Uncanny X-Men 27, Wolverine and the X-Men 10

Uncanny X-Men 27

Matthew Malloy is still out there, wreaking some serious havoc and baffling the X-Men and SHIELD, nearby in a helicarrier. In an attempt to quell him, Rachel Grey creates a big psychic image in front of him, showing the X-Men and Avengers ready to fight him with Xavier leading the pack, asking if Malloy will allow him to rebuild the barriers in his mind for the good of the world. Malloy waffles between trusting him and hating him but ultimately begins to wonder if maybe he shouldn't be using this power to do much more. He sees through Rachel's trick and lays waste to the helicarrier, transporting most of the X-Men back to their homes (though some remain unaccounted for). Everyone is caught off-guard by this strange tactic but Scott Summers recovers quickly enough for Magik to teleport him back to Malloy, where Cyclops convinces him that he believes what Charles did was wrong and that he wants to help mutant kind, maybe the way Malloy wants to express his new powers. Cyclops asks Malloy if maybe he wants to talk a bit and Malloy consents.

The big plot development here, obviously, is that this sudden omega-level or beyond mutant is potentially ending in Cyclops' smaller camp of militant mutants, tipping the scales of the battle. I have my usual issues with Bendis books (namely some mood-breaking back-and-forth dialogue and quips) but my hesitation about naming this a good arc stems from something bigger here, I think. I don't like SCHISM and I don't like what's spawned from it. Do I think the X-Men probably needed some sort of a shakeup? Yeah, I guess so. Was SCHISM intriguing? Sure. I liked the idea of an increasingly more militant Cyclops and an increasingly more caring and protective Wolverine. On the flipside, I don't think it's carried well and it's clearly weighing on the writers at this point too. Obviously the added wrinkle of "Scott Summers killed Professor X" has extended the life of the split but I even think that's weak. Doing no research on the subject, I'm not sure there's a single character involved in these fights that hasn't been brainwashed or possessed or controlled or what-not. So has Cyclops been skewing another way for a little bit now? Well sure, I suppose people are starting to get more cynical of him. But should they erase their long history with him and his new people because he, very clearly under control of the Phoenix Force he couldn't contain and that they all knew he couldn't contain, was partly responsible for the death of his mentor? Look, I think not. What I'm getting at is that I don't think this whole antipathy between the two sides is warranted and that's entirely what this story is going to boil down to. I also have some amount of problems with omega-level+ mutants just appearing. ANYWAY. Doesn't mean this won't be an interesting story, just means I'm having some trouble buying into it. I also have been wanting to write a tiny bit about the ramifications of SCHISM for a little while now and the WATXM review should be pretty short so WHY NOT PUT IT HERE? Like that cover though.

Total Score: 3/5


Wolverine and the X-Men 10

Wolverine's ex-girlfriend Melita Garner visits the Jean Grey School to collect interviews for her upcoming book on Wolverine, a book that wolverine didn't want her writing but that Beast believes she should write, if just to serve as required reading for the students of the school. She talks with a number of Wolverine's friends and colleagues who all very clearly miss hero. She saves a couple of the big ones for next time, though, between Storm and Quentin Quire.

It's essentially a book of remembrance, showing how everyone is taking the loss and how everyone loved Wolverine. Plenty of books, I'm sure, will be doing this sort of thing over the coming months so I'm sure we'll have plenty of opportunities to talk about these retrospectives, but you could certainly do worse than to read this one, which is sweet, moves pretty well, and highlights a number of different artists. Sometimes the switch between artists is understandably jarring but each section settles into its rhythm nicely.

Total Score: 4/5

All-New X-Men 30, Amazing X-Men 10, X-Men 18

All-New X-Men 30
Bendis (w) and Pichelli (a) and Gracia (c) and Petit (l)

X-23 and Angel escaped all the drama to go on a date and spend the night in one of Warren's rich person apartments and Laura admits to not remembering much of the last night and does NO ONE find this a really, really creepy story? It can't just be me, right? I don't pick up on things all that easily and so feeling really creeped out by this scene must make it pretty obvious, right? Okay, anyway, Emma wants to train Jean but there's prolonged bad blood between them because they both keep failing the Bechdel test and I think they're trying to figure out who fails it harder? That's the takeaway, I think. Anyway, they end up bonding? Is there a person who cares about this?

Okay, look, I'll be the first to admit I'm in a bad mood today but I read this comic last night, when I was in a mildly better mood (until after I read the comic). I tried working out all the "benefit of a doubt" ways to talk about this issue but the bad mood has ensured those have all gone out the window. I'll still start it the same way: I know that I tend to badmouth Brian Michael Bendis on this blog a lot because I don't really care for his style and I think his characters, save a couple, are fairly weak. I have no real desire to badmouth him. I do believe there are reviewers and critics out there who legitimately enjoy the mean part of the job or the controversy of attacking well-liked writers/directors/actors/whatever. I am most definitely not one of those people so I hate coming off attacky at anyone, but especially Bendis who is clearly well-liked and well-regarded (he's gone from a couple of prime AVENGERS titles to a couple of prime X-MEN titles, not to mention all his other past books). THAT SAID, I absolutely hate this series and I really, really hate this issue. I talked a lot above about the strange and terrible women in this issue but that didn't even talk about Kitty's weird relationship or scratch the surface of how poorly written and out of character I think Laura was or REALLY about how uncomfortable the idea that Laura couldn't really remember the night before and woke up in one of Warren's homes with him shirtless and had to have Warren describe the night for her. I'm REALLY uncomfortable about that. Let's not forget, too, that this is the second issue since Laura's joined up with the team (not that long ago) where a cover has featured her making out on a dude, which seems both wrong and odd. And I get that Emma and Jean have this built-in sexist rivalry between them in their history but wouldn't it be a thousand times more interesting if they had some other thing to talk about? Other than ol' just-right porridge Scott Summers? They're two of the most powerful telepaths ever (despite Emma's current situation) and they go to train and they're like "HEY, LET'S CONTINUE COMPETING OVER SCOTT" and then they spend some time locked in each other's minds and just stand up laughing together because, as one of the Stepfords puts it, they've bonded. I want to complain about how incredibly lazy it is to just have two psychics stare at each other for a panel and then come out going "we're pals now!" but I'd have actually accepted a completely silent issue with Pichelli art because I think it'd be far stronger than this.

Total Score: 1/5


Amazing X-Men 10
Kyle and Yost (w) and Barberi and Coello (p) and Wong and Coello (i) and Rosenberg (c) and Caramagna (l)

Wolverine (and much of Canada) has been transformed into a Wendigo and the X-Men are having some trouble dealing with these problems. They keep whacking Wolverendigo away while they plot and Alpha Flight shows up and everybody jokes around a bit while the Avengers watch the border (plus side, the curse doesn't extend beyond Canadian borders) and they need to bring the injured Talisman to a very specific place that leads to the spirit realm but when they take her there they find it's also full o' Wendigos. Maybe this isn't the time for jokes, Bobby?

There is something of a strange tonal shift in this issue as the plight of the Wendigo suddenly becomes a little less serious with all these pals coming together and having a good time. I'll be honest, I think if this is the tone you set up in the first issue or two of this arc then it totally works. But where the first issue or two of this arc had a really serious tone, this one doesn't quite stick the landing. Some of the dialogue and jokes aren't bad and, if it were maybe a little more sparse, I think there's a way this could hit a little better. Instead, it feels out of place and oddly unsympathetic. Seriously Rockslide, pull yourself together. This is why no one brings you to any of the fights or uses you in any of these books.

Total Score: 3/5


X-Men 18
Guggenheim (w) and Tolibao (p) and Tadeo and Yeung (i) and Mounts (c) and Caramagna (l)

The X-Men are fighting an airborne AIM virus by burning it out of the air when Abigail Brand calls them to request their presence. A not-dead/not-paralyzed but certainly comatose Deathbird has suddenly turned up in orbit and Brand isn't sure why and wants a team of 3/5 psychics, particularly ones with experience with Deathbird (who happens to be Rachel Grey's aunt by marriage) and the Kree, to check the situation out. She's also called in Cecilia Reyes to examine Deathbird. The whole thing, though, is interrupted when Sidrian Hunters attack the Peak, coming for Deathbird or, as Cecilia reveals, Deathbird's unborn child.

There are some interesting moments here and Guggenheim has a pretty good feel for the humor he wants to bring to the team. Sometimes, though, it overloads a little and the dialogue ends up slowing a bit more than you'd like, taking something away from the action and the story itself. Good dialogue, particularly good funny dialogue, should never really feel like a slog and while Guggenheim certainly  isn't writing poorly, parts of the issue start to drag. Still not a bad issue and it left me interested where the story would go.

X-Men 14, Uncanny X-Men 21

X-Men 14
Wood (w) and C. Mann (p) and C. Mann and S. Mann (i) and Mounts (c) and Caramagna (l)

The Future has attacked two students, Primal and Sprite, and, in doing so, somehow broken past every defense that the X-Men have. Monet and Rachel tear off after Primal's shooter and track him to a train in an attempt to make a getaway. They manage to take him down before he can shoot himself, bringing him back to the school for questioning while Psylocke ups the mansion's defenses and Beast attempts to save the wounded. Storm calls everyone together to tell them that she's officially announced them as a team (AKA made it known to Wolverine) but her speech is interrupted when the Future strikes again shattering more defenses and breaking through where they were holding the original shooter. Storm's future daughter Kymera helps protect Shogo and trounces the shooter, who turns out to be a bomb, and the ensuing explosion complicates things further.

Story
The Future, despite his name, continues to be a frustratingly compelling villain, one who is able to inexplicably get past all of the mansion's many defenses and to remain hidden from even the talented psychics on the premises. Amid the fear of the Future is a story about the team forming and starting to work together as Storm begins to back down from her leadership position, allowing for more voices of dissent or more strategies and at least stalling the overthrow talk. Wood has always done a solid job at ramping up and balancing tensions and this issue is a prime example. 5/5

Character
There are a number of strong characters in this book and Wood should be praised for keeping their voices almost entirely distinct. It's the sort of book where you could focus on the words on the page and know who's speaking. The only time that that line gets a little muddied is with Rachel, who occasionally plays the side that's convenient to the advancing plot, though I'd also say that I'm not really sure I've read a really great Rachel Grey before and I'd say that I've read great versions of all of the other major characters elsewhere. 4/5

Writing
Wood bounces back and forth between locations and characters enough to make the book feel really fast-paced even when a lot of this issue is just fortifying defenses and reacting to last issue. It creates the sort of panicked and terrorized tone for the issue that allows the reader to begin to understand what the outlook is like at the school. Particularly effective with this is seeing Beast's full-on sadness at what's happening and his seeming inability to help the injured. 5/5

Art
Strong art from Clay Mann, as is typical. There's a nice panel as Ororo apologizes for her recent behavior and announces that they're officially a team where, though the camera is pulled back far enough that there's not much detail to the characters' faces, we get a good sense of the situation from the position and the posture of each character, with Storm fretting anxiously, Rachel listening o obediently, Monet with her arms-crossed, Psylocke with her hands on her hips, and Jubilee cradling Shogo. It's a nice characterization of all of them in the briefest of moments. 5/5

Miscellaneous
As in the last issue, the mini-story BROMO-SUPERIOR continues in this issue, again written by wood but with art from Phil Briones and colors from Matt Milla. It's fine, or whatever.

Total Score: 5/5


Uncanny X-Men 21
Bendis (w) and Bachalo (p) and Townsend, Irwin, Mendoza, Olazaba, and Vey (i) and Bachalo (c) and Caramagna (l)

Cyclops and Magik have lost control of their powers upon arriving at the Jean Grey School to question Beast on whether or not he's tracking their movements with Cerebro. The mutants at the mansion subdue the pair just as Dazzler arrives and demands to take Cyclops into custody. Beast fights her on it, convinced something is wrong with them and realizing he's best suited to understand what and who is attacking them. Maria Hill steps in and eventually sides with Beast, giving him an hour to study Cyclops. The mysterious entity behind the attacks sees his opportunity and uses the SHIELD helicarriers to attack the school while Beast begins to study Cyclops in his lab and realizes who is behind everything. Meanwhile, Magneto frees Dazzler in Madripoor and swears he'll help her find revenge.

Story
Though I thought that Cyclops' reason for coming to the Jean Grey School was kind of stupid and convoluted (the dude's just going to keep making excuses to go there apparently and the more he does it the less of a dramatic "OH NO, LOOK WHO'S HERE" sort of a moment it is. Soon we'll just assume he's a part-time professor), you can see here why Bendis chose to send them. Though the ends don't necessarily justify the means, we're here to examine this issue and not the last one and the at ion of this issue is compelling enough. I do have some problems with the fact that this book can't seem to go more than a few issues without pulling in the other mutants or SHIELD or anything else, but we are moving quickly to our mysterious adversary. The most compelling story of the issue, though, is Emma Frost's refusal to completely give up on Scott as a love interest. Just kidding, of course it's not that, I could not care less about that. I swear, every time I start to fight for this book, I'm reminded that I'm actually annoyed by it. No, it's Magneto. His determination to get Dazzler out and stop the MGH production is a nice arc for his character and it boosts this up from the 3/5 I was going to give this issue after remembering Emma Frost's contribution. 4/5

Character
Like last time, I'm going to fall back on Magneto's arc here because there's not a lot else to look at. There's Emma Frost and I continue not to care even a little bit about that relationship. Magneto's stuff is strong, I'm still not particularly into SHIELD's involvement though Maria Hill's agreement to let Beast check out Cyclops was both interesting and baffling. 3/5

Writing
Bendis reins in the back-and-forth dialogue here which I really appreciate since there's a lot of fighting and a lot of exploding in this issue and I really hate it in those moments. I think the tone of the book works pretty well but I'd have to put that to the colors as much as anything. Still, writing didn't hurt that and that's sometimes just as important as actively fostering it. 5/5

Art
As I said, I think the colors really helped the art in this one. Bachalo's art is typically impressive and it's extremely consistent. This issue loses a point in art for a weird gratuitous upskirt of one of the girls in the Jean Grey School (I'd call her Surge but I've not known Surge to wear a skirt and I'm unclear if she's there or not. Who knew I'd have to choose between blue-haired girls?). 4/5

Miscellaneous
I think this book has the ability to shine through some of the problems I've had with it but it keeps barely scratching that surface instead of leaping over it.

Total Score: 4/5

X-Men 13, Uncanny X-Men 20, X-Force 3

X-Men 13
Wood (w) and C. Mann (p) and C. Mann and S. Mann (i) and Mounts (c) and Caramagna (l)

With a moment to rest following Arkea's defeat, the team ponders where they've been and where they're going. Psylocke encourages Storm to officially make them a team and own up to being its leader, Rachel Grey tries to get over her crush on John Sublime (which may turn into a revenge on Sublime), Monet pushes herself harder to eliminate the weakness she found against the Sisterhood, and Jubilee tries to find her place in the school with Shogo. They're thrust into their new mission, though, as a professional bad guy (that may as well be his description) claiming to be Shogo's father begins to attack the school, promising that everyone will die unless he gets his hands on the boy.

Story
Though we're entering quickly into the new BLOODLINES storyline and this bad guy who goes by the name "The Future," this is meant to act more as a downtime issue. The action doesn't kick in until about halfway through as it's more important here to understand what the team is going through. It's a needed break in the action but, as with all serial media, it can't last. The Future is maybe a little weak so far in his actual background (he really does just seem like a generic really bad guy, though that may be developed further) but he does seem already to be an impressive adversary. 4/5

Character
With a break in the action, the character takes an important role and Wood does a good job taking advantage of it here. Psylocke wants Storm to be the Ororo that gets up in people's faces and that doesn't back down and they have an exchange that works really well. Still not totally sold on Rachel Grey in this book but I think Wood can use her as a good foil to Storm. Monet's determination is right on the money and Jubilee's restlessness towards not understanding her new role is solid. 4/5

Writing
Pretty solid writing throughout. The story comes across well and Wood does a good job switching between characters and even shifting the tone when the action starts to pick up. 5/5

Art
Clay Mann draws really impressive people and some pretty good action, though there's not a lot here. Still, the range from Ororo and Storm's talk to Monet and Rockslide's punching to Jubilee's dancing is a pretty wide range and Mann handles it well. 5/5

Miscellaneous
A first issue of a new arc is hard, particularly one following an arc that was so long. I think Wood and company gave just the right amount of downtime here before diving into the new story. Still not totally sold on the Future (also his name is the Future). This issue also has a little mini-story at the end by Wood and artist Phil Briones called BROMO-SUPERIOR where Hellion, Rockslide, Anole, and Broo go to train in the Danger Room on the heels of the Future's first attack on the Jean Grey School.

Total score: 4/5


Uncanny X-Men 20
Bendis (w) and Bachalo (p) and Townsend, Faucher, Holdredge, Mendoza, Olazaba, and Vey (i) and Bachalo (c) and Caramagna (l)

After the attack in Chicago, Scott decides to check in with Maria Hill personally, using the Stepfords to get into SHIELD unnoticed and ask his questions of her. They search her mind, to which she submits willingly, and find that she also believes that SHIELD could be behind the Sentinel attacks but knows little more (though she has an attraction to Scott because Bendis). Scott and the Stepfords leave and, back at base, realize that whoever is targeting them must be using Cerebro technology to do it. The list of people who can use Cerebro tech is very short and Scott narrows in on Hank McCoy. He and Magik pay Hank a visit at the Jean Grey School but are quickly found by SHIELD and attacked.

Story
Scott's war continues just as Mystique and Sabretooth continue their fight with SHIELD, Mystique still posing as Dazzler. It's hard to really get in the head of some of these characters because I'll likely never face the persecution and fear on these guys but I find it hard to buy that Scott would even feel the need to check on Hank. They weakly try to explain it all away by saying that it's probably not him but who knows, he certainly hates Scott these days, but it's hard to see even the most persecuted and feared man believing that Hank McCoy would employ Sentinels. Also, Maria Hill having a crush on Scott is INFURIATING. Bendis can't go two minutes without introducing another love interest for so many characters. 4/5

Character
Scott's character is so often in flux these days that it's hard to kind of pinpoint if he's in character or not. It's also hard to tell about Maria Hill because she's sometimes savvy and crafty and sometimes totally off-the-handle obsessed with one aspect of her job. I don't think these problems are this issue's, I think these are line problems at Marvel. Still, I'm going to lump the score for Maria Hill's crush on Scott into here so... 2/5

Writing
The tone works for this issue as things jump around pretty quickly to disorient the reader. In addition, it does feel like it's coming from a darker place right now, which is how things surrounding Scott should feel. The Maria Hill attraction thing (no, I'm not going to get over it and I HATE Maria Hill) feels a little out of place amidst all the serious Sentinel things going on. 4/5

Art
I like Chris Bachalo's art a lot and I think he does an interesting job matching tone here. There are times where I think that his art is almost too cartoony for how dark this tries to go but overall I think he manages to balance it out with a seriousness that matches Scott's concerns and the war designation Scott is so eager to give out. Also, I will admit that I'm still not really onboard with a lot of these costume designs. 4/5

Miscellaneous
I really don't think that my aversion to the Maria Hill-Scott Summers thing is out of place here. I think Hill is a stronger character if she's not obsessed with Summers based in part out of some schoolgirl crush on him. On top of that, it is one of my frequent complaints about Bendis that he tries to overload with love triangles and romances that I feel tend to bog things down. Don't get me wrong; there are romances and love triangles elsewhere throughout comics and every other sort of media, but we don't need it in every single comic.

Total score: 3/5


X-Force 3
Spurrier (w) and R. Kim (a) and Sabino (l)

X-FORCE needs to find Volga, their suspect for the bombing at Alexandria. Psylocke combs Cerebro to find Volga but settles for finding people who are thinking about Volga, honing in on one mutant in particular, a teleporter named Antonio Aggasiz who had escaped but was again captured by Volga and terrified of him. The team travels to Brazil only to find that many mutants are being held there because their home countries wanted them secreted away and punished for being mutants. With guards keeping an eye on Aggasiz, the other inmates ask to be let out of their cells to help take down the guards. Cable accepts their help but Psylocke refuses to let them become killers and puts everyone to sleep while she goes in and kills all the guards. She wakes the team but before they can get anything from Aggasiz, Volga himself appears in some sort of energy projection and kills the teleporter.

Story
The plot thickens as Volga seems to have some sort of powers though it had seemed for all intents and purposes previously that he was just a regular human. In addition, the look at the rendition of these mutants is as dark as anything else we've seen pertaining to these mutants and really helps illustrate the sort of conditions mutants live in more than fights with various supervillains could. 5/5

Character
Psylocke narrates this issue though her narration is far more sparse than the previous two issues from Cable and Marrow's perspectives. Instead, she puts her thoughts on her sleeve this time out, snapping at Marrow for calling her ability and methods into question and putting everyone to sleep before admitting to her team that she sought out X-Force, unlike the recruitment of the others, because she can't stand to be away from the killing. It's dark but it's really well done and we get a couple hints at more interesting developments down the road as she reveals she knows why everyone else joined up. Something interesting also happening with Marrow as her language centers do, as Psylocke threatened, seem to be on the fritz. 5/5

Writing
A really good comic book will more or less have this "writing" section covered based on the "story" and "character" sections because the plot, tone, and characters will mesh so well that I'll have nothing to add. Such seems to be the case here as Spurrier is showing us the world that Cable fears is out there already in this darker issue. 5/5

Art
I wasn't sure how I liked Rock-He Kim's art when the initial preview art for the series came out. Much like so many books with a steady artist, though, it's grown on me and come to match the tone so inextricably that I can't imagine another way it could be illustrated (though I saw preview pages recently for an issue done by another artist so I guess I find out). 5/5

Miscellaneous
The team is starting to come together here and the closer look at Psylocke really helps to establish some of the things Spurrier wants established. In this case, she shines a light on Marrow (who helps her own case by talking so much this issue) and on Fantomex (there's a great moment when she corrects his faux French and calls him a fraud but then later reveals that he's joined with the team because he needs help and won't ask for it). Even MeMe has a nice couple moments here. And her name is actually MeMe and not Meme. Who knew? Such is the flaw of writing in all capital letters all the time.

Total score: 5/5

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.

Uncanny X-Men 14, X-Men 7

Uncanny X-Men 14

Bendis (w) and Bachalo, Townsend, Mendoza, Vey, Irwin, and Olazaba (a) and Bachalo (c)

The new X-Men team Cyclops has assembled isn't exactly up to spec yet and Cyclops wants to make sure they're ready when the true tests come. That means extra training for everyone, both using and not using powers. Perhaps the most disillusioned is Benjamin Deeds, the new X-Man who can change his appearance (or at least people's perceptions of him) to match what others want to see. He believes he is not of much use to the X-Men and Cyclops doesn't really help that feeling. Emma Frost, though, sees his power as perhaps the most impressive of the bunch and takes it upon herself to train him a little more, bringing him to Atlantic City and running him through a couple of tests to get him used to using his powers. After he's worked a bit with it, she sends him on a mission, delivering a letter to one Timothy Dugan (who readers will recognize as Dum Dum Dugan) in a disguised SHIELD facility. Deeds manages to make his way through successfully, deliver the message, and leave. The message, unfortunately for Deeds, informs Dugan that SHIELD is using Sentinels and that they need to discontinue or it will spark a war and is signed by Cyclops. Men surround Deeds as he's trying to leave, though Illyana and Emma break him out in time. They return to base and find an impressed but not surprised Cyclops waiting.

I think this would be the right move for this book for the next set of issues, a series of what basically amount to one-shots focused on each new character individually. I think the team moments of this book have been bogged down by Bendis' need to back-and-forth every bit of dialogue and to make everyone quip in the background of tense moments and what have you. Changing the focus from team to individuals to help establish who these characters are would go a long way to legitimizing the X-Men team as a whole. We've had this team for 14 issues now and I feel like I have very little sense of who these guys are as individuals and even by their powers. The best way to right that ship would be to allow each of them some one-on-one time with a professor or something, giving them their own story to establish them, as this issue did. As a result, I liked this issue more than I've liked a lot of the others. I think giving us a sense of character would help a lot in terms of making the book feel more like an X-Men book and would, perhaps, make some of the back-and-forth banter parts more tolerable (less optimistic on that front).

X-Men 7

Wood (w) and T. Dodson and R. Dodson (a) and Keith (c)

Lady Deathstrike is returning to the Marvel Universe in the form of a shared body after dying some time ago. The body she's sharing is that of 18-year-old Ana Cortes, billionaire heiress to her recently deceased father's Colombian empire. Cortes wanted to team with Lady Deathstrike and upgraded herself to accept her consciousness and powers (kind of ill-defined on the how she did that, as yet, or REALLY the why). Her target now is Karima Shapandar, newly out of her coma, hoping that she can get her hands on the Omega Level Sentinel tech inside of her. Armed with a set of henchmen and dossiers on the everyone at the school, Cortes arrives at Westchester, hoping to access Karima. It's easier than she thought to reach Karima as Karima and new school resident Monet, formerly of X-Factor and currently taking some time and laying low, are out for a run. Cortes' men manage to get a shot on Karima, hitting her in the arm, before Monet, not documented on Cortes' intel, absolutely destroys the henchmen and their weapons. Cortes leaves but not before Monet identifies her as Lady Deathstrike. As both teams regroup, the X-Men realize what they're up against and Deathstrike finds a new target and a new assistant; her new target, based on recent gathered information, is the immensely powerful Arkea, and her new assistant is Daredevil villain Typhoid Mary.

A lot of cool stuff here as our cast of characters grows a little bit with the addition of Karima, Monet, and (kind of) Bling. Bling has a moment in here where we find out she's been talking to Jubilee about her love-life and things aren't going particularly well, as her unrequited feelings for Mercury led to Mercury punching her, apparently. She tells Jubilee that it's okay though, as she has her eyes set on someone else now (HINT: smart money's on Jubilee), meaning we're not likely to see the last of her just yet. ANYWAY, the story I spent the whole paragraph above describing. The re-emergence of Lady Deathstrike is an interesting choice and one that I think I'll be a little more interested by when we get a little more information. I had to re-read most of the comic before reviewing it and still ended up deleting a lot of my first attempts at sentences, as they mostly kept saying things like "Cortes wanted to team with Lady Deathstrike because...oh, we don't really know that. Cortes upgraded herself by...I don't know. I mean, the slot in her neck, right? And like, a USB drive? Um. Okay." Still, the characterization is solid with a nice amount of time spent on new resident Monet and on Karima, as well as brief flashes of Storm and Rachel's continued power struggle and Jubilee's situation. There's a story forming here and it seems like it could be a good one, but I'd like to get a little more information out of it first.

Astonishing X-Men 68, X-Men 6

Astonishing X-Men 68
Liu (w) and Walta (a) and Peter (c)

The final issue of Astonishing X-Men and it shouldn't surprise long-time comic readers that this one is more focused on the team and where they go from here than on big battles or climactic finishes. Our narration sticks with Warbird, who is coming to terms with the artist side of herself, the side that defies the Shi'ar warrior side. After another disgusting show by Dark Beast, Warbird is outvoted in whether or not they should kill him and it startles her, pushing her back to her warrior roots. After a talk with Karma, though, she begins to accept that, on Earth, she can be both the warrior and the artist and that she doesn't have to give up anything. Meanwhile, Northstar draws Bobby out of the (understandable) funk he's been in so that Bobby can go to the courthouse with Northstar and Kyle for their immigration hearing. It seems that everything works out and even Warbird truly understands that she has a place among the X-Men and that she'd rather stay with them than be back on her home planet.

As I intimated, this is not anything particularly unexpected but that doesn't make it any less meaningful. This is the kind of issue you want to end a book with, and kind of have to end a book like this with. It's a great nod to the eclectic nature of this group, which teamed some popular X-Men staples with less known X-Men characters and saw them fight well together and care for one another. The thing about a book like this, in theory the thing about X-Men books, is at the end of the day, these people want to be with one another. After the best days, they want to be with each other. After the worst days, they want to be with each other. This book has very much had the familial feel to it all the way through; that's what it was built on back when Whedon kicked it off. It's fitting that it ends with them all discussing what family means with the X-Men and pointing out just how strange they are to be together. It's a team that works well and that has more than enough strong characters, where everyone serves their own specific role, but that isn't bogged down by size, as so often happens these days. Nice ending to a nice book.

X-Men 6
Wood (w) and D. López and C. Smith w/ Pallott (a) and L. Martin w/ Milla (c)

Battle of the Atom continues as Wolverine's X-Men, along with the future X-Men, return to the mansion to send home the past X-Men. Wolverine still doesn't quite trust the future team but believes sending the kids back is the right call. Still, he asks Rachel, telepathically, to keep tabs on the future X-Men. It turns out, of course, to be a good idea, when they arrive home and find that past Hank and Bobby have gone to the future. The future team realizes this means their cover is blown and instantly begins fighting against the present and past X-Men so they can escape or, in the very least, be prepared for when the real future X-Men inevitably show up. They manage to mostly secure the school pretty quickly and to knock out their opposition, with the exceptions of Jubilee, Bling and Psylocke, who are met by the future's Sentinel-X, a member of the real future team that has transported back to the past and met up with Scott's team. Sentinel-X, who looks not dissimilar to Iron Man, reveals himself to be a grown Shogo, Jubilee's adopted son.

It's a pretty solid battle between the forces and we don't have the ridiculous fan-service-y Jean Grey fights, which certainly helps. In fact, we don't hear much at all from the past X-Men which, again, totally helps. The writing on this issue is certainly the best of the series, again proving that Brian Wood's book would be doing really well if it didn't have this interruption so early into its run. The characterization is good, particularly with this X-Men team (Storm, Psylocke, Rachel, and Jubilee especially). Everyone gets a couple of good, unforced lines and a couple of nice moves in the battle itself. The issue, of course, is that the plot continues to go crazy and now we have a full X-Men war developing with combatants from all time periods and, oh, I didn't mention, apparently future Kitty was actually the son of Wolverine and apparently Mystique ALL ALONG and what is happening. A for writing, A- for art, D for plot. Turns out that really does hurt a book, though the strong writing certainly salvaged part of this.

Astonishing X-Men 67, X-Men 5

Astonishing X-Men 67
Liu (w) and Pinna (a) and Peter (c)

I was wrong in my pre-game this week as somehow I ended up skipping an issue of Astonishing X-Men, marking this one as the last instead of issue 68. Somewhere along the line I lost track which means we still have one more issue to wrap things up. So instead, here, we find Wolverine and Gambit on the trail of the baby alien from last issue, a trail that leads them into a small town in Indiana, home to a high school girl, Wendy, with ambition but no momentum. She loves superheroes (writes fan-fiction about them, particularly Wolverine) and wants to be special but believes herself to be stuck in her small town where she also feels like an outsider (she's the only black kid in the town). Wolverine and Gambit end up stopping in at the diner she goes to before school and she works up the guts to talk to them before they head out, which happens to be either really good or really bad timing, depending on your outlook. The baby alien has hitched a ride in their car and the parents of the alien, who were looming over the world last issue, descend on them, trapping the four of them in itself. Concerned that the X-Men have hurt its baby, the parent touches the brain of Wendy and decides that the X-Men are good people based on what it sees. The parent talks for a bit then departs with its child, leaving Wendy to talk with Wolverine and Gambit, giving her the inspiration she needs to start applying for colleges and making future plans and the likes.

Bit heavy-handed here in the penultimate issue as we get a few meaningful lessons, of sorts. There's more talk between Gambit and Wolverine about what happened with Bobby and how badly they let him down and whether putting him back on the team was the right thing to do and so on. Wendy's story is the centerpiece, though, with her struggle to find a future outside of the town despite being, as she puts it, not special. It ties to a really long and rather hard to read speech from the parent alien (who has trouble with English, making the long speech something of a headache) about wanting to protects its child from growing up and the pain of being an adult. It then all ties back together as Wolverine and Gambit sit with Wendy for a bit and impart advice and wisdom. They're not bad stories and they're right up the X-Men's alley but it is a little heavy-handed, if a worthwhile message. Glad it's not the final issue, didn't feel right to end with a team that wasn't, you know, the team.

X-Men 5
Wood (w) and D. López and C. Smith (a) and L. Martin (c)

The Battle of the Atom continues as the teams gathered at the Jean Grey School prepare to track young Jean and Scott. It proves a bit difficult as Jean is trying to block her thoughts but Xavier is able to amplify his powers, in tandem with old Jean, and get a bead on them. They track them, leaving young Beast and Bobby as well as Rachel and Kitty at the school in case they should come back. Rachel and Kitty agree that maybe sending them back, especially against their will, isn't the best idea (no it totally is you guys) and set out on their own to try to aid Jean and Scott. Everything collides and Jean and Scott are in the middle, being attacked by X-Men from all sides. Rachel and Kitty show up just in time to cause a distraction, mostly involving yelling at the X-Men for attacking children with full attacks even if Scott did swing first, and allow Jean and Scott to get away. Jean psychically calls old Scott's new team and they meet at the ruins of Utopia.

I had, well, not exactly high hopes about this book as my pre-game documented, but higher hopes for this book. I really didn't like the first two issues of Battle of the Atom as things got more and more ridiculous but I was hoping for a rebound here from Brian Wood, a writer I tend to find pretty good and pretty good with events. I do think that characters got slightly better characterization here, which is an upside, but overall I still don't like the story. Thanks to the better characterization, there is slightly better reasoning behind why the supporters of the young X-Men are supporting the young X-Men. It ultimately boils down to "despite myself, I like having them here and I don't want to send people back against their will." It's not really a good reason, still, but it's at least a reason that's somewhat understandable. I can put myself in Kitty or Rachel's shoes and say "these are their friends, albeit young versions/versions they never knew. Some of these versions are like versions they've lost, as with Jean or Warren. Having them around must be nice to a point." Granted, it doesn't make up for destroying space-time so it's still rather weak reasoning, but at least it's some reasoning. Still not thrilled with Battle of the Atom. "Not thrilled" might be an understatement. I also still rather resent how long this series is and how much of a crossover effect it has, particularly on this book. I'll be honest, I don't care much about it distracting Uncanny X-Men and All-New X-Men, nor about it carrying into Wolverine and the X-Men. However, X-Men has a fairly solid premise and is just starting to find its feet only to need suddenly to take two issues off to tie into this long (and rather expensive) event. Not a particularly wonderful move.

X-Men 4, Cable and X-Force 13

X-Men 4
Wood (w) and D. Lopez and C. Smith w/ N. Lee (a) and Peter (c)

The new team is fresh off their first adventure together wherein Storm was prepared to make the call to kill their friend Karima to protect the world from Arkea. It's a decision that's not exactly sitting well with her teammates, particularly Rachel, who also feels that Storm has installed herself as leader prematurely. The team has to work out their issues as they save a jet with a malfunctioning engine from crashing by hooking it to their Blackbird. Meanwhile, Wolverine escapes the school for a bit to hang out with Jubilee for the first proper time in a long while (they hung out at some point in the last couple years but it was amidst Jubilee turning into a vampire and a clan attacking Wolverine to find he doesn't turn into a vampire very well so it's not a real hangout, you know?). The two friends and Jubilee's adopted son Shogo hit a couple of Jubilee's old favorite places in the California town where she grew up and share a very nice day which ends with Wolverine buying Jubilee's old house, unbeknownst to her. He's a good guy, that one. Also featured prominently on the cover.

Lot of really good stuff in here. It's a bit wordy, particularly as we get accustomed to this team and the way they talk and the issues they have to work out but the words aren't typically wasted. There are a few bits that feel a little forced, particularly with Jubilee as she and Wolverine decide that subtext is for suckers and that they'd rather lay their history out on the table in front of us for all to see but it's still not the worst decision. Jubilee has been removed from the spotlight for a while now and it seems like she's going to be a major player in this book full of people who have stayed very much in the spotlight lately. Best to get everyone caught up. Besides, her relationship with Wolverine does allow for that sort of talk. It's not perfect and you do catch yourself reading a lot of bits like "hey, I was a pretty lost kid myself when the X-Men found me!" but it gets across the points we need and generally keeps pretty uptempo. The other storyline, featuring the actual X-Men team, is even stronger, showing the team dealing with problems and giving us a good sense of personalities on the team. On top of that, it's a little nice to see a crisis solved efficiently and effectively and without a single supervillain showing up. You guys, there wasn't even a supervillain in this book. Kind of neat to just see them being heroes because they can do things like save jets, not because they're the only one matched to fight a supervillain. Solid issue, I think the best that's come about so far. Also a nice side of Wolverine that certainly has existed but isn't focused on a ton.

Cable and X-Force 13
Hopeless and Bunn (w) and Larroca and Sandoval (a) and D'Armata (c)

Hope is still in the future talking to future Hope and Blaquesmith while X-Force, starting to come back together again, is still dealing with problems in the past. We finally get the Dr. Nemesis and Forge bit that I've been waiting for and it does not disappoint, though it's incredibly short-lived as the two argue about the best way to destroy a giant horrible monster (kind of Cthulu-ish but not exactly, for reference), with both shooting down the other's ideas one by one. Domino, Boom-Boom, and Colossus show up and, with a combination of punches and explosions, defeat the monster pretty quickly. As the team talks, Domino reveals that Cable's in trouble and they head out to attack the Uncanny Avengers again. Cable himself is trying to explain things to Alex who finds himself in the difficult position of believing Cable but still unsure how to deal with what seemed to be a terrorist attack to the media by Cable's team and the fact that Cable's seizures are getting worse and worse, causing his powers to go out of control and hurt people nearby. Finally, Hope, in dealing with her future self and Blaquesmith, has found that she's not particularly fond of her future self and the solutions they've come up with. They've made Cable have these visions in the hopes (ha, get it, two Hopes) that he stays in the superhero game (he would have quit, future Hope relates, if not for these visions and it would have doomed the world). Of course, the downside is that now it's killing him and present Hope has to figure that out herself.

A lot going on here and, as I said, the Dr. Nemesis and Forge bit is exactly what I was reading for and I was not disappointed, except in that it's so quickly over. I just want to read them talk with one another. PRO-TIP: read Dr. Nemesis as a 1950s detective or, more accurately, as the Venture Brothers' Cardholder and Doe. It's the most fun in the world and hopefully you'll understand what I see in him. Anyway, the team's stuff is mostly interesting, the Hope stuff feels a little protracted and a bit weak and Cable's stuff is good but we already pretty much know it all, it's just him explaining it to Havok now. Some decent writing carries a bit of the bad stuff though the Hope sections still feel pretty slow and they're the majority of this book. It's tough to wade through a bit of time as Hope can't quite figure out what's happening and, when it all clicks into place, she's angry at future Hope for not realizing her plans might kill Cable. The issue ends with Blaquesmith and future Hope preparing to send Hope back to the past with the corny and shoe-horned line that the weapon she's carrying with her back there is "a fighting chance." Come on, don't leave us with that, you guys. Leave us with Dr. Nemesis finding a new hat! His excursion to a hat store!

Uncanny X-Men 9, X-Men 3

Uncanny X-Men 9
Bendis (w) and Bachalo (a) and Townsend (c)

SHIELD agent Dazzler shows up at Fabio's home to try to talk to him about his new mutation and to get answers about Cyclops' new X-Men team. The atmosphere is not particularly welcoming and she ends up needing to stun Fabio and his family so he can remove Fabio from the situation. Meanwhile, Scott is trying to train his X-Men when the news report of Fabio's abduction hits them. Of course, SHIELD is pretty stupid, as is typical, and didn't think any of their actions through so the X-Men know where he's being held.

I've gone on and on before about the back-and-forth dialogue Bendis employs to make his books seem quick-paced and witty which, in my opinion, fail to do either of those things but rather make the book drag and make every character sound the same, which is to say less like an actual character. It hits home again here as he has a wacky, fun-filled scene at Fabio's house when Fabio's father pulls a gun on Dazzler. Yes, you read that all correctly. Fabio's father pulls a gun on Dazzler and threatens her and it's played off as part of the hilarity of the scene. Later, when SHIELD pulls Fabio in, it takes literally no effort for Scott's team to find him, which Coulson pieces together immediately after they bring the new mutant to them. Both of these things are examples of lazy writing. The people do whatever the plot dictates they do, no matter how inane and ridiculous, simply to move the book forward. The ending features Mystique because Bendis seemingly can't get enough of her and, as Bendis is wont to do, that means she's appearing everywhere he can put her (a la Hawkeye, Luke Cage, and Spider-Woman in his Avengers runs). I think part of the idea in the snappy writing here, if I'm being generous, is that the X-Men have always functioned as something of a family, people bonded together over a connection they didn't choose to have. However, it feels unlike any sort of family and more like a collection of of people who have never entered into a real conversation before in their lives and suddenly all they do is talk, with every character feeling the need to input at least fifty throwaway lines per conversation. So in short, I continue not to recommend this book.

X-Men 3
Wood (w) and Coipel and Morales (a) and L. Martin (c)

The team that left the school is closing in on Arkea back at the hospital she originally landed at, where she took over Jubilee's new son. Waiting for her there is a full wing of people with cybernetic neural implants, meaning that Arkea can take over any and all of them. That's what's waiting for Storm and company when they arrive. Meanwhile, back at the school, her bomb seems to have detonated, though not in an explosive way. Instead, it's done its own thing, hacking the systems at the school and creating, possibly, some Karima drones in the Danger Room. Can Kitty shut the Danger Room down in time? Will it matter if Storm and her team don't shut Arkea down? What will be left of Karima if they succeed?

There's a lot happening here for a three issue arc and it suffers in a respect. You don't want arcs to drag on too long or else they stagnate a bit. However, not giving enough time can make the whole thing feel rushed and poorly explained. That's how I came away feeling after this issue. Arkea certainly was a huge threat, the first and second issues showed that pretty well. In the final issue, though, she seems a whole lot less intimidating. She's sort of intimidating at the school but she's taking on Kitty and a handful of students and her most intimidating moment is when she shuts the oxygen off in a room they quickly break out of. If she's not involved in issue four (unknown, obviously) then this is a weird arc conclusion. Still, the team feels pretty good and they move in an appropriately coordinated way, leaving some faith for the coming series. Feels a bit early to give a judgment on this series, but I wasn't exactly blown away by its first storyline.

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.

X-Men 1, Uncanny X-Force 5

X-Men 1
Wood (w) and Coipel and Morales (a) and L. Martin (c)

John Sublime, powerful enemy of the X-Men, has returned to the mutant corner of the Marvel Universe but seemingly only to ask for help. Also returning to the X-Men is former-mutant-turned-vampire (this is comics, this is how things work out here) Jubilee, now with a baby in tow. It's not her baby and these events aren't unconnected. Sublime followed Jubilee in Europe and in the New York train station while she made contact with the X-Men. He then pushes ahead to the Jean Grey School, where Rachel Grey and Psylocke accept his surrender and begin interrogating him. They learn that he had a sister strain of bacteria who he had more or less pushed away and forced to evolve on her own. She has returned to Earth after millennia in space, feeding off alien technology before riding meteors back to Earth, and seems destined both to do the jobs Sublime couldn't and to kill Sublime, who has come to the X-Men for protection and aid. He reveals to them that Jubilee is connected to this whole situation through the orphan baby she's adopted. That baby seems to be carrying the strain, which Sublime reveals can take over machines the way he takes over people, and the strain causes the train Jubilee and her escort force of Kitty Pryde, Storm, and Rogue are on to switch tracks. The X-Men save the people on the train (if not the train itself) and manage to make it to Westchester. When there, the baby makes contact with a phone that Jubilee has been given and the strain transports itself to Beast's lab, where it takes on a new form and reveals itself as Arkea Prime.

The series starts off with a bang, considering how much information and story we're given to process. It's nearly impossible to make judgment calls on the first issue as there is too much that needs to get done in that time so it's tricky to make definitive statements about a series as a whole and I wouldn't want anyone doing it, let alone myself. So I won't do that. However, I will say that I'm looking forward to seeing all these characters interact. I was looking forward to it before the series started and I'm looking forward to it even more now. I appreciate the way that it was handled this issue and I'm hoping that more time grants more opportunity for that. Though she's already been somewhat quieter than the rest, I love the way Storm is being developed so far. She's quiet and thoughtful and seems to always have something processing. It's a bit early to get a read on everyone at this stage, but hopefully little characterizations come up like that more. For now, though, enjoy this Skottie Young variant cover for X-Men 1.

Uncanny X-Force 5
Humphries (w) and Alphona and Soy (a) and Strain and Curiel (c)

Storm and Psylocke have entered Bishop's fractured mind to try to understand what's going on with the crazed mutant while Puck watches over them and Spiral, their captive. Inside Bishop's mind, Storm and Psylocke move through the memories of their old friend and learn a bit about what the time traveler has been up to since he was exiled in the future by the X-Men for trying relentlessly to kill Hope. They have some sympathy for him, especially when he spares the life of a possessed girl and cures her, despite what his new leaders tell him and when he tells that girl that he now can see how much he tortured Hope and how unconscionable it was. They also manage to see who it was that possessed him, finding the White Owl and the Bear that Psylocke fought and trying to stop him from ever being possessed. As Storm and Psylocke are at work in Bishop's mind, their bodies are taking a bit of a toll, both nose-bleeding as tough mind-reading is wont to cause. Puck doesn't really notice (nor can he really do anything) as Spiral offered him alcohol and now he's telling stories and doing flips and the like. She uses this moment to try to escape but finds Puck isn't quite so incapacitated as she thought and he puts her back down but, at that point, notices that something's wrong: Betsy's body is missing. Cut to Cluster, the Lady Fantomex, driving away with Betsy and swearing that she's safe now.

The way that Bishop's mind is presented and illustrated is pretty stunning, as Storm and Psylocke trek through the ruins trying to figure out what went wrong and what they can do to save it. It does carry on for quite a bit to give us a sense of the person Bishop is now and to create questions for the reader (how was Bishop brought back from the dead? Who is the mysterious Order that Bishop joined up with? What is the White Owl and how are they going to find/stop it? Why did Bishop save the possessed little girl against orders? Where did the White Owl end up? When will we find all of this out?) but there's enough to keep the reader interested. However, it's hard not to feel, still, like the best story is going on in the shadows. Granted, I'm a huge Fantomex fan and it was the Fantomexes that really drove my curiosity about this book, but we're getting their story very slowly or quietly, if at all. I can't say I blame Humphries for this and perhaps the payoff of waiting so long for this story (yes five issues is SO LONG) is going to be enhanced by the way its being divulged, but it's a little hard to get to the end of the issue and go "THAT'S THE STORY I WANTED TO READ, THE ONE WITH THE THREE FANTOMEXES FIGHTING." Still, paves the way for a solid Fantomex issue next time, right? Right?