Wolverine and the X-Men 40, Origin II 2, Cataclysm - Ultimate X-Men 3

Wolverine and the X-Men 40
Aaron (w) and Larraz (a) and Milla (c)

The kids of the Jean Grey School (well, the kids we always see, anyway, sorry Young X-Men) have figured out that Joseph and Josephine are not quite on the level and, though they're disappointed that they couldn't sway them to be cool about everything (particularly saddened by Joseph, who seemed to actually be taking to the school), they resolve to show them everything by having them take a tour with the bamfs. The bamfs jump them from dangerous spot to dangerous spot to dangerous spot in the school and eventually the pair return, shaken and more uptight. The students are still ready to fight if need be but Joseph finally makes his decision and uses his guns to stun his sister. They resolve to have Quentin put new memories into the pair of them, making them forget this whole thing, and to go report back to Dazzler with no real information. Meanwhile, Wolverine and Cyclops have finally finished fighting all of the Sentinels at the mostly abandoned SHIELD base and they search around for first aid. Wolverine is satisfied when they come across the beer supply and the two of them sit and drink beers and talk about things. Cyclops prods Wolverine to figure out why exactly he (and everyone else) hates him so much and Wolverine reveals that it's largely driven by the fact that they shouldn't be hating him. They don't want Cyclops to be the image of the militant mutant or the mutant that people need to be scared of. That should be Wolverine's job. The two don't necessarily bury the hatchet but it's one of the best interactions they've had together since SCHISM and they leave amicably enough.

Not a bad issue. I didn't really need the Joseph/Josephine storyline at all, let alone for as long as it took. I think that storyline will perhaps mean a little more after the next couple of issues drop, with Jason Aaron ending his 40+ issue run on the title with issue 42. If this was his way of mostly saying goodbye to the kids and the school, I think it works fine. If he goes on to do another big goodbye to them all or something, I'm not sure how necessary it is. It's certainly readable but it does carry on a bit past when you get the point and know how things are going to shape up. The Wolverine and Cyclops bit, though, is very well done and hints at the sort of thing that's been happening a little more recently, building on the last issue of X-MEN LEGACY which saw the two fight side by side and even on the ongoing A+X storyline which finds Cap more willing to work with Cyclops than when the story started. It's a nice conversation between the two and it's pretty real. It's also the second book this week (coming in after MARVEL KNIGHTS X-MEN) that posits that Wolverine is allowed to kill and be the dangerous one because he knows who he is. Weird moral, you guys.

Origin II 2
Gillen (w) and Adam Kubert (a) and F. Martin (c)

There's been rumor of a polar bear who wandered too far south into Canada and killed a wolf pack before being murdered by some other unknown creature, like a wildcat but as big and strong as a man. There are two entities that have heard about the strange happenings, Dr. Nathaniel Essex, to whom the bear belonged, and, thanks to one of Essex's blabbermouth trackers (no longer employed/alive), an independent businessman named Hugo and his trackers Clara, good with animals, and Victor Creed, ace tracker. As the two units set out on their own ways, Essex's Marauders run into Wolverine after a gas-based attack draws him out of the woods. He attacks Essex's men but leaves as quickly as he came. After that, Creed tracks him down to an undergrowth and helps capture him for Hugo, to the chagrin of Clara. Hugo, of course, then quickly puts him center-stage in his circus.

I still like this story, its presentation, its characters, and the art of the book. I will say that I have a feeling that ORIGIN II, even as a concept, is a little flawed in a world where we suddenly know SO MUCH about Wolverine and his history. Sure he's lived for over a hundred years at this point so there's plenty out there we still don't know but we now know more than we did. ORIGIN, the first book in this story, came out in 2001 and a lot has changed in a little over a decade for the character. On top of Wolverine's actual memories being restored, the Marvel market has been absolutely saturated with Wolverine in the last several years. He's starred in an untold number of comic books, he's been in a score of major motion pictures, and we've delved pretty deep into his past in every medium in which he's appeared. That doesn't make ORIGIN II a bad book or a bad story or not worth reading, it just means that it almost can't feel necessary. I will say, masterstroke by Marvel in putting Kieron Gillen on this book. Gillen's a guy who, just in the last couple of years, rewrote Loki, one of Marvel's earliest full-fledged villains, into a totally new character and managed to give Iron Man, founding Avenger and star of his own set of major motion pictures, an almost entirely different backstory that somehow still perfectly fits with his history. If anyone can make this meaningful, I trust that Gillen can. Worth sticking with it if just for that, particularly as the price of this one dropped to a more reasonable 3.99.

Cataclysm - Ultimate X-Men 3
Fialkov (w) and A. Martinez, J. Lucas, and R. Fernandez (a) and Bellaire (c)

Rogue powers herself up with everybody's power set (except Beak, turns out she didn't need any of that) and amps THAT up with Amp's power set. She vows that no one else will die and charges headfirst into the swarm. She goes a little crazy up there but manages to do a solid amount of damage to Gah Lak Tus. Unfortunately, she's too late to safe Pixie, who is dying pretty quickly on the ground. The X-Men have to pull her back down and out of her rage so that she can take Pixie's powers and get them all home but getting her out of her rage is a little harder than they bargained for. Rick Jones leaps into action and helps fight alongside Rogue but, more importantly, relates to her about his recent past and everything he's learned from it and who he's chosen to be as a result. The talk (and the fact that he can touch and kiss her without dying thanks to his cosmic powers) inspires her to come back down but she refuses to take Pixie's power since the energy she'll take will certainly kill her. Pixie wants it done, though, as she's dying either way and wants the others to live so she touches Rogue's face and dies peacefully. Rogue prepares to make the jump but, to her continued disappointment, Rick stays behind to give them a chance to go without the swarm. He swears he'll make it out and, I have to say, we have no reason not to believe him. They arrive back home and see that Galactus is still out there and Rogue rallies them to fight him no matter the cost.

It's a nice little story and a fitting finish for the Ultimate X-Men as Rogue has to overcome her issues and understand who she is before she can save the world. The pacing is good as each beat seems pretty necessary, either for plot or for characterization (there's even a nice little moment between Beak and Pixie as Beak helps to care for her while she slips away), and the action moves particularly well. There was maybe a little too much happening in this issue to drop focus on too many of the people there but I don't think it hurts the book in any way. You don't need to know what Guido's doing if Rogue and Rick Jones are fighting against time to destroy the Gah Lak Tus swarm and only have twenty pages to do it. In fact, you never really think about the characters on the ground not integral to what's happening through all of the action, which seems like a pretty good misdirect for Fialkov to pull off. That guy knows how to handle a script and how to handle action. Marvel took a risk putting this event pretty much into the hands of someone who hadn't worked a ton on their books before but I think it's really paid off and turned into a nice and pretty well-structured event, though there might be one too many books out there because it's starting to feel like it's dragging a bit. Fortunately, that doesn't really bite the X-Men because their story is so different from everyone else's. Good work all around.

Cataclysm - Ultimate X-Men 2, Longshot Saves the Marvel Universe 4

Cataclysm - Ultimate X-Men 2
Fialkov (w) and A. Martinez and J. Lucas (a) and Bellaire (c)

Rick Jones showed up in the nick of time to explain some things and Mach Two, with the help of Amp, was able to take the oncoming Gah Lak Tus swarm and crush them into a ball together. The group starts to move and goes into tunnels under the little island they're on. While they talk a bit about home and about the circumstances, the Gah Lak Tus swarm has been healing and upgrading to protect itself from Mach Two again. They swarm again and attack Jimmy, beginning to turn him while they try to escape. Rogue refuses to let him die and powers herself up to go fight with Jimmy to keep him in control. Pixie comes to help too, teleporting infected cells out of Jimmy's body. He seems saved, though somewhat weakened, and Pixie feels ready to get them home...until she's killed by the swarm, stranding them in this other dimension.

Tensions are ramping up here and it's putting these people, who are pretty much still kids, through more than they've been through in their lives, which is particularly impressive considering how much they've been through in their lives. It's nice to see what's up with the swarm while Galactus gets air time over in the main part of the Ultimate Universe. It's also good to explain where the bulk of the X-Men are while we're primed to see the other X-Men start to make appearances over in the main titles. There is good character stuff in here, which is a bonus because there wasn't a ton the last time out and I was afraid some of these characters would just get washed over with the volume of characters in this mini and the scale of the plot. There is still time for character stuff and Fialkov uses it well. Not a bad entry to CATACLYSM.

Longshot Saves the Marvel Universe 4
Hastings (w) and Camagni, Calderon-Zurita, and Pallot (a) and Milla (c)

Things are getting desperate as the fight to return things to normalcy rages on. Longshot escapes to try to join up with Spider-Man and Dr. Dipson but he's followed by the controlled Deadpool who isn't quipping and who is driven by his one objective: killing Longshot. Just as they get to Dipson's and as things reach their most dire for Longshot, Deadpool is distracted and brought out of his stupor by the taco truck outside of Dipson's. Dipson reveals that the teddy bear he's been tasked with protecting is actually part of the cosmic cube Longshot used to start everything. They rejoin the parts and return the universe to its normal state, which leaves Longshot facing down the In-Betweener, back as one being. Longshot prepares to face his own death, as this is what the In-Betweener was aiming for the whole time, but the In-Betweener decides that it was probably the broken cosmic cube causing the problems he'd assigned to Longshot and spares him.

Not a bad ending for the series which was a pleasant surprise of a series. I had my doubts, as did probably most people, when they announced a Longshot mini-series because, well, Longshot, you know? I was encouraged by the decision to use Christopher Hastings as the writer and it's one that clearly paid off as the fun in this series outweighed any sort of convoluted plots or anything of the like. The writing was solid, the characters were fairly solid, even the ones who appeared here and there like Captain America or Dr. Strange or the Superior Spider-Man (there's a nice scene in this issue where Dipson tells Spider-Man of the time he foiled Doc Ock and made him look stupid that Spider-Man has to grit his teeth at). Nice little series.

All-New X-Men 19, Uncanny X-Force 14, Cataclysm - Ultimate X-Men 1

All-New X-Men 19
Bendis (w) and Peterson (a) and Silva (c)

There's a mutant on the run for her life, though she's not convinced she's a mutant, in Miami. A group of heavily armed religious zealots have surrounded her and are ready to finish her for being an abomination when the All-New X-Men show up, clad in their brand new uniforms! There's much quipping about the mutant place in religion and how little sense it all makes while the fight rages. The new mutant runs off and Kitty follows her, hoping to help, calling her Laura and wondering why she's not recognizing her. As the X-Men wrap up the fight, the police arrive and Magik insists they go while Scott insists they stay and try to file a report for the police. Of course, the police don't want to hear it and Magik teleports them away before they're shot. Kitty finally catches up with the new mutant and we find that it's not a new mutant, it's a severely messed up X-23!

Another OG X-Men-in-action issue as they continue to adjust to this future and work together as a team a bit better. Laura is clearly a little out of sorts (and a bit out of memory, it would seem) after her time on Murder World, where she ended up rather left in the woods, feral, and extremely injured. Are they pulling X-23's first Wolverine, erasing her memory and leaving her wounded, defensive, and alone? Boy, sounds like it! The issue is a bit heavy on the back-and-forth and takes a somewhat slow pace because of it, despite being primarily a fight issue and despite so very little happening. There's one somewhat disturbing long-panel that gives rather a close-up on Jean Grey's butt, which goes rather over-the-top and both pulled me out of the issue and made me go "isn't she supposed to be like 15 or 16 at this point?" Jean Grey may be going down the Magneto road, disgusted by humans and angry at everyone, though it's sure to come in stages. The cover for next issue has X-23 throwing herself at Scott which made me groan and roll my eyes. Really sick of all these love triangles (and this isn't X-23's first) and people throwing themselves at other people. Bendis seems not to be sick of that.

Uncanny X-Force 14
Humphries (w) and Briones (a) and Curiel (c)

Cassandra Nova has opened up the portal to the Revenants' world with the sacrifice of a low-level psychic and now has locked down LA to stop communications from going out, leaving Nova herself and Psylocke as the only two psychics in the area. That makes things tricky for X-Force, who has to sacrifice a psychic before daybreak to close the veil (these rules seem arbitrary). As they send an attack force (Puck) at Nova's moving base (she called forth a ground-made creature to carry them all), Nova offers an alliance to Betsy, hoping that she'll help in exchange for her old body back, the original Betsy Braddock British body. She looks on it with sadness and longing as Puck breaks in and rescues her, taking the Demon Bear down in the process. The escape doesn't go particularly well and they end up in the Revenants' world.

Plenty of action here and a pretty neat little choice for Betsy, who has to push away probably her last chance at ending up in the OG British body to save the world. Not that she's done badly in the Hand-resurrected body and not that she hasn't had the time to get used to it, but it's still a really intriguing choice and one that you're like "I can see why she'd want that." Aside from the continually arbitrary rules, there's a lot going on here and a lot to make this seemingly final X-Force-only arc interesting; this arc will lead to the "Vendetta" crossover with CABLE AND X-FORCE which will ultimately result in the two books ending, to be replaced with Si Spurrier's X-FORCE, which will be amazing. Anyway, interested to see where this story in and of itself is going.

Cataclysm - Ultimate X-Men 1
Fialkov (w) and Martinez and Lucas (a) and Bellaire (c)

Galactus has reached Earth and it's come at a time when Kitty's X-Men have gone back to Tian to try to find any survivors, including the missing Pixie. They manage to find the small group of mutants (an oddly specific bunch that includes Pixie, a guy who has the power to calm people down, someone who can use and amplify the powers of others, Strong Guy and Beak) right as Galactus appears and Amp and Pixie both panic, leading to the entire group teleporting the entire area into what seems like maybe space, where the Gah-Lak-Tus swarm surrounds them, charging at them over and over in the hopes to consume them. Silence (the calm-people-down guy) is killed pretty quickly and the others begin to fight. Things seem a bit out of control when the new Captain Marvel, AKA Rick Jones, appears to help.

Fialkov has really orchestrated this whole event, it seems, which seems like a really big event for someone who hasn't been at Marvel for that long. I'm not saying he's doing a bad job or doesn't deserve to be doing this, but Marvel tends to give events to people they've been working with for awhile and really know they trust but Fialkov has kind of excelled this year (especially in the Ultimate universe) and has made himself worthy of the new event, apparently. It's certainly an interesting event and you can see all the pieces falling into place, as the Ultimates go after Galactus, along with Spider-Man, and the X-Men go after the Gah-Lak-Tus swarm along with Captain Marvel. That means a fight on all fronts, whether it's going to go well or not. Obviously the plot is the key to this issue, as with most event books, which means that some of the charm of the ULTIMATE X-MEN book under Brian Wood has been lost. I'm not sure that it really could have kept up into this event because, like I said, events tend to be a little too plot heavy and, also, this is going to be a limited run book, meaning it can't hit that same kind of building-tension tone that Wood had hit so well in his run. Still, should be an interesting event.