Astonishing X-Men 68, X-Men 6

Astonishing X-Men 68
Liu (w) and Walta (a) and Peter (c)

The final issue of Astonishing X-Men and it shouldn't surprise long-time comic readers that this one is more focused on the team and where they go from here than on big battles or climactic finishes. Our narration sticks with Warbird, who is coming to terms with the artist side of herself, the side that defies the Shi'ar warrior side. After another disgusting show by Dark Beast, Warbird is outvoted in whether or not they should kill him and it startles her, pushing her back to her warrior roots. After a talk with Karma, though, she begins to accept that, on Earth, she can be both the warrior and the artist and that she doesn't have to give up anything. Meanwhile, Northstar draws Bobby out of the (understandable) funk he's been in so that Bobby can go to the courthouse with Northstar and Kyle for their immigration hearing. It seems that everything works out and even Warbird truly understands that she has a place among the X-Men and that she'd rather stay with them than be back on her home planet.

As I intimated, this is not anything particularly unexpected but that doesn't make it any less meaningful. This is the kind of issue you want to end a book with, and kind of have to end a book like this with. It's a great nod to the eclectic nature of this group, which teamed some popular X-Men staples with less known X-Men characters and saw them fight well together and care for one another. The thing about a book like this, in theory the thing about X-Men books, is at the end of the day, these people want to be with one another. After the best days, they want to be with each other. After the worst days, they want to be with each other. This book has very much had the familial feel to it all the way through; that's what it was built on back when Whedon kicked it off. It's fitting that it ends with them all discussing what family means with the X-Men and pointing out just how strange they are to be together. It's a team that works well and that has more than enough strong characters, where everyone serves their own specific role, but that isn't bogged down by size, as so often happens these days. Nice ending to a nice book.

X-Men 6
Wood (w) and D. López and C. Smith w/ Pallott (a) and L. Martin w/ Milla (c)

Battle of the Atom continues as Wolverine's X-Men, along with the future X-Men, return to the mansion to send home the past X-Men. Wolverine still doesn't quite trust the future team but believes sending the kids back is the right call. Still, he asks Rachel, telepathically, to keep tabs on the future X-Men. It turns out, of course, to be a good idea, when they arrive home and find that past Hank and Bobby have gone to the future. The future team realizes this means their cover is blown and instantly begins fighting against the present and past X-Men so they can escape or, in the very least, be prepared for when the real future X-Men inevitably show up. They manage to mostly secure the school pretty quickly and to knock out their opposition, with the exceptions of Jubilee, Bling and Psylocke, who are met by the future's Sentinel-X, a member of the real future team that has transported back to the past and met up with Scott's team. Sentinel-X, who looks not dissimilar to Iron Man, reveals himself to be a grown Shogo, Jubilee's adopted son.

It's a pretty solid battle between the forces and we don't have the ridiculous fan-service-y Jean Grey fights, which certainly helps. In fact, we don't hear much at all from the past X-Men which, again, totally helps. The writing on this issue is certainly the best of the series, again proving that Brian Wood's book would be doing really well if it didn't have this interruption so early into its run. The characterization is good, particularly with this X-Men team (Storm, Psylocke, Rachel, and Jubilee especially). Everyone gets a couple of good, unforced lines and a couple of nice moves in the battle itself. The issue, of course, is that the plot continues to go crazy and now we have a full X-Men war developing with combatants from all time periods and, oh, I didn't mention, apparently future Kitty was actually the son of Wolverine and apparently Mystique ALL ALONG and what is happening. A for writing, A- for art, D for plot. Turns out that really does hurt a book, though the strong writing certainly salvaged part of this.