X-Men: Nation X

I've been curious about Nation X ever since I first heard of the story. I should say that I wasn't very impressed. Don't mistake me, I liked reading the book, but I was hoping for much more. This story is built on the idea of a mutant independent city-state and that by itself should be enough to allow for the development of an astonishing graphic novel.

Nation X shows how the X-Men lead the mutants in a new place, living separately from the regular people, near San Francisco. It's nice to see Cyclops leading even though Professor X is around. He still doubts himself, as always, but he seems to have a more optimistic attitude towards his leadership, he's trying to be more intuitive and just try things even if he isn't sure of the possible outcome. We see him organizing the X-men to defend Utopia from a Predator X attack, order a team to go right to New York to work out who was behind it (I'll avoid the spoilers here), accepting Magneto in Utopia despite Xavier's disapproval, dealing with his attitude and starting a sustainable community by having people research energy sources and come up with some sort of food production. It's interesting to see the X-club (Dr. Nemesis, Madison Jeffries, Kavita Rao and now deceased Yuriko Takiguchi) investigating and trying solutions for these problems while all having different approaches. Magneto's comeback is, as he is always, awesome. I love his story and his personality and consider Magneto one of the best built Marvel characters. He has a plausible, though not astonishing whatsoever, excuse for his absence from recent events, and seems to be inspired by Cyclops' achievement in creating Utopia and asks to be a part of it under his orders, dismissing a deranged Xavier who is confident they are being tricked. He's still the same person though and he struggles with waiting and asking for permission when he finds a way to solve things himself. After some disagreements with Summers he comes up with a present to show the mutants his good intentions: (MAJOR SPOILER HERE) he brings back an otherwise forever lost x-girl, Kitty Pride, by pulling the bullet she got herself locked in, using his powers to an extent that risks his own life. Another very good detail is Beast's reaction to latest events. He is distressed by Scott's leadership, feels ignored, doesn't trust Magneto and is still mad at Cyclops' for leaving him to torture until the "right time" came to save him. Yet another motive to praise the authors is the telepathic rescue of Emma Frost and Cyclops while dealing with the sliver of Void she had imprisoned in her diamond form. It was well written and very well illustrated and makes for one of my favourite parts of this book. (SPOILER) That Scott managed to lock the Void in a mind prison is amazing but, after having read through the Siege event, I was left thinking if it won't be just another window for the Sentry/Void's comeback. There are a lot of other goods in Nation X, such as the cooperation with Namor and his overwhelming ego, Storm coming round to help, rediscovering Psylocke, Rogue's astonishing new confident attitude, even during combat, Fantomex, yes, he's around and he's fun, and more. Most of these feel underdeveloped though, and have me wishing I could follow an event like this longer instead of going back to small, specific team based comics but they are good on their own too.

In the end of X-men: Nation X there is a collection of short stories that made life on Utopia believable, transforming the idea into a real community, with daily events and funny details, the last one, about the King and Queen of Utopia being my favourite, mostly because of Niko Henrichon's art. Others short stories of note are Jubilee's and Gambit's, both quite interesting and taking a peek into their future.

While going back through the book to write the review I noticed I was enjoying it much more that when I first read it. I guess my mood when I first read it didn't help, or the fact that the story is told too quickly (a problem I have with most Marvel graphic novels) made me feel less excited about it. As I said on the beginning of this post, Nation X had the potential to be amazing, and it was very good at times, but didn't meet the expectations. It still makes for a good book, and a must read for X-Men lovers.
I'm following X-men and X-men: Legacy comics from now on which means I'll start after the Second Coming event, and read the collection about the event when it's available. I've also read X-Necrosha and expect to write a review as soon as I can. I'm still reading and loving The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, and although it is taking me really long to get to the end, I can't rush it, his writing and the story itself just makes it impossible. It's a book to be read slowly, allowing the mind to work and waiting for the heart to slow down after each chapter.