Where issue #1 was like a great Will Farrell sketch ((Stay with me, I’ll pay it off…hopefully)) where the persona we know is immersed in a new and exciting character that entertains, issue #2 felt more like a hackneyed hammfest that is a Jimmy Fallon (post-stardom) debacle. A good premise that was set up by a decent first issue was hindered in the follow-up by the winks/nods to the camera and it’s dark, though beautiful, art.

The fourth page seemed as though it broke the tone and was put in simply to give fans the characters they wanted. “teehee, he said Iceman,” ooo look there’s Beast!” In issue #1 I didn’t care who was who. I wanted a story that just happened to star a cast of characters that were familiar to me in another form. One of the reasons why Magneto Testament is so good is that the words Magneto and X-Men have never been used. The story and art are amazing and it just happens to star the master of magnetism. It seems like this issue sacrificed story to establish its stars. Tell me how it’s more noir-y to use names like Iceman and Beast than it would be to use Bobby and Hank? Sorry, to me that’s kind of unfathomable.

 My only criticism of the great art was that for me, and I’m sure most will disagree, the characters were very hard to discern. Compounding said problem were multiple panels with unidentified speakers and shadows galore. Perhaps it’s just me, but hey, that’s the only perpective I have to write from.

Maybe I just want a story in which Scott Summers, Jean Grey, Bobby Drake, and Hank McCoy apear, sans-powers, and inhabit a different world and not a story that has Cyclops, Pheonix, Iceman and Beast dropped into a cool concept but forced to maintain there personas.