Let Fraction be Fraction– a review of Uncanny X-Men #504

Grant Morrison and Joss Whedon to produce a Chris Claremont-like tale of what the X-Men do on their days off between fighting the Hellfire Club and Magneto.  Even more than Claremont, this is the kind of story that Marv Wolfman used to excel at in the pages of The New Teen Titans as the characters got the chance to unwind a bit and do their own thing even as Wolfman started to build upcoming subplots in the background.  These day-in-the-life stories had Speedy hanging around Titans Tower making chili, introduced Terra as a side project of Changeling’s and even developed (pardon the pun) Donna Troy’s photography business.  Claremont did the same thing now and again in Uncanny X-Men but to a lesser extent.

Fraction’s first solo X-Men issue shows the day-in-the-life-of Colossus (still mourning Kitty,) Emma & Cyclops (still mourning almost every red-head he ever met) , and the Beast & Angel, who are on a recruiting mission to South America.  Honestly, I’ve never cared for mopey Colossus and his attempt this issue at getting a tattoo seems juvenile and silly.  There’s no other way for a super hero to mourn other than doing what almost every teenager has contemplated at one time or another?  I guess he manages to fill the quota that at any given time one X-Man must be mourning the true love of his life and now it’s Colossus’s turn again.

Angel and Beast’s story could be the beginning of something interesting as they go looking for scientists that could help the stagnant mutant population.  They start in South America with an obscure character named Dr. Nemesis who claims to have helped create the original Human Torch.  He’s a suitably haughty character, hunting Nazi superscientists but the Beast thinks he can help mutants find a way to repopulate their species.  Similar to how Wolfman and Claremont built layered plots, developing B and C plots underneath an A plot, Fraction introduces a bit of the concept here that will probably play out somewhere down the way.  In this age of 6 issue arcs and writing for the trade, it’s almost refreshing to see what may be the germination of a plot point that could last an while.

The centerpiece of this issue is Emma Frost’s psychic exploration into Cyclops’s mind.  Since before Grant Morrison’s run on New X-Men, Cyclops has been getting a lot of play in these books as every writer tries to figure out what makes the character tick.  First he was part of Apocalypse or something.  Then he had an extra-marital affair with Emma as his own marriage to Jean Grey was crumbling.  After that, Joss Whedon messed with him, making him slightly crazy and in control of his powers before conveniently wiping all of that out when he left the book.  Of course, the character has a lot of emotional baggage and this issue gives Matt Fraction a chance to dig a bit.  Of course, Fraction’s own Casanova is all about emotional baggage so maybe this won’t be a bad thing.

Of course it helps that while exploring Cyclops’s psyche, he plays up to his artist’s strengths.  Terry Dodson obviously likes to draw curvy women so why not give him an issue where he has pages and pages of only Marvel superheroines to draw?  It give both Fraction and Dodson the chance to be cheesecakey but to also work it into the plot and have it make sense.  Of course one of the tightest and most supressed characters would have a wandering eye but the problem, at least with this issue, is that it’s all eye candy with little to actually fill up the reader.

I keep wanting to like and enjoy Fraction’s Marvel work as much as I enjoy Casanova or his Last of the Independents but I’m starting to realize that there may be two different Fractions; the one who works on his own creations and the one who services trademarks.  There’s nothing wrong with his Marvel work but it lacks the edge and danger that’s seen in his creator-owned work.  In Casanova, anything can and often does happen.  It leads the book into dark and humorous corners, often at the same time.  This issue of Uncanny X-Men is the opposite of that; it’s giving us concepts and scenes we’ve seen many times in the past.  Sure the names and faces have changes but the situations themselves remain the same.  The creative and individual Fraction is missing and instead we get the Fraction who has to keep the Marvel trademarks active and alive.

Uncanny X-Men #504
“Lovelorn Part 1: Every Little Bit Hurts”
Written by: Matt Fraction
Penciled by: Terry Dodson
Inked by: Rachel Dodson
Colored by: Justin Ponsor
Lettered by: VC’s Joe  Caramagna

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Tags: Matt Fraction, Terry Dodson, Uncanny X-Men