Writer: Gerry Duggan
Art: Javier Pina, Pepe Larraz, Marte Garcia, VC’s Clayton Cowles, Jay Bowen, and Tom Muller
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Price:$3.99
Release Date: April 13th, 2022
Recently, an Orchis Agent named Feilong was dispatched to create an outpost for the humans near the Moon, which the mutants terraformed and turned into Arakko. His mission was to monitor the mutants on this planet and stop any further growth. Needless to say, Feilong’s base of operations has caused much concern for Krakoa and has since caught the eye of the X-MEN. Let’s dive into X-MEN #10 by Gerry Duggan as we uncover the next steps for Orchis, Feilong, and other possible threats lurking in the wings of deep space.
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THE DISPATCH
Duggan creates an interesting story to bring back a fan-favorite villain to the fold in a clever, tactical way. By pulling at Laura’s heartstrings, readers get the perfect infiltration story involving a classic WOLVERINE villain that’s been missing from the Modern era since HOXPOX. Yet as intriguing as the narrative begins, the action and suspense seem to be a bit anticlimactic. Before you know it, Laura’s mission is complete with little to no fight.
Furthermore, the story takes a turn for the worse as Laura arrives back at the Treehouse. The conversations appeared cryptic and almost as if they were inside jokes that the readers weren’t completely privy to. Moreover, the ending of X-MEN #10 involving Rogue and Gambit felt like an opportunity to promote GAMBIT’S future book instead of developing the current run. Granted, the narrative was making reference to Gamesworld, however, it felt like Duggan was attempting to make jokes that just didn’t hit the mark.
ART
Javier Pina and Marte Garcia continue their outstanding ways as X-MEN #10 opens with some exquisite panel progressions tracking Laura through the Orchis Orbit Base around Arakko. Their style always lends itself well to action, adventure, and story development. The narrative flows with ease as these two navigate the reader through the Orchis Orbit Base and uncover the surprise villain Laura’s tasked to save. Additionally, Pina’s transitions mixed with Garcia’s sharp coloring choices make X-MEN #10 pop. As usual, this art team delivers!
FINAL THOUGHTS
X-MEN #10 felt flat. The story lacked action and direction yet started out with such promise and vigor. Nevertheless, as this week’s tale unfolded, quick narrative beats involving Destiny, Rogue, and GAMBIT didn’t really add much of a spark to the issue and frankly didn’t fit with the momentum of the story. Additionally, the person Laura saved, which was deemed as the focal point of the issue, just takes off with little follow-up or any conversation taking even more of the sails out of the initial plot of the story.
Overall, X-MEN #10 wasn’t a bad issue by any stretch, however, it just lacked purpose and randomly decided to morph the story into a Rogue and GAMBIT jumping on point leaving this reviewer curious as to how it fits with the story before as well as the story moving forward. Sure, it brings up Gamesworld but that’s basically all it does. X-MEN #10 simply needed more. Let me know what you think, have a great week, and God Bless!