X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic #56-58: “X-Friends”
X-MEN UNLIMITED INFINITY COMIC #56-58
“X-Friends”
Writer & artist: Jason Loo
Colourist: Antonio Fabela
Letterer: Joe Sabino
Editor: Lauren Amaro
This is a sequel to the three-part “Downtime” arc featuring Madrox and Strong Guy, also by Jason Loo, which ran in issues #21, #27 and #34 (because X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic is a weird book).
As in the previous arc, Strong Guy wants to hang out with his old pal Madrox, while Madrox is more preoccupied with his responsibilities as a father, leaving Guido stuck with the duplicates. They’re off in the Shi’ar galaxy for the equivalent of a weekend in Vegas, and manage to lose their ship as well as a bunch of dupes.
It turns out, of course, that the dupes took the ship, and for some reason a night on the town has convinced them to… go off and become pirates? I’m not sure that’s how it’s meant to work. Somehow or other there’s meant to be an angle in here where Madrox decides that he needs to solve his problems for himself rather than palming them off on dupes, but since that’s not really what he did wrong in the first place, it doesn’t quite land. And it’s not really a Guido story at all.
So they track down the renegade dupes, Madrox absorbs most of them, and one of them just gets handed over to the authorities to take the fall for everything. It’s pretty lightweight stuff, even for Unlimited, with the highlight being the character work in Loo’s art. As for the story, it just doesn’t click.
Yeah, I really like Jason Loo, his Human Lizard comic was so unique, and his art has a lot going for it. But this took a lot of good will to read.
I think, though it was never stated, that the rebel pirate dupe Mad Rocks, was revsiting an old plot where the dupes could come out expressing some sliver of Madrox’s personality as their entire personality. This one came out being the wild bachelor party animal that Guido wanted, but the dupe took it all too far. It being a “careful what you wish for” story. But I’m not sure, and we shouldn’t be left guessing the plot.
I like the idea of these dupes feeling a sense of ownership over “Forge’s” ship, since it was built on their labour, and I buy the idea that some Madrox dupes got drunk and decided to abandon their home life for pirate adventures. It doesn’t totally hang together, but enjoyable enough.
I’m glad that Unlimited has continued to offer little glimpses into various underutilized characters.