Unbreakable X-Men #2: Round-Up The Heroes

September’s Unbreakable X-Men #1 set the groundwork for a story focused on character arcs with Gambit reeling from the loss of Rogue and learning to live without her, even if he might not want to. While the second issue continues to pull on this story thread, it also expands the scope of the story to the wider threat posed by Shuvahrak to the world. These two story arcs blend together nicely with Gambit’s commitment last issue to “one last adventure” to honor Rogue’s memory. Simone Gail’s writing brings out the best of an emotionally wounded Gambit. However, without Rogue, it’s as if Gambit’s character is missing something central to his character, although that is what the writing is going for here.

Issue #2 also compiles a mammoth art team including C.F. Villa, Mario Santoro, Davide Tinto, David Marquez, A.B. Silva, Alessandro Cappuccio, and Ramon Rosanas. Bringing so many artists onboard for a single issue is worrying in most cases, as it’s incredibly easy for those artists to overpower one another and to turn the page count into a free-for-all. However, Unbreakable X-Men #2’s artistic talents blend together nicely to tell a story across multiple locations, with each artist bringing their own talents to different parts of the story. As for the finer details, multiple panels, such as one notable page towards the middle of the issue, are full of intricate line work and shading. The color work by Espen Grundetjern provides colorful texture across multiple different pencil styles without breaking continuity from the first to last pages.

The one shortcoming of Unbreakable X-Men so far has been its pacing. Multiple different story beats are strung together in rapid succession both in issue #1 and issue #2, leaving little room to breathe between the usual twists and turns. A short run of this kind of pacing is fine, but to use it for multiple issues can quickly exhaust audiences.