Review: Major X #1

Let’s face it, nostalgia sells. It’s a huge part of why we love comic books so much. It allows us to transcend time, to be kids again and in the case of Rob Liefeld it allows him to remain perpetually in 1991. At least that’s how I felt reading the debut issue of Major X. The story centers on a pair of time traveling mutants, one being the bucket headed Major X, for all intents and purposes just think of him as part Judge Dredd, part Deadpool with a bit of Chris Bachalo’s Cyclops redesign thrown in for the heck of it, the other is maybe a future version of Hank McCoy, albeit one that has been Liefeldized taking elements of long forgotten 90’s Image characters like his Blood Wulf and incorporating them into an amalgamation of generic mutant character tropes. This time displaced duo is apparently on the trail of Cable, for what reason we never really find out before the final page of the issue. Liefeld pulls double duty on this title as artist and writer, although the narrative feels like an afterthought it is mainly a device used to propel these characters from one fight scene to the next. The dialog is pure 90’s as well as the visuals, Liefeld makes use of the X-prefix ad nauseam as Major X rambles on about the X-ential and the X-istence, again there is little in the way of explanation of these terms. Liefeld seems to assume we will pick up the meaning of these words through osmosis or perhaps the meaning, like anatomy just doesn’t matter in the world of Rob Liefeld.

Anyone who is a fan of Liefeld’s earlier work will certainly love this book because very little has changed in his approach to creating comic books. He still has a disjointed style of storytelling that is extremely off-putting and awkward in its herky-jerky inconsistency. His panels don’t flow because of this, making any action sequence come across stilted. What he lacks in finesse, he tries to make up for in a chaotic cavalcade of cameo appearance. I mean there is a veritable smorgasboard of Marvel mutants in this book; everyone Liefeld has ever drawn in his career pops up in this book. However, he still manages to drain a bit more out of the pool, no pun intended, as he gives us a bastardized version of Deadpool cleverly called Dreadpool. Essentially, Deadpool with Cables shoulder pads and a slightly more Spider-Man-like mask, Dreadpool trades quips with the real Deadpool in a battle of banter that is almost instantly forgettable.

Liefeld has been taken to task for many artistic shortcomings in his long and prolific career and sadly many of them appear repeatedly in this issue. His aversion to drawing feet, his exceedingly loose interpretation of the human anatomy and his reluctance to draw backgrounds of any kind are all on display from cover to cover. Certainly his readily recognizable slant on facial features is not as irksome as his penchant for drawing tiny, pod-like feet, however it does become somewhat annoying when every character is shown with their mouths wide open as if screaming in agony no matter the premise of the scene. Aside from his unique approach to rendering the human form, Liefeld’s page composition tends toward the static, many times panels appear stacked one upon another with no real thought given to design or even storytelling. Visually, this just doesn’t work as sequential art storytelling, in the final analysis the entire issue is one long altercation, however the inconsistency in the artwork is just too problematic for any real momentum to build, hence there is not drama or tension to the narrative whatsoever. The fact that there are multiple inkers working on Liefeld’s pencils doesn’t help the visual uniformity either. Adelso Corona, Dan Fraga as well as Liefeld himself all take a swing at inking these pages and the line quality of each inker is very obviously different. Romulo Fajardo JR’s colors work extremely well in capturing that sense of 90’s nostalgia. His tones are almost muted, but not to the point of being earthy.

The truly disappointing aspect of this issue for me, more than the aforementioned hiccups is that I really wanted to like this book, if only for the sake of nostalgia. I collected comics all through the 90’s, I was there for the rise of Image Comics when all the big names jumped ship from Marvel. I can’t say all my memories of that time are fond ones, but I still have all of those issues in my collection, including a full run of Liefeld’s New Mutants. If you are looking for a trip down Memory Lane then I would certainly recommend picking this one up, however if you are looking to spend your money on good storytelling and first-rate artwork I would sit this one out. 3/5

[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

Writer/Penciler- Rob Liefeld
Inkers- Rob Liefeld, Adelso Corona, Dan Fraga
Colors- Romulo Fajardo JR
Letterer- VC’s Joe Sabino