After wrapping up this book’s first storyline, this issue takes a breather to catch up with the characters. While Jubilee and her baby, Shogo, visit Wolverine in her home town of Southern California, some of the other heroes experience some new team growing pains. Jubilee seems to be struggling to at once let go of the past and reconnect with it, visiting the beach, a mall food court and driving past her old home, now vacant after the deaths of her parents.
Elsewhere, it becomes obvious that Rachel Grey disagrees with Storm’s actions from the last issue, specifically her seeming willingness to kill Karima Shapandar and rebels and her simply slipping into the role as the X-Men’s leader.
The two women can barely keep their resentment in check as they, along with Psylocke, Rogue and Kitty Pryde attempt to save a crashing aircraft. But will their inability to cooperate result in one of the heroes not making it back?
David Lopez’s art is really gorgeous inside. He draws exceptional faces which helps to punctuate the excellent dialogue and adds extra layers of humanity to his drawings. This is perhaps most obvious with Jubilee’s baby, Shogo who can’t talk, but still expresses a range of attitudes and thoughts through his emotive face.
The scenes with Jubilee reflected a melancholy, which perfectly conveyed her shift from one-time spunky teen sidekick, to mature, new mom. The dialogue, through the whole book, is very sharp and crisp, which is the real treat. The plot about rescuing the crashing plane goes on forever and is just there to give these heroes something to do while slinging cracks at one another.
Overall, this is an extremely good looking comic, with some great dialogue. The major plot is a bit of a throw-away, but it’s not the main attraction anyway. I definitely think it’s worth picking up, regardless!
X-MEN #4
Written by Brian Wood
Art by David Lopez
Cover by Terry Dodson and Rachel Dodson
