X-Corp #5
X-Corp battles it out with the Fenris Twins, Kol, and Sarah St. John in X-Corp #5, by writer Tini Howard, artist Alberto Foche, colorist Sunny Gho, and letterer Clayton Cowles. This issue is one big action scene, but the whole thing is so far-fetched that it’s kind of jaw-droppingly mediocre.
So,, this one is pretty much just X-Corp versus Kol’s infiltrators. There’s really no point in going into the minutiae of it. The battle has its ups and downs as Archangel and M are completely unable to stop the Fenris Twins, Trinary and Sarah St. Johns have a conversation, Kol is able to get the best of Selene because of his enhancements, and the Madrox dupes figure out a way to stop the Fenris Twins, tying the whole thing up in a neat bow.
One of Howard’s biggest problems in this book so far has been a lack of characterization, and in this issue, she finally gets some characters right, as the Fenris Twins are exactly who they should be. Well, except for the fact they are completely able to outclass Archangel and M. The whole set-up of this issue, that Kol, the Fenris Twins, and St. John were somehow going to be a threat to X-Corp and to sell that, Howard has to at least make the Fenris Twins seem like a threat. At one point, Archangel basically tells M it’s okay to kill them, and yet neither of them, who are more than capable of doing so, even try. Archangel can literally cut them half with his wings. M has super strength and can punch through either of them. They don’t have any kind of enhanced durability. They just shoot energy blasts while they’re touching, and Andreas knows how to use a sword. The fact that they can clown on Archangel and M is ridiculous.
So, while the issue is well structured and paced as an action issue, there’s a sense of incredulity under the surface of things, and that surface is transparent. While this issue is a welcome respite from the slightly inane plot this book has been building the whole time, it’s still just not a very good comic because of the leaps it takes to make the whole thing work. Howard even tries to throw in a cool thing at the end with the dupes saving the day but even then, it’s a little weird and doesn’t really seem like it should work, even though she includes a whole page on why it should work.
Foche’s art is still passable at best. A book whose plot and characterization are as bad as this one needs some really great art to make up for things, and it’s just here. He does an okay job on some pages, but his style is so run of the mill that it doesn’t do anything to elevate the mostly blah script.
X-Corp #5 gets all-action, but it has the same problems as every other issue of this book so far. Howard does a good job with the Fenris Twins and the structure and pacing of the chapter, but other than that, everything else in this issue falls flat. Foche’s art is okay, although some panels aren’t exactly great. X-Corp #5 is a change of pace, but it’s still stuck in the same race.