Marvel Comics
Review: Amazing X-Men #8
By Andy Frisk
June 8, 2014 - 19:26

Marvel Comics
Writer(s): Craig Kyle and Chris Yost
Penciller(s): Ed McGuinness
Inker(s): Mark Farmer
Colourist(s): Rachelle Rosenberg
Letterer(s): VC's Joe Caramagna
Cover Artist(s): Ed McGuinness and Marte Gracia



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So it appears that Jason Aaron is done with the X-Men. After writing Wolverine, Wolverine and The X-Men, and Amazing X-Men I guess I can't complain that he's moved on. There's plenty of X-Stories out there with Aaron as the credited writer. At least he stuck around long enough to bring Nightcrawler back to the living before he split. With the obligatory fill in issue behind us, where Kathryn Immonen filled in and gave us a sort of Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends tribute, the new writing team of Craig Kyle and Chris Yost, with penciller Ed McGuinness, can get down to the business of telling their X-stories.

Kyle and Yost must have felt that a retreading of previous ground, once again popularized by Chris Claremont, was appropriate for their opening storyline. Taking a cue from another writer's relatively recent storyline, "World War Wendigo!" Part 1 has all the elements of a great late 70s, early 80s X-Men story with a little 00s thrown in for good measure (the 80s reference being Storm's continued wearing of a mohawk haircut and Colossus' return to the team to pal around with Nightcrawler).

Even though much of this territory appears to have been tread before (Wolverine goes to Canada, Wendigo attacks, there's trouble between the Hudson's, etc, etc), it is still a fun read, if at least for the nostalgia it stirs up. Truth be told, there hasn't been TOO much made of Logan's Canadianism lately, and with him about to die soon and not be around for a few years it seems (which I can't figure out how Marvel Comics' is going to get away with their biggest selling character being in limbo for a while) we'd better enjoy these types of X-Men stories while we can.

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Ed McGuinness' art is striking as ever. He really manages to capture the menace and threat of the Wendigo(s) in this issue. I also liked the way that he portrayed Cerebro visually just like it is portrayed in the recent X-Men films. I honestly thought that there was supposed to be some kind of no cross promotion with the Marvel Comics' character based films that weren't under Disney's umbrella, but we're treated to one here. His portrayal of Piotr/Colossus is dead on as well, and I for one am delighted to see him back in the X-Men proper fold.

So while Jason Aaron's time as an X-Scribe appears to be truly over, Amazing X-Men appears to be in solid, if somewhat nostalgia based, hands going forward with Kyle and Yost at the helm. At least we're sure to get some fun retreads of old stories and plots with an updated look and feel.  

Rating: 8/10

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