X-Terminators (in its entirety this time)

A few weeks back, I pondered on the decision of what to do regarding the series X-Terminators. With the fifth issue never having been received by my LCS, how was I going to finish the series.

Well, a couple of weeks later (and I couple of weeks ago), I decided to just bite the bullet and picked up the trade.

And this week I decided to read it.

X-Terminators by Leah Williams, Carlos Gomez and Bryan Valencia follows the Mutant Dazzler, who upon splitting with her boyfriend decides to hit the town with pals Jubilee and Boom Boom. However, when the aforementioned ex turns put to be a lot more villainous, the explosive trio find themselves fighting for their lives in an Arcade-style arena.

I have to admit, 12 hours after finishing reading this series, I'm not sure I can put into words what I think of X-Terminators. This is without doubt a series I never thought I'd see Marvel publish a comic quite like this.

Not that it is a bad read or anything because far from it. Leah Williams has written an incredibly fun, utterly insane and completely no holds barred adventure starring a trio of characters who I think are usually dismissed in terms of their powers.

The tone that Williams' story conveys to me is a cross between Death Proof (which makes sense when the back cover references the book as 'Grindhouse of X') and Broad City with the utterly over the top sensibilities of Blues Brothers (I'm thinking that car chase sequence).

In fact, X-Terminators is something of a breath of fresh air thanks to a quartet of female characters (the Wolverine, Laura Kinney is in here too, in the identity she deserves) who show they take no nonsense and do not come across as being secondary to male characters.

Meanwhile, Carlos Gomez' artwork is equally on point with a style that reminds me of Jim Cheung's work on Young Avengers or David Baldeon on Domino (to which this might be the closest to a spiritual successor). However, Gomez' work has much more of 'pop' to it thanks to Bryan Valenica's colours. As a result, X-Terminators has this bubblegum/cheesecake vibe which does well at avoiding being too gratuitous. 

I've rambled on a bit, but to round up my thoughts, X-Terminators may be a bit left field when you compare it to other Superheroes comics, but that doesn't change the fact that it is a fun read. Reading this has given me a newfound admiration towards the characters of Dazzler, Jubilee and Boom Boom as well as giving me a chance to see Laura Kinney as the Wolverine we deserve.

I'm not sure if we'll ever see a follow up (although the final pages certainly keeps the door open), but if this team ever wanted to come back with these characters, these five issues have guaranteed them a reader for it.