Tomes of Costumed Adventurers: X-Men--Smoke and Mirrors

Tomes of Costumed Adventurers

Welcome to the land of "reality", where scientific experiments, accidents, genetic heritage, and alien influences affect the lives of ordinary mortals. Join me as I observe the superhumans of planet earth and their struggles against equally powerful foes.

W A R N I N G !

This review does not represent the opinions of the general public. It reflects my personal thoughts and opinions on the book.

That said, on to the review!

Title: X-Men--Smoke and Mirrors
Author: Eluki Bes Shahar
Publisher: Boulevard Books
Format: Paperback
Copyright Date: 1997

The world fears mutants, and many people are willing to support any efforts to apprehend, contain, or exterminate them. And some people are willing to do anything in their power to see to it that the "mutant menace" is stopped once and for all...even to the apprehension and incarceration of innocent teenagers just maturing into their mutant abilities. But the real threat to mutant safety this time isn't some evil mutant bent on world domination or an alien invasion set on world conquest. No, this time it's a bill on Capitol Hill that may make it illegal to be a mutant and illegal to resist an experimental treatment that will change mutants back into ordinary humans. And it's up to the X-Men to determine whether a process their resident genius, the Beast, believes has at least a fifty-percent mortality rate is legitimate and not a cover for some governmental plot to register and incarcerate mutants throughout the country. But what they aren't prepared for is the reality of the process' creator, an evil mastermind whose sinister machinations the X-Men have faced before--and barely survived against!

X-Men--Smoke and Mirrors is another titanic tale of the Uncanny X-Men. As in most of the X-Men's adventures, they are hard-pressed to ensure the continuance of Charles Xavier's dream of humans and mutants living peacefully together in the world. Of course, I seriously doubt that they anticipated so much trouble arising from a controversial governmental bill, certainly not the trouble of scattering their resources across the country and even into Canada. But then again, such an effort is what you'd expect from the X-Men, who give their hearts and souls to the furtherance of their goal.

I said it before and I'll say it again: I hate it when authors introduce interesting, compelling characters only to kill them off or relegate them to literary limbo simply because they are not part of the mainstream effort. I previously mentioned this in Generation X in the case of Walter Nowland (a.k.a. Statis). This time around it's Jason Gerber, the teenage Ohio Mutant Conspiracy member who goes by the name of "Slapshot." Here's a character who has what it takes to become a leader--and does so in the novel--only you know he's going to come and go simply because he isn't a "real" character. And by "real" I mean that he isn't a member of the X-Men (as seen in the comics) or one of their offshoot teams like X-Force, Excalibur, X-Factor, et al. Sigh. I suppose I just have to deal with it. It's still disappointing, though.

X-Men--Smoke and Mirrors is about exactly what the title says: smoke and mirrors. There are so many red herrings, redirections, and layers to this story that you don't have time to get bored. And that's probably one of the best things a writer could hope for!

Rating: Thumbs up! Can the X-Men find the solution to a political mystery that may spell the doom for mutants everywhere?

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