Uncanny X-Men Volume 2: Dominant Species
Uncanny X-Men Volume 2: Dominant Species, by Chuck Austen & Kia Asamiya, Marvel
CHUCK AUSTEN (born Beckum) was briefly the artist on Marvelman when it was rechristened Miracleman by Eclipse for the American market before moving into the adult comics field. He made his way back to the mainstream US superhero scene and worked on some rather heavy duty books, not only drawing but writing them for Marvel and DC. Despite some major sales he suffered a lot of criticism from fans.
The fact is, as far as I can recall, I’d not seen Austen’s work since Miracleman, and not everyone was kind to his artwork back then – it was fine, in a Jamie Hernandez-lite style but people were used to Garry Leach and Alan Davis. In Uncanny X-Men Volume 2: Dominant Species I can’t really see why those X-Men fans would get all worked up.
Here’s the plot: There’s a batch of kid mutants learning to get to grips with their new abilities, finding they’re not quite so human yet dealing with school life at the Xavier Institute. Meanwhile, the X-Men themselves are about to get busy dealing with a bunch of mutant werewolves, for it transpires homo superior may not just mean mutant kind but under Darwinian terms: only the survival of the fittest mutants, who might just happen to be those werewolves.
There are some moments of individual crisis for various characters, a lot of “I love him but he doesn’t even look at me” angst that’s par for the cause in an X-Men comic but darned hard to keep a tag on without a scorecard because there are so many mutants coming and going (it’s not epic story progression it’s so they can sell new toys, don’t let them tell you any different), the tired comparisons to racism, but some good ideas on evolution played with. It gets from A to Z. There’s some implied subtext regarding sex that possibly riled fans who like things cosy, but Austen plays the soap opera angles up well enough so I can appreciate why he’s now working in TV.
Kia Asamiya, real name Michitaka Kikuchi apparently, is a Japanese manga artist. Incredibly popular I understand. Once I started reading this collection the storytelling was fair but I found the actual figure drawing far too erratic, ugly even for my tastes.
Sponsored by Target Media.
