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COMIC REVIEW: FTN reviews Magneto #1

March 6th, 2014 by Marc Comments

Writer: Cullen Bunn
Art: Gabriel Hernandez Walta
Published: Marvel Comics

It’s been a while since I’ve gotten my hands on a comic as life gets in the way sometimes. I knew if there was a book that could pull me back in, it would be the solo adventures of my favorite villain of all time, Magneto. Since I hadn’t read anything in a few months I had no idea what Magneto had been up to or where he was at. Last I read he was sporting all white and paling around with Cyclops. The place where I find him was exactly what I was hoping for, dark.

Taking a cue from First Class, Magneto is on the war path against the unjust, but instead of Nazis hiding in plain sight, Magneto has set his sights on those who did massive harm to mutant kind. The first few pages play out like First Class with Magneto hunting down a doctor who had helped financed anti-mutant organizations. After some quick…dental work, Magneto heads back to his motel room to brood and reflect before heading back out to end another mutant menace.

The story presented by Bunn here is quite delicious. This is the Magneto that I love; the badass savior, the mutant Malcolm X to Xavier’s Martin Luther King Jr. No cheeks will be turned the other way when Magneto is involved and it was great seeing him get back to that. Bunn’s style of writing and use of language fits perfectly with a character like Magneto. Nothing makes a book better then when the writer absolutely gets his subject, and that is delivered in spades here.

However all isn’t perfect in Magneto land as I just couldn’t wrap myself around the art style. It’s not that it isn’t good, but it’s more suited for an indie comic about a neurotic man bumbling through life then it is a superhero book. When I read superhero books I like crisp lines, bright colors, call me boring but I like traditional comic book art. Though there were some great moments art wise, like Magneto sizing up every piece of metal as he enters a police station, the overall art has a dull and drab look to it. It just doesn’t grab me and pull me in like I was hoping it would. It’s not that the art is bad, it’s just not my cup of tea.

Overall this tale is just getting started and I feel confident with Bunn at the writers helm that we will get an epic story worthy of the mutant called Magneto. I just wish that Marvel had gone a different way with the art. If it weren’t for the art this book would’ve scored much higher. As it is I have to go with a…

3.5 out of 5 nerds

 

Marc is a self-confessed nerd. Ever since seeing Star Wars for the first time around 1979 he’s been an unapologetic fan of the Wars and still believes, with Clone Wars and now Underworld, we are yet to see the best Star Wars. He’s a dad of two who now doesn’t have the time (or money) to collect the amount of toys, comics, movies and books he once did, much to the relief of his long-suffering wife. In the real world he’s a graphic designer. He started Following the Nerd because he was tired of searching a million sites every day for all the best news that he loves and decided to create one place where you can go to get the whole lot. Secretly he longs to be sitting in the cockpit of his YT-1300 Corellian Transport ship with his co-pilot Chewie, roaming the universe, waiting for his next big adventure, but feels just at home watching cartoons with his kids….