X-Man: Dance With the Devil

X-Man (collected edition) #2

by Terry Kavanagh, Ralph Macchio, Tom DeFalco

Nate Grey continues trying to make a home for himself in the Marvel Universe - but even with new friend Spider-Man by his side, that's not easy! The Abomination has kidnapped Nate's girlfriend, Threnody; Madelyne Pryor has joined forces with the reinvigorated Hellfire Club; the twisted Sugar Man has opened a time portal back to the Age of Apocalypse; and the blood-crazed Morbius is looking for a bite! And as if all that weren't enough, Havok and his new Brotherhood have offered Nate a place in their ranks - but their roster includes fellow AoA refugee the Dark Beast, and they plan to take over the world! In the face of all this adversity, what's an unbelievably powerful psionic mutant to do? Guest-starring Bishop, Cyclops, Phoenix and more!
X-Man 20-29, Annual '96; Amazing Spider -Man (1963) 420

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Comic Book, X Men

344 pages, Paperback

First published December 19, 2012

About the author

Terrence "Terry" Kavanagh is an American comic book editor and writer. Kavanagh's last new comics project was the Before the Fantastic Four: The Storms limited series in 2000–2001.

Reviews

[Baba · Rating 2 out of 5]

One of the weakest X-books and now even the art is failing. It's X-Man days with Threnody, the Dark Beast, Havoc's Brotherhood etc.

[Derek Moreland · Rating 3 out of 5]

This volume gets off to a rough start, (and seriously, what happened to issues 15-17? I get leaving the Onslaught crossover out, but the confrontation with Holocaust is *kind of* a big deal), but it actually pulls together into a pretty fun read. Amazingly, a lot of credit for that goes to Roger Cruz, who takes over for Steve Skroce in this volume. Yes, Skroce co-created this version of the character, and yeah, Cruz was somewhat mildly infamous for swiping from Joe Madureira, but his energy and panel composition really compliments the character and Kavanagh's histrionic 90's-style of scripting.

Story wise, this is a weird book, composed almost entirely of subplots. "Nate Grey wanders aimlessly through the Marvel Universe, picking fights with guest stars injected into the book to bump sales" isn't anything to hang a story on. But "what's up with Threnody?", "How is Madelyne Pryor back?", "What is Selene plotting?", or "What is not-quite-all-the-way-bad Havok trying to accomplish?"? These are fun little threads, and for the most part, they tie up WAY more satisfactorily than I would have credited (the revelation about Maddie Pryor is particularly well handled, and the best issue of the volume).

I hope Marvel continues to fill out this somewhat misbegotten corner of the 90's Marvel U. This volume proves that there's still some discoveries worth uncovering.

[Adam Stone · Rating 3 out of 5]

After a tortorously shakey first volume, this second collection of stories surrounding Nate Grey was fun and held my interest the entire time. Terry Kavanagh doesn't dig into Nate Grey, so much as he digs in to all the characters and continuity around him and lets us like Nate for his reactions more than his heroism.

Kavanagh makes smart use of his side characters in this book, too. While Sinister's shadow looms, it's Threnody and Madelyne Pryor that shine in this volume, and the surprising use of Spider-Man, The Abomination, Morbious, and The Hellfire Club keeps the story interesting.

While I don't think this is a revelatory comic book for anyone, it's certainly a fun 90s nostalgia read if you find it in a discount graphic novel bin.

[B · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I write over and over again that a lot of books don't really have a destination. This one doesn't either. X-Man can never get full control over his power because there would not be a story. And he can't die because there still would not be a story.

So he just kind of bounces around.

[One Flew · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was first introduced to comic books with x-men nonsense like this when I was a teenager, I loved it back then... not so much now. This volume is fun, absurd but so poorly written. The dialogue, storylines and characters are equally painful. The only reason I'm giving this book a pity two star rating is due to a nostalgic sense from years of reading trashy comics. The artwork is alright apart from the fact that all of them are drawn like muscle bound giants and the women with huge breasted but insanely narrow waists. The unrealistic body shapes of the characters feels like a throw back from the horrible 90s comicbook style. You could call this a book guilty pleasure reading but you're bound to feel more guilt than pleasure.

[Nazary · Rating 2 out of 5]

Is this really what kids in the 90's had to read? An odd bizarre story that can't seem to progress two pages without retelling us Nate's entire back story.