X-Men 12, Uncanny X-Men 19, Wolverine and the X-Men 2

X-Men 12
Wood (w) and Anka (a) and Keith (c)
Wood (w) and C. Mann and S. Mann (a) and Mounts (c)

The X-Men were tipped off about Arkea's location by Ana Cortes, who recognized that she was getting in a bit over her head by the end. Fortunately for the X-Men, their approach hadn't been expected and so Arkea's sisterhood hadn't moved from their off-the-grid location, far away from any sort of electrical signals in or out, meaning that Arkea cannot simply escape. Monet busts into the hideout first, plunging through the ground with Amora and leaving her brutally wounded. While Psylocke takes down Typhoid Mary, Rachel and Storm meet Arkea, in Reiko's body which also now holds Lady Deathstrike. Madelyne Pryor and Seline Gallo are with her and ready for a fight. Though they don't particularly relish taking orders from Arkea, they recognize that they're only alive because of her plans. Storm, though, offers them a chance to escape, claiming that they'll settle up later if they'll just leave Arkea by herself. They take the chance with almost no hesitation and depart, leaving Monet, finished with Amora, to hold down Arkea while Karima shoots her in the head with a specially made (by John Sublime) gun that will target and kill Arkea and leave the host body unaffected. With the day won, Karima announces she'll be leaving this X-team and joining Sabra and Gabriel. Story two finds Jubilee emerging from her mist form to distract the Sentinels attacking the beach, giving Quentin a chance to take control of the Sentinels and use them to destroy each other. Successful ending on all sides.

This issue leaves me a teeny bit conflicted. On the one hand, I do feel like the Arkea storyline was starting to drag a bit; though there have been brief interludes (including stupid BATTLE OF THE ATOM) this has been the ongoing story since issue one and I think it's seen better days. That said, it's hard not to see this ending as something of a rush job. Don't get me wrong, I still like the ending well enough; I like the combat and the planning the X-Men have and the fights themselves are certainly fun to watch. However, it feels like it came together really suddenly, with the X-Men able to defeat this foe that just an issue ago seemed completely in control. Maybe there's a greater lesson in that and maybe the change in expectations of a normal comic was the key. Still, it's a little jarring. ON THE OTHER HAND AGAIN, I'm excited to see how this team moves on to the next mission. Certainly, aside from, say, X-Force, my favorite X-team right now. For all that that says.

Uncanny X-Men 19
Bendis (w) and Bachalo, Townsend, Vey, Mendoza, Irwin, Olazaba (a) and Bachalo and Villarrubia (c)

While Hijack, recently released from Cyclops' team, is interrogated by Maria Hill and Mystique shows Sabretooth that she's manufacturing MGH from the captive body of Dazzler, the Uncanny X-Men travel to Chicago to track down a new and powerful mutant that popped up on Cerebro. When they get there, of course, it's a trap and they're faced with a giant Sentinel spewing new, smaller Sentinels that seem to interfere with powers they know about. As a result, many of this team's powers are shut down but the ones who aren't known about are unaffected. As such, Eva is still able to use a time bubble to protect them from an attack and Magik is able to use her new and improved sorcery to protect them from the rest. They manage to force the Sentinels to flee but Scott considers it the last straw, vowing to go to war with whoever is behind these attacks.

Okay, so readers of this blog probably know that I have serious issues with Bendis' preferred writing style for comics. I know it's something of an unpopular opinion and I almost hate it myself because it makes my life harder than it has to be, particularly when I go to review his books and the first thing I want to write every single time is "I don't understand why there's so much back-and-forth dialogue and what anyone is getting out of that." I swear that's not how I want to come at these reviews, just like I swear I'm not out to hate any of his books from the get-go (though I can't always put aside my biases and I'm not sure I should; I would hold a writer I like better to a higher standard because I know their work, why not the other way around?) because, though it's often easier to write reviews about books I don't like (got plenty to say, typically), I don't at all like not liking comics. So I guess what I'm getting at here is that I don't want to level my typical complaint of "I can't stand this writing" at this book even though I just have. On top of that, though, it's hard for me to see Scott as the kind of strategic genius he's meant to be when his plan of attack when the chips were down was "everyone separate and run away" and then he declared war on a foe he can't see. I have other issues, sure, but let's just say what I've said and be done with it, okay?

Wolverine and the X-Men 2
Latour (w) and Asrar (a) and Silva (c)

The Phoenix Corporation that has seemingly appeared out of nowhere has lit a fire under what seems like the entire Jean Grey School. Quentin has taken off, looking to find the Phoenix Corporation for whatever answers it may yield, Wolverine and Storm are forced to follow him, Evan is jealous of him, and Idie is worried about what the Phoenix logo being used by humans means for all of them. Solid questions all around but seemingly no answers anywhere. Quentin arrives at the Phoenix Corporation and immediately runs into a giant maybe-mutant, someone from the future and trained, he reveals, by the Askani priests (like Cable). He seems to know everything about everyone and has the ability to show them bits of their future and to attack their weakest mental points. He reveals to Quentin the path of destruction that lays before him if he continues on his path and, when Wolverine and Storm arrive and promptly attack him, he brings Storm's insecurities down around her and destroys Wolverine in the fight, ending it with what seems to be a threat aimed at Evan, Kid Apocalypse. Meanwhile, unrest surges at the school as Idie fights with Armor, left in charge in Wolverine and Storm's absence (where DOES Beast go all the time?).

There are a number of interesting irons in the fire (just how I like my irons: interesting) here as Evan's (certainly not wrongful) jealousy of Quentin and some of the images John, the Askani-trained maybe-mutant, reveals set the stage for a potential Apocalypse-Phoenix battle between one-time friends Evan and Quentin (of course, the Phoenix and Apocalypse have fought before, at least in other dimensions, but I don't know that it's ever been quite so personal). The Phoenix Corporation stuff is still somewhat shrouded in mystery but there are interesting aspects to the debate over it, including the use of the Phoenix imagery and name all by itself. In addition to that, Storm lays out a compelling argument (after laying out a resistant Wolverine) for why Wolverine needs to cool it, upset with him over his attack-first mentality and for refusing to seek counsel on matters involving Jean or the Phoenix or whatever else. There are some really good nuggets in here and I think it could translate to a really interesting story but I think we still have to learn a little more about what's happening before we can judge that aspect just yet.

X-Men 11, Uncanny X-Men 17, Amazing X-Men 4

X-Men 11
Wood (w) and Anka (a) and Keith (c)
AND Wood (w) and C. Mann and S. Mann (a) and Mounts (c)

A story in two parts as part one, the significantly longer part, finds the majority of the team working to try to figure out what Arkea's plan is and why they've come across an empty boat. They actually do a pretty good job of figuring out what Arkea is up to, based on who she's allied herself with and where the money's coming from, tracing Arkea even to the resurrection of Selene Galio and Madelyne Pryor. Their solid deductions still don't stop the infighting amongst them, of course, not helped by the fact that now the always argumentative Monet is on the team. They also realize that the boat being out there has lured all of them out to it, leaving whatever other targets they might be at unprotected. CUT TO the second part of the story, illustrated by the Manns, which focuses on Jubilee leading the fight against the restored and constantly healing Sentinels. The fight goes well enough but Jubilee does the "vampire mist thing" and suddenly no one can trace where she's gone.

The X-Men aren't the only ones with infighting as Ana Cortes pleads with Typhoid Mary to kill her, worrying about the implications of the things she's done and knowing that she won't be able to keep up with the supervillains as their plans progress. On top of that, John Sublime is asking some pointed questions to Quentin Quire, the care of whom he has been not-so-lovingly placed under. There's a lot here to enjoy and a lot to think about as this book suddenly has real steam. The characters are all strong, the relationships between them are already pretty defined and are growing more defined by the issue, and the threat is becoming more and more real. In truth, the threat and the plot are still the vaguest part about this book, but that's a little to be expected with a new villain and a new team finding its way. It's rare that a team book features a team that feels so fleshed out so early on. Wood is deftly drawing on years of backstory from each of these characters to show that this isn't some randomly assembled team, it's a team meant to work together and who know better than to get hung up on their relationships. Lots of good stuff here and the art (I'm particularly fond of Kris Anka's) is matching the writing really well.

Uncanny X-Men 17
Bendis (w) and Bachalo and Townsend w/ Vey and Mendoza (a) and Bachalo (c)

It's training day for the new X-Men and Magik dumps them off in Tabula Rasa, the section of Montana that Archangel deposited a life seed in back in UNCANNY X-FORCE (but, you know, not the last UNCANNY X-FORCE. Thanks, comics). Everyone toys with their powers a bit and some of them have to square off against highly evolved life-forms. Eva goes through something serious that she refuses to talk about and it's possible she's aged a bit out there. Hijack's cellphone, which he refused to give up, alerts SHIELD to their whereabouts and, after a little bit of time, they show up and attempt to escort them out. Hijack turns their armor against them and they manage to escape before Magik brings them home. Cyclops is unimpressed by the way they handled themselves and particularly by the fact that Hijack didn't relinquish his phone and allowed SHIELD to track them, then didn't admit to his mistake when pressed about it. Unwilling to allow that kind of careless attitude, he kicks Hijack off the team and sends him home.

Here's the thing that's a little impossible to explain. I get why training is necessary and why showing the kids here training is necessary. I also get that they're kids and that they're unexperienced and even that they're very new to their powers. However, I can't believe that these kids would get dumped into some foreign situation and all immediately start back-and-forth dialoguing and talking about who Eva has a crush on (GUYS, it's Cyclops because Bendis can't go five seconds without throwing in a hundred love triangles with a lead male protagonist in his book!) and debating where they are. Of those things, the last one is the only thing I am willing to buy. The rest is just...it's kind of unbearable to read. I've talked at length about back-and-forth dialogue slowing scenes but the worst part is it's not even doing the job it's actually effective at doing, which is creating chaos. If someone who doesn't use that style of dialogue regularly starts using it, it makes a scene more out of control. More word bubbles, depending on the word count inside, can make things seem out of control and harried. If there are too many words, though, it just makes things slow down tremendously. It does that here and it makes everyone fairly unlikeable because everyone is the same and everyone is making this book a treacherous and slow read.

Amazing X-Men 4
Aaron (w) and McGuinness and Vines (a) and Gracia (c)

Nightcrawler and Storm work to free Beast from his rage and manage it just before he strangles Nightcrawler. From there, they set sail in their new boat and Nightcrawler and his legion of bamfs spread out to find the others, first rescuing Firestar and Iceman from Hell, where Iceman had tried to freeze the whole place and Firestar had tried to burn the whole place, before tracking down Wolverine and Northstar in the horrible icy lands of maybe-limbo. There are plenty of reunions and Kurt even explains the history of the bamfs, claiming that they were born in Hell of a union between a giant maggot and a shapeshifter and Azazel found them all starving and fed them his blood, binding them to him. Kurt, however, made a dark deal with them, one that has yet to be revealed, to bring them (or many of them, anyway) to his side and they, in turn, have helped him find his friends here in the afterlife to wage his war against Azazel.

I have combatting feelings about all of this, just as I did with Aaron's WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN. The comic landscape right now is a very different one than its ever been, allowing for books that are extremely dark, books that are much lighter, books that are deeper than ever, and books that are none of the above. I can't necessarily fit AMAZING X-MEN into any of these places and I'm not sure I should be trying to. It's absolutely its own book and I'd like to judge it on its own grounds and not weigh it against a greater universe. At the same time, though, it is undoubtedly part of a greater universe and that reality makes it very hard if not impossible to distinguish it. That greater universe, while certainly not having a unified tone, thus allowing books like X-MEN LEGACY or YOUNG AVENGERS or HAWKEYE or SUPERIOR FOES OF SPIDER-MAN in, tends to feel...I don't know, more grown-up than this book. ON THE CONTRARY AGAIN, comics started in the hands of children and it is sad that, aside from specific made-for-a-younger-audience books, there are no major titles out that kids can really read and get into (maybe SPIDER-MAN but that strays pretty dark occasionally too...like how Peter Parker's archnemesis killed him that time and took over his body). So it's hard for me to get into this book and hard for me to find a place in my brain for this book, as it was for WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN. I like to think I'm still capable of fun and whimsy but GEEZ, it's starting to look like maybe not so much. Oh, and I rather have decided that I don't care for Ed McGuinness' art style after seeing it here and in NOVA and finding all the same problems with it. Gracia's color work is solid here, though, and shows really great range as the issue traverses just about every imaginable landscape and lighting.

X-Men 10

X-Men 10
Wood (w) and Anka and C. Mann (a) and Keith and Mounts (c)

Arkea and her new sisterhood have moved from Dubai and plan to continue their journey and to combat the X-Men with their newfound power and with a a couple more tricks up their sleeves. Their first obvious trick is that the original meteor that brought Arkea back to Earth broke apart in the ocean and managed to find itself some old Sentinels that had long since sunk and now Arkea controls them and can constantly repair and adapt them to the X-Men's attacks. The second trick is that Arkea wants to resurrect Madelyne Pryor (the horribly messed-up continuity former wife of Cyclops/Goblin Queen/mother to Cable/whatever else she may or may not be) and Selene Gallio (psychic vampire and former Black Queen of the Hellfire Club), to the chagrin of Lady Deathstrike. Meanwhile, the X-Men are trying to track and stop the spread of Arkea before it gets too out of hand. Their efforts aren't going particularly well (though Monet isn't dead after last issue so that's a win for them) and things are made more complicated by Rachel's feelings for and ultimate denial of John Sublime. A group of the X-Men students (or recent graduates or something, not ever quite sure of the way the school works) go to meet the Sentinels coming up on the beach and quickly discover the fight is going to be more of a challenge than it seemed.

This isn't a bad issue to jump in on if you're a new reader looking for a solid way into this series. What I will say is that the somewhat extensive recap that this one gives is somewhat lacking in describing Arkea's endgame, what her plot is actually meant to achieve beyond destroying the X-Men. I believe she's looking for world domination still but there is a sense that maybe she should have a little more drive. Still, the plot is fairly well-explained in a way that should be engaging to new readers and which isn't too exposition-heavy. There are a few mistakes in this issue that kind of take people out of the issue a little bit, even if only for the moment (at one point, an empty helicopter is given speech bubbles meant to be directed off-panel to Arkea and one of her sisterhood. Also, Selene Gallio is referred to as Selene Gallo, which seems like a small error but made it difficult for me to look her up. THAT'S RIGHT, I need references sometimes you guys). While I don't know much about Gallio so I can't really speak to adding her to the story, I don't love the idea of adding Madelyne Pryor (as savvy readers may have gleaned from the first paragraph) as I think her continuity is so totally in shambles and I don't find her interesting enough to justify attempting to unravel that history. Maybe Wood has a great idea and a plan to disentangle some of that but we'll have to see. The art stands out in this issue as Kris Anka does pretty solid work on the first fifteen pages or so before Clay Mann (I assume it's Clay and not Seth but the book doesn't give much indication on that) takes over (Mann's stuff is good too but I prefer Anka's). Either way, decent issue with a good jumping-on point and a little bit of a better look at our opposing factions.



Sorry about the solo review post; I tend to avoid those unless I have something I think is worth saying beyond my norms. In this case, it was simply a hard week in which to break up the posts, with four new series launching and every other book worthy of somewhat early-week examination. Dedicating a full post to X-MEN 10 was the smartest way, it seemed, to keep with my self-assigned themes and still get X-MEN reviewed before Saturday. Little look behind the curtain there.

All-New X-Men 22, X-Men 9, Marvel Knights X-Men 3

All-New X-Men 22
Bendis (w) and S. Immonen and von Grawbadger (a) and Gracia (c)

The ANXM team is back from their meeting with the Purifiers and everyone's relaxing their own way. For Scott and Jean (and, inadvertently, Warren), that means arguing about her knowing the future and being upset and Scott being upset and drama and so on and so forth. The fight ends as Jean storms off and is promptly kidnapped by suddenly attacking aliens who, according to Kitty, seem to be Shi'ar. They put everyone attacking them in bubble forcefields and take Jean away in one without a giant fight. As soon as they've left, the Guardians of the Galaxy pop by and realize that they're too late.

Right off the bat the pacing feels a little strange in this one. Things move pretty well for the second half of the book but the first half is largely made up of Scott and Jean fighting across a cafeteria table (and across Warren for comic relief). Though the back-and-forth dialogue is pretty prevalent in this scene, I actually think that it works here because they're meant to be kind of quickly shouting at one another and it doesn't often step into strange asides and quips. Instead, it feels like a real fight. So my problem, then, isn't with the writing of this scene, it's with the length of it. Maybe halfway through it I think it's safe to say it could have ended. There's even an out there that could have still sent Jean walking away and the issue progressing from there. It might be an attempt by Bendis at trying to give just a little more characterization to the three characters present in whatever way he can but it feels like it just overstayed its welcome, causing readers to have to push through the end of a fight they already fully understand and, worse still, to which they know the ending. Still, it's not one of the weaker issues of the series for that, as the pacing almost immediately picks up (though again, I'd say there's a bit of waste in the second half insofar as how often people explain what's happening in the fight, but that's pretty petty, even by my own admission) and the ending paves the way for the now started TRIAL OF JEAN GREY. Solid Immonen artwork on this one but, then again, it's always solid Immonen artwork.

X-Men 9
Wood (w) and T. Dodson and R. Dodson (a) and Keith, Woodard, and Mossa (c)

Lady Deathstrike has moved her operation, along with Enchantress and Typhoid Mary, to a new office in Dubai where she hopes to power her small team up and hopes to bring Arkea to life. The X-Men are trying to track them but not finding much until Jubilee and Karima find a Cortes jet landing in Dubai. Monet is ready to strike and aimed at the top seven floors of the building, all of which are owned by Cortes and seem empty, aside from the villains. Monet blasts through but it's just too late; Arkea has already been revived, taking the body of Cortes' assistant Reiko, and amped up the powers of the other three. Enchantress, her powers fully restored, manages to grab and hold Monet until she loses consciousness while Mary and Arkea escape. Mary and Arkea talk about the X-Men, whose databases Arkea still retains from her first appearance, and it gives Arkea an idea: she begins to take over other entities all over the world (including, possibly, Karima again) and plans to attack the X-Men on every home base she knows.

The stakes are pretty quickly rising here as Arkea comes back online. There's still plenty of intrigue and questions as Sublime returns to the X-Men to help for one reason or another but it's largely out in the open now as the audience is privy to Arkea's rebirth and her plan going forward. The team building and characterization is mostly in the actions of characters as everyone has her role and takes to it immediately, with Jubilee and Karima trying to track Arkea, Storm and Psylocke meeting with Arab superhero and peacekeeper Sabra to ensure their fight with Arkea keeps from starting a war, Monet as the strike force, and Rachel probing Sublime for information and directing the others. Everyone has an individual voice, even as some of our characters have fewer lines and are maybe a little out of focus. Meanwhile, the plot is running full tilt now and our players are largely accounted for, though there are hints that Arkea might be picking up new enemies for her sisterhood, as Enchantress deems it. As X-MEN moves firmly out of the event it was wrapped up in, it's progressing extremely well with Brian Wood doing his "raising all the stakes" thing perfectly as expected. Good stuff, excited to see what comes of it.

Marvel Knights X-Men 3
Revel (w and a) and Peter (c)

As the X-Men onsite begin to see their memories come to life as a result of Darla, powered up by Krystal's drugs, things start to break down pretty rapidly. Tons of old X-Men villains and horrors descend on the town and tensions immediately start running high, particularly from Wolverine, who has apparently gone crazy and is set on killing Darla for what he saw in her memories and what's happening all around them. As he and Rogue fight pretty brutally over it, Kitty tries to get Krystal to safety. Meanwhile, a mysterious group practically running the town and creating the drug that everyone in the town has been using, a mutant drug born of a mutant who arrived in the town some time ago, is ready to jump into the fight and do so by killing the sheriff of the town, Krystal's uncle Jasper. As Kitty and Krystal try to get away, an entity that Krystal refers to as Jasper appears in the car and attacks Kitty from behind, forcing her to phase through the moving vehicle and stranding her on the road in front of a mob of angry townspeople.

The chaos of this book is really ramping up and it's easy to lose track if you miss a single panel. In that respect, the interesting and rather gorgeous art is almost a hindrance to the book as you kind of want to skip the writing just to look at the artwork. It's the sort of book that might take a couple read-throughs to really comprehend (and even then I'm not sure I've got it all) and to really see it. I'm not the type to start complaining about pretty and experimental art in a book. The plot is maybe a little convoluted but this is the sort of story that I'd like to see the results before I officially condemn the plot. I think that it's something that could wrap up really nicely or could go entirely south depending on how Revel moves from here. This serves, then, as a very interesting midway point for the limited series and continues to set itself apart from a lot of the other books on the shelves with its action, its intimate team, and its artwork. Pretty neat issue, looking forward to how this one wraps.

All-New X-Men 20, X-Men 8, Uncanny X-Force 15

All-New X-Men 20
Bendis (w) and Asrar and Peterson (a) and Silva w/ Gracia (c)

X-23 wakes up in the Uncanny X-Men base, the abandoned Weapon X facility (which, I don't think I covered this, I don't really know how it's abandoned still, you guys) and, of course, it doesn't go very well. She eventually believes the ANXM are who they say they are but still runs out of the facility. Young Cyclops goes after her and talks to her there while the others watch from the door of the facility. Jean reveals to the team that Scott has already taken a bit of a liking to X-23 and starts to reveal what's happened to X-23 but Kitty tells her to stop and that there are minds you shouldn't read (because I guess we've entirely given up on telling Jean not to do things). X-23 wants to go after the Purifiers so they all do. My comic reader will not allow me to get past too many double page spreads, though, and so freezes up every time with about three pages left so I don't know how this one ends. A Christmas miracle, you guys.

Guys, I continue to truly hate this book. The entire conceit remains awful to me (who is letting these kids stay in the present? I know I harp on that every single review but it remains terrible every single issue). Kitty has proven a somewhat ineffectual leader, which is too bad because I like her so much every where else she appears in the MU, going along for the ride rather than actually teaching things. Occasionally she'll tell them something about how to fight or will, clearly the only reason she's really there, tell them who they're up against, but by and large she seems just there to say something or other about what they shouldn't do, which they then proceed to do almost immediately. Jean Grey is the single most obnoxious character in this entire universe right now which would be an interesting debate of nature vs. nurture if it didn't just come off as the way Bendis writes every single character. Even X-23, whose entire history and personality and reputation is based off the fact that she doesn't really know how to fit into human society, immediately begins talking in teenage terms. Guys. I hate this book. Also, I involuntarily roll my eyes every single time I see this cover.

X-Men 8
Wood (w) and T. Dodson, Kesel, Kitson, Hanna, and Pallot (a) and Keith (c)

Typhoid Mary has broken into the school and stolen the box Lady Deathstrike/Ana Cortez wants before being noticed by security. Psylocke chases her through the school and then, with a psychic tag on her, follows her down to Cortez's hideout where Cortez is working with none other than John Sublime. Sublime knows that Cortez has gone after Arkea and warns her not to try to use Arkea as he's still convinced Arkea will destroy the world. Of course, Cortez isn't stopped by this and reveals that Mary has stolen a piece of Arkea. She opens it (it's basically a hard drive) but Sublime realizes that it's a dead piece. Arkea, news to Sublime, can be killed. Cortez realizes that Sublime suspects there may be more Arkea pieces out there and has Mary pull the information from his mind before they leave him there. Psylocke picks him up and brings him back to the X-Men while Cortez and Mary travel to Norway to enlist the help of the exiled Enchantress. The three form a sisterhood bent on finding and freeing Arkea and benefiting from the powers she holds.

More interesting story though bringing Arkea back in seems a little over-complicating. However, she seemed a pretty worthy adversary who was trumped a little too quickly so I guess it makes sense and it could absolutely work to the advantage of the story. I hate to draw too many comparisons between this and FEARLESS DEFENDERS because it just seems too easy to draw comparisons between the only two major Marvel all-female team-up books and it seems to cheapen the idea but this book seems more comfortable just to be a comic. FEARLESS DEFENDERS never really felt like it knew what it wanted to do; the tone alternated between serious threats and wacky characters with no real need to be wacky. By the same token, the team-ups seemed arbitrary at best and there was this underlying feeling of "do you get it, it's all women!" which may have stemmed more from the fact that we were digging into serious B-listers than from a show-boating kind of way. This book very clearly does not care that it's all women, it simply is all women. Again, that might just be a result of the book starring A-list heroes including Storm, Psylocke, and Rachel Grey (at least A-list among X-Men). However, between the good characters and the "no wasted words" mentality, this book is hitting pretty well right now. I'm excited to see it continue to build steam as the issues pour out.

Uncanny X-Force 15
Humphries (w) and Briones and Talajic (a) and Curiel (c)

Psylocke and Puck are in the shadow world and need to find themselves a way out before they're overrun by the Revenants and before Cassandra Nova completes her plan to move the Revenants fully into the real world. Psylocke tries to call out to the Demon Bear to break Cassandra's spell over him but it doesn't have any effect until Storm, leading Spiral and Bishop into the battle, strikes lightning down on Nova and the Demon Bear and breaks the spell. Demon Bear rushes to Psylocke's aid and gets them out, sacrificing himself and staying behind to get them out. Spiral uses Bishop's special Envenom loaded weapons to cut Nova out of Ginny and instantly teleports the saved Ginny away. Nova latches on to the Psylocke Revenant (British form Betsy) nearby and begins to take up the fight again. Psylocke turns up though and kills her, officially sacrificing a psychic to stop the invasion (still seems arbitrary) and stopping Nova while also ending her chance at getting back into her original body. Bishop, meanwhile, has discovered that Storm is keeping his memories from him and is not so happy about it.

This whole series has seemed more than a little bogged down through its entirety. This is one of the series that I constantly have to refresh myself on or risk not remembering anything that's happening because, in truth, it just doesn't seem that memorable. I think the Revenants are a sort of interesting idea and a sort of interesting villain but it also seems like a fight that's gone on forever and that is completely weighed down by these weird and arbitrary things. Need to kill a psychic to stop the Revenants. Cassandra Nova brought a psychic Revenant into her house despite taking all other precautions to keep psychics out. Demon Bear is under a spell until he's not. Puck continues to have little to no role in the book. I don't know, maybe it's just not for me, which is too bad since I was so looking forward to this series when it started. Also, keep an eye out in this issue for appearances of Fantomex, who is on the cover (SPOILERS: none of the Fantomexes appear even a once). This series crosses over with CABLE AND X-FORCE for the "Vendetta" storyline which promises to be a fun one next before both cede to Si Spurrier's likely incredible X-FORCE next year.

All-New X-Men 13, Uncanny X-Men 7, X-Men 2

All-New X-Men 13
Bendis (w) and Immonen and Von Grawbadger (a) and Beredo (c)

Wolverine, Kitty, and the young original X-Men team are on the search for Mystique and company, fresh off being framed for crimes she committed with their appearance. Wolverine and Kitty teach Jean how to use her powers to keep them unseen at the crime scene and the rest of the team starts investigating. Wolverine recognizes that Sabretooth is with Mystique and says that he can track them. Jean can't keep up the illusion and soon they're found at the scene. Bobby makes an ice wall to cover their escape but they've again been seen on the spot. In the X-Jet, Jean frets about letting the team down while Scott tries to comfort her and they all watch Alex Summers' press conference from Uncanny Avengers, where he says that he wants people to stop using the "m" word and start viewing everyone by their character. Wolverine and Kitty both express levels of distaste for this plan with Kitty's coming as an impassioned speech about anti-Semitism she's faced and how she'd rather see prejudiced people coming or something of the like. They crash Mystique's hideout where she's trying to pay Madame Hydra for control of Madripoor. The entire team instantly starts fighting everyone but Lady Mastermind spots Jean Grey and creates an image of the original Mastermind to toy with her mind, which sends her into a panic and makes her go Phoenix on everyone.

I have a number of issues with this series that are pretty documented at this point but there are a handful that are specific to this issue that are worth mentioning. At one point, when Wolverine is discovering that Sabretooth is with Mystique, Scott asks how long they've fought Sabretooth and how well Sabretooth knows them before deducing that Sabretooth and Mystique will know Wolverine is going to do this and is coming, to which Wolverine responds "Yeah, you're right," as if the thought hadn't crossed his mind. I understand Bendis' need/desire to make Cyclops look like a good leader/strategist but it comes at the expense of showing Wolverine, someone who literally thinks about fighting more often than anyone in the world and who knows these specific enemies better than anyone, as incompetent. The speech from Kitty about a moment in her past when her heart was broken by a boy who made an anti-Semetic comment is a nice character pice for her but it gets pretty muddled in there. I thought she was going to agree with Alex's point about judging people for their character before judging them for their race or religion and then I had to read it over again a couple times to see where I'd lost the thread of it. And, of course, it ends with Bobby going "You're Jewish?" because he's incapable of keeping his mouth shut at any point in this series for any amount of time. These may seem like nitpicks but they all do strike an unpleasant chord with me that makes this story feel like lazy writing. Scott is a strategist because he improbably out-strategizes Wolverine and Kitty has a full page talk about how people are prejudiced. In six panels, there are 27 word bubbles, all from Kitty. I don't know. I still can't get my head around this series. Seriously, why are these kids still in the present?

Uncanny X-Men 7
Bendis (w) and Irving (a and c)

Magik has managed to magic Scott's X-Men out of Limbo at great personal cost. She tells her story to a somewhat confused and stunned Doctor Strange and it carries throughout the issue. She tells him about how they got into Limbo and about her connection with it before explaining the fight that went on. The X-Men are losing the fight and she knows it. She manages, then, to really take control of Limbo, sending the X-Men out of it to safety and taking the whole dimension within herself. That's why she's come to Doctor Strange; she needs to get the dimension out and learn to control her powers more than she ever has. Doctor Strange accurately realizes in the midst of the story that Illyana has traveled through time to talk to him and we learn that she is talking with him in a point before he's ever been an Avenger. Illyana explains that the Avengers and X-Men don't see eye-to-eye right now and that she couldn't go to him in present day because he might not help her. He agrees to teach her what he can. Meanwhile, the X-Men, back home, are starting to figure out that maybe Scott doesn't have the level of power they think he does and he tells them that they're all going to train more. The kid who produces gold balls (what) doesn't want anything to do with the team any more. Oh, and one of the kids died in Limbo but their healer managed to bring him back.

Time travel is popping up a lot in books recently and, used well, it can be pretty effective. The problem with time travel is that it too often comes as a panacea to problems and typically an uninteresting one in that role. Someone like Kang, who is known for time-traveling, tends to use it best because it's part of his character and it's what we expect him to do. It would be weird if he wasn't time-traveling to wreak havoc. However, I think I've made it pretty clear that I'm not impressed by Bendis' time-traveling capers. I didn't care for Age of Ultron and I don't care for All-New X-Men. Throw time-traveling in again here and you can bet that I'll be on my guard.

X-Men 2
Wood (w) and Coipel, Morales, and Hanna (a) and L. Martin, Milla and Strain (c)

Arkea has taken the body of X-friend Karima Shapandar, the Omega Sentinel who has been in a coma for some time but who has all sorts of technology in her, and it using this body to attack the X-Men. She takes Hank out and locks down the entire Jean Grey school. Rogue goes immediately to try to stop her and is surprised to see Karima up and moving. It catches her off-guard long enough to keep Arkea ahead in the fight. Storm sends Kitty in next, which legitimately worries Arkea, who has accessed the X-Men files. When Kitty arrives, Arkea attacks her and Kitty gives Karima one chance to fight back before she threatens to compromise the system. Arkea, with all the files downloaded and with Karima's circuitry repaired, escapes. Sublime stresses to them again how much trouble they're in as Rachel tracks Arkea's movements. The team, except Kitty (and maybe Rogue, it's hard to tell where she's at right now), all get on a jet to track Arkea. Storm allows Jubilee and the little baby Shogo to come as well and Sublime has a somewhat nice moment with them, where he tells Jubilee that the baby is safe of control from Arkea and, to Jubilee's delight, refers to the boy as Jubilee's son. Kitty, heading up the clean-up efforts at the Jean Grey School, is surprised when one of the students unearths what looks like it could be a bomb.

The action keeps on rolling with issue two and it definitely puts this series in a good place going forward. We have an interesting and very formidable villain and a definite feel for the team. It's still a little too early to get a complete read on how this team is going to hold up but we can already start to see the pieces falling into place. Storm has quickly assumed the leader role (well-deserved) and dispatches orders with efficiency. Every piece works pretty well together and it feels right; all of these X-Men have worked with one another innumerable times and it makes sense that they would so quickly fall into the appropriate roles and trust that everything Storm was directing would make sense. It's a solid issue of what looks like it could be turning into a solid book. There are a few nice character moments, including the question of whether Kitty would have phased through Karima to try to take out Arkea. I'm sure we haven't seen the end of that.