X-Men Gold#3
Writer: Marc Guggenheim
Penciller: Adrian Syaf
Inker: Craig Yeung & Jay Leisten
Colorist: Frank Martin
Letterer: VC’s Cory Petit
Price: $3.99
Release Date: 5/3/17
Plot: X-Men Gold has Kitty and her team trying to take down the Brotherhood of evil mutants and getting to the bottom of their plans while also saving their fellow mutants.
Story: X-Men Gold has been an interesting part of Marvel’s large campaign to re-launch mutants within their individual titles. Gold has probably been one of the more popular books though, because of its team. The story is a lot of fun right away because of this aspect and the members that are included; most of them being familiar and historic. Something that is really great is having Kitty Pryde lead the team because she’s been a character with a lot of legacy behind her, someone that reader’s have really been able to grow with and grasp just how far she has come. While X-Men Gold is definitely a team book, the story really puts a lot of focus on Kitty as the main character and her ability to lead.
The issue has the team in a very violent and sort of, high stakes extraction mission where Kitty has to make tough calls and split second decisions that could mean life or death for everyone. The character has a lot of edge to her, but again, it’s a really awesome side of her to see. X-Men Gold really utilizes its story to give these characters a mission that they seem passionate about; currently hunting down the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and trying to discover who is running this terrorist operation. It gives this grand sense of the X-Men Gold team almost feeling black ops in a way.
Kitty has this passion within her that feels like a completely fresh side of the character, or at least a part that is now being amplified with maturity and age. She is done allowing mutants to be perceived by the public as their enemy because of corruption and manipulation. The character and her team definitely aren’t overstepping or compromising what they stand for, but there is an added sense of aggression in their motivations to stop all of these events from taking place.
Guggenheim really writes X-Men Gold well and gives the book this includes the individual characters’ feelings while also having this larger purpose. The team is on a legitimate mission that they are passionate about, and passion is probably the best way to describe the X-Men Gold story. Kitty Pryde really drives this story as the team’s leader and is the forefront of everything. The character has an awesome newfound sense of grit to her that stems from a good place to see equality of mutants and move past having her species be used for alternative agendas.
Art: The art in X-Men Gold is really, really solid. Syaf has a traditional looking style of drawing but scales everything perfectly. There is never a panel in this book where something looks off or lazy that one will find in other comics. He never seems to have a problem drawing any character but is able to give them all the same level of detail that just makes X-Men Gold a super well-rounded artistic book. The scenes always are extremely full and rich without ever feeling cluttered or like there is too much going on. Syaf does a great job of keeping everything balanced for how many characters and events take place within the story.
On top of this, Yeung and Leisten deserve equal praise because there is so much crazy ink detail that brings so much to the artistic side as well. Their line detail helps aid in the design of movements as well as giving the appropriate amount of grittiness to certain characters, or just adds the slightest amount of contrast on top of the character’s body and clothes colors. It’s a part of X-Men Gold that shouldn’t go unnoticed because it adds even another level to all of the panels, characters and backgrounds.
As for the coloring in this comic, there are some very beautiful scenes because of Martin’s detail and color choices. While the coloring never feels like it goes over and above, that feels like a result of the story and so much going on at once. However, Martin doesn’t allow that to stop him from utilizing space and the scenes drawn to layer different colors and create a full scope of both bright and darkness when necessary.
Verdict: X-Men Gold is a really great team story. Kitty has such a mature presence in the book and there is a great sense of camaraderie throughout the pages under her lead. The story and writing bring a nice chemistry to everything while the art adds a great amount of detail and expression which makes this a consistently good book to check out.
Rating: 4.4/5