Mister Sinister lives up to his name.
Extraordinary X-Men hasn’t enjoyed the strong start readers might have expected from marvel’s new flagship X-book. Blame a redundant status quo and a slow start that emphasized team-building over plot. But the series seems to be moving in the right direction. Having finally brought their cast together (more or less) by now, Jeff Lemire and Humberto Ramos are able to dig a little deeper into this new conflict and the character dynamics that are essential to any good X-Men tale.
The series still suffers from the fact that the new mutant status quo feels like a dull reversion to the Decimation days (which really weren’t that long ago). That will likely be a flaw all the X-books will have to grapple with for some time. But at least Extraordinary receives a boost from having Mister Sinister emerge as the central villain. Lemire writes a fairly traditional take on Sinister, but one with just enough dark humor to give him some flavor. Almost immediately it becomes clear that Sinister is the logical choice of villain in a book where mutants and Inhumans are essentially locked in a genetic war.
The big appeal, however, is in seeing Lemire begin to exploit the various character relationships. Naturally, a great deal of attention is paid to Old Man Logan reluctantly settling in as the new Wolverine and all the wisecracking and tender reunions that unfold as a result. Iceman stands out a great deal as well, particularly in a funny scene where he addresses the potentially creepy bond between Logan and Jean Grey. At this point Lemire has given just about every team member a personal struggle to confront, and for the most part those struggles are more compelling than the tired “mutants are dying” angle.
Ramos’ art style isn’t always the best fit for this story. The more down-to-earth character drama isn’t served by the hulking physiques and exaggerated facial work. But at least Lemire’s script taps into plenty of what Ramos does well. The hellish setting of Limbo and Sinister’s Frankenstein-esque laboratory look great under Ramos’ hand.
Extraordinary X-Men took way too long to bring its cast together, but now that it has the series is quickly reaping the rewards. It’s clear there’s a lot of potential to mine in this eclectic mash-up of X-Men favorites and newer takes on iconic characters. The addition of Sinister to the mix certainly doesn’t hurt. The thing that would most helps this series now is a shift in art style to something that can accommodate the quieter scenes as well as the outlandish ones.
