Dead X-Men #4: The Part Is The Whole

Foxe has managed to tie his loose ends together more effectively than previous issues would have indicated — unfortunately in order to do this, he’s had to rely on readers buying all of the other Fall of X books. This means that, unfortunately, the quality of the writing is considerably poorer than it has been in previous installments. 

It is difficult to tell if this disjointedness is due to editorial mandate or authorial choice (I suspect the former) but the fact that he was unable to bring in these events naturally without requiring readers to drop $4 they might otherwise not have spent is not something to be celebrated. As it stands, if you aren’t reading the other books, you’ll likely feel as lost as the X-Men who are currently being dragged back and forth across the timelines without any real points of reference. 

Having said that, the character work in this series continues to be excellent. Each member of the team gets a chance to shine — with special attention being paid to Dazzler and Frenzy. The one exception is Jubilee, who seems to have forgotten that she’s got a baby out there floating somewhere in the multiverse. When she says that she doesn’t have a family outside of the X-Men, well, why the hell isn’t she thinking about Shogo? Why leave all of the parental anxiety to Sam. 

The art was, once again, a strong selling point. I love that each reality has its own signature artist, and it was wonderful to see David Baldeon’s work in the X-Books again. He’s as good as Chang when it comes to depicting a diversity of body shapes. Bernard Chang’s work was effective and powerful, especially when he was focused on the characters’ emotions. Vincenzo Carratú also showed tremendous skill, particularly during the fight scenes. 

This issue tied up loose ends, but unfortunately it was too reliant on readers dropping cash on other books to stand on its own.