Review: Uncanny X-Men: The Complete Collection by Matt Fraction Volume 2

In his second year on Uncanny X-Men, writer Matt Fraction continued to explore the darkest depths of Marvel's resident mutants. He addressed ongoing issues in Cyclops and Emma Frost's relationship, dealt with Beast's increasing dissatisfaction with the X-Men and moved the team from in-land San Francisco to a free-standing island just off the coast. Uncanny X-Men: The Complete Collection by Matt Fraction Volume 2 accumulates these issues and provides them in one convenient trade paperback.

At the heart of this collection is the X-Men/Dark Avengers crossover. After an anti-mutant protest turns violent in San Francisco, the X-Men are forced into seclusion in order to avoid the scrutiny inflicted upon them. During their silence, Spider-Man baddie Norman Osborn assembles his own team of "X-Men" to deal with the increasing aggression in the Bay Area. For those unfamiliar with the Dark Reign narrative that was going on across the titles at Marvel at the time, these issues will be extremely confusing. Fraction spends very little time providing background for most of the characters. As such, the reader is left to figure things out on his or her own. Another issue facing this particular narrative was a lack of tension. This was caused by the frat boy-like personalities of the X-Men's antagonists and the lack of experience they had as a team. However, the title improved after this event with the introduction of The Sublime. A group of scientifically-enhanced beings, the Sublime pose a definite threat to the X-Men and are one of the more interesting baddies created in recent years for Marvel's merry mutants. Unfortunately, their narrative is left unresolved in this collection. Also, for those who are Magneto fans, the Master of Magnetism makes his grand return.

Much like the writing, the art is fairly inconsistent over the course of this collection. The majority of the issues present are pencilled by Terry Dodson. As usual his art is dynamic and colourful, though his faces are a little generic. Comic legends Marc Silvestri and Alan Davis also lend their skills to this trade paperback. Davis' art fares better due to its style but Silvestri's is rather lazy in its appearance. The most interesting panels, however, appear in the excerpt from Dark Reign: The Cabal #1 as illustrated by Daniel Acuña. This almost-painted style is gorgeous and has tremendous depth. There is a beautiful expressiveness to it and is atypical to the genre.

For fans of Emma Frost, Uncanny X-Men: The Complete Collection by Matt Fraction Volume 2 will certainly be a satisfying read. She is arguably the star player in this collection and Fraction does a good job of representing her. There's even a brief overview of her life present in this trade paperback. More inexperienced X-Men fans and casual readers, however, should probably pass on this collection. It is dense and requires quite a bit of background knowledge to the Marvel universe. There are a lot of characters and they're all very broadly depicted. That said, the art is (mostly) gorgeous and this is a great chance to get all these issues in one place. If you're a completist, pick this up. If not, try finding it at a library.

Rating: C+