X-Men 10

X-Men 10
Wood (w) and Anka and C. Mann (a) and Keith and Mounts (c)

Arkea and her new sisterhood have moved from Dubai and plan to continue their journey and to combat the X-Men with their newfound power and with a a couple more tricks up their sleeves. Their first obvious trick is that the original meteor that brought Arkea back to Earth broke apart in the ocean and managed to find itself some old Sentinels that had long since sunk and now Arkea controls them and can constantly repair and adapt them to the X-Men's attacks. The second trick is that Arkea wants to resurrect Madelyne Pryor (the horribly messed-up continuity former wife of Cyclops/Goblin Queen/mother to Cable/whatever else she may or may not be) and Selene Gallio (psychic vampire and former Black Queen of the Hellfire Club), to the chagrin of Lady Deathstrike. Meanwhile, the X-Men are trying to track and stop the spread of Arkea before it gets too out of hand. Their efforts aren't going particularly well (though Monet isn't dead after last issue so that's a win for them) and things are made more complicated by Rachel's feelings for and ultimate denial of John Sublime. A group of the X-Men students (or recent graduates or something, not ever quite sure of the way the school works) go to meet the Sentinels coming up on the beach and quickly discover the fight is going to be more of a challenge than it seemed.

This isn't a bad issue to jump in on if you're a new reader looking for a solid way into this series. What I will say is that the somewhat extensive recap that this one gives is somewhat lacking in describing Arkea's endgame, what her plot is actually meant to achieve beyond destroying the X-Men. I believe she's looking for world domination still but there is a sense that maybe she should have a little more drive. Still, the plot is fairly well-explained in a way that should be engaging to new readers and which isn't too exposition-heavy. There are a few mistakes in this issue that kind of take people out of the issue a little bit, even if only for the moment (at one point, an empty helicopter is given speech bubbles meant to be directed off-panel to Arkea and one of her sisterhood. Also, Selene Gallio is referred to as Selene Gallo, which seems like a small error but made it difficult for me to look her up. THAT'S RIGHT, I need references sometimes you guys). While I don't know much about Gallio so I can't really speak to adding her to the story, I don't love the idea of adding Madelyne Pryor (as savvy readers may have gleaned from the first paragraph) as I think her continuity is so totally in shambles and I don't find her interesting enough to justify attempting to unravel that history. Maybe Wood has a great idea and a plan to disentangle some of that but we'll have to see. The art stands out in this issue as Kris Anka does pretty solid work on the first fifteen pages or so before Clay Mann (I assume it's Clay and not Seth but the book doesn't give much indication on that) takes over (Mann's stuff is good too but I prefer Anka's). Either way, decent issue with a good jumping-on point and a little bit of a better look at our opposing factions.



Sorry about the solo review post; I tend to avoid those unless I have something I think is worth saying beyond my norms. In this case, it was simply a hard week in which to break up the posts, with four new series launching and every other book worthy of somewhat early-week examination. Dedicating a full post to X-MEN 10 was the smartest way, it seemed, to keep with my self-assigned themes and still get X-MEN reviewed before Saturday. Little look behind the curtain there.