UNCANNY X-MEN #400

By: Tony Whitt
Date: Monday, December 17, 2001

As if our favorite mutants didn't have enough to deal with... Not only are they hated by humanity and hunted by U-Men mutant wannabes who want to harvest their organs, they're also being gunned for by a new baddie, a mysterious being calling himself the Supreme Pontiff. Stacy has accidentally been teleported into the Pontiff's clutches, and now the team must save their newest (and most abrasive) member before things get hairy.

Wowfour hundred issues. Kind of makes you think twice about trying to get your collection up to date, doesn't it? Still, it says something for Marveland says even more about their prioritiesthat they've left this title alone so that it can reach its 400th issue, rather than restarting the numbering as it has with so many other, often more impressive, titles. But whatever your problems may be with the X-Men universe, this is an astoundingly well-put together issue. Writer Joe Casey introduces the Supreme Pontiff with sufficient style and menace that you're sure to come back for #401. If that isn't enough to do it, the combination of such stellar artists as Eddie Campbell (FROM HELL, SNAKES AND LADDERS), Ashley Wood (HELLSPAWN), Cully Hamner (CAPTAIN AMERICA: SENTINEL OF LIBERTY, DAREDEVIL), Javier Pulido (ROBIN: YEAR ONE), and Sean Phillips (WILDCATS) will. (I do have one word of advice to editor Mark Powers next time he does this kind of celebratory issue, though. Not all of us have the extraordinary eyes to pick out which artist is which, so would it be so terrible to include a listing telling which artist does which pages? Please?)

The standout artists herenot to mention the ones yours truly can identify with confidenceare Eddie Campbell and Ashley Wood, if nothing else because their artwork is truly like no one else's. Wood's renderings of the Supreme Pontiff alone are worth buying this issue forall those creepy black and white images broken only by the occasional splash of charcoal or brown go a long way towards making this villain look better than he probably ever will again. The scenes in which Stacy is being tortured are even more terrifying than they normally would be, mainly because we never quite see what's going on. It's a luscious use of chiaroscuro that makes the rest of the issue pale in comparison.

Well, almost, anywaythere's also Eddie Campbell's contribution to admire, as one of the Pontiff's minions tells Wolverine about his lord and master's origins and early life in Victorian-era America. After FROM HELL, apart from Denny O'Neil, is there any other artist you think of when you think "Victorian"? Certainly not.

Some artists in the mix don't fare as well, either through lack of ambition or lack of pages. Matt Smith falls into the latter categorydespite his more than adequate work on the ICONS: NIGHTCRAWLER series, he's given exactly two pages here, while others get anywhere from five to eight. Speaking of which, I would like to compliment the artist who rendered Stacy's slightly overexaggerated seven page "origin story"if he had been credited in such a way that I could tell who he is.

Apart from these minor problems, UNCANNY X-MEN #400 does what most celebratory "anniversary" issues fail to do: it continues on with the series' current storyline but adds something special into the mix as it does so. It may not be FANTASTIC FOUR #100and thank all the gods and goddesses in the world's pantheons for that small favorbut it has the same sense of occasion as that issue did, without the same feeling of self-congratulation. And it's a damn fine read, besides.

UNCANNY X-MEN

Grade: B+

Issue: No. 400

Author(s): Joe Casey, Cully Hamner, Ashley Wood, Eddie Campbell, Javier Pulido, Sean Phillips, Matt Smith

Publisher: Marvel

Price: $3.50