(No Title)
Writer: Devin Grayson
Comic Artwork by: Udon Studios
Cover Artwork by: Kia Asamiya
Month Published: April 2002
Introducing: Mimic
Takes Place: After "Turn of the Rogue", but before "Growing Pains"
Synopsis/Review: After a brief one-page
intro to the X-Men in which each gets their own comic panel and a one-paragraph
description (and which has the odd words "just like you" in the middle
of the page- yeah, how do they know I have fur and a demon-tail,
too?), this comic begins with Evan hanging out with his skateboarding buddies.
Evan shows off a bit and skateboards down a stair rail- however, as he
comes out into the street, a minivan comes up, but he manages to jump over
it (which SHOULD be impossible- c'mon, he's not Toad). Only AFTER this
does he realize that he just did something stupid. Nice timing, Evan...
Back at the Mansion,
the X-Men have just successfully finished a Danger Room session- minus
Evan. (Gee, this sounds familiar...) Scott and Jean start complementing
each other in a lovey-dovey way, and it ticks off Rogue. Evan comes in
at this time, and gets reprimanded by Cyclops for being late. Xaiver and
Storm enter the Danger Room, and Xavier sternly calls Evan to his office.
As they're going to
Xavier's office, Evan apologizes for his absence. Xavier tells Evan that
if he wants to be part of the X-Men, then he needs to learn some responsibility.
Evan bursts out that who said he WANTED to be an X-Men? He continues that
hey, the rest of them may be into saving the world and all that, but he
just wants to hang out. He's never going to be like Scott or Logan or-
Storm interrupts him
by finishing with "-so why even try?" This causes Spyke to stop and glare
at Storm before taking off, telling them to just forget it.
The next day at school,
Evan is chilling out before class begins when his skateboarding buddies
come in and introduce him to a new guy, Cal Ripkin, who wants to show them
all a "wicked" place to skate. Evan is a bit hesitant to cut class to go
skateboarding, but he gives in with little prodding.
Turns out that the skateboarding
place is right next to a gorge. Apparently, they're playing a game of chicken-
whoever bucks away from the gorge last while skating along the edge wins.
(Talk about stupid... Oh, and doesn't this part remind you on a certain
Simpsons episode?) The other two guys "chicken" out early, but Evan and
Cal go on for a bit longer. Evan stops, though, right before a turn that
Cal doesn't see (as he's got his head turned). Cal flies off, and starts
to tumble down the gorge- until a bone spike comes out of his arm and and
anchors him to the cliff wall... Spyke sees this, but doesn't tell the
others as Cal climbs his way up and the spike retracts.
Later that day, Evan
tells Xavier all about what he had seen Cal do earlier that day. Xavier
asks that this happened after school, he supposes? And Evan responds with
a tiny "yeah". Xavier tells him that that's odd, since Cerebro didn't detect
any Mutant activity in the area at that time... Evan just responds that
he just saw what he saw. Xavier nods, but he tells Evan that the guy needs
to remember he's a telepath- even when somebody tells him a "lie of omission,
it's like shouting at the top of your lungs". Xavier tells Evan that if
the boy ever feels like skipping school, again, he'd be grateful if Evan
would talk with him about it.
Later on, Xavier has
met with Cal and his mother at their home. Xavier learns that his mother
divorced his father a long time ago, since he was a "total nutjob scientist"
who just took off one day and didn't even say goodbye. (He learns the latter
from Cal's thoughts- I assume that Cal started to mimic Xavier's
telepathic abilities, and accidentally projected the thoughts into Xavier's
mind.) Xavier then tells Cal's mother about his Institute for Gifted Youngsters,
and how he thinks that Cal is a Mutant. Cal's mother is skeptical, and
tells Xavier that she's never seen her son do anything... mutated. That
is, until Cal then accidentally projects a thought into her mind,
as well...
Two days later, Cal
and his mom visit the Institute. Logan greets them at the west wing- apparently,
Cal's mom was supposed to come in the east wing, but she couldn't find
a door, so she and her son came in this way. As she and her son enter the
west wing, they find all of the X-Kids there. Spyke starts to greet Cal
as Xavier tells Cal's mother urgently to go back out and bring Cal into
the east wing instead, but it's too late. Cal starts to mimic every other
Mutant unintentionally and without control. As he starts firing laser beams
everywhere,, teleporting, phasing through things, and shooting spikes out
of his body, Logan urgently evacuates all of the Mutants from the room
and out onto the front grounds.
Cyclops is distracted
during this, though, as he gets a bit too concerned over Jean's safety.
Once the rest of the X-Men are safely out on the front grounds, Logan confronts
Scott angrily (and semi-privately) about it, and tells him to stop this
over-obsessing over Jean, and now. Scott apologizes, and promises to "take
care of it"...
Back in the Mansion,
now that all of the Mutants are evacuated except for Xavier, Cal stops
mimicking, and turns back into his old self. Xavier tells Cal what the
deal is with his powers, and that he'd like to run a few Cerebro tests
on Cal. They go up to Cerebro, and Xavier puts the helmet on Cal to scan
him. Cal asks Xavier what it says, and Xavier looks, gaping, at the Cerebro
screen...
Back out on the lawn,
Scott starts talking to Jean privately about... well, WE know what he's
talking about (his feelings for Jean), but she's confused by his half-sentences
and references to stuff he doesn't explain further. He quickly just ends
with "Oookay! Glad we had this talk!" and rushes off, leaving Jean baffled
at that sudden confusing confession. Nice job, Scott!
Xavier wheels out and
tells everyone to come back inside, he's used his mind powers to temporarily
suppress Cal's. Once they're all inside, Xavier tells them and Cal the
test results- apparently, Cal isn't a Mutant at all, according to Cerebro.
Xavier tells them all that he suspects that Cal's ability to mimic Mutant's
powers may be a result of Cal's father experimenting on the boy when he
was young. And, Xavier says, "although I'd like to extend a welcome to
him, I feel it is something we all need to discuss first..". Cal takes
personal offense at this and overreacts, refusing to be rejected by these
"freaks". Evan steps in and tells Cal that that is completely uncalled
for, but he's interrupted again as Cal tells him that being at this place
isn't a "privilege", and he doesn't want to deal with being looked down
on. He and his mom angrily leave. Evan starts to go after them, but is
stopped by Ororo, who tells him that Cal doesn't belong here. Evan angrily
mutters that "What, you don't think he can cut it?" before walking out
after Cal and his mom.
Out in the front yard,
Spyke catches up with Cal and asks him what that was all about. Cal just
tells Evan to stay away from him. Evan says that he thought that they were
friends, and Cal says that he guesses they're not anymore. Evan says fine,
if he wants to be that way- but do NOT tell anyone else about the Xavier
Institute and what really goes on there. Cal will, but he's still a butthead
about it. Finally, Evan tells him that he's not ashamed of the Xavier Insitute,
he's ashamed on Cal. Cal finally calms down and tells Evan that
hey, he's got nothing against him personally- it's just the people he hangs
with, who act like they're too good for both of them. Cal asks Evan if
he'd rather just ditch this place, and- He's interrupted as Evan tells
them that Cal expects too much from his friends- to be cool, "they have
to be just like you". But with these guys, all he has to do is show up
for practice... Evan walks away, leaving behind a somewhat confused Cal.
Art Comments: The actual comic art is pretty much the same as with the previous comics- sloppy when far-away, but somewhat nice on close-ups. The cover art is what really gets my goat, though. The actual set-up is rather nice, and includes a display of Cyclops, Rogue, Jean, Storm, and Wolverine. However, whereas the actual Udon Studios art is sort of a anime-X-M:E cartoon crossbreed, this is completely anime in style, no question. Not to mention that the costumes are super-tight, and the guys are ultra-muscular to the point of being unrealistic (Forget a six-pack- Wolverine has a ten-pack! Uh... wha?). Rogue, Storm, and Jean are also rather... erm... busty, and there's nothing I dislike more than nigh-unrealistic proportions on all of the characters. (And yes, I don't like the art style of the comics in the other X-Men universes.) Color me very dissatisfied with the cover.
Last Words: It's nice to see a comic-only character in this series, and although this comic was pretty decent, it felt pretty rushed towards the end. Mimic just seemed to get up-in-arms with the Mutants for a very minor reason, and it seemed too unnatural, like it was just there to get the story over with since they only had three pages of the comic left. I also found it odd how Cal didn't mimic Evan's powers UNTIL he started to fall off the cliff. What about when they were skateboarding beforehand? That reeks of plot convenience to me. But Evan's character, unlike in the last comic, was spot-on, and I loved that argument he had with Storm and Xavier near the beginning. THAT was Evan, through-and-through. So, all in all, a decent comic, but not the cream of the crop.
Overall Rating: 7/10 Good