FF 7, Wolverine and the X-Men 29, X-Factor 256

FF 7
Fraction (w) and M. Allred (a) and L. Allred (c)

Everything FF has been building to (well, a lot of things) comes to a head here in issue seven as Scott is forced to confront his fear of his new children dying in his arms like Cassie, as Darla shows off her new Thing powers pretty impressively, and as the Wizard's plan becomes clear to everyone. The Wizard has transported the Baxter Building into the Negative Zone in the hopes of showing Bentley-23 that his fake family, the FF, is weak and doesn't deserve him whereas his "real" family, comprised of the Wizard, a brainwashed Medusa, and Blastaar, wants him to be home with them. A fight ensues, wherein Scott tells the kids to get ready to battle instead of hiding. Onome expresses concern about that and Scott explains that he's terrified for them every moment of every day but that the world is a scary and dangerous place and they're just as likely to choke on waffles as they are to die in a battle and that eventually you just have to live your life. Leech mostly calms Medusa, who flips in and out of the brainwashing, while Darla fights Blastaar and Scott fights the Wizard. Darla fights surprisingly well but eventually has her Thing suit destroyed by a Blastaar punch. Fortunately, Bentley-23 has rushed off in the Baxter Building and returns with a vest that he wraps Blastaar in and activates, sending him to the end of time (hence his arc in Fantastic Four; well done, Fraction). They stop the Wizard and hand him over to Black Bolt who, despite Medusa's plea for compassion from her husband (as Wizard is clearly insane and just wanted the love of his "son"), "would have words" with Wizard. Meanwhile, Doom questions Alex Power about the FF's plan to "end Doom."

This is a nice wrap up to, really, the team's first arc. There have been plenty of things going on and even a couple of nice standalone sort of issues but this is the first real storyline that's wrapped up. It's especially good going forward because now Medusa can officially be a member of the team, which is always interesting. Add to that the newfound feeling of family the FF seems to have and we have ourselves a different book. The writing continues to be solid and the art fits incredibly well. The Allreds create images and colors that call back images of the original Fantastic Four books and in a bygone generation of comics as a whole. Even the cover image (shown above) has the old school style coloring and drawing with the rarely seen word bubbles on the cover explaining some of what's happening. If I had a stronger knowledge of F4 covers, I'd even say it's a direct parody of one, just as old John Storm's walk through the bowery an issue or two ago. Very fun book, well executed again.

Wolverine and the X-Men 29
Aaron (w) and R. Perez (a) and L. Martin (c)

Fresh off his return from the Savage Land, Wolverine makes a speech to the students and faculty of the Jean Grey School, thanking them for sticking with him and explaining to them that he knows the school is important and that the person he is today is a far different one than the one he'd be without Xavier's school in his past. They bury a time capsule to be opened in 25 years. Fortunately for us, we are merely an audience, so we are then transported 25 years into the future to see what exactly is going on when the time capsule is opened. The school still exists and Wolverine is still there (though now weirdly with grey hair; he doesn't seem to have aged at all in his first 100+ years alive but these last 25 seem to have really gotten to him. Maybe it's the teaching). Looking inside, he finds something that unsettles him and that he can trace back to everything going wrong. Longtime comic fans will already recognize this set-up as boilerplate teaser issue and they're 100% correct. Grey-hair Wolverine teleports into space to a satellite maintained by a now 40 year old Eye Boy, who monitors all mutant activity and other such things and dispatches controls as needed. Locked away in the satellite is time travel equipment which Wolverine hopes to use, despite Eye Boy's request not to and the fact that Wolverine has clearly gotten into trouble doing this before. Eye Boy is needed on Earth and so leaves Wolvy there, saying that he's welcome to use the time machine stuff if he really needs to but that maybe he should just leave a note to the present day Wolverine (as is grey-hair Wolverine's intent) that says "thanks," as Eye Boy clearly appreciates what he's done for him. Grey-hair eventually does just that. Meanwhile, in the present, Idie meets with a shadowy traitor from the Jean Grey School who has joined the Hellfire Academy and requests to join as well.

As I said, this is pretty boilerplate for comics. It doesn't happen in every series (thankfully) but there are several series that wish to tease the future of their books by actually showing the future to keep people interested. In Bendis' Avengers run, near the beginning of the Heroic Age, there was an issue of Avengers that found the present day Avengers transported into the future by Kang and looking over a timeline Kang had constructed of events that were happening. The timeline was at least mildly familiar to fans as they could see events that had happened already on it and events that they knew were set to happen (this was just prior to Johnny Storm's "death" and there was a marker on the timeline that said "THREE," for example). It's a way of keeping people onboard without having to actually thread suspense through the series. Am I a little bitter about it? Maybe. It is boilerplate but that doesn't mean that it's the best routine. Maybe the first time or two that you see it you'll pour over the dialogue and try to piece together the things they're referring to but, in the end, I try not to read solicits for a reason. I care about a long-term plan for these characters and these books, sure, but I don't appreciate the poking and prodding that seems to say "hey, do you care yet? Want me to tell you what's going to happen? Going to have to keep reading!" I was already going to keep reading, Wolverine and the X-Men. You didn't have to waste an issue telling me to.

X-Factor 256
David (w) and Kirk and Leisten (a) and Milla (c)

Interesting ending to the seemingly very long Lords of Hell storyline. Tier, after explaining for about the fiftieth time who he is, kills all the hell lords who had previously lost and makes his way to Mephisto. Polaris and Jezebel are leading an army of goat-Madroxes through the gates in a frontal assault while the rest of the team comes in through the backdoor. Tier attacks Mephisto, who in turn traps him and attacks Shatterstar and Rictor. Tier breaks free and starts to attack Mephisto again but eventually is slain through the gut with a trident by Guido, who has just appeared on the scene. As the rules of the game were "whoever kills Tier becomes the lord of Hell," Guido assumes the throne. He uses his power to restore Monet (obviously) and sends her away. Layla, who was away from the action with Madrox-prime, is transported onto a city building's roof, unsure of what's happening and having lost Jamie. Hopefully the defeat of Mephisto will return Jamie to mutant form and out of goat form because he has sorely been missing from this arc.

It's an interesting ending because it puts Guido in a position of power and takes Tier out of the equation. Of course, that's going to make Rahne even more violent and angry and therefore present, but you can't win on all counts. OKAY, look, I really didn't like Tier and I wasn't a big fan of this story in general. I guess I didn't even totally mind the story (except that it seemed to last forever) but it's hard to really feel involved with the story when you don't care about the narrator and, in essence, the driving force. Madrox is also my favorite member of the team so losing him to a transformation didn't help my feelings for the arc. Just as it seemed Tier might end up staying with the team in the case of their victory, Guido ends that, which is interesting enough purely based on what Guido's become, and takes over as lord of hell. Nice little twist to finish it off that I, admittedly, never saw coming. Looking forward to the next arc which will have to resolve quite a few things and which, Peter David willing, will restore Madrox to the character we know and love.