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.