Comic Review: The Trial of Jean Grey.

Comic book crossovers can be a scary thing.

If you're a veteran comic book fan, you're used to it. The mass blender of characters and story lines that are thrust at you three or four times a year and mix up the stories and the bad guys. They're epic, they're fun.

If you're new to the comic book world of course, they may intimidate and frighten you. Who are these characters I know nothing about? Who are all these strange names on the covers? This new art is strange and unfamiliar! Why can't we just go back to the was it used to be?!

All it takes is a little getting used to, is all. Try to see it not so much as the literary clusterfuck it initially appears to be, and more like a sampler CD. One of those big ass ones you got for a few dollars that feature all sorts of stuff you've never heard before, but has that one track you really like. You have the comfort zone of the ones you know, can skim over the guys you aren't so keen on, and just might find something new you love, and go out and buy their record afterward. This is exactly what a comic book crossover event is like, so turn it up. Or open the page, Whatever.

  

The Trial of Jean Grey is the first crossover involving Marvel's biggest property, The X-Men, and it's newest (But swiftly rising star) property The Guardians of the Galaxy. Only a little one, three books of each completes the entire story. It's not unusual for crossover events to involve characters or books that are a little under the radar and mix them with the big leagues, as of course it's a good way to introduce people to a book they may not have picked up before. It's no coincidence that the Guardians just happen to be crossing over with the X-Men six months before their big budget movie comes out of course, you gotta introduce people somehow. It's similar to what they did at the start of this latest Guardians run, having Iron Man amongst the team for a trial run, a sort of viewpoint character, an everyday (comparatively) human amongst these spacefaring pirate nutters. It helps that a few members of the Guardians can out-flirt and out-wisecrack Tony Stark or Bobby Drake at every turn, Rocket Raccoon is a hilarious character and he's been particularly enjoyably written into this crossover event.

Now I came into this crossover from the opposite side of how most will. I follow the Guardians, and getting back into X-Men again was a strange feeling for me. They were my team back in the 90's and it's strange to see how much the characters have aged as I have. The series is All-New X-Men in particular I should point out, the concept of which is that the original X-Men from the teams beginnings in an idyllic superhero group under the tutelage of Professor X, have been pulled out of time and to the present, where the rebellious Cyclops is leading rogue mutants against his old comrades in a post Charles Xavier world.

Pretty heavy concept to swallow, I know, but it's a hell of a lot of fun to see.

Of course where most people will be learning is in the other team. The Guardians of the Galaxy, led by cocky American Star-Lord, will be new to many readers. They haven't been involved in too much heavy plot dragging them down yet, so it's easy to jump into getting to know the team, from gun-loving weapons specialist Rocket Raccoon (Yes, he's a raccoon), to smoky female melee combat expert Gamora. The teams latest member, Angela, might take a little more salt to accept, as she is a fresh addition to the Marvel universe, created by Neil Gaiman and recognizable character from the popular comic book Spawn. Yes, THAT Angela.

The crossover is a little unforgiving in that if you only really want to pick up your book out of the two, you're out of luck. The two books trade the crossover in chapters, so you'll be entirely out of half the story if you're only reading one. It's all in with this one.

I for one didn't mind picking up All-New X-Men and giving it a chance, it got me back into enjoying a few characters I didn't even realize I had been missing for a while. The relationships between young Jean and Scott is charming and brings you back a little to an earlier time of comic heroes. That's when they're from of course, and they pull it off well.

 

The story itself that all these heroes are mixed up in? Heavy stuff. This is a Jean Grey prior to the Phoenix force, long before her power grows and she becomes a danger to herself and others. The Jean from this universe never had the chance to stand trial for her crimes, on the account of being long dead of course, so when an intergalactic tribunal, lead by classic X-Men foe the Gladiator, kidnaps Jean to face trial for her future self's crimes as the Phoenix, the young X-Men are dragged along for the ride as the Guardians of the Galaxy take the plucky group into the stars to rescue Jean Grey.

 

 

Now some characters are more important than others in all this. It's a lot to juggle essentially having ten main characters to throw around, and you may find your favorite getting lost in the clash.

The focal characters between the teams: Jean Grey, Star-Lord, Scott Summers, are fully fleshed out, having their whole range of emotions on show, but I could count the lines said by Drax or Angel on one hand. X-23 seems to appear out of nowhere five books in. There is also the threat, as with far too many crossovers, of simply having too many characters! Mixing the members of X-Men and the Guardians should be enough already, but then the Starjammers turn up, intergalactic pirates with a heroic streak and a family tie to the X-Men, and it starts to get a little packed in there. There is a panel of everyone sat in the Guardians spaceship filled with so much spandex and weird coloured skin it looks like a convention in there.  It's an enjoyable mashup though, the dialogue between the teams is great, and the sardonic wit of Rocket and the stone-cold sexy of Gamora plays well with personalities as strong as those of the hyper-intellectual Beast or over-excitable Ice Man. The hamburger scene is just....great.

 

The story as a whole, is solid. Simple even. Physics-bending moral dilemma aside, It's a rescue story. Jean Grey is held imprisoned by the Gladiator and his men, seeking her to not only face punishment for crimes she has yet to commit, but to atone emotionally for them as well. Gladiator's stubbornness and seeming cruelty makes him a strong villain, and his incredible physical capabilities make him a solid match for both teams put together as it is. It's a shame there really is only one brief confrontation with all the characters present, as the story does pass an awful lot of time with the getting-there as opposed to the rescue in actuality. When the inevitable showdown does come to pass, it's over a little quickly, but is off-the-page huge of course.

 

Gladiator should know that messing with time isn't always so easy, and the resolution of the story looks like it could have some lasting consequences for the X-Men. Jean Grey theorizes her emotional state has been pushed beyond the point her previous self ever was, and that maybe the Phoenix force will effect her differently this time around. Her all-new (and all-naked!) new form is nothing wildly unexpected, but it does at least show us that this Jean we haven't seen the best of yet. Even the ever amicable Cyclops, already thrashed into subservience by the events of his own book, steps up at the end and makes a decision that could hugely change the story on his end.

 

 

As for the Guardians, sadly there isn't so much to say for this story really making a change to them. Apart from Star-Lord getting a little more-than-just-friends with Kitty Pryde, no major friendships are established or developed. The whole thing is definitely much more about the X-Men that it is our space heroes. The more you think about it, the more you need to ask: 'Did the Guardians really need to be there?' Are they just in this story for the sake of a crossover? The interplay is great fun, but could these two comics have gone their separate ways without forcing the readers to buy both? If there are further reaching ramifications for the Guardians resulting from this story, I will be surprised.

All in all, I for one did enjoy the thing. For a big fan of the Guardians of the Galaxy, it did a great job of reminding me how much I used to like the X-Men too. It even gave me the nudge to pick up a few more of the past books of their new series and enjoy them too. The Guardians and the X-Men, although wildly different teams, fit well together, and perhaps we'll see more of how they work together in the future. There was a lot unsaid at the end of this story, both happy and grave, and I hope we see these characters develop further to establish themselves in the vastness of the Marvel universe.