Harvey X

 

This summer, Marvel Comics relaunched their X-Men titles after a massively successful (and pretty fun) "era" that spanned the last few years. The first issues launched bi-weekly, so for about a month and a half, I bought as many "number 1's" as I could to see what I liked, eventually whittling them down to a couple series.

One of the two or three titles that made the cut was The Uncanny X-Men by Gail Simone. Simone's Secret Six and Birds of Prey for DC were awesome. That and the use of Wolverine, Rogue, Gambit, and Nightcrawler, my four favourite X-Men characters, and sometimes favourite Marvel heroes in general, made Uncanny an easy top choice.

I bought it and started to read. The art was good, a nice continuation from the previous stories, and the first third of the book was a fight between three quarters of the group and a giant dragon, which you can't really go wrong with. The middle of the issue is what got me though.

After a page where a young mutant gets kidnapped by a mysterious figure, the setting shifts to a children's hospital. The X-Men have been asked to meet a young twelve-year-old boy with terminal cancer. He's a massive fan, calls himself Harvey X, and might be a mutant with very low psychic abilities. 

They enter the room, and Harvey is in bed, surrounded by action figures of several Marvel heroes and a poster of Giant-Size X-Men #1 (very meta). He's bolt-upright and super-excited! 

Between panels of Harvey calling Rogue hot and Nightcrawler giving the boy an official X-Men jacket (yay!), Wolverine silently asks Harvey's doctor if he's on a monitor. She say's he's in no danger, but Wolverine, who has superhuman senses, isn't so sure and suggests she call his parents, quickly. At this, I'm just like "No..." and silently pleading for things to be okay. 

Rogue holds the boy's hand which she says feels cold (she can absorb life-force), Wolverine urges the doctor to order a Code: Blue, Harvey goes into a major seizure, blood spurting from his mouth, and the tears start running down my face! The next page, the doctor silently confirms Harvey X's death. The heroes lose it, and so do I. 

But a handful of issues later, Harvey X gets a happier ending. In Uncanny X-Men 5, Rogue is near death after a fight with issue 1's mysterious figure. Unconscious, she's visited by Harvey X who's revealed to be way more powerful than everyone thought he was, with enhanced future sight and healing abilities. He heals Rogue enough to regain consciousness and win the battle, dying for good shortly after, but not before earning the official title of an X-Man. 

Cue some more tears. Happy ones, though!

In almost thirty years of reading comic books, I've never been affected by anything like the story of Harvey X. 

The fact that he's a sickly, pre-teen, superhero fan obviously hit very close to home. But also, Harvey X's story adds one thing I think has been missing from comics lately, especially those from Marvel and DC: genuine heart. 

In my opinion, there's a bit too much focus on making things cinematic lately (NOT a WB or Disney-hater, honestly!), which leads to a lot of emotionless action. Not that action is bad, it's just refreshing to read such a nice, heartfelt couple of character moments, and I sincerely hope the Uncanny team keeps it up going forward.

Cheers!