Men Gala, and a certainmovie star Eternal is meeting with the High Evolutionary.

On Story : The strangest thing about this seminal issue of Uncanny X-Men is how the story is clearly demarcated into parts: Prologue I &II, Chapters I - IV and Epilogue I - III. Initially, I assumed itwas to delineate the change in artist, as Land and Dodson trade offart duties throughout the issue, but both artists work within thesame part or back-to-back.

I found these separations to be distracting to the overall goodstory and non-relevant to the pacing and structure. The battle withMagneto, as the old coot makes his return in this issue, isthrilling and remarkably told but becomes bizarrely cut in halfbetween chapters III and IV for no good reason. Just as the teamworks together to land the final punch on the Master of Magnetism,you turn the page and suddenly you're in a different "part" thoughthe exact same scene.

Furthermore, the inclusion of titles to these parts added to thedistraction. The aforementioned battle with Magneto starts in"Chapter Two: Superstars of the Spandex Scene," then continues in"Chapter Three: The Exploding Plastic Inevitable," and thenconcludes in "Chapter Four: The Fix is in&!" The significance ofthe last two titles are completely lost on me and could have beeneasily named "Bacon spells M-A-G-N-E-T-O" and "Whose Pinafore is itAnyway?" to the same effect. There is neither semblance between thechapter titles nor the content within it.

Conversely, however, Prologue II and Epilogue II do create a cogentnarrative, introducing the character of DeMondue and summarilyfollowing him after the events of the gala. Without being tooobvious, DeMondue calls on the assistance of one Simon Trask tohelp him construct his "Celebration of Mutant Kitsch." The projectcauses the X-Men to protest in outrage and instigates Magneto'sreturn to form.

The concept of an offensive mutant art installation at the veryevent in honor of the X-Men is clever, as it shows how comfortablethis new city is with their superhero populace and how different itwill be from Westchester, Australia, or wherever the X-Men havebeen before. The concept also shows a great deal of realism, as ashock artist would take such a high profile event to use pertinentyet disturbing imagery for social commentary. The story maintainsthis realism when the X-Men confront the mayor about DeMondue'sinstallation, and she voices her own outrage but nonethelessdefends her citizens' right of free expression.

Brubaker and Fraction are setting up a lot for the X-Men in theirnew home, be it new public reaction, old villains, and theinexplicable connection between High Evolutionary, the EternalKingo Sunen, and the sleeping Celestial. Although most of thesethreads leave the reader with impressions of things to come, theHigh Evolutionary-Celestial business is still too baffling tofigure out. Yet, the addition of this thread gives Uncanny X-Men # 500 a wider scope and probably bigger problems than tastelessartists down the road.

On Art : At first I thought Land's style, which heavily relies onphoto-referencing, would pull me out of the story and dilute a verygood issue with inappropriate emotion and inconsistent characterdesign. To my surprise, I found myself impressed with a number ofpanels in particular.

The first was the entire second chapter where Land used obviousphoto-referencing to capture the myriad of partygoers at thesnapping pictures of each other, all dressed as X-Men. Remarkably,they all appear incredibly individualized and distinctly likenormal people. My favorite is the old man wearing the classic blackand yellow X-outfit with the large eye and mouth holes, his wrinklyskin sagging out of the cowl. The entire scene has a very credibleand disarming atmosphere that makes Magneto's arrival all the moreunexpected.

That segues into a great panel of Beast ambushing Magneto frombehind, only to be deflected by a gesture. Without even turningaround, Magneto simply strikes his arm backward and Beast fliesface first into a force field. Land gives the villain a sense ofunabashed power and Teflon resistance, but also imbues the panelwith humor as Beast's body slaps against the magnetic field withunexpected force.

Lastly, as Cyclops gives a grand, welcoming speech to mutant-kindvia Emma's telepathic projection, the former White Queen smilesjubilantly as her beau takes the X-Men in a new direction: his own.The panel creates a nice moment between the two lovers showing herappreciation of his dreams and seeing them come to fruition, butalso the joy of a new hope for mutants everywhere in Cyclops'dream. He's offering them "safety and protection" their kind hasnever known, and that's something to smile about.

Yet there were cringe-inducing moments like Angel's anatomicallyincorrect shoulders and Pixie's bizarre body shape. These--inaddition to the ever changing face and hair of Emma Frost--werenoticeable but did not conspire to take me out of the issue.

What did, however, was the change over between Land and Dodson, whoare two very different artists. Aesthetically, they share nothingin common save subject matter. Land is photo-realistic and TerryDodson is stylized hyper-realistic. One uses a great deal ofshadowing and line work, while the other is comparatively cleanerand utilizes broad line work. For example, Land's waif-like EmmaFrost is completely different from Dodson's buxom design. This isso off-putting that when one of the artists hands over the story tothe other, it feels like a different comic book entirely.