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X-men Misfits#1 by Raina Tegemeier and Dave Roman
X-men: Misfits #1
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Kitty Pride has an annoying tendency of falling through the floor. This mutant power marks her as different from those around her, and when a mysterious "old friend of the family" offers her a place at a school filled with students just like her, she decides it’s better than constant teasing and hatred. Now she is the newest student at Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters and the first girl this school full of boys has seen in a while.
Immediately the boys of the intimidating Hellfire Club invite her into their inner circle. Kitty, shocked at having so many boys suddenly noticing her, eagerly accepts. But she soon realizes that this group of elite boys are only out for their own interests and their interests include making sure humans know that mutants are far superior. How could this end but in disaster?
I’ve been dubious about this title since its first press release. In concept, I liked the idea, a manga/shojo reimagining of the X-Men. In practice, I have some issues with the manga. One thing though before I start sounding all negative is that the art is absolutely beautiful! Some American mangas can come off as looking very American, but this one could easily be mistaken for coming from Japan. The plot also feels very manga-y. From the beginning, I knew the art was going to be amazing, because I’d talked to one of the authors at Stumptown Comic Fest a year ago. I’d asked her about Jean Grey (one of my favorite characters) and I saw the sketches, and she will be appearing in the next volume (she’s a teacher). I tried asking if there would be any romance with Scott (who is a student in this), but she didn’t give a spoiler response, just a shrug of "it’s manga." So I’ll have to see next volume!
The down sides for me come from how the authors chose to “reinterpret” things. My biggest issue is the major change in personality for Bobby aka Iceman. In the original group and ever since then, he’s been the class clown, a jokester. He wasn’t so much in the movies, but I forgave it. Here they’ve decided that since his powers are with ice, he must have an icy personality. Yuck. So far, he acts nothing like the Bobby I’ve always loved. The rest of the characters are decent, I might not like the entirety of the reinterpretation, but I can understand what the authors were going for. Kitty though seems relatively bland, and I feel like it didn’t really matter if it was her or just some new shojo heroine (then again, a lot of people will argue that shojo heroines as a whole are bland and interchangeable). I did love her fear of heights and flying though, which makes perfect sense for someone who can’t control their ability to phase through solid objects (like the floor) and I don’t remember that fear from the comics.
Something that bothers me though is why is Kitty the only girl? I mean, there are plenty of female mutants out there, and yes, I realize it’s for plot purposes and a typical shojo plot. Buuuut, it just seems silly to me, and I’d like to see an explanation. At least in manga it’s usually that it’s the first year that girls have been allowed at an all boys school. It especially bugs me when they make it look like it’s a pretty big school. In the original X-Men, Jean was the first girl, but she was also only the fifth student all together. It’s really hard for me to give a clear recommendation on this book. I enjoyed it, but I can definitely see other fans hating it. The reader who barely knows X-Men, but enjoys manga, superheroes, or mutant stories, will probably enjoy it. Really, other than the Bobby personality issue, I think I could really enjoy this manga. It has a good feel and it’s at least as good as most X-Men redoes. Oh, and a prediction for next volume. It says at the end that there will be more girls at Xavier’s in the next book, so I’m predicting that we’ll see Emma and Rogue. I already know we should be seeing Jean, but she will be a teacher not a student.
Ratings Reasons:
Action 4 - The action scenes move well and are easy to follow, though it’s not exactly a high action plot.
Romance 3 - Eh, it’s sorta there. She likes the bad boy, in part because a boy is paying attention to her, then realizes he really is a bad boy, and realizes who she really has a crush on. It was all right, but not thrilling.
Characters 3 1/2 - I like most of them, ‘cept for Bobby as a I said before, and Kitty was a bit flat. But, in general, they felt like good manga recasting.
Overall 4 - I liked this, though I’m still dubious about it and not quite sure why I enjoyed it. I think like all comic book redoes, you’ve gotta embrace that it is a reinterpratation, and in this case, they are also following the confines of a genre. Old things will be changed, though a good redo keeps a lot familiar, just with a new twist. If you’re a fan of X-Men, superheroes, or shojo mangas, give it a try, from the library if you don’t want to spend the money. It has potential and it speaks to the manga and X-Men lover in me, so I will certainly be picking up the next book. Now, if they ruin Jean Grey, you will see a very very scathing review of the next book.
Extras:
I love the X-Men, but it’s not something that’s easy to get started on. Personally, my favorite run goes from about 1980 to 1990. If you don’t really want to dig through hundreds of comics, I would recommend the 1990’s cartoon X-Men, the 2000’s cartoon X-Men Evolution, or even the new Wolverine and the X-Men. The first two movies are also great X-Men stories. After that, I recommend you pick a character you like, go online to find out what their most important comic issues are, and start from there. That’s what I did back when I was a hardcore X-Men fan.
If you feel like reading more manga after this, another title worth checking out is Ouran High School Host Club, which really seems like it was a big inspiration for this reimagining.
Parents: 13+ Nothing much bad here, just your typical manga stuff. A little violence, a little romance. Still, I’d recommend it for the slightly older reader.
If I could ask the authors some questions, they would be the following:
Why did you choose to use Kitty Pryde instead of Jean Grey, who of course was the original first woman at the school, or Rogue, who is always a fan favorite? Fans who are mostly familiar with the newer media X-Men titles might not be as familiar with Kitty Pryde. Granted, she had a small role in the new movies, and she had a part in X-men Evolution. Still, it seems like there are more popular girls to use.
Why the changes in Bobby’s personality? He has always been defined as a class clown. This change strikes me as the biggest personality redo in the manga.
Why leave Jean Grey and Hank/Beast as the only original X-men who are adults? Hank I can understand, but it seems rather odd to see Jean as an “adult” (though since we haven’t seen her yet, perhaps she is merely in her early twenties) when others like Scott are portrayed as teens.
Do you think hard core X-Men fans will enjoy this manga, or are you writing more for the casual audience who enjoys manga more?
Kitty Pryde is in the Astonishing X-Men that Joss Whedon wrote. I really enjoyed it. She is someone to keep an eye out for, really. My husband and I are watching the cartoons, and I think the characters are much better than the movies. However, there is no school.
I am curious about the characters, or the “boys”, used in this series. I see Iceman, Pyro, and Scott, however, I am so curious about who else. I think it is also strange about the only girl concept since in this day and age it shouldn’t be that strange. What I love about X-Men is that there are so many strong women (I personally like Rogue in the cartoons more than the movie— it made her seem so much weaker than I liked after I watched them both).
I will have to keep my eye on the local library and maybe sneak a peak next time I go to the comic book store. I love the X-Men! Thanks for sharing this!
[Reply]
crichoux reply on August 29th, 2009:
Oh yeah, I forgot about the Whedon X-Men… I never read it, because by the time it had come out, I’d already sworn never to read another x-men comic again (not counting rereads of ones I used to love). I did break that rule to read 1602 and some of the manga marvel universe books. I’d like to read X-Men First Class, I just never get around to it. But I digress… I also didn’t read Whedon’s because knowing him, he’d do something I’d hate.
Let see, other boys are: Havoc, Forge, Angel, …. Scarlet Witch’s brother who’s code name I suddenly forget… and I don’t remember now which other boys are there. Unfortunately my copy is a state away right now.
Yeah, the whole no women but Kitty is kind of a manga trope, but it just didn’t quite work for me here. Especially not when the school is made up to seem to have at least 50-100 boy students. If it was a tiny school, it could work. But it really bugged be. And hopefully we will seen Rogue next book. And Rogue was way better in comics/cartoons than the movie. Rogue in the movie was really a mishmash of early Jean, a tiny bit Rogue, and Kitty Pride. In fact, I’d almost argue she was more Kitty Pryde than Rogue. But I guess Rogue’s powers are more fun to write. I did like the way they redid Rogue in Evolution though, I really liked the way they redid everyone (except Kitty) in Evolution. I thought the writers stayed very true to original personalities and their roles in the team.
And I should say I do love Kitty. I used to read Excalibur towards the end of its run, when she was together with an ex-british intelligence agent named Pete Wisdom, and I loved them as a couple (never was a big fan of her and Colossus). And back during the New Mutants I loved it when her and Illyana where up to mischief. Shes actually probably one of my favorite characters. But I don’t think she was the right character to use here, and I find her when she’s so young to have been a much more boring character. I didn’t really enjoy her until she got older, joined Excalibur, and was allowed to actually grow up.
[Reply]
Whedon’s story is pretty darn good, actually, and it is the only version I have read in the comics so far. I nabbed Astonishing X-Men from the library and he only did a few trades. I think the series is still going on, but I waiting for an e-reader to read other series. The more I learn, the more I dislike the movies. Of course, after watching the cartoons, I want to demand more Rogue and Gambit!
I might have to watch the other cartoons, even though one (can’t remember) was strange since Wolverine had an Australian accent.
I have to ask this even thought this is only related to comics. Have you read Runaways? That is an AMAZING series that I can never recommend enough!
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why is jean grey a teacher they really need a twist maybe she was really smart and was able to be a teacher i mean she was one of the first 5 x-men now shes not even a main character i am actually very hurt on thiis reading x-men comics without jean as a regular character will be very very saddening to me
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