- Written by: Gail Simone
- Art by: Andrei Bressan
- Colors by: Matthew Wilson
- Letters by: VC’s Clayton Cowles
- Cover art by: David Marquez, Matthew Wilson (cover A)
- Cover price: $4.99
- Release date: January 22, 2025
Uncanny X-Men #9, by Marvel Comics on 1/22/25, sends the Outliers to the mall for better better clothes and breathing room. Unfortunately, Trask’s canine creations are about to ruin their day.
Is Uncanny X-Men #9 Good?
Recap
When last we left Rogue’s band of merry mutants in Uncanny X-Men #8, the Raid on Graymalkin crossover ended with a whimper instead of a bang. The mysterious Prisoner X was NOT revealed, Charles Xavier chose to remain in prison, and Warden Ellis haughtily dismissed both X-Men teams from the grounds. The issue ended with Rogue and Cyclops parting after a petty squabble.
Plot Synopsis
In Uncanny X-Men #9, Rogue meets with her fellow X-Men to discuss what to do with the Outliers. After running into battle with the untrained youngsters, it’s time to get serious about their schooling and teamwork. Rogue tasks each senior mutant with getting to know one of the Outliers to form a mentor bond and help them assimilate.
Jubilee seeks out Deathdream, who is hanging out in a graveyard. The socially maladjusted, emo mutant isn’t much for peppy conversation, but he’s enthralled when Jubilee makes a stable firework ball for him to hold. Wolverine catches up with Ransom before the latter catches a ride with his cousin to go his own way. Wolverine eventually convinces Ransom to stay.
Elsewhere, Jitter finds Calico sweeping up a large area in the horse stable to prepare a makeshift ballet dance floor for practice. Jitter offers to help play the male lead with her powers in Calico’s ballet duet. The dance ends with the obligatory lesbian kiss.
The next day, Rogue sends the Outliers to the mall with wads of cash to get new clothes, eat junk food, and relax. All goes well until Trask, who recently made a deal to sell his prototype sentinel hounds to a foreign dignitary for hunting mutants and political opponents, sends his Wolfpack into the mall for testing. The issue ends with Deathdream becoming doggy chow.
First Impressions
What’s a nice way of saying Uncanny X-Men #9 is dumb? Gail Simone’s latest entry in the series is one-half slice-of-life and one-half villains acting like incompetent buffoons. It’s impossible to tell which half is worse.
How’s the Art?
Andrei Bressan’s style, which looks like a cross between Frank Quitely and Moebius, is good to great in presenting a myriad of heart-to-heart conversations between the generations of mutants, as well as delivering serviceable action. Admittedly, the little amount of action there is in Uncanny X-Men #9 is shown in fits and starts, but what you get is well done.
What’s great about Uncanny X-Men #9?
If you have to pick something, the star of this issue is the art from Andrei Bressan. Second to the art, you get a little more insight into the personalities of the Outliers, assuming you’ve been itching to know more about them.
What’s not great about Uncanny X-Men #9?
The story is, in a word, a mess. Yes, this is an ensemble series, but somebody has to take the lead as the PoV character. You get no direction or sense of purpose here. The issue is a series of expositional scenes that tie random information together.
Further, what’s the big idea here? Is it to introduce the Wolfpack? We already know they exist from the Sentinels miniseries and their appearances in the Raid on Graymalkin crossover.
What is the villain’s plan? You learn from the prologue that the Wolfpack is glitchy and uncontrollable, so what’s the point of releasing the hounds in a civilian mall? If the scientists already knew they had no way of controlling the Wolfpack or shutting them down, what did they hope to accomplish? Nothing about the villain’s actions or the direction of this issue makes any sense.
In short, Gail Simone concocted a nonsensical excuse to get the Outliers into a fight for their lives without putting the slightest effort into making the excuse plausible.
About The Reviewer: Gabriel Hernandez is the Publisher & EIC of ComicalOpinions.com, a comics review site dedicated to indie, small, and mid-sized publishers.
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Final Thoughts
Uncanny X-Men #9 fails on multiple levels. Writer Gail Simone concocts a weirdly uneven script that’s one-half modern Marvel slice-of-life nonsense and one-half action that doesn’t make any sense. Only Andrei Bressan’s art can salvage a comic that’s this plain dumb.
4.5/10
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