X-Men #5
A team of X-Men goes into the Vault in X-Men #5, by writer Jonathan Hickman, artist R.B Silva, colorist Marte Gracia, and letterer Clayton Cowles. This issue picks up a plot thread from the first issue and runs with it a bit. If there’s a problem with the issue, it’s that the ending is telegraphed.
The book opens in the present, with Cyclops wondering what he’s done. From there it flashes back to Ecuador, as the black skinned girl from X-Men #1 uses her mind control to power on two me to stop the man who is chasing her. That man is Wolverine and he makes short work of the two men before continuing the chase. The black skinned girl makes it to a giant Master Mold and enters it. Wolverine asks if he should pursue, but he’s called back to Krakoa. In the Mold, she is welcomed back. At Krakoa, Cyclops, Professor X, Storm, Wolverine, and Armor brief Darwin, Synch, and X-23 on the Vault, telling them about the temporal shear and how time moves differently in the Vault, but that their mutant powers will be able to compensate for it. In the Vault, the computer systems begin the process of upgrading the rest of the Children of the Vault to the next level to deal with the changes to mutants. The X-Men go to the Vault and are able to trick its defense into chasing off a decoy team while Darwin, Synch, and X-23 get inside. Five months later, they still haven’t come out. Cyclops asks Professor X how long that would be for them inside and he tells him 500 years. This loops back to the beginning of the issue, as Cyclops laments the decision that brought them to this juncture.
This is a good issue and it’s easy to see what Hickman is doing here. He foreshadows the ending in the beginning of the comic then he goes into a lot of detail describing the way time works in the Vault and why Darwin, Synch, and X-23 were chosen to go inside. As more pages are put into the set up, though, it becomes obvious that readers aren’t going to get a look at what’s going to happen to the team at all in this issue and that’s a bit of a disappointment. Eventually, the team will leave the Vault and readers will get a more full explanation of what happened inside, but it would have been more effective to give a glimpse of what was going to happen. It also feels like a bit of waste to sideline X-23, who has proven her leadership qualities in Fallen Angels.
Other than that, there are a lot of cool little moments in the comic. The Vault is contained in a giant Master Mold that should be familiar to long time X-fans- it’s the same one from Grant Morrison’s initial New X-Men story arc, “E Is For Extinction”. During the briefing, X-23 calls herself Wolverine and Logan backs her up on that one, a smile on his face. One of Hickman’s patented info dump pages talks about what resurrection did to Synch’s mental health and how steps have been taken to make sure that thing never happens again. Finally, there’s a glimpse of a mysterious group standing with Serafina, the escaped Child of the Vault.
R.B. Silva’s art is lovely. The fight scene between Wolverine and the mind controlled farmers is quick and hardhitting and it perfectly captures the feel of that event. Another artist might have dragged it out a bit, but Silva gets right to the point with it. He also makes the Master Mold look great. The years have not been kind to it, as it is damaged with chunks of it missing. The Children of the Vault’s designs look good. The new costumes for Darwin, Synch, and X-23, however, aren’t very good. It’s obvious what he was trying to do- update the classic blue and yellow X-Men costumes, but they just don’t look nice at all. That’s a minor quibble.
X-Men #5 is a good issue that could have been great with just a little tweaking. Hickman is setting something up with this one, but spends too much time telling readers about the Vault and spends very little time showing them anything. This issue is intriguing, but it could have been so much better. R.B. Silva’s art is wonderful. He makes some very cool design choices, except the new costumes for Synch, Darwin, and X-23. This one was right on the cusp of greatness, but fell a bit short. It’s still very good, though.
Grade: B
