In what is now becoming a long history of tradition, Marvel released this book, which is actually a series of short stories. Marvel has been using the X-franchise for this purpose long enough now, that I starting to enjoy it.
I believe these collections are a perfect way to tell the stories of lesser known mutants. Like it or not (and I do like it by the way), the X-Men have the largest active roster of any super team in the Marvel Universe. And as a fan of the mutants, I always want to know what they are up to; especially the lesser known ones.
The first story is the best of the four presented. Little surprise either, considering it was written by Chris Yost. For as long as they have given him a voice (which was also Yost's doing by the way), Rockslide has been one of my favourite characters. He is a little mix of Thing, Spider-Man and Deadpool rolled up in one. His insensitive comments, and general misunderstanding about what it means to be a superhero places him as one of the few characters who consistently gets me laughing out loud while I read my comics. Rockslide decides to fight crime the old fashioned way and enlists Anole as his sidekick. This in itself is hilarious, considering Anole is consistently the brunt of most of Rockslide's jokes. Yost cheeses it up to the max, and there is no other way I would rather have it with these two characters. I won't give it away, but I will say that that these two newbie superheroes get in way over their head, despite the fact that they are wearing awesome fake moustaches!
The second story involves my favourite woman of Marvel, Emma Frost. While on her day off at the spa, she is forced to deal with C-List super villain, Mandrill. The story is cute, but the real selling point for me was the art. Very slick looking panels are provided by Jon Buran (of World of Warcraft and FreeRealms fame.) Buran's bold lines are beautifully filled by Ian Hannin's vivid colours. This is a good looking story, both in execution and content.
The third story is the weakest of the collection, featuring newly resurrected Doug Ramsey. I haven't been a fan of this character's "evolved" power set since his return. His ability to read languages has seeming enhanced so far that he is basically an omega class superhero. For every reason that I hate Amadeus Cho, I hate Doug Ramsey. They both have an invisible power that essentially lets them do whatever a writer wants.
The collection finishes strong in my opinion, with a piece dedicated to Fantomex. I love the face time this character has been getting lately. He is a cleverly designed creation courtesy of Grant Morrison. In this story, the suave speaking anti-hero takes on Batroc the Leaper. The two volley insults back and forth while jumping from roof top to roof top. Despite being bested by Fantomex, Batroc has the last laugh. This is a cleverly written story which is really aided by the storytelling of the panels themselves. The lay out really assists the flow of this face paced diamond heist!
I am looking forward to issue #2 in this 4 issue limited series. As I said earlier, I think this is a perfect format to tell the world about the lives of all the lesser known X-folks.