Here's an X-Men comic I could really get behind.

[richardak]

In 2009, Marvel published with Del Rey a comic called X-Men: Misfits, reimagining the story in the style of a Japanese high-school soap-opera comic.  Even though I'm not a fan of the X-Men and never have been, I liked this comic, mostly because it took the idea of a school for mutants seriously, and the conflicts between different groups of mutants played out among factions of students and faculty at the school.  One of the (several) things I didn't like about the mainstream X titles was that, far too often, the interesting premise was just an excuse for conventional superhero action.  Unfortunately, it appears to be highly in doubt whether there will ever be a volume 2.  Oh well.  Anyway, here are some scans.  I've only done a handful out of the approximately 175 page first volume, so page limits shouldn't be an issue.  If there's interest, I'll post more.  Incidentally, this is not a Japanese comic.  The writers are American and the artist is Indonesian, but it has clearly been heavily influenced in both writing and art by a number of different Japanese comics.










When she arrives at school, Kitty is in for a bit of a surprise about the makeup of the student body....

To be blunt, it was an odd decision to make Kitty the only female student.  The purpose it serves in the story, so far as I can tell, is that it helps catapult Kitty quite quickly to the upper echelon of the school's social hierarchy, which is necessary for the direction the writers wanted to go to the story.  Putting Kitty in a privileged position within the school enables them to tell a certain kind of story.  Anyway, that's largely the subject of another post if people are interested.


One of the things I'm not sure how I feel about regarding this comic is the way they've introduced a family connection between Lensherr and the Prydes.  It's clearly implied that Kitty's grandfather saved Lensherr during the Holocaust, and the fact that the writers made Kitty the protagonist creates a pretty powerful subtext, hardly new to X-Men comics, but I've never really bought the metaphor.

Comments

[neuhallidae]

::imagines X-Men done by Urasawa::

...

::dies of happy::

Though, really, if they have to do something shoujo-ish, why not use a style similar to, say the DOLLS series? It's very pretty, but fluid, and the artists can actually draw some damn scenery. The city scenes are really nice and the crime scenes appropriately creepy.

[tetradecimal]

Considering what he did with Astro Boy, I'd totally read that.

[neuhallidae]

Eeee, you're over here now! ::cough:: Sorry. And an Urasawa X-Men would be badass. For some reason, I think Magsy would be a cross somewhere between Geischt and Johan.

[tetradecimal]

What? Who? What?

I've seen you around F_W, right?

Oh, and just think of the wonderful treatment the designated villain will get. Wordless, indescribable horror all around! How about 20th Century Boys with the Hellfire Club, or Pluto with Apocalypse?

Also, Wolverine should be a gravelly old lumberjack who retired to take care of twelve cats and do loner junk in the woods.

[neuhallidae]

Yeah, f_w. I haven't been commenting nearly as much as I used to, though. And I would pay out the nose for a 20th'd Hellfire Club. Or an Epsilon'd Jean Grey. When she's not in a rage, their personalities are similar enough.

[tetradecimal]

Alas, poor Epsilon :(

[neuhallidae]

Even though I knew from the original Tezuka story that they would all die, Urasawa's handling of all the robots made me sob like a little girl for every single one.

[tetradecimal]

NO DON'T REMIND ME

North No. 2

[neuhallidae]

::bawl::

Oh my God, the bit where Geischt's wife learns to cry broke me.

[tetradecimal]

Yeah, I think a two minute summary of Pluto would be

Reader: Robots? Well, I don't really care about robots, but--
Urasawa: YOU DO CARE. YOU CARE SO MUCH.
Reader: IT'S TRUE. I NEED TISSUES RIGHT NOW :(