Posted in: Comics, Marvel Comics, Review | Tagged: cory petit, erick arciniega, fantasy, Giovanni Valletta, iceman, kitty pryde, marc guggenheim, Marvel Comics, nightcrawler, phoenix, prestige, Pyro, rachel grey, rachel summers, sci-fi, simone buonfantino, storm, superheroes, x-men, x-men gold

X-Men: Gold #35 Review: A Perfectly Average Comic

Storm is swarmed by Uovu and the villagers whom he's resurrected. Ororo is forced to fight off her birth parents and all those under Uovu's thrall. Meanwhile, the X-Men fight the X-Cutioner halfway around the world. Stormcaster finds them and opens a portal to Storm and Uovu, providing Ororo with reinforcements. But, is it enough?

X-Men: Gold #35 finishes this Storm-centric story to prepare for the final issue of the series. Storm and the X-Men fight Uovu, there is some trepidation about Ororo being forced to hurt her birth parents, and you can probably picture how this issue goes.

It's not bad, mind you. It's bog-standard superhero fare with the caveat of Storm facing her long-dead birth parents. Even that potential emotional hotspot is played so conventionally that it's hard to connect.

The moment where the comic most comes alive is when Stormcaster returns to Ororo, and she gives one last lightning blast to Uovu. That is pretty badass, and the final scene with Ororo and both her adopted and birth parents almost becomes emotionally engaging.

Uovu is a remarkably dull villain, though. He's a god and…that's about it. This character can raise the dead, but event that isn't exploited beyond resurrecting Ororo's parents. He chastises Storm for not being a real goddess, but Ororo doesn't believe she is a true goddess.

There's never a sense of tension either. Once the X-Men arrive, it feels like the plot has already wrapped up and what remains is just the obligatory.

Simone Buonfantino and Giovanni Valletta split this issue, and both artists provide solid visuals. Buonfantino contributes a more cartoonish and lightly-detailed style similar to Michele Bandini's work in the past two issues. Valletta gives a less flowing but more finely detailed style that wraps up the book decently well. Erick Arciniega is the color artist once again, and he provides some decent balance, even if there is a predominance of drab browns and greens and soft reds in the landscape for much of the book.

X-Men: Gold #35 is a fairly mediocre read. It's far from an outright bad reading experience, but it does little to engage the reader beyond one or two decent moments that almost work. I can recommend it to the devout follower of the X-Men but would struggle to suggest it for anyone else.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!