X-Men Legacy 22, Uncanny X-Force 16

X-Men Legacy 22
Spurrier (w) and Pham (a) and Rosenberg (c)

The evil mind-Xavier has launched a missile containing all sorts of nuclear firepower at Washington, knowing that the very act, once it shows on the radar, will cause a chain reaction around the world currently filled with hate that the gold Xavier has permeated. David, though, unknowingly has called for his allies. From Wolverine's team to Cyclops' team to Abigail Brand and Sydren to Pete Wisdom to anyone he's teamed up with and they all show, helping to take apart the nuke before it can cause too much trouble (as David points out, taking apart a nuke was the first thing the X-Men did). The gold Xavier is less a gold Xavier at current and more a giant rock monster thing with crazy seemingly disintegration ray powers so it'll take all the X-Men and David's considerable might to bring him down. There are casualties in the fight that David, as a leader, has to be able to move past, including the apparent deaths of Abigail Brand, Chamber, and Karasu Tengu. David pushes through and gets the X-Men to push through and work together, to put aside the hate they have stored up in them and the hate that Xavier is trying to force to the surface. David destroys the body and pulls the power into the astral plane. It's at this moment that Blindfold wakes up, with the power taken by her brother restored (now that Luca's body is destroyed), and projects herself to the fight while her actual body hurries its way there. David squares off against the gold Xavier, who begins to weaken and transform away from the Xavier image and into something small and sickly, goblin-like, in his mind. David prepares to either cage the personality or destroy it but the personality denies him, asking David how a person with a sickness of the mind cures it. The answer is, of course, that he doesn't: he finds ways to live with it. With that, he dives into David's legion and David, unprepared to take it on, emerges back into the real world and becomes the world worm they knew he would become.

The last time I talked about X-MEN LEGACY it was to name it 2013's best Marvel title. This issue does absolutely nothing to disavow me of that notion, even though last week saw the conclusion and therefore the wrap-up of the amazing YOUNG AVENGERS. This book is just truly something else. There's a feeling with the last year or two of Marvel books that they're all echoing something different out there. I think that has a lot to do with books like HAWKEYE, which really broke the mold of a superhero comic, and the rise of Image comics. Superhero books can be different and they can maybe be a little niche and you can take the superhero world, with all of its tropes and eccentricities and over-the-top action and death and resurrection and superpowers and supervillains, and you can, if you want, stick it in a real-ish world and tell really great, really character-centric stories. It's not necessarily a new idea when it's framed that way but it certainly feels new and the books that are doing it well are doing it with such excellence that they're about the best books I've ever seen. Even books that feel a little more traditional, like DAREDEVIL, are bringing such a level of personality and depth that they're changing the face of superhero comics. X-MEN LEGACY is a book about the mutant son of Charles Xavier who happens to be the most powerful mutant in existence. David himself says that his father thought of him as a mutant with "godlike powers and childlike control." Despite this and despite the amazing stories that Spurrier can be and has told with the character, it's remained remarkably personal and remarkably moving. This issue moves David into a spot (where he's been moving for a while, actually) where the main villain has been the sickness in himself and, instead of the typical superhero solution of "punch down the bad guys," you can't find a cure for every sickness. It's an amazing book. Khoi Pham's art is incredible here and, though his style is a departure from Tan Eng Huat (the other major series artist), gives the book a very distinct feel. Huat's art has really grown on me as the series has progressed and, honestly, it's at the point where I love Pham's art in this book but I can see it just as well as if Huat drew it. That's thanks in no small part, too, to Rachelle Rosenberg's colors, which unify the title and makes it look unlike any other out there. Amazing, amazing book. If we ever get a full omnibus style release for this title, I'd urge everyone to get it. Urge, you guys.

Uncanny X-Force 16
Humphries (w) and Tolibao and Soy (a) and Curiel (c)

Hope and Bishop have been taken by Stryfe and both Cable's X-Force and the Uncanny X-Force are interested in finding them. However, the reasons for their mutual interest don't exactly match up and the two teams begin to fight one another through LA. Cable's team shows up to support their leader as he gets knocked out by Storm and Psylocke and they play a bit of keep away as Cable's team works to get him back. Meanwhile, Bishop tries to convince Hope that he's really changed but nothing he can say, as he well understands, can make up for the horrors he's inflicted on Hope. Stryfe shows up to taunt at them for a bit and because he's sworn revenge on Bishop, who betrayed him and left him stranded in the future the last time they saw each other. He offers Hope a chance at her wildest dreams (to be revealed next issue). Back in LA, the dust settles to find Cable awake again. Cable instructs Dr. Nemesis to give Spiral a nightmare, which he does with one of his drug concoctions. In the midst of Spiral's Mojo-based nightmare, Cable convinces her to teleport him to Stryfe's location, which she somewhat unwittingly does. They arrive to find Stryfe waiting for them.

What I typically like about four-issue crossovers is that there's usually a lot to explain and not a lot of room to do it in, so you tend to get only the exposition that you truly need and the action has to move at a certain pace to convey the entire story of two separate entities (in this case, CABLE AND X-FORCE and UNCANNY X-FORCE) over only four issues. For the most part, VENDETTA is proving to be no different. The fights move pretty quickly, the inciting incident and rising action all move well, and you can feel the story both winding up and preparing to wind down at any point. On the weaker ones, you can usually map out the beats after the first issue. I wouldn't say this is entirely one of the weaker ones; the story there, particularly the story about Hope and Bishop, is intriguing enough to keep the audience guessing and to keep the crossover moving well. I will say, I almost would have preferred it if this issue wasn't a big fight issue. Not only would a quick team-up without the typical big fight be something of a surprise in a crossover of this style, it would make a little more sense. To both Sam Humphries' and Dennis Hopeless' credit, they've created a reason for the fight that's more than just "this is the second beat of a four-issue crossover." Still, these are two teams comprised of people who are friends and unquestionably heroes (well, except for the reformed villains you tend to ruin into) and you'd like to see that, just once, mean something. Still not a bad issue. There's some clunky fight-dialogue sprinkled throughout but the arguments for both side are good enough that you can get past it. Also not complaining that the resolution of this crossover will set us into the February launch of Si Spurrier's (see above review) X-FORCE.

X-Men Legacy 21, Amazing X-Men 2, Marvel Knights X-Men 2

X-Men Legacy 21
Spurrier (w) and Pham w/ Leisten (a) and Rosenberg (c)

David’s newfound sense of self isn’t exactly thrilling everyone close to him…or really, anyone close to him since Blindfold is the only one close to him. He visits her before he sets off on his journey and he lets her into his mind again, explaining why he has to fight the evil Xavier and where he has to do it. It has a lot to do with the psychosphere, the kind of collective subconscious that Xavier is warping and filling with hate, filling the human hivemind with hate and anger. Ruth understands all of this but doesn’t like that it’s David who has to end it and really doesn’t like that David has become something different and strange as she loves the imperfect David. As ever though, David reveals that his visit, though he loves her, was using her to try to bond his remaining personalities, as he’s always stronger and more complete when he’s around her. It, uh, it doesn’t totally work and he leaves her behind while still bemoaning all of his non-participation medal personalities. He goes to fight the gold-skinned Xavier and, despite his growing power, still can’t best him. Xavier announces that it’s worthless, that he was always the strongest piece of David, whatever he might have been in relation to David. David keeps pleading to his strongest powers to join up with him and they keep refusing. Blindfold, still in her bed at Winchester, pleads too. Xavier makes David watch as his hate bleeds into a man on a nuke-carrying submarine who goes on to kill all of his shipmates and launch the nuke before killing himself.

Despite all of the growing plot and the rising tension as the gold-skinned Xavier starts polluting the world and making humans attack one another to pave the way for mutants, everything that happens here is so fundamentally driven by Spurrier’s insistence to make David a fully realized and wonderfully compelling character. Without David’s character, it’s just another superhero-against-insurmountable-odds story, which can be perfectly fine but right now we have extra levels to it because there’s so much happening with David. In fact, by and large, I’m far more interested in what’s going to become of David as a character than I am about whether or not he’ll stop the gold-skinned Xavier. That’s not a slight on the story nor the threat, both of which are impressive, rather it’s a ringing endorsement of how interesting David is as a character and how invested the audience is in him. More great stuff, looking forward to the last few issues, sad that it’ll be ending.

Amazing X-Men 2
Aaron (w) and McGuinness and Vines (a) and Gracia (c)

After coming through the portal, the X-Men are all separated, with Storm, Iceman, and Firestar landing in what seems to be Hell and Wolverine and Northstar ending up in what seems to be Heaven. Wolverine is contacted by Xavier, who kind of explains where he is and tells him not to let go in his fight against the captain of the ship he’s fighting, Captain Jack (??). He does, of course, let go in the physical sense of the plank he’s holding on to (like, walking the plank sort of plank) and falls into what seems to be nothingness. Storm, Iceman, and Firestar look to fight their way out but pretty quickly realize that they’re not the only target of the demons below, who are also not so thrilled with Azazel. They best their adversaries, though it comes with great exhaustion to Iceman particularly. Firestar tries to help him out of Hell as Storm is captured by some of the red bamfs and the captain of the ship leaving Hell, Captain Kid, as in Billy the Kid (??). Watching the ship and ready to hijack and take it over, though, is Nightcrawler.

It’s probably wrong to say that a book is moving slowly after two issues but, I mean, this book is moving pretty slowly, right guys? It’s not that there haven’t been fights or that there haven’t been big dramatic reveals or villains (kind of, if we’re counting the weird ship captains which I’m still not really counting) because there have been. Still, the book is moving pretty slowly, which might have to do with the amount of narration and character explanations that sometimes come with the beginnings of books. In this case, we get definitions of major X-Men like Wolverine, Iceman, Storm, and Northstar, and a perhaps would-be more useful definition of Firestar if it didn’t basically just say “I don’t really know her.” The narration is from Nightcrawler which makes me wish that the issue was just about Nightcrawler already, and not about this weird Heaven/Hell thing. I’m not totally onboard with that, you guys. The art isn’t bad and I’m less bothered this time out by the similarities between this and the first few issues of NOVA (also drawn by McGuinness) which made everyone look a little more childlike than I would have hoped. I guess ultimately I just wish this book, like Aaron’s time on WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN (which I just found out will be continuing without Aaron and will pass to WINTER SOLDIER writer Jason Latour), was maybe a little less childlike than I’ve seen so far.

Marvel Knights X-Men 2
Revel (w and a) and Peter (c)

Wolverine fights off Sabretooth who reveals him to be Mystique to fight Rogue before being joined by Blob and Pyro and a cadre of Hellfire Guard, all of which rings strange to Wolverine. He realizes that something else must be causing it and sees a girl in the middle of the house, holding a gun and hiding from them. He asks if she’s doing this and she tells him that she’ll shoot him then goes ahead and shoots him. He shakes it off and she cuts her arm, making all of the manifestations disappear. They talk to her and, along with Kitty and the girl they picked up last time, determine to bring her with them until they can figure some more things out. The new girl, Darla, reveals that she can pull out memories from people’s minds and manifest them, which led to the suicide of her mother and abandonment from her father. Wolverine accuses her of killing the mutant they’re there to kill and freaks out a bit at her, which makes Rogue a bit suspicious. They probably all should be suspicious of the other girl they’re with but no one is so the adventure continues!

The story continues to be compelling as we get roped into a backwoods world of mutants and drugs and dirty cops and all sorts of other things that Wolverine, Kitty, and Rogue were never expecting. More compelling than the story and these characters, though, is the art, which continues to stand out and really looks like nothing else in comics today. Between the fluidity of the art and the almost-pastel like colors, the panels look almost like paintings, though not in the same sort of ways you get near-painting-like panels in comics occasionally, like I'd say MARVEL KNIGHTS SPIDER-MAN is kind of looking right now. The story itself is good and the new characters Revel has created are plenty interesting, just as it's interesting to see three core X-Men finding themselves out of their depth in a small town, but it's really the art that's drawing me in, again, not unlike MARVEL KNIGHTS SPIDER-MAN.

X-Men Legacy 20, Cable and X-Force 16

X-Men Legacy 20
Spurrier (w) and Huat and Yeung w/ Tadeo (a) and Villarrubia (c)

The Shadow Phoenix is in David's mind attacking all of the powers that live there as David tries to find a way to defeat it. He thinks back to the things that linked the survivors of the Shadow Phoenix he saw when he was combing around Aarkus' head for clues. His first assumption is that sheer power defeated it, so he tries to rally his strongest and most intimidating powers, though he does so to no avail. They're scared of the Shadow Phoenix, who is picking them apart one by one. His next thought is strength in numbers, so his next move is to attempt to lead the remaining powers in his head. When this continues not to work, it sets in on him. Strength in numbers doesn't matter, it's the ability to work together that saved the Shadow Phoenix's other foes. Knowing this, David opens himself up to bond with his powers, teaming with them instead of simply grabbing and controlling them when he needs. David realizes that his mantra of "I rule me" has never been more true; every human, as he says, is a legion in need of a leader, wishing to be guided and not ruled. As a result, the Shadow Phoenix starts to weaken and even starts to spit back out the powers its swallowed, which David realizes is pretty weird; a predator who doesn't chew its food but keeps it intact. It dawns on David as he expels the Shadow Phoenix and wakes up: the Shadow Phoenix wasn't real, it was all a con. As he emerges from his own mind and awakens again, he begins to accuse Aarkus, who quickly cuts him off and explains it was only for his own good. He needed to learn how to use his powers like this, to become one with them. They needed him scared, not smug. Aarkus, in fact, appreciated that David stepped in to correct his previous views about mutants and wanted to return the favor by opening David's mind to what he could really be. On top of that, they need him whole to face down the golden Xavier. Even this series' first person to turn on David, Karasu Tengu, has realized that her life is, in fact, better for David's interference in it and so she played the role of the Shadow Phoenix. Now David must go and fight, with all of his powers intact.

Really, really lovely book. There are few examples of the sort of "hero realizes his potential" part of the hero's journey that are as well executed as this. All of the pieces start coming together as we see flashes from David of his own memories of this series where, for as successful as he's been, he's used and abused people. He's accomplished most of his own goals but his mistakes and even the problematic perception of him have all come because he's refused to let people in on his plan, preferring to do things himself and let people see too late that maybe he was doing a good thing after all. This issue makes clear that David simply hasn't seen things that way up to now and, even if he realized he wasn't really in any danger from the Shadow Phoenix, it's impossible to argue that he didn't just become far more powerful by leading his powers instead of just controlling them so there's a lesson here for him regardless of how the lesson came to him. The art is gorgeous and fits so well with this book and I continue to read these issues and wonder how I didn't love the art from the start. This issue very much feels like Spurrier's way to wrap it up here as he begins his transition over to his new X-FORCE book (still excited about that, you guys); we've now seen David embrace his powers and his future as well as mending relationships with Aarkus, SWORD, and Karasu. The issue ends with the knowledge that Blindfold was kind of in on this plan from the start but that she refused to be a part of it because she didn't want to see David in so much pain and because she realized that it was the beginning of the end. Brand then promptly wiped Blindfold's memory of it and sent her home. Some has stuck around, though, as she mutters in her sleep that they're going to start the end. So, as Abigail Brand says, go start it, cowboy.

Cable and X-Force 16
Hopeless (w) and Sandoval (a) and Rosenberg (c)

The sudden appearance of another entity in Forge's head has complicated things for the team as a whole. The Sentinel Colossus and Domino were tasked with taking down is not as inert as they were expecting it. Though they eventually manage to shut it down, the initial chase and the ensuing explosion cause an avalanche very near to them. Cable, on the other hand, has found that his new pre-cog powers are working pretty well but that his old powers aren't running properly any more, leaving he and Hope in the middle of a firefight with Reavers without any guns. Hope, though, had accidentally borrowed some of his TK powers when she had to attack him with the psimitar and so has enough to keep them mostly protected, though how far that will go remains to be seen as higher ranking Reavers return with a device that morphs the fallen Reavers into one giant predator. Finally, back at the base, Nemesis has entered Forge's consciousness to try to figure out what's going on inside. While in there, he runs into Forge and the two begin to explore while Forge explains that this entity is known as the Adversary (very clever name) and is a creature of pure chaos who likes to mess with humans (who Nemesis likens to Q from Star Trek: the Next Generation for all you nerds out there, says the guy with a comic blog). As they explore and find no real way to stop the Adversary, Forge realizes that the mind they're in isn't Forge's any more, it's the Adversary's.

A good deal of interesting stuff here as, in typical CABLE AND X-FORCE fashion, things go extremely wrong extremely quickly. There's a lot to contend with and it's almost entirely interesting as Cable's old powers are no longer working, Hope's powers are somewhat amplified by the TK that came pouring out of Cable's mind not long ago, Domino and Colossus have ruined their date night by causing an avalanche when they had to bring down a Sentinel, favorite odd-couple Nemesis and Forge are reunited as they wander through someone's mind, and Boom Boom is stuck at home contending with a god-like being of pure chaos who, in his first moments around her, converted their base into a simulacrum of a night club. As I said, there's a lot happening. The writing continues to be really character-driven, giving us really great moments from...well, from everyone, really. There's not a character in this issue who doesn't have a good few lines. The art fits the tone really well, a somewhat more cartoony feel than what we've seen from this book previously with Gerardo Sandoval  picking up the pencils on this one. There are cute little moments in lettering too as Hope throws a car at some of the Reavers and the sound effect reads "KAR-KRASH," just pages after an avalanche starting made the sound "AVALANCHE." Sometimes little fun games like that can get really distracting and pull you out, but I had to double-check kar-krash before really getting it and I didn't even see "AVALANCHE" on the first read-through. Lots of fun stuff with plenty of plot to keep us motivated for next issue.

X-Factor 262, X-Men Legacy 16

X-Factor 262
David (w) and N. Edwards and Leisten (a) and Milla (c)

The final issue of X-Factor kicks off focused on Layla as she discovers that, at perhaps the worst possible time, she's pregnant. Old X-Factor enemy Tryp shows up to threaten her a bit and to tell her of something new coming, another version of him, more or less, who she would perhaps call the "good" version, coming to replace the bad. Before dying, though, he does call the police on her for "trespassing" in the house she's staying at, which is a Madrox family farm. Though she's Jamie's wife, no one really officially knows that and Jamie himself is a goat-headed demon being hidden in the barn. Layla tries to bring him food and he breaks free, launching himself at her. He pins her down and she screams that she's pregnant, which is enough to send him fleeing back to the barn. As Layla begins to return to the house, the police arrive. Meanwhile, Jamiegoat seems to pray to something and something seems to answer. As the police begin to take action against Layla, we see Siryn, now the Morrigan, talking with Jamie. The police brought weapons to handle Layla, knowing her powers and knowing she has something in the barn. Siryn joins in the fight against the strange special agent the cops have brought and Jamie, no longer a goathead, jumps in to prove his identity and that they belong in the house, finally sending the police away. Later, Siryn briefs the couple on the rest of the team's whereabouts and asks if they want her to bring them all back together. They think it over briefly but decline, saying they have a family and a farm to get back to.

It's a sweet little ending for X-Factor and one that ties up what remaining threads may have been out there. Great to get Jamie back to his normal self, even if he is in a nondescript white tank and jeans instead of his trademark green duster and if he's not exactly brimming with personality in this issue. Still good to get everything wrapped up and a nice little close for the series. Some intrigue with the strange police special agent with a specially prepared weapon. Also a nice wrap-up note from Peter David at the end of the issue to assure that he wasn't wrapping the series because of his recent stroke or anything of that nature; instead, they wrapped because it was a good time to wrap and they had a story that could do it nicely. He also promised something new coming up that was hinted at in 260 (the issue with Polaris and Quicksilver wherein Polaris was offered a job of a sort). Sad to see the series go but perhaps it was time.

X-Men Legacy 16
Spurrier (w) and Davidson (a) and Rosenberg (c)

David is ready to dispense some filial justice but he actually has to track his father's killer first. No easy feat as Cyclops has dedicated himself to not being found in recent days (not well, they keep running into traps, the dummies). Watching all sorts of international news programs, David begins to track Cyclops' movements and is able within a few hours to figure out Cyclops' location. He bursts in, riding down on thunderbolts and lightning (very, very frightening) with Blindfold and begins to set to work taking out Cyclops' team one-by-one. There are several nice moments in here, including him putting the new mutants on Cyke's team down first (gently and thinking to himself about the ugly legacy his father built of sending children into battles like this) before attacking the big guns on the team. He dispatches them nicely (his feelings about the members also come out, including his calling Magneto a grandfather and Emma Frost a trollop) before turning to Cyclops. Cyclops tries very minimally to talk him down but knows he won't likely listen anyway. David, for his part, says that they won't use powers, just a man vs. man fight, to be continued next issue.

I'm always a little surprised when this book sends an arc for multiple issues and I really shouldn't be at this point. Through 16 issues we've probably had, at this point, more to-be-continueds than not. Still, the feel of this book doesn't always lend itself to cliffhangers so it always catches me a bit off-guard. Maybe it's just that I'm eager to see every story to its conclusion so I am left a little disappointed when I don't immediately see the end. That's probably a good sign, though. Just means that I want to read more of this series. Good issue overall, really great stuff as he dismantles, one-by-one, one of the pre-eminent X-Men teams around. Granted, they're not at full power but the idea is still the same and his confidence-based powers are still on full display here. Solid work. Still a pretty great book. As this series has gone on, too, the art has grown on me again and again. Davidson's has typically been solid but I had to grow a little on Tan Eng Huat's stuff. I have, though, overwhelmingly, and I've really liked what's come recently. What a great book.

Astonishing X-Men 60, X-Men Legacy 8, Uncanny X-Force 3

Astonishing X-Men 60
Lapham, Liu, and Pak (s) and Liu (w) and Buffagni and Arlem (a) and Sotomayor and Loughridge (c)

This event, as I think is the nature of it, is pretty confusing. I wonder how someone who hadn't been reading these three series would feel coming into this event and bouncing between books to try to figure it out. Fortunately, that's not a problem I have to worry about. The three cosmic beings that entered through the portal and killed head-in-a-jar Xavier remain present and, it turns out, absorb and emit energy. The absorption rate seems much higher, as they physically grow with enough energy added to them. Dazzler attempts to attack them but they drain her powers pretty quickly, leaving her weakened but she's stopped before dying. The Wolverines attack and find themselves rebuffed by an aura around the entities. Their healing factor isn't fast enough to keep them in the fight too long and the healing factor of the three beings is too fast to allow them to make a dent. Northstar runs through their chests and temporarily stuns them, giving enough time to pull the Wolverines out, and Bobby manages to freeze them temporarily using just about all the power he has. However, by all means, these three seem practically unbeatable.
While weakened, Karma tries to get into their heads but it ends up reverberating back on her. She announces their thoughts: they are cosmic beings, enemies to the Celestials, and were trapped outside of dimensions by the Celestials, but all the recent transporting between dimensions has weakened the borders and allowed them through. Karma is expelled from their minds and, like everyone else, weakened. Sensing more power in the 616, one of the beings goes through the portal to its Earth while the other two stay behind. One heads for the city and the Apocalypse seed, the other begins to devour the portal. Prophet quickly splits the heroes (and dark Beast) into teams, one team to stay and fight in the AoA and one to head back to the 616. There's a sampling of each crossed-over team in the new teams. Sabretooth and his dad attack the portal-eating being, seemingly sacrificing themselves to create a diversion while people sneak back to Earth.
I said this event is so far confusing. That doesn't mean it's bad. In fact, once you kind of get a grip on what's happening, it's pretty riveting and, despite all the action and all the characters and all the exposition and shouting, it's a really fast read. I do think, though, that it's a smart idea to separate the teams a little bit so that not everyone is together throughout the event. As we hit the half-way point of the full event (including the prologues), I think this book is in a pretty good spot. So far it's been paced pretty well. I'm interested in seeing how the rest of the event turns out, as now we're truly in the thick of things and there are still four issues remaining across four different titles.

QUICK ADDITION: I just learned that both X-Treme X-Men and Age of Apocalypse (which you may recognize as two of the three books involved in this crossover event) have been cancelled. It's too bad, I think both were compelling reads (somewhat surprisingly to me with X-Treme) that felt a little off-the-beaten-path for X-books. I might write more on these cancellations eventually.

X-Men Legacy 8
Spurrier (w) and Huat and Yeung (a) and Villarrubia (c)

Another really fun entry to the series with a tense addition to the ongoing story. As with last issue, this story is pretty self-contained. David has found a young mutant named Santi Sardina with the ability to take credit. I know, it sounds weird but it's definitely a new power. Essentially, Santi receives praise for anything praiseworthy around him; if people watch a good movie in his vicinity, he gets credit for making it, if someone reads a poem that strikes a chord with them, he gets credit for writing it, etc. He doesn't understand what's happening for a long while and, when he eventually does, he's pretty quickly fed up with it. He doesn't use it to his advantage (not intentionally, anyway) but, as David explains to Blindfold from their spot watching this drama unfold in what David called the psychosphere (the dream plane), it wears on him as he becomes unable to distinguish any genuinely deserved praise from the praise he'd be bound to get anyway. Santi is ready to drop out of school and remove himself from human contact to end the misdirected adulation but, David explains, he's planning to give things one more shot. He's looking to sign up for an extracurricular. Blindfold wants David to nudge him to art club, as Santi enjoys graffiti, but David has other plans. He explains to Blindfold the implications of this power. If he joins the student government now, he'll be class president in a year, elected official in three, governor by 28 and president right at 35. It would be the first mutant president and it would be a huge windfall for mutantkind, something to turn the tides. This, David feels, is what his father's dream would be; a wonderful representative for mutants that is uniformly loved (even if it's a little undeserved) and in a position to affect real change.
However, just as David is about to push Santi that way, David's mind is attacked by the monster that's been hiding in it. David, normally relegating himself to the shadows of his own mind to avoid this monster, is unprepared and can't gather any of his powers in time. He's about to lose the fight for his mind and body when the Charles in David's mind takes control and expels the monster. Charles disappears into David's mind again and David regains control shakily. He turns back to his mantra of "I rule me" and realizes that everyone should be able to say those words. He nudges Santi to art, which leads to some great superhero-based artwork anonymously created and praised (though, again, as it's anonymous, Santi isn't the one praised for it).
It's another really good entry with a solid story and a unique set of circumstances all tied together in a thought-provoking way. I love Santi's power and his aversion to it. I know it's maybe a little unexpected in a world full of people with laser-eyes and bone claws, but I think it's a good dig at that side of mutantdom. Mutant powers are undefined by their nature and so truly can be pretty much anything. I like the drive David has right now to achieve Charles' dream and I can see the logic in his using the method he proposes here. The abrupt entrance and exit of the mind-Charles put this whole series in a new and interesting place as we get another look at the story in David's head. There are also great things happening with the layout of this comic. David spends a lot of time in his own head. When we're seeing something happen outside of his head, we see his thoughts in captions, as is true in so many comics. When we view David inside his own head, there's a loudspeaker system shouting out his thoughts, the ones that would be in the captions. It's a really wonderful idea. His relationship with Blindfold continues to improve and impress. The title page, which featured the name of everyone involved crossed out and replaced by "Santi Sardina," was a great touch, as is Spurrier's inclusion of Pixie as Blindfold's friend and roommate so he can write more Scottish characters. All around, just a great book and another great issue. If you're a Marvel fan and have some background reading comics (I think this might be a hard book to dive into comics with) and want to get into the mutant wing of the Marvel Universe, this is a great book to go with. It's small enough to not feel like you're missing out on decades of backstory and continuity but still gives a great sense of mutant purpose and the place of mutants in this world. Really wonderful book.

Uncanny X-Force 3
Humphries (w) and Garney and Hanna w/Alphona and Strain (a) and Gracia w/ Gonzalez (c)

Another action-packed issue of this new iteration of X-Force as Puck, Storm and Psylocke question Spiral on the little girl (named Ginny) and Bishop's sudden appearance. Spiral reveals that she had "teamed up" with Ginny to help them both make their way in this world (a six-armed supervillain can't exactly get a job at In-N-Out Burger, Spiral explains) by opening a club and having the telepathic Ginny make everyone believe they're feeling whatever feelings they came looking for. There's an interesting question of ethics here that this team just does not have time for right now. Bishop is on the scent of Ginny and they don't have time to wait for backup from the school. Psylocke locks in on Ginny's location and Spiral teleports them to the LA subway system Psylocke directed her to. There they find Bishop and Ginny. Bishop is still crazy and extremely fast and strong, making the fight, weaving all around trains, an extremely difficult one for the team. Spiral grabs Ginny and teleports on to a train to get them away from it. Eventually, Betsy psychically stabs Bishop which has the unexpected negative effect of sending her into his mind, which is maze-like and a trap itself, she discovers as the issue ends. Meanwhile, the good Fantomexes have parachuted out of a plane over LA while the bad Fantomex watched.
There's a lot happening here in terms of action and some exposition, but it still feels like the story is kind of taking its time coming to us. I don't necessarily think that's a bad idea, though I do think some things are going to have to start connecting pretty soon. You can only drag a story so long before mystery and suspense give way to annoyance and frustration (ask Lost how their fans took to unanswered questions over a long period of time). I do think that the next few issues will be crucial in defining this series. We're at least waist-deep into what could be a pretty compelling story on a couple different sides and I don't think that revealing all the answers to the story at once, especially in issue three, is the right move. However, some answers are going to have to start spilling through (or at least trickling through) to keep readers invested. I think putting Betsy in Bishop's mind is a good place to start digging for clues. Putting all the Fantomexes in the same city as our team is another clever move. It's putting all the pieces into play on a chessboard and arranging them in a way that you know the actual carnage (there's a lot of carnage in chess, right?) is right around the corner. So I think this is another stepping-stone issue but not without reason. If we go another few issues with stepping-stone issues the series will be in trouble, but for now I think it's moving at a pretty smart pace.

Uncanny X-Men 3, X-Treme X-Men 12

Uncanny X-Men 3
Bendis (w) and Bachalo, Townsend, Mendoza, Vey and Olazaba (a) and Bachalo (c)

Maybe my problem with Bendis now is that there's just too many words. I've said before that I think he's writing as if comics were a TV show or a movie but the mediums are completely different. Bendis has come out before as a fan of Gilmore Girls, which totally fits with his dialogue. I'm not saying Gilmore Girls is a bad TV show, just that it is a TV show. You can do the snappy dialogue and the fast back-and-forth in TV and in movies but I still maintain that it doesn't fit in comics. In comics, it's just a lot of word bubbles distracting from the point everyone is trying to make. And it appears in ALL of Bendis' comics. Each comic that comes out has someone (or some group of someones) in the background making extra but unnecessary points or quips or "geez, how did I do that...I still don't know how I did that!" kinds of remarks. It doesn't fit because it doesn't flow and because it distracts from whatever seriousness might be going on. All the kids, perfectly ordinary kids before their mutations appeared only days ago, are stunned by the appearance of the Avengers (which they should be) but won't shut up about it. We get it, you've never been in this situation. Frankly, I think most kids would be stunned silent in this instance. Apparently, though, they'd all be telling each other how they don't understand what's going on and making jokes behind everyone. So maybe it's not the right format. Maybe if this was a television show or a movie, this would all make sense and flow beautifully. Or maybe it's too many words for any medium.

Anyway, the Avengers show up to take Scott and Emma into custody and Bendis still writes Captain America as a one-dimensional jerk. No one in this comic seems to listen to anyone else in this comic. Cap doesn't listen to Scott and Emma saying that they weren't the ones who broke apart the Phoenix and forced it into their bodies and Scott and Emma don't listen to Cap saying that, no matter what, Scott still killed Professor Xavier. Cap then throws in the fact that Havok is on the Uncanny Avengers and it FEELS like Cap is admitting to making a PR move with his new Avengers team, which the Cap in Uncanny Avengers would probably also admit to, but not as a weapon. He did it because mutants need the press and the world needs to see mutants as friends, the same way they might see Avengers. Here, he says it as if he's saying "WHAT DO YOU MEAN I'M BAD AT MUTANTS? I'M GREAT AT MUTANTS! PRAISE ME!" Look. I have some issues with this issue. And with this series. And with this writer. I think I'm going down a pit of disdain for Bendis that no amount of "oh, but remember his run on Daredevil? And Ultimate Spider-Man?" can save. Magneto comes and reveals to Scott and Emma that he betrayed them to gain the Avengers' and SHIELD's trust. He says that now they'll totally trust him and he's done something no one saw coming and everyone hails it as a brilliant move even though it's so common, we have a regularly used name for it: double cross. I don't know. Guys. I'm having trouble being objective about this any more. Maybe I'm not. Maybe this is my objective reasoning. I think I would still feel this way without knowing Bendis wrote it, or without his back catalogue. But I don't know any more. Let's just move on.

X-Treme X-Men 12
Pak (w) and Araujo (a) and Kholinne w/ Caeli (c)

Things are again heating up in the X-Treme X-Men set of universes. The three evil Xaviers who had teamed up last issue opened a portal to the multiverse and offered sacrifices to it in order to take over the world only to find that whatever was inside was far worse. Dazzler and her team rebelled against the Xaviers but too late to stop the portal from opening, killing the Nazi and Witch Xaviers (the head-in-a-jar Xavier claims to have been manipulated by the other Xaviers but says he has done what he could to prevent them from finding Dazzler's team, which kind of fits, so they keep him alive for now). Now they're going through the portal to save the multiverse but quite possible sacrificing the world they left behind to whatever horrors are coming from the portal. Interestingly, this was billed on the "Road to X-Termination" event postcard as a prologue to X-Termination, the event that will center around AoA Nightcrawler trying to return to his dimension from the 616. So this portal seems to be something of a hinge to those events. We'll see.

Anyway, not too much else to talk about here. Basic character stuff, mostly stuff we already knew. Dazzler is taking the kid's gloves off and swears that, if killing needs to be done, she's willing to kill and to die. She makes sure her team is prepared for all of that too. So we'll see if that changes as the book goes on or if she'll have to kill to accomplish her goals. Lot of mini-X-Forcing around the Universe right now. I guess that's what happens when you have a book that's as great as Remender's come through the wires; everyone wants to use something of a similar formula. It seems the original threat of the ten evil Xaviers has subsided but given way to a whole new threat, which is probably Xavier-related anyway but I guess we'll have to find out later. AoA Nightcrawler might make a good fit for this new, suddenly violent team, should he find his way into it. Two Nightcrawlers on one team! Can you imagine? Probably. It's probably happened before. I don't know, comics are weird, you guys.

X-Men Legacy 6, X-Treme X-Men 11

X-Men Legacy 6
Spurrier (w) and Molina, Lee, and Wong (a) and Rosenberg (c)

This book never stops moving, it seems. Six issues in and David's still harnessing new powers and, don't be put off by how lame this sounds, discovering himself. I KNOW, I wouldn't have bought it if I read that either. But for real, he makes some incredibly important decisions that benefit his characterization like mad. On top of that, he finishes up the story in this arc with a bang and leaves us with an idea of the sort of things to expect all while creating a new and very complex villain for us to be on the lookout for. Not bad for one issue.

Legion, held at knifepoint by the rescued child Karasu while her possessed brother attempts to kill Blindfold, decides that he's fed up with being led and grabs a new teleportation power that sends him straight to Luca possessing Karasu's now-dead twin brother. Luca is one thrust away from killing Blindfold when Legion stops him, but he leads Legion on a chase through the X-Mansion. Luca, now in control of half of Blindfold's power, has set up a number of traps and contingencies for Legion to fall into. In some cases, Legion does, but in others, he avoids narrowly. Legion keeps a step or two away from Luca before Karasu appears again, threatening David to stop him killing her brother. As David faces a moment of weakness, an unseen personality in his head takes over and easily knocks the girl aside, telling Luca that he'll be useful someday, before giving way to David's true personality again. The fight against that personality takes a lot out of David so he's winded when the X-Men show up and Luca puts on the guise of a little boy again and blames David for attacking him and his sister. Before the X-Men can react, Blindfold, recovered, leaps in and slices Luca across the middle. She goes on to cool things down with the X-Men, who offer David a chance to stay and find help. Claiming again that he won't be led, he leaves, determined to go the extra step of his father's dream, actually accomplishing something in the fight for mutant equality rather than just being reactive. His evil personality is revealed, telling him that Blindfold will eventually kill David to save mutantkind. That personality is a disappointed Charles Xavier.

Lots of demons here, lots of plot, lots of character building, lots of support characters, just lots of everything. And it's all executed really well. David's personality (and his powerset) has grown stronger and stronger with each issue without sacrificing any actual feel for the character. His resolve is stronger, though this new demon is bigger than one he's faced yet. It'll be very interesting to see where we go from here.

X-Treme X-Men 11
Pak (w) and Segovia, Valdes, Crisostomo, and Ruggiero (a) and Kholinne, Noor, and Sotomayor (c)

Geez, lot of creators on this book. ANYWAY. So Nazi Xavier, unlike the cliffhanger of last issue might have led readers to believe, is totally a friggin' Nazi. Namor has lost too much at his hand and has been waging war on the psychic for about ten years, by Nazi Xavier's count, and he looks primed to kill the last 500 humans on Earth in his latest attack, all to get at Xavier. Though the X-Treme X-Men hate this new Xavier, they refuse to watch Namor kill the last humans, so they all work together to take out Namor before Dazzler sneaky-stabs Xavier, allowing the wounded Namor to finish the job. The team's Xavier tells the team that this completes their journey and that, in the morning, he'll bring them all where ever they want to go.

There's a little bit of characterization to follow, including a new relationship for Dazzler and Cyclops and Dazzler's admission that she's changed so much in this journey that she's not sure she can go back home. The others celebrate and recount the ten evil Xaviers they've killed and, of course, come up with only nine. They hurry off to find their Xavier, who is now bonding with two previously-deceased Xaviers (including the friggin' Nazi), promising the destruction of worlds. So there's somewhere for this book to go yet, as the team faces three evil Xaviers at once. Then they'll probably cut away real quick for the X-Termination event (I'm not sure if that will slide in neatly or if it'll be in the middle of this arc or at the end of this arc or even at the beginning, I'm not sure when it happens and, frankly, as I type this sentence, I'm only kind of sure that it WILL happen). That's about all I've got here. A lot of stuff happened but it was largely plot. I friggin' hate Nazis. Always worth mentioning that.

X-Men Legacy 5, X-Treme X-Men 9

X-Men Legacy 5
Spurrier (w) and Molina (a) and Rosenberg (c)

Boy, this book sure is a fun one. On the one hand, I don't think I'm ever going to get sick of the idea of David fighting his many powers inside his own brain to contain and control them. It's rife with action, interesting new abilities, character building, more or less everything I'm looking for. Meanwhile, David himself has become a pretty compelling character in his own right. He spends the beginning of this issue calling his mother, with whom he hasn't dealt in a while and hasn't really been a part of his life. It's an interesting look at David, who has recently lost the father who brings forth many conflicted feelings. He eventually hangs up before actually speaking to his mother and continues the issue. Stationed outside of the Jean Grey School, David uses some of his "200 omega-level split personalities" to find and transport a pack of dire wraiths to the school to distract the faculty and students as he mentally looks for Blindfold, who had previously told him that she thinks she's supposed to be his nemesis. That's right, everyone, Blindfold has an interesting story.

We learn in this story that her background, which, to my knowledge, hadn't really been revealed prior, is extremely dark. This by itself isn't a huge differentiator from many other mutants, as plenty dealt with hate and fear in their childhood. However, Ruth did watch her anti-mutant brother kill her mother for protecting her before nearly killing her. Then, in an unforeseen twist, we find out that the two children Legion protected last issue are working against him. The little boy Sojobo has been possessed by Ruth's powered-up brother (he ended up accidentally stealing some of her powers) and Sojobo's sister Karasu has been sent to distract Legion to ensure he doesn't stop Sojobo/Luca from finally killing Ruth. Legion, who is trying to turn his life around and affect the world positively while trying to wrestle down his own 200 inner demons, has been played and delivered everything to right where it was needed to kill Ruth, with whom he bonded last issue.

Like I said in the first paragraph, I'd've been thrilled with a book that was just Legion fighting down his split-personalities. Maybe, as with what happened last issue, occasionally whipping a recently contained one out to defend himself or someone else. I'd've been thrilled. But instead, there's all that PLUS actual meaningful plots with actual weight to them and real threats. It's very exciting to see where the story goes and how David reacts. How he reacts to this newest turn will be a pretty defining thing for this book. David's personality is clearly established and it's very clear that Spurrier knows where he wants to go with it, but I get the feeling that this kind of a twist is the sort of thing that will really illustrate what we can expect of David as we move forward.

X-Treme X-Men 9
Pak (w) and Diaz (a) and Kholinne, Noor, and Sotocolor (c)

I'll start this off by saying this isn't a book I typically look forward to. I'm not a big Dazzler fan (because I'm like most of the world) and I already care a ton about a lot of characters in the 616, I don't need NEW universe characters to care about. Also, the premise of the book is pretty neat, but always feels a little 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo to me (or a more relevant reference, whatever, I work with what I know and I know that REALLY well). I also have, even still, some trouble believing Dazzler would automatically ascend to team leader on a team that has not only a Wolverine, but a Wolverine that is USED to leading. In one of the more recent books Dazzler appeared in, she was grilling Pixie on her accent and dialectic words. Those kinds of moments are big in Dazzler's recent history. I'm not saying it's unlikely she'd ever become a leader, I'm saying it seems like a really fast transformation for our benefit, as the audience who knows her and not the rest of the team.

Still, this book moves pretty quickly. I was surprised to find that I was already done when it ended and that's usually a pretty good sign. I do like the idea that there are plenty of Xaviers out there who weren't so prone to good because it's interesting to see the world without his positive influence. There also has always been a real sense with Charles that he has some villainous qualities to him. I do think our Charles always believed whole-heartedly in his dream (though you have to imagine somedays he had to remind himself of that) but he was often stern and withholding to his students and, though he shaped up eventually, did occasionally read their thoughts to accomplish something or other. Not stellar qualities (though hard to curtail, I'd imagine, as a telepath), no, but he still fought for the right side. These are the Charleses that didn't or that didn't need to or something.

All and all, I recommend this book, though a little cautiously. It's typically a pretty quick read and the characters are endearing enough. If you're not a huge X fan, some of the alternate reality appearances and the weight of evil Xaviers might be lost on you and that might undermine your enjoyment. Such things happen, and I could understand it happening here. Even if you're not a big X fan, though, you should be able to follow the basic gist of the books solidly enough. Now might not be a bad time to jump on if you were considering it, as there seem to be a couple of permanent additions to the team just making their way in pretty recently and we might have some interesting and traitorous developments on their way. Also, totally respectable by me if my calling it similar to 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo gets you onboard. Totally respectable.