Storm and Monet
Summary
Jean Grey consoles Storm as they have found no possible way to save her life from the techno-organic infection she was subject to months ago. Monet thinks she has a remedy. She and Doug Ramsey recruit Fantomex and this guy from A.I.M to break into “the World” and cure our African Goddess. They are successful after a few battles and Storm is reborn free of her infection just in time for the upcoming Swords of X.
The Good
Cover- Russell Dauterman shows out with the most awesome Storm art since her canceled solo series. The storm is distinctly African in her features, big hair like her debut in the ’80s engulfed in the majesty of lightning. Simply divine! Simply beautiful!
Art– Russell Dauterman thank the comic gods for your depiction of these distinctive afro-centric features that are typically glossed over when depicting Monet and Storm.
Characters- All hail Monet St. Croix the black mutant Supergirl re-melanated, central, focused, and on point. Thank you Hickman I needed black Monet in my life this was a breath of fresh air.
Friendship- Storm and Jean Grey have been best friends since before she became the Phoenix way back under the pen of Chris Claremont. Said friendship has been a central point of characterizing Storm and Jean for years. I remember the last time they had a meaningful talk was back in X-treme X-men. At the time Storm’s squad was not on good terms with Xavier’s school which was now publicly known to house mutants and was run by the trio of telepaths Frost, Xavier, and Jean. Despite Storm’s friction with Emma and Xavier she and Jean still maintained their friendship and had a girl’s day out. I have always loved this aspect of them as a pair. They are caring and affectionate to each other and strangely despite the fact that both can be quite volatile separately, they seem to have a calming effect on each other which parallels Storm and Yukio’s more exciting, titillating, and damn near reckless friendship. Here we find Jean consoling her best friend.
Rivalry-Emma and Storm also have an interesting history called back to here in their initial exchange. Emma Frost is blunt, it’s part of her charm. She and Storm are closer than most of Frost’s other teammates but they have always been antagonistic. Think Cyclops and Wolverine. Emma stole her powers as a member of the hellfire club and when Storm and her X-treme X-men wanted to hand over a mutant child criminal Emma was against it, the two even fought. When Kitty was killed they also had quite an exchange, as I said it was good to see that this bit of characterization has remained faithful.
Monet– Monet St. Croix shows up in a huge way this issue, making a connection to solve Storm’s problem no one else even realized. This was an excellent use of her as a character since at one point genius was a word that once upon a time was used when describing her character under her creator Scott Lobdell.
Doug Ramsey has been fascinating since his resurrection a few years back. Everything that we do is language. How we walk, talk, etc. Doug can translate all of this. He has an exchange with the expunged virus which suggests it will pop up later. I can’t wait.
Humor- I found the exchange between the snooty Monet and Fantomex outside “the world” just simply hilarious! Storm’s reaction even more so and don’t get me started on Fantomex’s reaction to it. Top notch humor at its best.
Action- What’s a good comic without a good fight. In this issue, we have some weird eye thing tech monster from an 80’s space shooter. Interesting choice and it illustrates just how weird “the world” really is as both a concept and an the application.
Colors-Matthew Wilson deserves a raise. Nuff said.
The Bad
Expansion- I’m disappointed that despite Monet being one of Hickman’s favorites she has at most has many cameos. Not a lot of character development has taken place and she has so much potential. Take her relationship with Synch. He died in her arms, he was also perhaps her first kiss and first sexual experience. How has there not been a single issue delving into how his resurrection has affected her? Deep dive into Monet here guys: Her mother was killed by her older brother, she spent a good portion of her teen life as said brother’s food and his prisoner. She was then a mute trapped in her Penance form until freed by Gen X. Fell in love with Synch, he was killed saving humans who hated and feared them after he and Monet got serious. After Gen- X folded she was one of Banshee's angels and her teacher died there. Joining X-factor she was having sex with multiple man, who rejected her in favor of Siren. She dated Strong Guy, he died, became king of hell, she was resurrected, slept with Darwin he eventually became a soulless death god, etc. After joining the X-men she had a “situationship” with a good Sabretooth. He cared for her deeply. Sabretooth is now back to his evil self and a prisoner of Krakoa. How has all this affected her? How meeting has Synch and Skin her teammates and classmates who died and were resurrected at the same age as when they died affected her? Her brother has imprisoned her multiple times (most recently in the canceled Generation-X), he’s now on Krakoa how has that affected her? I want to know! Hickman, do better.
Powers– Why is Monet nowadays so reliant on her Penance form? When was the last time we saw her use her telepathy, telekinesis, or super speed? The girl has range Hickman, use her more efficiently damn it!
Emotion– Usually a death or resurrection leaves a tingle up and down my spine when executed correctly. As Emma points out at the beginning. Resurrection is a thing now so why put so much weight on death. Why even bother to cure the virus when you could just Hara Kiri your way into a shiny new body with boosted stats? I enjoyed the whole thing from start to finish but I didn’t feel it in my bones.
The Ugly
Overall I loved this book, this is the first review of 2020, it was just that good that it pulled me out of retirement and back into the thick of things. I don’t think Hickman is doing anything never done before but what he is doing I’m enjoying quite a bit. I give this issue a 4/5 Stars