Marvel Must Haves: Nyx #1-3

(Marvel, 2005)
™ and © 2003-2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.

It’s a shame Joe Quesada got busy with editorial work, because the Marvel editor-in-chief was putting out a great comic in Nyx. Normally when the boss takes the reins, it’s cause for dread, and triple that feeling when adults write about angsty, “edgy” teenagers, but this happy exception had everything going for it. With wunderkind artist Josh Middleton delivering anime-perfect panels and the introduction of a hot new character, Nyx, could have been a revolution.

Instead, it got bogged down in ridiculous delays that not only decimated the book’s momentum, it crashed the series entirely. Ignoble efforts to blame Middleton, who was asking for script to draw, didn’t help the book though a year of silence didn’t stop the title from thunderous rounds at conventions, thanks to the first appearance of X-23, who as a teenage, mutant, ninja hooker, gothic jailbait, bad-girl clone of Wolverine, is every successful trend in comics from the last 20 years in one persona (plus a couple of failed ones).

— Brendan McGinley

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