Astonishing X-Men 59, Uncanny X-Force 2, Uncanny X-Men 2

Astonishing X-Men 59
Liu (w) and Walta (a) and Peter (c)

The X-Termination event that's coming to very specific places of the Marvel Universe kicks off in Astonishing X-Men as Wolverine takes his astonishing team to try to hunt down Age of Apocalypse Nightcrawler. It's an interesting idea, particularly as I was always very intrigued by the ideas that Nightcrawler represented, as I talked about early in this blog's history with X-Force. Those ideas are coming at us full force, it would seem, in this little event, if this issue is to be believed. Wolverine has some serious trust issues after allowing himself to see Nightcrawler as his old best friend and now he feels extra betrayed by the way things ended. After Nightcrawler killed AoA Blob (by putting a SHARK inside of him, i.e. best murder EVER), Wolverine sets out to find and exact revenge on him for the betrayal. The only thing I don't really like is, if that is the murder they keep talking about (and I don't remember another murder Nightcrawler committed in X-Force), Nightcrawler told Wolverine all along that his goal was to kill Blob. When he was a part of their covert kill team. And he told Wolverine who, as Bobby points out in this issue, doesn't have the best moral compass himself. If that's the true issue, it seems a little weak.

There are some lines in here that show it's not the full issue; the full issue is that this isn't the 616's Nightcrawler and Wolverine feels betrayed that it's not, but that still isn't on Nightcrawler. Nightcrawler said all along that they weren't friends, that he wasn't their Nightcrawler. I can understand Wolverine being mad that Nightcrawler betrayed the team overall (because he did, but not by killing Blob) but, again, as bad as it was, I didn't see it as a huge crime. Nightcrawler made his intentions very clear from the get-go. I don't think it's on him that Wolverine feels played. Anyway, the rest of this event should be good; I still really like the idea behind this Nightcrawler and I'm interested to see where he ends up.

Uncanny X-Force 2
Humphries (w) and Garney and Miki w/ Hanna (a) and Gracia w/ Gonzalez and Quintana (c)

Things are heating up in the new Uncanny X-Force. As Psylocke fights her way through a drugged up crowd intent on destroying her thanks to some new psychic imagery, Storm and Puck chase down Spiral, who has left with the new mutant girl casting the psychic imagery on the crowd at the club. MEANWHILE, Bishop is back in the present and crazier than ever. His mind is clearly warped and he growls and roars a whole lot. He also seems more powerful than before, or at least more violently powerful. MEANWHILE AGAIN, Fantomex is out on a date with Cluster (which is still creepy but losing some of that, SOMEHOW) and they discuss missing Betsy. If they miss Betsy, Cluster explains, then so must the dark, mutant-hating Fantomex. Now they feel obligated to track down and protect Betsy, which will likely be a super happy and not at all uncomfortable or rage-inspiring reunion. Almost definitely.

I do like what we've seen so far of character building. I like that Fantomex gets Cluster stolen presents and that we quickly find out that he also used to steal presents for Betsy. I think that's a pretty great touch for his character. I also appreciate that Betsy isn't meant to play by the rules. She's "given up" on killing but she will still psychically control people to fight on her behalf, even warping their mind into thinking that they're playing a video game when they fight on her behalf. That's another nice touch; Betsy doesn't play by rules, she's a ninja. She plays to win.

I will say, I don't love the way that swearing is dealt with in this book. I guess I'm not opposed to the fact they swear; it's a rougher book than most, the characters likely would swear more. However, when someone swears, instead of the generic "%#$!" thing comics will do, they black out the whole word in a black box. I don't know if it's just because it's new and different or because I don't like it, but it's a bit distracting. If that's my biggest issue, sure, I shouldn't be upset. On the other hand, they swear enough that I have to keep being reminded of it. It kind of makes it a little hard to really pull me into that world. Oh well, it is what it is and what it is is probably very minor.

Uncanny X-Men 2
Bendis (w) and Bachalo with Townsend, Mendoza, Vey, and Olazara (a) and Bachalo (c)

Magneto is still betraying these X-Men for reasons I'm still not entirely clear about. I get that he's mad that his powers aren't working and maybe even that he blames Scott for the loss of his powers (though I think Magneto is smarter than that). I still don't really accept it. I also don't really accept that he'd go against finding and training mutants, as that's what he's done all his adult life. Yes he went against Professor X's dream, but this isn't totally following in that dream. Maybe he's mad at Scott for killing Xavier. Again though, I've never seen Magneto as that small-minded. Not that losing your oldest friend wouldn't be unbelievably hard, but Magneto's always been bigger than that. I don't know. I just don't buy it.

Maybe that seems like a small complaint, but it's half of what's driving this book right now. There are other things to talk about, like Scott and Emma's relationship, the discovery of these new mutants and their training, the loss (or gain, in Ilyana's case) of powers and more, but Magneto's betrayal of this X-Men team is what's driving a lot of the plot right now. That makes it a pretty big deal in terms of how this book progresses. Who knows, maybe it's a double cross; maybe he's sending the Avengers there thinking the mutants will damage them. I don't think so, though. The Avengers and X-Men were pretty evenly matched before Emma and Scott lost their powers. I don't know. Maybe it'll clear up a bit. How that shapes up is going to define the start of this series.

Otherwise, things are progressing okay, if a little slowly. I'm a little more skeptical than normal because, as I've said before, Bendis tends to worry me in these kinds of things. He wants people to converse. A lot. Conversation is great in comics because they drive characterization and plot and what not. It's important, okay? But Bendis' books kind of all sound the same, and this is already moving a little in that direction for my liking. I don't know. Maybe I'm calling it too early because I've been disappointed in the past. It did get to a point though where I was predicting upcoming lines accurately. Lines, not plot. Lines and who would say them, even though we have very little time with these new mutants. We'll see where this goes.