'Giant-Size X-Men: Jean Grey and Emma Frost' #1 Review: A mostly-silent comic with brilliant visual storytelling
Spoiler alert for 'Giant-Size X-Men: Jean Grey and Emma Frost' #1
It's a great time to be an 'X-Men' fan. Jonathan Hickman's 'Dawn of X' relaunch has revolutionized the world of Marvel's merry mutants and with his new series of 'Giant-Size X-Men' one-shots, the legendary writer is expanding on the new status quo with character-oriented stories.
The first of these, 'Giant-Size X-Men: Jean Grey and Emma Frost', is now in stores and the issue is a promising start to the series.
The story, titled 'Psychic Rescue', follows Jean Grey / Marvel Girl and Emma Frost / White Queen as they venture into the mind of Ororo Munroe / Storm for a psychic evaluation after the mutant goddess is incapacitated by the Children of the Vault.
The issue is mostly told as a silent comic with Russell Dauterman's vivid and wonderful art carrying the brunt of the storytelling and Matthew Wilson's colors practically popping off the page.
'Giant-Size X-Men' #1 features some of the best facial acting we've seen in comics in recent memory with both Emma and Jean's expressions speaking volumes even while they remain silent as a human grave. We see some spectacular artwork in the issue, especially in the scenes that take place within Storm's mind.
There's a strong 'Black Panther' vibe to the psychic sequences, especially the ones that show two lions guarding Storm's mental landscape. Both Emma and Jean show a surprising amount of growth in the issue — for starters, they don't try to kill each other at any point, which is a lot considering their history together.
Each panel is expertly done, every page is an aesthetic delight, and while the comic does end on a cliffhanger, it still remains an excellent standalone issue in its own right.
This is easily one of the best 'X-Men' comics we've seen this year and if it wasn't for the absolute brilliance of 'X-Men' #7, 'Giant-Size X-Men: Jean Grey and Emma Frost' #1 would be our pick for best comic of the week.
'Giant-Size X-Men: Jean Grey and Emma Frost' #1, by Jonathan Hickman (story and words), Russell Dauterman (story and art), Matthew Wilson (color artist), Clayton Cowles (letterer), and Tom Muller (design), was released on February 26.