By Mike Carey (Writer), Dustin Weaver (Pencils), Ed Tadeo (Inks), and Brian Reber (Colors)
Some Thoughts Before The Review: The X-Men: Legacy Utopia arc serves the dual purpose of expanding the riots and getting Rogue (possibly Gambit and Danger as well) back into the main X-Men scheme of things. That makes for a good “X” story, but not necessarily an essential part of the Utopia crossover.
The Story: The rescue of an injured mutant, Trance, doesn’t go exactly as planned and soon she loses control of her powers. Rogue, Gambit, and Danger try to locate the girl before it’s too late. Also, Ms. Marvel feels she’s got a score to settle…
What’s Good: While it’s got all the trappings of a standard tie-in, X-Men: Legacy #227 is very well-executed. Because of that, it’s definitely better than your standard tie-in. The drama (and action) with Trance is pretty interesting, the team dynamic that Rogue, Gambit, and Danger have makes the book a good read, and the fact that the Legacy group is now operating with the X-Men (however temporarily) is most likely going to please any “X” fan.
Mike Carey writes every character effectively. While I expected the team of Rogue, Gambit, and Danger to be written well, I did not expect Carey to nail Ms. Marvel’s attitude (“I’m sort of on the clock here.”) so perfectly. Ms. Marvel’s appearance could have easily come off as somewhat unnecessary, but thanks to Mike Carey, her scenes are some of the most entertaining of the entire book. I also like what Carey does with Trance and how her situation comes to be resolved (even if it is a bit corny). I won’t spoil that here, but I will say that I appreciate that it’s satisfying.
Dustin Weaver’s work in Legacy #227 is quite a bit better than it was in the last issue of Legacy. Ms. Marvel’s look is much more consistent, the awkward poses are kept to a minimum, the characters show a great level of emotion (love Ms. Marvel’s look after the line I mention above), and the action hits the right notes. In addition, I like how Weaver and his team handle Trance’s power trouble. The split person scenes are neat.
What’s Not So Good: My biggest complaint about X-Men: Legacy #227 is that it never completely shakes the baggage that comes with being part of a tie-in. While the story is serviceable, it never feels like anything more than the minor sideshow that it is. If you can deal with that and enjoy the story for what it is though, you can probably ignore my complaint. I can think of two other negatives worth considering though. The first is that the resolution to the Trance issue is a bit corny and predictable. The second negative is that Dustin Weaver’s work looks pretty rough in a few panels near the end. The panels aren’t awful, but they do look pretty bad compared to the rest of them.
Conclusion: X-Men: Legacy #227 isn’t all that great (and far from essential) as a tie-in. Regardless, it is a rather good X-Men book. If you are a fan of the characters (like I am), then consider the latest Legacy to be worth picking up.
Grade: B
-Kyle Posluszny