Amazing X-Men 6, Wolverine and the X-Men 3

Amazing X-Men 6
Aaron (w) and C. Stewart (a) and Rosenberg (c) and Caramagna (l)

Nightcrawler has returned and he's got to make the best of things knowing that he can never return to the afterworld. He watches as a SHIELD transport takes Azazel to Ryker's while he's supposed to be at a party with all of his old pals. Feeling okay that Azazel is in custody, he returns and mingles, even welcoming Cyclops, Emma Frost, and Kitty into the bar to celebrate the night. However, he realizes that Mystique is among the gathering and she figures out where Azazel is. He tries to stop her from attacking him and/or setting him free but cannot stop the red bamfs from freeing Azazel. He returns to the bar with Wolverine as Mystique and Azazel join forces.

Story
With Nightcrawler's return now cemented, we see where things are going to go next. This feels like a necessary issue, one where Nightcrawler meets again with all his old pals and even with Mystique. The team-up of Nightcrawler's parents isn't necessarily the most thrilling team-up in the world but I guess we'll see where it leads. 3/5

Character
As of right now, at least, AMAZING X-MEN is really Nightcrawler's book. That could very well change as Nightcrawler's return is less of a surprise to everyone around and as his own book continues, but for now Aaron is one of the key people writing Nightcrawler and I appreciate his take on him. It's very clear that something is changed about Nightcrawler and there's certainly a sadness to him that hadn't been there before. I'm interested to see how he takes this. 5/5

Writing
The writing feels at times a little incongruous as Nightcrawler's depression drives the better part of this book only to be replaced by his parents bickering and CONTINUALLY referencing the fact that they're his parents. Also, I'd be fine if they just flat-out dropped the "Scott Summers leads the outcast X-Men" storyline and mixed all of them back in with the rest of the mutants without any sort of explanation. They so constantly meet up with the other mutants in the world that I feel like everyone is just dying for this all to be over and if it's my go-ahead they're waiting for, they have it. 3/5

Art
I like Cameron Stewart's art here and it's a rather nice change from series regular Ed McGuinness, with whom I sometimes have issues (particularly in the way he draws women's faces). It's strong art here and it works equally well in the calm and happiness of the bar and in the darkness and action of the fights. 5/5

Miscellaneous
It's always nice to see that a resurrection in comics does have some effect on both the recently deceased and on the ones who it affected. I'm interested to see how Nightcrawler handles himself in the coming months of Marvel comics and how his resurrection impacts the rest of the universe but so far I'm liking Aaron's take more than Claremont's (still very early).

Total score: 3/5


Wolverine and the X-Men 3
Latour (w) and Asrar (a) and Silva (c) and Cowles (l)

Askani John injures Wolverine and their Bamf enough that he and Storm can't rush back to the school quickly enough to stop John's attack on Evan. Meanwhile, Edan Younge of the new Phoenix Corporation enters Quentin Quire's mind to tell him that he's bound someday to wield the Phoenix Force and that he should be prepared better than what the X-Men can offer and to tell him that he's lost his edge. Quire doesn't take kindly to this and he uses Wolverine and Storm's appearance to force Younge out of his mind and to leave with a Bamf. Back at the school, the students step forward to try to defend Evan from John but John forces an image on all of them of the future Evan would give them as the new Apocalypse.

Story
There is a somewhat interesting story here and it's the story that things have been heading towards since Wolverine delivered Evan to the Jean Grey School however long ago he did it. It's a little bit muddy right now because there's just so much going on and the Phoenix Corporation confuses things a bit so it's a little hard to see how things are really shaking out. Still, things are getting interesting as Quentin thinks about his potential and, perhaps, his responsibility and as everyone else is forced to see what Evan could become. 4/5

Character
There's a nice moment for Storm in here as everyone is forced to respect how incredible she is. It's probably the best character moment in the book as Quentin gets the focus but continues to be rather obnoxious. Even when he gets a nice moment as he refuses to be defined by all the people trying to do so, he's still just a little too quippy and too...I don't know, know-it-all teen for me? I think that's in his design so it's not anything Latour or Asrar is responsible for but it's hard to put him in the center of the book and ask us to care unduly. 3/5

Writing
As I said, I think the story in here is going where it needs to go and in an interesting direction but it is a little hard to follow at times. It may just be a result of too many plot points converging at the start of a new book and things will fall into place more readily when we've got a little ground under our feet. Still, the rapidly switching narrative and the jumping timeline make it a little harder than it feels like maybe it needs to be. It doesn't read particularly quickly either so expect to need to double back on dialogue a few times in the course of the book. 3/5

Art
It feels like Mahmud Asrar is getting better and better every time out. His art is impressive and the people that he draws are all fairly expressive and he illustrates the calm as well as he does the action. There are a couple times here where it can get a little hard to follow what's happening, particularly as it pertains to the Bamfs, but overall some good art here. 4/5

Miscellaneous
I'll never penalize a book for referencing Remender's unbelievably great UNCANNY X-FORCE so this book may be losing points here and there for a convoluted plot and under-explained new characters but it won't lose points for shooting for the stars here.

Total score: 3/5

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.