X-Men Battle of the Atom 2, Ultimate X-Men 33, Uncanny X-Force 13

X-Men Battle of the Atom 2
Aaron (w) and Ribic w/ Camuncoli and Currie and Palmer (a) and Svorcina w/ Mossa and Guru eFX (c)

Everyone has to take a moment to deal with the SHIELD attack started by Xorn and Xavier. By and large, the X-Men seem to realize that maybe this is a little out of form for SHIELD but they do eventually have to ask some questions as some SHIELD-authorized Sentinels appear. It's these attacks that are more troubling (why do they have Sentinels?) and more damage-inducing, as they kill old Hank McCoy and old Jubilee. Xavier also kills old Colossus and I THINK that's the full casualty list. You'll note, of course, that all of these deaths are from characters that may or may not exist in the future? Anyway, time travel. So the combined X-Men manage to defeat the Brotherhood (though the surviving members scatter in the present, like real jerks) and Ilyana teleports them all back to Westchester. There are a number of epilogues by a number of different X-creators and it basically boils down to the following: the team from the future goes back, the original X-Men are staying in the present because of course they are, Storm's future daughter Kymera is staying behind to track the Brotherhood, and Kitty and the original X-Men are going to Scott's X-team.

I really hated this event, you guys. And now that it's over, I can safely say that I hated it all the way through and that nothing changed my opinion about it. There's a ton of the back-and-forth dialogue here with altogether too many quips for the seriousness of the situation. There are very few (if any) of the kind of idealogical questions that X-Men has been known for over time (other than, you know, the ethics of time travel, a thing that doesn't exist). The original X-Men are still here and now Kitty, who was, perhaps, more burned than anyone by the Phoenix Force business, is leading them to Scott's camp because she feels like she can't trust anyone at the school to have her back because they didn't listen to her when she said she wanted the kids to stay (I think? It's not a very clear argument). Just so, so glad this business is over. Hard not to compare it to Infinity as both are happening at the same time but one has wonderful pacing and a huge, epic feel to it that certainly had its share of fights but they were all meaningful and different. Guess which event I'm talking about now? Guys, it was Infinity. Obviously it was Infinity.

Ultimate X-Men 33
Wood (w) and A. Martinez and J. Lucas (a) and Sotomayor (c)

Pixie is teleporting everyone from Tian to Utopia while Kitty meets with Jean hoping against hope for a peaceful resolution. They fight for a bit but still Kitty does it with the hope that Jean will listen to reason. Jean's main argument, of course, is that Tian is a sacred and perfect place and that mutants need to be united. Kitty explains why she doesn't believe that; she believes mutants are united, they just don't want to be ruled by Jean and this has kind of shown why. Kitty knocks down Jean and reunites with a healing Jimmy before Jean knocks them both out from behind, believing she's won the war. However, she suddenly realizes that there are no more citizens in Tian and Pixie appears to take Kitty and Jimmy away behind her, saying that she'll come back for Jean if Jean wants, especially given the bombs that are now raining down on the city. Jean struggles to survive through the falling Utopian attack and is eventually rescued by Storm and brought to Utopia, where she begins to make a new life for herself, admitting a couple weeks later that Tian feels like a thing of the past and that she's gotten better than she deserves from the people of Utopia. Kitty, meanwhile, suffers no retribution for the attack on Tian, for which she takes absolutely all responsibility. The government is still rebuilding and doesn't have the time nor the funds to press any charges if, indeed, there are charges to be pressed here. Everyone seems a little more comfortable with Tian off the board and they all seem okay with mutants policing themselves for the time being. World War X isn't entirely without casualties, though, as the Sentient Seed's consciousness is apparently dead.

Plenty still happening and a very cool ending for the World War X arc we've just finished but I want to note that this is also a really good way to end the series, if indeed Cataclysm does bring the Ultimate Universe to its end. Another good issue from the Ultimate X-Men team as we get some resolution at last for the problems that have been building for some time now. It's also got a nice question, a little bigger and broader than a lot of X-Men theme questions, which normally focus on good vs. evil and the like (okay, they're bigger than that). These are questions about nation-building and the place of this race in the world in an even broader sense than in the "humans fear us" kind of way. Pretty cool and it still fits really well with the themes we've built over the last year as Kitty has taken her X-Men to the next level here. As a quick note, Magneto destroyed New York with a tidal wave once in this universe and yet these X-Men, though smaller, seem like they may be doing better than the 616's X-Men. Who is dropping the ball over there?

Uncanny X-Force 13
Humphries (w) and Briones w/ Unzueta (a) and Curiel w/ Rosenberg (c)

The Revenants, led by Cassandra Nova, are primed to enter our world and Psylocke and company realize that they could use some help with the oncoming storm. Unfortunately, Nova, an omega-level telepath herself, has locked down psychic transmissions coming in or out of Los Angeles so Psylocke cannot contact anyone quickly enough (I guess as a psychic, you stop carrying cellphones). It's up to their little ragtag band to stop Nova from opening the portal to allow all of the Revenants in and, failing that, up to them to try to help stop the Revenants, an impossible army consisting of angry shadow-duplicates of every living being on Earth. They manage to crash Nova's party just as the Revenants are starting to come through and the fight quickly turns south as Nova has counter defenses for some of them specifically and as she manages to repossess the Demon Bear that's been at Psylocke's side for the majority of this journey. Now the Great Corruption (as Bishop calls it) is open and only the death of a telepath can close it. Bad news, as Nova now has Psylocke so controls the local telepaths.

This series is shaping up nicely with a pretty intense story and some nice characterization shining through in this issue, particularly between Storm and Psylocke. I know that it's a comic book but the rules of this little venture seem a bit arbitrary, which would be my biggest complaint about this. This is a new sort of enemy (even if Nova isn't new) so there are no established rules for this sort of thing, yet Bishop and others keep throwing out rules as if we know them. I'm not complaining, necessarily, about the rules themselves, but it it a little hard to follow without anything set up ahead of time and it makes it feel like simply roadblocks when we actually get to a big moment. The psychic shut-down of LA, for example, meaning no one thinks to pick up a phone is strange. The death of a telepath thing feels like something that was well-thought out but never really explained to us so it comes off as arbitrary even if it wasn't by design. Still, overall an engaging story with signs of progress for a series that felt like it was kind of spinning its wheels for a while.

X-Men Battle of the Atom 1, All-New X-Men 16

X-Men Battle of the Atom 1
Bendis (w) and Cho w/ Immonen and von Grawbadger (a) and Gracia (c)

Eagle-eyed readers will notice that I've been a bit wary about events of late. I've tried to maintain that an event, by its nature, isn't a bad thing as long as there's a story worth telling. Marvel has worked for a long time to make a universe that is interconnected so it stands to reason that we should, occasionally, have stories that involve the entire universe. As long as they're good stories. Meanwhile, the future X-Men have shown up to tell the present X-Men to send the past X-Men back home or else we'll get a dystopian future that screams of both Age of Ultron and Days of Future Past. Let's start from the beginning. By which I mean with pages of recap of what's happening. Nevermind, let's not start with that, except to say that the first page shows Illyana jumping into the future to see what becomes of the X-Men (because traveling through time and space is only ripping apart the universe when it's convenient for a story. BENDIS, you wrote Age of Ultron, these are your rules) in a scene that is reminiscent to the opening scenes of Age of Ultron and many scenes in Days of Future Past. Things are going badly and she writes a letter to Scott Summers to sum up what he already knows and that's our lazy, lazy introduction. Anyway, Kitty and her team of All-New X-Men go to identify and either help or bring down a new mutant with dangerous powers in Arizona. Pretty quickly upon their arrival, a score of Sentinels attack followed by the appearance of Cyclops' team, presumably monitoring Sentinel activity. There's the usual Bendis banter and the two teams combined manage to bring down the Sentinels (suddenly, again when it's convenient, Kitty is happy to see Scott; not just in a "we could really use help" way, in a way that seems like "gee how we've all missed you!"). One Sentinel shoots young Scott, knocking him to the edge of death. Old Cyclops disappears until Triage, Cyclops' new mutant healer, saves Scott. Cyclops blips back into existence and everyone goes home. The present-day X-Men vote to send the past X-Men home (finally) when they're interrupted by the X-Men of the future appearing among them.

I feel like if someone were to write a parody of All-New X-Men, it would read a little like this. Actually, it would read almost entirely like this. "The future X-Men have shown up to tell the present X-Men to send the past X-Men back home" is a sentence I actually wrote up there and no one finds that ridiculous? I wasn't thrilled with the opening, loaded with exposition and summation, but I started to try to accept this book even as it started feeling like every other event it could get its hands on. When they voted to send the original X-Men home, I was like "duh, finally." (why it took someone almost dying to realize implications of time travel in a world that has had Back to the Future for over 25 years now is beyond me) Then the future X-Men showed up and I switched off again. Is there a way to make this event interesting and not hacky again? I don't know. Maybe. I sure don't know what it is though. And chapter two of the event, reviewed next, certainly doesn't help things (spoilers).

All-New X-Men 16
Bendis (w) and Immonen and von Grawbadger (a) and Gracia (c)

The future X-Men chat with the present X-Men about sending the past X-Men home (ug, had to write it again) and explain that not sending them home would be a giant mistake, wondering why they haven't done it already. The future X-Men team has older versions of Kitty, Beast, Iceman, Deadpool, and Runaway Molly Hayes, as well as a younger man claiming to be Xavier's grandson (named Xavier) and someone costumed as Xorn, former X-Men teammate and eventual betrayer and killer of Jean Grey. All the basic jokes come out ("I look like that in the future?") before young Jean panics, unable to read the newcomers' minds, and creates a situation wherein chaos ensues and she and young Scott run away. Back at the school, they all talk some more and Xorn reveals herself to be, in fact, Jean Grey, because of course she is. Everyone wonders why young Jean and Scott ran off and Xavier and Jean reveal that it's because they were guarding their thoughts, which makes Wolverine as suspicious as Jean had been. The reveal of Jean as Xorn, though, is where we leave off, seeing as well that young Jean and Scott have beached themselves somewhere removed after Jean reveals that she can't go home because she's afraid her new psychic powers will fight back against their Xavier if he tries to wipe their minds.

Imagine a Sherlock Holmes story where Sherlock leads the police from a recently murdered corpse through a house, following bloody footsteps, to a man holding a bloody knife and a gun (he used the knife, the gun is a clever red herring) talking to himself about the murder he just committed and, upon seeing this, the police yell "By Jove, Holmes, I don't know how but you've done it again!" That's what this kind of feels like. Everyone is suddenly incredibly stupid and we're supposed to accept this as a story because everyone is equally stupid so the tension is exactly the same as it would be if everyone was incredibly intelligent. Here, the biggest idiotic thing we're forced to accept as clever is Jean's panic over the fact that the future X-Men are guarding their minds. You might be able to pass it off as simply an excuse she used to run away before she was sent home but then even Wolverine, when he finds out the future X-Men are guarding their minds, says "Now why would you go and do a thing like that?" This is after nearly FIFTEEN ISSUES of people telling Jean that she shouldn't be reading other people's thoughts without their permission. People are constantly guarding their thoughts from psychics in the Marvel Universe because, if they didn't, there would be no ambiguity. So yes, there is ambiguity of people merely mention that thoughts are being blocked but to use it as a full-on plot device is so stupid. I would talk about more but there really isn't much more. There's one scene where the present X-Men talk to the future X-Men (making jokes and exposition) and then that scene is replayed as the backdrop to Jean trying to convince first Henry, who won't bite, to run away with her and then Scott, who instantly agrees. I BETTER GET NIGHTCRAWLER BACK OUT OF THIS STORY.

Comics this week

Back down to 12 major releases from Marvel this week which means that my week is a little bit lighter but no less meaningful. We have a couple of books at or hurtling towards their finales and a couple of events continuing this week. So let's pick the five most anticipated then, shall we?

Infinity 2
The really big Marvel summer event is pushing on even as summer is winding down. I thought the first issue was interesting enough and big enough to justify an event and I'll be curious to see if that holds true in issue two. Also, we've now had a number of tie-ins to book one (including Avengers Assemble, Avengers, Captain Marvel, and New Avengers) so I feel like we've covered most of that ground by now, leaving us ready to start issue two. I liked the books that tied in with issue one well enough but I worry that this format, if it continues to be like this (which at least Avengers and New Avengers will certainly do), will burn the event out faster than just the six main event books. We'll have to see.

Iron Man 15
I've really enjoyed Gillen's run on Iron Man and particularly this arc and the 451 storyline. I believe that's winding down so I'll be very anxious to see where it goes and where it goes after the conclusion. As an individual issue I'm very excited to see where this one will take us as we left the last one on the big cliffhanger of Tony not being able to control the suit and 451, unaware of his attempt to do so, destroying a planet then pointing the computer at Earth. Lots going on and just a brilliant series as it's been. Happy to have this one come out.

X-Factor 262
The final book of X-Factor, sadly. There has been talk, though nothing official that I know of, of a new X-Factor series taking the place of this one but I'd imagine that spells the end of Peter David's time on this book (which is not inconsiderable). It's been a solid book from start to finish, providing plenty of fun and some great characterization of a lot of mutants who normally wouldn't get that kind of focus anywhere else in the Universe. Hopefully most of these guys find a home, whether in the new X-Factor series or elsewhere in the Universe. Regardless, sad to see this one go. They better wrap up Madrox's goat head killer thing because I really love Madrox and the fact he hasn't been able to talk the last however many issues now is devastating for the book.

X-Men Battle of the Atom 1
It's hard not to be a little burned out on events right now but my feeling continues to be that events can't be ruled out simply because they're events; if the story and characterization is good, it was worth having an event for. Granted, this one (like Infinity) crosses over between several books in the coming couple of months, which is a format I rather hate (suddenly consumers are paying loads to follow a single story), but the idea of events can't rule out the possibility of a meaningful story. ALSO, still optimistic we could be getting Nightcrawler back here, so I'm hopeful.

X-Men Legacy 16
It's not often that I have this many X-books on my pre-game post but it's also not often that a really long-running X-book ends, an X-event kicks off, and a fantastic X-book release an issue all in one week. I can't get enough of this series. It is, in my mind, the pinnacle of X-books right now, including any solo mutant book (which this pretty much is, despite the "X-Men" tag in the name). There are other solid books out there (though I'd say the majority of the best ones are ending soon) but this one is consistently amazing and one of the best books at Marvel, let alone in the X-wing of the Universe. This issue should see David going after Cyclops and his X-Men with his renewed power going up against Cyclops' team's out-of-control powers. Legacy will not tie in with Battle of the Atom and I think we'll end up better for it.