Posted in: Comics, Marvel Comics, Review | Tagged: angel, Beast, corsair, cullen bunn, cyclops, eddie brock, iceman, jacopo camagni, Jean Grey, Marvel Comics, matt milla, sci-fi, starjammers, superheroes, venom, x-men, x-men blue

X-Men Blue #22 Review: An Improvement but Could Still be Better

The X-Men and Venom finally arrive on the ship of Killer thrill and her symbiote-enhanced mercenary crew. After taking out their non-powered grunts, the team splits up. Cyclops goes to save the Starjammers, and the rest go after Killer Thrill's crew. Unfortunately, there may be another unexpected visitor to further complicate things.

X-Men: Blue #22 is one of the least-bad issues of the "Poison X" crossover to arrive so far. It's still riddled with problems, but the focus on action and plot advancement keep this comic from being weighed down too badly with questionable dialogue and internal narration.

The narration and dialogue are still flawed, though the latter isn't as bad as usual. There are some completely nonsensical jokes thrown vaguely in the direction of Killer Thrill's kinks, the only internal logic of which seems to be that a potential double-entandre is inherently a joke. A lot of Jean Grey's internal monologue in this issue isn't even related to the story at hand, and, when it is, it's following ominous feelings for which the comic has given no plausible reason.

The action is fun for a time. There are more continuity errors that could have been fixed in editing. For example, Killer Thrill grabs onto Iceman at one point, seemingly as a human shield. However, this is completely dropped when we next return to the fight, where Killer Thrill and Jean Grey are fighting.

But, there are still some decent beats to the fight. Cyclops' upgraded powers are especially enjoyable to watch.

Jacopo Camigni's artwork holds together well whenever depicting symbiote-enhanced characters and muscular dudes. Whenever the comic turns to Jean or Killer Thrill without the symbiotes, they look like younger anime characters, which especially makes no sense for Killer Thrill. Matt Milla's color work leans on the brighter end of the color spectrum, which fits X-Men: Blue and the style of Camigni well.

X-Men: Blue #22 isn't an especially bad issue. It still has its problems, but they're far less pronounced. The resulting book can get a little boring, but there is some fun to be had sprinkled throughout. This isn't a must-buy comic by any metric, but it is tenatively recommendable if you're a dedicated follower of the X-Men or Venom.

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