X-Corp #3

X-Corp #3

Marvel Comics 2021

Written by Tini Howard

Illustrated by Valentine De Landro

Coloured by Sunny Gho

Lettered by VC’s Clayton Cowles

MULTIPLE MEN, MULTIPLE SOLUTIONS!

He’s everywhere you want to be. He’s never not in the office. And his direct reports always fall in line. How does X-CORP meet their nearly impossible quotas with maximum synergy and minimal bandwidth? They’ve got Dr. Jamie Madrox, and he’s the world’s best boss.

Jamie has emerge as one of my favourite characters that marvel has and ever since his first limited series. That he’s a scientist, this time around, and using his dupes to work in and run a lab well that’s some genius stuff right there. Though I wasn’t aware he want to school and became a scientist unless it was a dupe who ran off and did that then was reabsorbed and voila a bona fide scientist was born. In the meantime I like that Warren is the opposite half to Monet and how they balance each other out is perfectly rendered throughout the series so far. I like that this is a different type of book and one that relies heavily upon story and less upon action, though there’s plenty of that too, because it’s makes the reader think more, pay closer attention to the writing and gets them engaged in the book in ways they might not be used to.

I am very much enjoying the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well. The character development we see through the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how they act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter, which helps to continually flesh out their personalities. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing more of the story the intrigue factor keeps us glued to the page.

I like the way that this is being structured and how we see the layers within the story continue to grow, evolve and strengthen. The avenues that we see opening up and those already being explored, whether they work with the main arc or simply swirl around it add this depth, dimension and complexity to the story. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is achieved extremely well.

I like the interiors here a lot. The style of art that we see is great and how it sets the mood, tone and feel is phenomenal to me. The linework is great and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create the detail work is extremely nice to see. I would like to see more backgrounds in use, when we see them they enhance the moments perfectly. Also the way they work within the composition of the panels to bring us the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story is sensational to see. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkably talented eye for storytelling. The colour work is really exceptionally well rendered. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is beautifully rendered.

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I love that this isn’t a typical series and that yes we see the fear, anger and jealousy towards mutants playing out but we also see science and business and some ruthless behaviour that comes with corporate tactics, including espionage and other realms. We see why Warren and Monet offset each other and we see how characters can be utilised in ways that set them apart from how we’ve previously viewed them. It’s a different kind of beast and I can’t enough of it and this is thanks to the sensational writing and characterisation along with these outstanding interiors.