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HIGHLY RECOMMENDED (**** stars)
X-TREME X-MEN #24,
a MARVEL COMICS ongoing series

CREDITS: Written by Chris Claremont. Art by Salvador Larroca.
SYNOPSIS: A stand-alone issue involving the in limbo (at this moment) former X-Man: Cannonball.
RELEASED: 4/23/03
COVER PRICE (USA): $2.99
YOUR ALTERNATE REALITY PRICE: $2.54
 "...Claremont's talent for characterization shines through"
Review by Lawrence Evans

 For those of you who were wondering where Cannonball was while Grant, Chuck and Chris were rebooting the X-universe Claremont fills us in during this single issue story that I believe marks the end of the Salvador Larocca tenure as interior artist. He will continue on covers but the quick Igor Kordey will do the interiors for the 'God Loves, Man Kills' sequel.

Sam Guthrie has been living the life of a non-mutant since Scott Lobdell ended the old group and bumped off Colossus. He's kept his abilities a secret and is working with the X-Corps as a relief worker. He is in France assisting in the recovery of the injured after Weapon XII crushed most of the Chunnel project and left nothing but carnage in his wake. The location and situations remind him of his father's hard life as a miner and that gives him a reason to stay even though doing so could be hazardous.
 
He finds himself at home with a demolitions crew and Claremont's talent for characterization shines through as he drinks and sings with them. Of course, their conversations drift to whether mutants are good for the world or bad and Claremont does a wonderful job with that part of the talk as well. Sam's powers are kept secret until he decides to look for more survivors and finds them with the use of his abilities. The mood of his new friends change but not in a way that he expected after the subject of mutants came up.
 
From there Sam visits a cemetery then reunites with his girlfriend, Lila Cheney. Their relationship moves to France where he keeps up on all things involving mutants (and gets a visit from Storm) before making a decision to join her in the team.
 
This is the kind of story that Claremont does so well. He gives us a history lesson by catching up with Sam and shows us just how interesting a character he is. When introduced we got the feeling that Sam Guthrie was just this dumb hick lower case Cyclops that would grow into being just a background figure that never really would get a share of the spotlight. With this issue we see that he has grown into someone everyone would want as a friend and teammate.
 
We should also talk about the artwork of Salvador Larocca. When this book started a few people wondered why Marvel decided to shoot the art directly from his pencils. It took a while for us to get used to it and a while for him to get into it as well. His art was a bit on the shiny side but the coloring finally caught up to what he was doing. I'll miss him here.

X-TREME X-MEN © 2003 MARVEL Entertainment.
All Rights Reserved.

Review © 2003 Alternate Reality, Inc. 

 

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