by Lindsay Young, CMRO Contributing Writer
X-Club
Issue #3
Written by Simon Spurrier, Art by Paul Davidson
Published: April 2012
Oh, X-Club! The brilliantly funny X-Men title that knowingly and lovingly indulges in technobabble about as realistic as someone simply screaming “SCIENCE!” in all-caps has graced us with another issue, and it continues to be utterly charming.
It’s so quirky and cute and fun that it’s sure to alienate some fans, as is the nature of anything that dares to have a distinctive personality. But that’s exactly what makes it so enjoyable: it’s vibrant, it’s unique! It has a strong sense of identity and a sense of humour that makes each page a blast. It’s utterly absurd in the best possible way, and it takes common tropes of technobabble and nonsense science and makes a tongue-in-cheek, witty game out of it.
This week, the “SCIENCE!” jokes do admittedly threaten to wear a little thin, though it never reaches the level of annoyance. It does, to its credit, continue to make variations on the joke, and that’s what saves it from being too repetitive.
The plot is moving along nicely, this week involving clones and supercomputers and pregnant robots all that good stuff. Despite a fair number of subplots going on, the series does continue to be mostly character-driven. At least, the main appeal is in the still-engaging cast, where no character is “the boring one” or “the everyman.” I like that. I like that every character is allowed to be quirky and weird, because this is a quirky and weird series! I don’t need an Everyday Joe there to be the straight man, slowing things down with their puny human logic.
This issue is a good mix of humour, action, and character moments. Add to that a sharp script, expressive artwork, sparkling dialogue and several genuinely interesting subplots, and issue #3 of X-Club is a perfectly engrossing read.
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