A Review of ‘Giant Size X-Men: Magneto #1’ Shows it is Small on Substance

Writer: Jonathan Hickman / Artist: Ramon Perez / Marvel Comics Jonathan Hickman is doing a fantastic job with breathing new life into the X-Men franchise, laying out a stylish mythos that’s both rich and easily accessible for eager readers that haven’t been keeping up with decades of continuity. There’s more titles than I’d like but, hey, that’s Big Two comic business. There’s a trademark density in a Hickman comic only found in heavy sci-fi books these days….except it doesn’t FEEL as heavy thanks to tone and likability of the characters. Giant Size X-Men: Magneto #1 has tone and personality to spare. It is my opinion that Hickman is at his best when he’s writing the more aristocratic characters and the Master of Magnetism (among others in this book) definitely fits the bill. In this book, the White Queen asks Erik for a small favor which takes him away from Krakoa for a trip to visit Namor. Just these three characters alone make the book charming enough, so it’s an entertaining read. The problem is that this Giant Size X-Men doesn’t feel terribly giant at all. I’m not even talking about just action. Not much happens. Everything’s so straightforward and paint-by-numbers compared to every other X-book Hickman works on, there’s not much meat on the bone. What little conflict there is in this story is solved pretty quickly without any difficulty at all. Even though I get the impression that this is setup for future events in the series, this still feels anemic even by those stan…