ADVANCED REVIEW: X-MEN LEGENDS #7: Big (Trouble) In Japan…

I’ve avoided reviewing this particular title for various reasons not the least of which is I’m keenly aware of the rose-tinted glasses most of us wear when it comes to how we view older comics and the nostalgia of our youth however that being said it’s Larry Hama and Wolverine and so I found myself irresistibly tempted into casting my nervousness aside and I’m glad that I did.

X-Men Legends #7 is a comic to be taken at face value that knows what it’s about and that’s what makes it enjoyable to read. There’s a healthy and well balanced combination of violence cracking wise, ninjas, villains, blood, and (minor spoiler alert) sharks to keep anyone who has ever been a fan of Wolverine and Jubilee’s previous adventures together well entertained from start to finish. This isnt Shakespeare and it never pretends to be and that’s its charm. Hama knows how to craft a narrative and infuse it with good old-fashioned melodrama and his storytelling skills are as sharp as they’ve ever been as we follow Jubilee and Wolverine along the trail of tracking down these missing mutant children. There are some solid laughs and a twist or two to keep it interesting right to the end as things don’t go quite as planned. If I have any criticism to offer it’s possibly of Hama’s Jubilee. She has a couple of good lines of dialogue in the issue, especially in the beginning., however, she ends up being a bit more of a prop, further into the issue, than I liked but this isn’t a one and done so there’s room to see if her role will expand past that in the next installment.

Billy Tan and Chris Sotomayer are on art with Joe Caramagna on lettering and all work great together to deliver an old school piece of 90sesque X nostalgia that will have you remembering the glory days of your youth if you are an older reader like myself or giving you a window back into the 90’s heyday of blue, yellow, and bubblegum pink spandex costumes when the Wolverine and his fellow X-Men were the darlings of the Marvel 616 with plenty stabby violence, fireworks, and blood to keep the action fans happy.