• Review - AMAZING X-MEN VOL. 2: WORLD WAR WENDIGO TPB

    AMAZING X-MEN VOL. 2: WORLD WAR WENDIGO TPB
    (Available in serial form as Amazing X-Men (2013) #7-12 - This review focuses on #8-12)

    Writer(s): Craig Kyle & Chris Yost
    Artist(s): Ed McGuinness, Carlo Barberi, Iban Coello
    Walden Wong, Dave Meikis, Juan Viasco, Marc Deering
    Rachelle Rosenberg
    On Sale: December 24th 2014



    OVERVIEW:
    Monsters and cannibals and Great Beasts! Oh my! Canada has been over-run!
    Hordes of Wendigo; powered by a mysterious new curse are running rampant across the country. If not stopped, Canada and eventually the world would be overcome by these cannibalistic monsters. How did this happen? Who could be behind this new and evil curse?

    World War Wendigo is a 5-part action thriller that features members of the X-Men & Alpha Flight plus cameos from the Avengers and ancient villains including the monstrous Wendigo.

    The story begins with Wolverine making a visit to Canada to see his old friends, James (Guardian) and Heather Hudson (Vindicator). When Wolverine arrives he finds Heather worried as James has gone on a mission and is missing. To investigate, the two travel to Forrest, Ontario but soon discover that it's citizens have fallen victim to the Wendigo curse by unknowingly eating meat contaminated with human flesh from a worker at a meat processing company trying to cover up a murder.
    This incident turned the entire town inhabitants into vicious monsters.
    Fearing the worst, Wolverine sends Heather to alert the other members of Alpha Flight, but on her way she is attacked by a group of Wendigo.

    Back in New York, Storm-worried about Logan traveling alone after losing his healing factor had Rachel telepathically track him on his journey. However Rachel feels an emotion she’d never felt before from Logan - Fear.
    Storm immediately has the other X-Men prep a Blackbird to leave for Canada.

    Wolverine, injured and alone, continued to battle an army of Wendigo.


    When all hope was lost, he is rescued just in time by Alpha Flight’s Puck and Talisman (who are now a couple). They eventually all meet up with the X-Men where Wolverine reveals that the ​only way to dispel the curse of the Wendigo is through Talisman’s magic.
    As she begins to cast the spell, Wolverine collapses to the ground and Talisman is suddenly impaled by the claws of Wolverine who has turned into a Wendigo.
    Little did the heroes know at the time, the curse now could be transferred to another by a Wendigo either eating biting or scratching you. It was now clear someone was manipulating and altering the spell, but they didn’t know who or why.


    Just as the team thought themselves defeated, the rest of Alpha Flight arrive to assist them in their fight. Bandaging Talisman’s wounds, the teams locate a
    cave that Talisman had mentioned which was the source of this new curse, and a location Sasquatch knew all too well. Upon their arrival they discover a tear between the Spirit Realm and their own.




    The heroes split themselves into two groups; one that would stay and defend the portal while the other entered the portal to try and stop the spread of the Wendigo. Once through the barrier, the team soon discover the curse was being driven by the Great Beast Tanaraq, who had subjugated the other Great Beasts to his will. Tanaraq, with the power he has absorbed, bent the course further to his will…..now no longer restricted by the borders of Canada the curse could freely consume the world!

    The curse uninhibited spreads into America where even the Avengers succumb to it's magic…..Tanaraq’s plan appears unstoppable.
    Back in the spirit realm the team having little choice try to stop Tanaraq directly, but are no match for the Great Beasts and Guardian is eaten.
    Content with his victory Tanaraq leaves to cross over to the real world while his minions gather up the heroes. The team, beaten and chained was eventually rescued by Iceman where the other captured Great Beasts ask the heroes to release them so they can deal with Tanaraq.
    The heroes, however, untrusting of the Beasts tell them to grant them their power so they could fight Tanaraq once more.
    Now embed with god-like powers the team once again set out to stop Tanaraq, but even with their newfound powers it isn’t enough to stop him.

    Suddenly, Tanaraq’s chest begins to glow and out bursts Guardian, apparently killing the Great Beast and saving the world.
    The other Great Beasts feeling they owe a debt, fix the issues which one of their own caused returning everything to normal including reversing those who were a Wendigo back into their true forms - including Wolverine and Heather Hudson.
    Another side-effect of Tanaraq’s apparent death, is the Wendigo curse died with him. The story ended on a happy note as James and Heather reunited, and everyone was saved.

    REVIEW:
    A very enjoyable story, which is arguably one of the best Alpha Flight guest appearances in decades. The writers clearly did their research and it showed. The story had a huge cast of characters and everyone was treated with a great deal of respect.
    Unfortunately with such a big cast, some characters had to disappear or their roles were greatly minimized, but overall it was handled very well. At times it was a little too predictable, but that’s an issue for most comic books nowadays.

    The artwork was crisp and clean and very easy to follow. The colors were also rich and vibrant. Only downside to that is for a story about cannibalistic monsters and demon gods it possibly should have been a lot more dark and graphic.
    Another nice touch with the art is that the character faces are unique and animated; a big complaint I have in some books is when characters all look the same and have the same facial expression during the entire story.

    HOWEVER, I was disappointed with the Spirit Realm as it looked like nothing more than Northern Canada during winter. I’m not sure if it was actually meant to be the Realm of the Beasts but it was nothing like Byrne’s rendition of the Beasts home in Alpha Flight (1983) #24. Byrne’s rendition was an amazing unique sight but the Spirit Realm here was bland and unoriginal. Perhaps those were mere Great Beasts avatars as they have shown many times to use in the past and the real ones were still in their realm. Wishful thinking...

    I wasn’t a fan of the rendition of Aurora in the story as she almost took-on Northstar’s traits or arrogance and snark. I suppose that could be explained due to her many split personalities (In Dark X-Men #3 she developed 7), but even Northstar seemed a bit off as he made a comment about how sometimes he missed his sister. For decades he was extremely over-protective and would do literally anything for her so that comment seemed inconsistent.


    Fans of Volume 4 will also be disappointed many of those outstanding issues in the book were not addressed and Heather appears to be 100% recovered.
    Personally I would have liked to see where she and Claire went after the Master was defeated and if the Unity treatment was reversed (4 toes and all). It's unlikely that this will ever be touched on but they were only guest stars in this story so I wasn't surprised that it wasn’t addressed, with space already being so limited with all the other characters.

    Overall I was pleasantly happy with the story and only had a few minor complaints;
    The story had the capabilities of being more grand and epic but felt short, with the ending seeming a little rushed (as they only had a single issue to tie everything up) while earlier parts felt like they could have been compressed into one issue rather than stretched out, and there were a few character trait discrepancies.
    Even if you’re not an Alpha Flight fan, this story is definitely worth picking up. I’ve been a fan of Amazing X-Men since #1, and will continue to follow it with the new writers on board.

    RATING:
    8/10



    Comments 2 Comments
    1. Mokole's Avatar
      Mokole -
      Good that Puck and Guardian were main characters and that Guardian saved the day.
    1. -K-M-'s Avatar
      -K-M- -
      Northstar and aurora got a lot of panel time. After the first few issues Puck was regulated to the background

      yeah it was awesome they had guardian save the day.