Authors:Dave Roman, Raina Telgemeier and Anbu
Publishers: Delrey Manga
Quick Synopsis: Girl finds she is the only female student at a school for mutants
Quick Review: Entertaining take on the classic series with a nice story
It's one of those rules of law that any comic book series will have multiple reinterpretations. This goes doubly so for the big classics, like Superman, Spiderman and X-men. Still, to say X-Men: Misfits is an odd approach to the classic comic books is a little bit of an understatement. The authors take the X-men cast and put them into probably the least expected situation: A Shoujo-manga love triangle. I'm pretty sure that's the strangest thing to have ever happened to a comic book series, excepting perhaps Marvel Apes.
Plot: Kitty Pryde (better known to the wider world as Shadowcat, a mutant with the ability to walk through walls) leaves her school to escape the anti-mutant bullying and enrols in Xavier's Academy for the Gifted. Unfortunately for her, her dreams of fitting in are quickly dashed when she discovers she's the only girl in the school. Things only improve when she is befriended by the Hellfire Club (Angel, Havoc, Pyro, Forge and Quicksilver), a group for the most popular and powerful students in the school.
Misfits presents an unusual take on the X-men franchise. There are no megalomanical plots, no crazed mutant hunting warmachines and no costumes. Indeed, this book is so far away from the standard comic book plots you might be expecting that many of the cast do not even have their callsigns. Case in point: the character that invites Kitty to the school is Eric Lensherr. Yes, that Eric Lensherr, better known as Magneto (it's also the most mellow take on him I've ever seen).
Instead, the story's a gentle love story. Kitty's relationship with the members of the Hellfire Club primarily centres around her romance with Pyro (it should be noted that the only people to use their mutant names are the Hellfire Club members). This relationship is nicely written, with Kitty finding the attention enjoyable, while having difficulty asserting herself against the strong personalities of her friends. This proves to be an interesting plot line, with Kitty acting in a highly believable fashion, enjoying their company while still being put out by their actions, especially their open contempt for 'human' learning. The ending is a little bit jarring as it suddenly descends into a fight between the Hellfire Club and several other students. The fallout from this leads into the next book, as well as establishing several other parts of the series' own version of the X-men mythology.
The art work is definitely far into the 'shoujo' realm, full of large numbers of androgynous men and sparkles. Not that this does work. The few female characters (notably Storm and Kitty) are clearly so without exaggeration and there's little doubt as too who's a guy and who's not. It's of a consistently high quality, with both good character designs and detailed backgrounds. The few action sequences are well laid out and clear, far less confusing than many other manga I've read. The authors make usage of a certain amount of character deformation (instant cat-ears and chibi mostly) for comedic scenes, which works well. Virtually every character is prettied up for the book, with occasionally jarring moments (Nightcrawler manages to be handsome, despite being blue and having his tail and all).The only art issue I have isn't to do with bad art, rather bad design. The non-human designs (for Beast and Colossus) are, to be frank, laughable. Beast looks like something akin to the famous Totoro of Ghibli fame (think large, fat cat thing) while Colossus is so unrecognisable transformed that I originally didn't recognise him until his name finally sank in.
The script of the book is tight and genuinely interesting. Kitty works well as central character, fitting into the misfit theme well. Her battles with her phasing power prove interesting and defining (the pearl is either her flight with Angel, which consists of her desperately thinking 'please stay solid, please stay solid' or how she learns she can hold her breath for longer than normal). There's no cheap 'aha' moments as she works through her issues, but she's clearly a different person by the end of the story. Most of the characters fit in well, with little jarring. However, the introduction and placement of a few characters feels a little forced. Notable is Gambit's introduction which consists of a two page scene of him cooking for Kitty in silence. There seems to be a deliberate effort to make some characters' identity a little unsure. Most notably is Gambit, who's identity is entirely based off his dark corneas and his constant playing with cards, and someone I hope is The Blob, mainly because I can't think of any other mutants who can absorb enemy attacks and are over-weight. There's a nice vein of humour running through the book, mostly thanks to Kitty's thoughts and observations (her mental image of Professor X is the funniest page in the book).
Misfits is a strange book and I won't deny that I bought it purely out of morbid curiosity. However, it's a nice story and one I enjoyed far more than similar shoujo novels. It's sufficiently interesting and well written that it could stand alone without the X-men label. The guessing game played with the characters' names provides an entertaining meta-diversion through out the book and is often amusing (showing X-Men fans random pages from the book and saying 'that's X' never gets old). It's definitely worth a read, with a fresh interpretation on the old favourites.
