Astonishing X-Men 63, Wolverine and the X-Men 31, Ultimate X-Men 27

Astonishing X-Men 63
Liu (w) and Walta (a) and Peter (c)

The mystery surrounding the weather and the recent changes in Bobby persists as his X-Men team gets involved. Bobby himself is unsure exactly what is happening with him as he contacts former girlfriend Opal again to talk. Bobby hints towards rekindling their relationship but Opal rebuffs him, knowing this situation is so strange and that she can't expose her son to the weird happenings of superheroes and what they have to deal with. Dejected and a little ashamed, he leaves, running into Mystique on his way  home. Meanwhile, the X-Men are investigating the strange cold-front that has moved in worldwide as well as investigating Bobby's ex-girlfriends. Even though it was Mystique who tipped Gambit off to looking into Bobby for all of this (and even though she's notoriously untrustworthy), the X-Men have to agree that he might have some link to this. Their suspicions are confirmed when they find a room full of ice every place they attempt to find an ex-girlfriend of Bobby's. Opal and Kitty, now seemingly the only two untouched by Bobby, meet at Opal's home to discuss what's been happening with Bobby and Opal reveals that he's far more complicated than his typically cheery exterior would present. Instead, he's often depressed, haunted by a racist and controlling father and left feeling like he's never been good enough or strong enough. They're interrupted when ice fills the home and Opal, clutching her son Robert, is taken from the home. Kitty follows her, now trapped in an ice cube being escorted by a couple of Bobby's ice clones, and tries to reason with Bobby. Eventually she settles for phasing Opal and Robert out of the ice and falling into the snow below, phasing just below the surface to remain hidden. Wolverine and his team arrives, comprised of himself, Gambit, Warbird, and Karma to find Kitty, Opal, and Robert, but the group is quickly surrounded by ice clones. Karma can't feel any thoughts emanating off of them, nor off of the real Bobby, who has just arrived. Bobby calmly explains that he's done being the nice guy, the obedient friend, and would instead prefer to take everything he deserves. Warbird tries to stab him through the chest but they find he's all ice underneath. He grows huge in scale and crushes Wolverine, declaring himself Iceman, all while a purple glint shines in his eyes.

There's a great deal going on here, as you can tell by the long summary. It's all very interesting and gets into a lot of real questions about Bobby. Iceman has long been the light-hearted jokester of the X-Men, preferring to relieve tension like so much Spider-Man. The reveal that he's actually far darker than he lets on isn't necessarily groundbreaking but it's a nice addition to his character. It's probably an addition that longtime X-fans already know full well but it's still a welcome one, giving the character a bit more depth for this run. There's obviously something even darker going on here but it seems to have its seeds in real issues for Bobby. This also touches on things that X-writers have been playing it for some time now, which is that Bobby is an incredibly powerful mutant who has never touched his potential. Sure seems like he is now, even if it's slightly enhanced by whatever it is that's hiding out inside of him. Really good questions presented here that could lead to a lot of character development, provided Bobby and the crew come out of this alive and not evil.

Wolverine and the X-Men 31
Aaron (w) and Bradshaw and Wong (a) and L. Martin (c)

Quentin Quire has infiltrated the Hellfire Academy in the hopes of helping Idie with her search for Broo's attacker. He doesn't detect any telepaths so he communicates freely with Idie and tries to search the minds of the heads of the school there. There is a running gag about an unfortunate new mutant named Snot who has a tremendous excess of mucus. The gag is mostly that and the fact that he's bad at everything. Eventually he's called to the principal's office and he disappears. We get looks at many of the courses and the instructors, all aimed at developing new evil mutants and led by evildoers from all about the X-Universe. Meanwhile, Wolverine and Storm head up a search for their missing children, but are unsuccessful, leading Wolverine to proclaim that they need to shut down the school as they can't protect the kids this way, it seems. Back at the Hellfire Academy, Quentin is unimpressed by the set-up and eventually gets called down to the principal himself, leading him to a face-to-face with Kade Kilgore. There he finds out that his mind is being read by the Philistine and that none of his secret machinations are, in fact, so secret after all. Kade regrets the fact that he's not the rabble-rousing mutant he once was and plans to throw him into the Siege Perilous, as he did with Snot before Quentin, transforming Snot into a far more impressive mutant (though still with the snot).

I continue to be unsure for whom this book is made. It spends a whole ton of time showing us that the school is made up of evildoers and evildoers are the teachers, which could pay off if every faculty member is really relevant going forward but I'm not sure we wouldn't have sufficed just by seeing them in passing or hearing about them or seeing them when Wolverine eventually fights them, if indeed he does. The Snot jokes are repetitive and mostly gross-out and the plot itself is very barebones. All of this makes me feel like this book is not meant for me and is, instead, meant for a younger audience to have an X-Men book of their own. Looking at it that way, I think it's probably a better book than I'm giving it credit for but still a bit wordy at that rate and filled with a really big cast of C-list villains for kids to digest. Weird book in its intended audience.

Ultimate X-Men 27
Wood (w) and Asrar and Vlasco (a) and Bellaire (c)

The army is primed for attack, but Ross wants to give the mutants a reasonable amount of time to surrender themselves. It's a good thing, too, because things on the island have reached a breaking point. Jean Grey has discovered Psylocke and her plan, leaving two omega level mutants at odds. They fight, with Psylocke psychically impersonating Jean to send her air support away. While they fight, Psylocke is also stirring the mutants on Utopia to prepare for battle, as she has been all along, and nudging soldiers in the army outside ever so slightly to get them to act impulsively and shoot on the land, as she's been doing all along. An initial strike team is led into Utopia and comes across Storm and Blackheath. One of the soldiers, prompted by Psylocke, switches from non-lethal rounds to bullets and injures Storm, causing Blackheath to go a bit berserk and take out the whole unit. Storm is okay and the two embrace. Finally, Jean and Psylocke's fight ends as Jean gets some separation and her air support, who, in fact, did not fall for Psylocke's ruse, crashes down on Psylocke. With their controller apparently dead, everyone's will is freed and Jimmy, among others, begins to feel like maybe they shouldn't pursue this fight. Rogue says that it's possible they won't have to fight this war and instructs Utopia to begin. Utopia, the sentient seed itself, curls up as if to protect the mutants or to stave off the attackers. Guess we'll find out next time.

I've really liked this series through its run (as evidenced by one of my VERY FIRST POSTS on this blog) and this storyline is no different. On top of the fact that the government repossessing mutants is an incredibly compelling storyline (especially the way it backstabs the mutants), knowing what we know now about Psylocke recasts a lot of this long story. We suddenly understand Mach Two's turn and we understand Jimmy's warmongering and we understand the soldiers who are opening fire against orders time and again. Not that we didn't know that Psylocke was pushing them all along, but now we have the hard proof of it. With her dead, how will the story proceed? Another surprise in this storyline has been Jean's embrace of Utopia. There's a very sensible explanation to it, with Jean realizing that the existence of Tian is directly connected to the existence of Utopia, but it's nice to see it coming to fruition and watching Jean understand what their connection means. This has just been a really solid series right from the get-go and has only improved with age. It's a good premise with a lot of good twists along the way. Solid storytelling, solid characters, solid arcs, overall a very entertaining book.