Uncanny X-Men 18, Wolverine and the X-Men 1

Uncanny X-Men 18
Bendis (w) and Rudy (a) and Staples (c)

Scott's X-Men have figured out that the O5 X-Men and Kitty are missing and, when they find a piece of Shi'ar weaponry, they piece things together awfully quickly. Then we look back a couple weeks ago to when Illyana brought Kitty to the Xavier School so she could talk to Scott before bringing the rest of the kids there. And, of course, she tries to kill Scott before Scott explains to her how much he hates himself and so she shouldn't kill him because then she'll hate herself. A week later, she brings her team. Scott has an awkward exchange with Jean and then an awkward exchange with Scott and then it's the present and they're gone and they have to decide if they want to find a spaceship and go after them or if they hope for the best.

I want to preface what I'm about to say by noting that I totally understand why the X-Men who didn't side with Scott feel the way they feel about the death of Charles Xavier. I get their anger, I get their sense of betrayal, I get their confusion, I get their sadness, I get their loss, I get it. That said, I am sick to death of former friends prepared to kill Scott. On top of that, I don't believe Kitty Pryde, heart and soul of so many X-Men teams, would legitimately consider cold-blooded revenge assassination. Overall though, I'm just sick of seeing it. I know it hasn't been that long since Xavier died but I don't need to see everyone try to assassinate Scott for it, particularly in a world where people get taken over by cosmic entities or bad guys or whatever else ALL THE TIME (I think Wolverine has a more real gripe which is that he was fighting very firmly on the side of "don't let the Phoenix come to Earth," which is different than just "Xavier is dead because of you." He also had his own problems with Cyclops before that so...). And it's been apparently like, I don't know, a month since Xavier died in this Universe. Bendis claims, through Scott, that Kitty was trapped in space only a year ago, meaning that just about every significant thing with the X-Men over the last five to ten years has happened in the span of one year. Marvel time is totally messed up; it's the result of wanting to keep characters from aging out of usefulness while still trying to maintain a timeline over decades and decades of backlog. That's why most people don't try to draw attention to it. Here, though, Bendis wants to create his own continuity, trying firmly to set Kitty's time trapped in a space bullet into a real timeline and, personal gripe, getting in a useless reference to the fact that Kitty's favorite band is the Beatles (BOLD STATEMENT). Look, what I'm trying to say is I'm mad I have to complain about all this stuff again when I could be talking about what I did and didn't like about Marco Rudy's really interesting art in this issue. There's a lot of stuff I liked about it and a lot I didn't like and now, look at that, we're out of time. SORRY EVERYONE.

Wolverine and the X-Men 1
Latour (w) and Asrar (a) and Silva (c)

The latest class has graduated from the Jean Grey School but don't think that means the X-Men are about to let Quentin Quire out of their sight. Instead, they've made him a teaching assistant, a disastrous idea motivated by the fact that the older version of him appeared last year as a new Phoenix. The first day of summer session starts with a disaster as Rockslide, who didn't graduate with the rest of his classmates, causes a ruckus and Storm has to get involved, blaming Quentin for things getting out of control. They fight, with students like Rockslide and Hellion also getting a piece, and Quentin storms off. Meanwhile, Beast is up in space with a couple of other students and Wolverine is fighting his way through the Block, an inter dimensional prison Fantomex has set up, to get to its owner. When he eventually finds Fantomex, he tries to convince him to become a teacher at the school, even going so far as to bringing Evan, Kid Apocalypse and adopted nephew/pet project of Fantomex, with him. Fantomex refuses but who knows if other events will force him into action, particularly as, back at the Jean Grey School, an image of the Phoenix has appeared on every screen available.

Like with Aaron's run (which ended, you may forget, just one week ago), this one already has a strong focus on the students of the Jean Grey School or, perhaps more accurately, on Quentin Quire. Aside from the teen drama and the problems at the school and everything else, though, there is a real threat lurking somewhere on the corners of things. There are questions here and there (like why Wolverine has decided to let most of the staff go on vacation at such a seemingly crucial time or what the plan with Quentin, who doesn't respond well to adult pressures or manipulation, will be going forward) and obviously Latour is swinging for the fences right out of the gate (I think I'm mixing my metaphors here) as he introduces the Phoenix as a possible villain again immediately. We'll have to see where this one goes and how it gets there before I can really judge it. Too early, my friends, still just too early.