Review: X-Cellent #2

What is the story behind the X-Cellent team and can they coexist with X-Static?

X-Cellent #2
Marvel Comics
W: Peter Milligan
A: Mike Allred, Laura Allred
$3.99 (Available on Marvel Unlimited)

What To Know
X-Statix was the early 2000s update to X-Force, but with a social media slant; they were reality show star mutants who fought weird crimes. The roster was ever changing, like it was a Robert Kirkman or George R.R. Martin story. X-Cellent brought back Zeitgeist, former X-Statix leader, who wants to destroy X-Statix.

A crime was in progress at the Hollywood Bowl and both teams arrive to stop it; it leads to a battle between the teams that is broadcast to all of their followers.

What Happens
X-Statix member Vivisector has been mortally wounded and the X-Statix team wants to retreat to try to help him. Before Gone Gal can teleport them out, Zeitgeist offers her a position with his team; when she refuses, he spews acid on her face and disfigures her. Both sides continue their battle, Joe Bomb of X-Cellent is injured, and Gone Gal is able to focus enough to teleport their team away.

Once X-Statix leave, the crowd starts to lose interest and leave. Zeitgeist goes for a clean exit, but doesn’t have a way to leave, so they have to hail a cab back to their base. Joe Bomb is on death’s door and Zeitgeist doesn’t care; to him the team is pretty much expendable. He retreat to his room where he can spy on X-Statix thanks to Pood, a dark version of Doop.

We get a flashback to the Boyz R Us massacre, where everyone believed Zeitgeist had died. He was dismembered in the attack, but revealed he had special instructions for Doop in case this happened. Doop gave Zeitgeist Doop Ice, which help eventually heal his body; it appears to have altered his mind too. He was able to watch his funeral and see U Go Girl and Mr. Sensitive start to get close.

There is a lot of internal drama for X-Cellent, including the death of Joe Bomb. Zeitgeist decides they need a teleporter to avoid the taxi issue. They rescue Billy McMullen from death row; Billy is a teleporter who has committed petty crimes, but is being killed because people are scared of him. When he teleports them away, he pretty much rips them apart to put them back together at their destination, causing Zeitgeist to believe this is his worse mistake since the Boyz R Us massacre.

Thoughts
X-Statix was always a tough to follow book, but very heavy on social commentary; X-Cellent is much of the same. The characters motives, outside of Zeitgeist, are sometimes hard to follow. You have to go in knowing this is a very niche book.

That said, I’m enjoying it. There is backstabbing and infighting. This comes off as more of a real world book, with people worried about followers and views. Milligan’s script is different from what you typically get from superhero books; rather then writing for the big splash page, he’s going for the nuanced story.

The Allred’s style doesn’t work with a lot of books, but fits the feel of the story here. It’s very cartoony, which is what Mike has made his career off of.

Rating
3.75 out of 5; it’s not for everyone, but those that it is for love it.