"House Party"
Writer: Jay Farber
Artwork by: J.J. Kirby
Month Published: July 2002
Takes Place: After "Turn of the Rogue", but before "The HeX Factor"
Synopsis/Review: Alright, here's
a X-Men: Evolution recipe:
-Take the episode "Fun
& Games".
-Remove Arcade.
-Add in the Brotherhood.
-Simplify the plot a little.
-Sprinkle liberally with pop-diva-esque
art that is not at all fitting for X-Men: Evolution.
What do you get? Why,
this comic, of course! This stand-alone issue is written by a guest writer
and drawn by a guest artist. Unfortunately, the guest writer took an idea
that wasn't at all original, and in fact HAD BEEN DONE BEFORE IN THE SAME
SERIES, and the guest artist had no business drawing for a "realistically"-drawn
series such as X-Men: Evolution.
The comic starts out
with the Professor leaving the Mansion to investigate a Mutant signature
in Oregon, leaving the X-Men all alone in the Mansion, yadda yadda yadda,
we've been through all this before. There's no delightfully sinister reason
behind the Prof's leaving, however, like there was for "Fun & Games".
(Mystique setting it all up so that she could break into the Institute
after the Professor was gone, remember?) The Professor just... leaves,
and is out of the picture until the end again.
Only this time, instead
of Arcade finding Cerebro and crashing the party, the Brotherhood shows
up (minus Quicksilver, who always seems to be doing his own thing). The
X-Men try to keep the Brotherhood members from finding the Mansion's secrets,
and succeed, of course. By the time the X-Men beat their butts, though,
they're beat themselves, and they decide to call the party quits. They
can't get the guests to leave though, since the music's too loud, so Kitty
secretly shorts out the record player- but the thing catches on fire, and
the X-Men are left with the task of putting it out and cleaning the Mansion
up while the rest of the party guests leave.
Cut to the next morning,
when the whole Mansion apparently looks fine. The Professor, who has just
arrived back, congratulates the X-Men on keeping the Mansion in good order,
but Cyclops eventually breaks down and spills everything.
"I guess you can't trust
us after all, Professor."
"No, Scott- you just
proved that I can."
Awwwwwww. And so the
X-Men presumably get away with it all, I suppose. Meh. And they never DID
say how that "Mutant sighting in Oregon" went.
Art Comments: The art, as previously
said, is not at all fitting for this kind of series. It's very.... "hip",
and a bit too cartoony. The older men- namely Cyclops and Avalanche- are
drawn with very wiry, lithe frames, with veins popping out everywhere.
Eeee-yuck. Jean is drawn like she's 26, while Nightcrawler and Spyke look
like they're no more than 11. Kitty looks like she's straight from "Kim
Possible". And Blob looks like he's straight out of a "Sam & Max: Freelance
Police" episode. It's very disconcerting to see the looks of characters
you've gotten so used to being completely thrown out the window, with an
entirely different style put into them, leaving only the basic features
the same. Even if the writing was the same, if the show was drawn like
this, I can guar-an-TEE you I wouldn't like it nearly as much.
The only character I
would have to say they had drawn well was Toad, but he's a little more
cartoony than the other characters to begin with. In fact, if anything,
I'd have to say I might even like him BETTER this way than on the show.
But that's just the kind of character he is.
Oh, and the cover art is Cyclops with his
hands to his face and his mouth agape in the classic "Home Alone" pose.
Kinda funny, actually.
Last Words: Because of the horrendous art and the already-done storyline, I can't really give this comic that high of a rating. A shame the comic series had to end on such a bad note. One good thing that has come of this, however; I certainly appreciate the regular Udon Studios art much more now.
Overall Rating: 4/10 Below Average