Posted in: Comics, Marvel Comics, Review | Tagged: chris claremont, colossus, federico blee, gambit, greg land, iceman, Jason Keith, jay leisten, kelly thompson, kitty pryde, marc guggenheim, marika cresta, Marvel Comics, nightcrawler, Pyro, Rachelle Rosenberg, Rogue, storm, superheroes, Todd Nauck, x-men, x-men wedding special

X-Men Wedding Special #1 Review: A Middling Prenup

As the wedding of Kitty Pryde and Colossus approaches, we are given three stories to whet our nuptial appetite. We first find Kitty Pryde reflecting on her life and the tragedies and victories along the way. After that, we join Piotr Rasputin's Las Vegas bachelor party joined by Nightcrawler, Gambit, Iceman, and the new Pyro. Finally, we see Kitty's bachelorette party joined by Rogue, Storm, a slew of X-Men ladies, and another surprise and uninvited guest.

This collection of stories in the X-Men Wedding Special is a mixed bag. No one of the stories is especially bad, but only one of the three stands out as definitively good.

The legendary Chris Claremont pens the opening Kitty Pryde-centric story. His love for the character shows through — as does his tendency towards verbosity. This story is loaded down with text. No one part of it is unnecessary, but the monstrosity of text together is both daunting and dull at times. The ending of it aims for sweet but crosses over into the realm of corny and saccharine. However, the text is still smartly written, the overall story is so earnest (as patronizing as that compliment may sound), and Todd Nauck and Rachelle Rosenberg do a good job on the visuals. As such, it's impossible to completely dislike it.

The second story is the weakest, even if it does have Colossus fighting a demon. The setting is cliched, the plotting is stilted, and the resolution feels confused. Iceman is written to a be a little annoying here, and I'm not sure the inflection Gambit is given — I don't know it doesn't sound like Remy LeBeau though. Plus, Greg Land's art doesn't look good. I'll grant that there is subjectivity there, but it's quite bad at expressing motion and emotion. Jay Leisten and Jason Keith are unfortunately unable to salvage the visuals. That said, there are some decent moments and lines that keep this section from being outright bad.

The final story is my choice of the three, and it's solid. I wouldn't call it great, but the premise of all the X-Ladies going to a hybrid karaoke/strip club is fun. I wouldn't say it's taken to its full extent, but the twist is solid. Marika Cresta and Federico Blee provide decent artwork too, even if some of the facial expressions look odd.

X-Men Wedding Special #1 is a bit of a lackluster batch. It's not a bad read by any means, but it doesn't do a lot of interest with its conceit. I would recommend it to the diehard X-Men fan, but I would struggle to justify its price for any other kind of reader.

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