X-Men: Gold #4 Review
Writer: Marc
Guggenheim
Art Team:
R.B. Silva, Adriano DiBenedetto, Frank Martin
Marvel
Comics
Release
Date: May 17, 2017
Cover Price:
$3.99
Nanites in New York
The X-Men:
Gold team, fresh off of handling a lackluster effort from the Brotherhood of
Evil Mutants, returns for some more bi-weekly action this week in issue four of
the series. From the looks of the cover
it seems Gambit has come to add a little of his wild card nature to the team this
month which has the potential to be some fun. So let’s not waste any more time
and see if this early ‘guest appearance’ by the Cajun will translate into bringing
some much needed life into this book.
Off the bat
we see Gambit on page one up to his old tricks as he does a little “B & E”
into Nanostorm, Inc. Remy LeBeau does have a little trouble sneaking past the security
measures in place, however after dispatching of the few guards after him, he’s
able to break into the safe he came for and complete this seemingly quick and
easy job for his latest mystery employer.
Meanwhile we
move on to check in with the actual Gold team members Kitty, Nightcrawler, and
Prestige as we get glimpses of another throwaway villain fight, this time with
the Serpent Society, which have become all too common in the early stages of
this series, and continues to not do much but fill the titles bi-weekly page
count here. After the mandatory action
quota, featuring the X-Men, is met for the issue we bounce over to check in on
Old Man Logan and Storm who are investigating a string of murders that’ve involve
mutants as the victims, hinting at future storyline implications.
At this
point in the book the story jumps back to Gambit turning over the item he was
hired to retrieve for none other than Olivia Trask, granddaughter of Bolivar,
and inventor of the original Sentinels. She reveals to Gambit he’s retrieved a
batch of Nanites for her which are tiny molecular sized robots capable of
self-replicating and ‘smart swarming’.
Gambit gets
the idea Olivia wants to follow in grandad’s footsteps therefore tries to
retake the Nanites and get the hell out of dodge causing a giant ruckus. However as laser guns fire all over the god
damn place, one ends up catching Gambit, causing him to drop the Nanites he
trying to escape with. The Nanites now free hunt for an A.I. to control them
swarming to a computer terminal, and this probably isn’t good for anybody
involved.
Through a strange
exchange Gambit, via a Rachel Gray Psi-Link, is able to alert Kitty and inform
her of the sudden problems that have arisen. In response Kitty assembles the
X-Men: Gold team in an effort to see what all the fuss is about as Rachel continues
to update the crew about the mission particulars enroute. This all comes to a close with the
cliffhanger reveal of a new and improved Nanite mutated Sentinel standing over
Gambit, with I’m sure isn’t love in its eyes, despite the glowing red nature of
them.
Overall, on the
story front, the X-Men: Gold book has just felt very random so far four issues
in, not doing much but reiterating the point repeatedly that the X-Men are back.
Other than that there’s not a whole lot for me to grab onto character wise here
for this team yet that’s been very interesting, and with guest star Gambit
getting a majority of the focus in this issue, the relationship/connection between
the leader Kitty and her team members continues to feel non-existent. Things go
down, Kitty barks orders, everyone just agrees to follow them, problems are
solved, rinse and repeat every two weeks. This has been the feeling I have
reading this book since it’s been released and I expected better from this book
I guess.
The art
continues to be the highlight of the series, even with a new team on the book in
this issue and continuing moving forward, after the Issue 1 controversy. If you
like your X-Men looking damn good, and who doesn’t, at least you have that
working in your favor right now.
Bits and Pieces
X-Men: Gold
continues to provide pretty to look at cookie cutter X-Men stories that aren’t
taking any risks or even developing the relationships between team members much
at all. It’s tough to suggest you invest in a book that releases twice a month,
at the price it does, when there isn’t much to write home about just yet.
6.0/10
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