Uncanny X-Men #15.INH gets dressed up as the girls and women of Uncanny X-Men get a well-deserved night on the town.
Feeling stressed with the current goings on, Illyana Rasputin leaves Dr. Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum and returns to Weapon X only to find The Stepford Cuckoos and Eva Bell who have one particular request — take them shopping.
Jean Grey, Emma Frost, and Professor Kitty Pryde join in for a trip to London’s fashion district, and a food stop at a local diner gives the girls a chance to explore the hate-hate relationship the Cuckoos have with Jean. Before the argument leads to another mutant civil war, ominous sirens lead the X-Men to a terrigenesis event waking dormant Inhumans.
A psionic blast from the panicking Inhuman disables the X-Men who can do nothing to keep A.I.M. from picking up their new guinea pig. After waking up from the reset, the group wonders what the world will be like with a burgeoning Inhuman population to go along with the reemergence of mutants.
As a stand-alone issue focusing on the females of Cyclops’ X-Men team, Uncanny X-Men #15.INH is an interesting and entertaining one that puts the microscope on some of the issues between Jean Grey and the Cuckoos while also giving Emma and Illyana a chance to be their civilian selves. Out of their uniforms and in the real world, the girls show they’re more than just powersets and heroics — they’re interesting in and of themselves on a personal level.
It’s especially nice to see that Emma, on some levels, is very human, and while she has a place on the team as the queen of mean, she can be very endearing when she’s disheveled and dressed in her very normal sleeping clothes.
It’s great that Brian Michael Bendis can change it up between issues and titles, and his execution goes a long way into creating a dynamic universe filled with distinct characters with unique personalities. Bendis writes Jean as a normal teen who’d love to switch out of her old 60s dress, and Illyana gets to stand by and watch others fight.
The issue works especially well because of Kris Anka’s artwork which gives the women of the Uncanny X-Men the issue they deserve with an emphasis on details via active expressions and emotive personalities. There’s life in the panels as each of the characters react, relate, and respond to each other, and Bendis’ scripting becomes fully realized in the panels by the way the characters are drawn.
Rain Beredo who’s done an amazing job coloring All-New X-Men works his skills with bright colors that pop off the page and wonderful lighting that captures the mood of what’s going on in the story. Emma’s one-to-one with the new Inhuman looks great with the light-flares that add tension with Anka’s dramatic shading. As a concerted effort, the issue brings it in every department.
Uncanny X-Men is Marvel’s flagship book X-Men book, and Bendis won’t let readers forget that. This is the future of the X-Men, and the creative team has produced a book grounded in the three things that make the X-Men a great read — characters, characters, characters.
Uncanny X-Men #15.INH (2013)
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Marvel
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artist: Kris Anka
Colors: Rain Beredo
Letters: Joe Caramagna and Chris Eliopoulos
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