A review by crookedtreehouse
Dawn of X Vol. 15 by Leah Williams, Benjamin Percy, Zeb Wells, Ed Brisson, Jonathan Hickman, Vita Ayala, Gerry Duggan
4.0
After a bit of a rought start, this volume is one of the better Dawn Of X titles in a while. X-Factor has quickly gone from promising to eyerolling for me. It's mainly that I can't think of a Mojoverse story that's ever been good. It's an interesting concept, and Mojo is always a ridiculous character, but every writer wants to update the Mojoverse (which makes sense) to the latest jargon and technical advances. But they never get it quite right. The dialogue, jokes, and panel to panel storytelling was grating in the Mojoverse parts but well-paced in the scenes between Daken and Aurora. The largest frustration for long time readers will be the characterization of Spiral who bears no resemblance to any previous version of the character that I recall. This might be a deliberate choice by Williams to point out that she's a prisoner, as Shattershot behaves differently in this issue but it's clear that it's a cry for help. This was a 2/5 for me.
I'm also not a huge fan of Dracula in the Marvel Universe, but the Wolverine story doesn't give Dracula too much attention, instead focusing on how the use of Wolverine's blood has created a 30 Days Of Night scenario across Canada. The Canadian setting, and the lack of other X-characters makes this feel like some of the better Wolverine runs, like Greg Rucka's, rather than being more similar to the bloated Wolverine eras where he was in a billion stories being King Badass Of Everything. 3/5.
The New Mutants story about Magik and crew taking it to Dox, a website outing mutants and helping the Marvel Universe's right wing nutjob/terrorists allegorical groups attack mutants. The story, in general, is really strong, but the highlight is the conversation between Glob and Magik that closes the issue. I never really think about Glob, even though he's been a character in the X-Verse since Grant Morrison introduced him twenty years ago. This is the first time I remember his character being really fleshed out. I loved it. It felt really honest. 5/5
The two Marauders issues gives us the return of Kitty Pride whose absence (again again again) affected not just the characters in her title, but resonated through all of the X-books. We don't get the revenge story here, but the seeds are planted in a fascinating manner, and we get quality glimpses at Storm, The Five, Magik, and several others. 4/5
The book closes with the Fantomex Giant Sized issue. Another Morrison character, but this one's had plenty of in-depth character examinations, particularly during his time with X-Force. This issue was fine. I'm not sure how much I care about The World, but it was fun to see the various groyps of humand and mutants that Fantomex has interacted with over the years as he tries to understand The World. But in the end, we don't learn much more about The World than we knew before the issue started. 3/5
I'm not sure this would be a good entry point for any new X-reader, but for continuity porn fans, once you get past the frustration of X-Factor (which could totally pay out in future issues), this is a Must Read.
I'm also not a huge fan of Dracula in the Marvel Universe, but the Wolverine story doesn't give Dracula too much attention, instead focusing on how the use of Wolverine's blood has created a 30 Days Of Night scenario across Canada. The Canadian setting, and the lack of other X-characters makes this feel like some of the better Wolverine runs, like Greg Rucka's, rather than being more similar to the bloated Wolverine eras where he was in a billion stories being King Badass Of Everything. 3/5.
The New Mutants story about Magik and crew taking it to Dox, a website outing mutants and helping the Marvel Universe's right wing nutjob/terrorists allegorical groups attack mutants. The story, in general, is really strong, but the highlight is the conversation between Glob and Magik that closes the issue. I never really think about Glob, even though he's been a character in the X-Verse since Grant Morrison introduced him twenty years ago. This is the first time I remember his character being really fleshed out. I loved it. It felt really honest. 5/5
The two Marauders issues gives us the return of Kitty Pride whose absence (again again again) affected not just the characters in her title, but resonated through all of the X-books. We don't get the revenge story here, but the seeds are planted in a fascinating manner, and we get quality glimpses at Storm, The Five, Magik, and several others. 4/5
The book closes with the Fantomex Giant Sized issue. Another Morrison character, but this one's had plenty of in-depth character examinations, particularly during his time with X-Force. This issue was fine. I'm not sure how much I care about The World, but it was fun to see the various groyps of humand and mutants that Fantomex has interacted with over the years as he tries to understand The World. But in the end, we don't learn much more about The World than we knew before the issue started. 3/5
I'm not sure this would be a good entry point for any new X-reader, but for continuity porn fans, once you get past the frustration of X-Factor (which could totally pay out in future issues), this is a Must Read.