Last week there were a number of Marvel titles released where two or more artists worked on a title.  Usually, one artist is in charge of the main story, and another does flashbacks; or else each artist follows a story from a certain character's perspective.  And, more often that not, the multiple artists is a hinderance to the story.  Done, not only because the plot allows two or more different artists to tell a story, but, usually because a more recognizable artist is really busy, and only has time to work on part of an issue.  Personally, I find there's a rare occasion for multiple artists on an issue to make a successsful story.  This issue of X-Men Legacy, though, had me wishing they'd thrown one other artist in the mix.

I'm not a fan of Acuna's style when its applied to "real world" scenarios.  In fact, before reading this issue, I couldn't tell you anything of his that I particularly enjoyed.  His camera work really bugs me.  When we're pulled back to see an entire room, the faces are muddied to the point where they resemble DC's The Question, or worse.  Ariel, for example, has giant blue, expressive eyes when she realizes that the science team has her wrapped in a "passport universe".  But during the preceding pages, and the ones that follow, you can barely make out the fact that she even has eyes, nevermind what color they are.  And the faces in the Gambit/Cyclops scene are just across the board wrong to me.  Jaw angles, wrinkles, hair styles, eyes, nothing resembles the characters I've read for years.  Nothing resembles the characters I am currently reading in other series.  But everything that doesn't work for me in the context of the story taking place in the "real world", looks stupendous in Emplate's dimension.

In this other dimension, the vague form of Rogue and Bling (Rogue absorbed Trance's powers in the last issue, and is on a mission to rescue an imprisoned Bling) are in gorgeous contrast with The Vespertines, and Empath, himself.  Acuna's gift is clearly in the fantasy/horror realm, and not so much in the mainstream Marvel Universe titles.  If he were a DC artist, I'd put him squarely on the Elseworld titles, and keep him away from the continuity.  His style is just too divergent from what other artists are doing, but not in an endearing way.

Story-wise, I'm counting down the days until Carey leaves the X-verse.  I think Carey is a fantastic writer, but, apart from the Endangered Species back stories, his run hasn't really grabbed me.  The science team stuff is marginally interesting to me, but that's yanked from Fraction's run.  And Gambit The Horseman comes from Milligan's horrendously bad "Bloodlines Of Apocalypse" arc.  While I respect his use of some of the less popular continuity storylines and villains (in particular, his choice as Empath for the first villain to create havoc...not Havoc...havoc on Asteroid X), and I love that he's finally given Rogue control over her powers, overall his run has been remarkably unremarkable.  And this issue continues that trend.