Image Comics reviews PhenomX #1, Undiscovered Country #17
PhenomX #1
Actor John Leguizamo (John Wick) crafts an original superhero with co-writers Aram Rappaport, Joe Miciak and Damian Slattery. Does this introduction of PhenomX prove memorable? Yes and no. Max Gomez has been empowered with some fantastic abilities and one of his old running buddies wants to recruit him to join a new gang of superpowered individuals.
This is an intriguing introduction to Max even if readers are thrown right into it. Catching up as the fight played out probably would have been more effective than Max basically pausing the fight to provide an extended flashback on his origin.
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The biggest issue with the origin is that Max is basically a solo Suicide Squad recruit complete with a black woman recruiting him to join her special project for a reduced or eliminated prison sentence.
While it’s appreciated that Leguizamo and his co-writers want to flesh out the back story, it’s far too similar to an established property to treat this like a completely fresh origin. Phenomx would have been better served filling in these narrative gaps over subsequent issues. Over the 54 pages, it doesn’t feel like a lot actually happens.
Longtime underappreciated artist Christ Batista sets the visual mood. Batista is a great choice to establish a new hero thanks to his excessively clean style. There’s plenty of detail without a ton of clutter or distracting elements. Batista is also able to consistently knock out Leguizamo’s likeness for Max.
Colorist Christopher Sotomayor brings a cheery mood with brighter colors that pop as well as conveying a natural LatinX skin tone that shows a discrepancy between the white and black characters.
PhenomX clearly has potential and has the makings of a solid read even if too much effort was spent setting the stage in this debut issue.
Rating: 7.5 out of 10