X-Men 13, Uncanny X-Men 20, X-Force 3

X-Men 13
Wood (w) and C. Mann (p) and C. Mann and S. Mann (i) and Mounts (c) and Caramagna (l)

With a moment to rest following Arkea's defeat, the team ponders where they've been and where they're going. Psylocke encourages Storm to officially make them a team and own up to being its leader, Rachel Grey tries to get over her crush on John Sublime (which may turn into a revenge on Sublime), Monet pushes herself harder to eliminate the weakness she found against the Sisterhood, and Jubilee tries to find her place in the school with Shogo. They're thrust into their new mission, though, as a professional bad guy (that may as well be his description) claiming to be Shogo's father begins to attack the school, promising that everyone will die unless he gets his hands on the boy.

Story
Though we're entering quickly into the new BLOODLINES storyline and this bad guy who goes by the name "The Future," this is meant to act more as a downtime issue. The action doesn't kick in until about halfway through as it's more important here to understand what the team is going through. It's a needed break in the action but, as with all serial media, it can't last. The Future is maybe a little weak so far in his actual background (he really does just seem like a generic really bad guy, though that may be developed further) but he does seem already to be an impressive adversary. 4/5

Character
With a break in the action, the character takes an important role and Wood does a good job taking advantage of it here. Psylocke wants Storm to be the Ororo that gets up in people's faces and that doesn't back down and they have an exchange that works really well. Still not totally sold on Rachel Grey in this book but I think Wood can use her as a good foil to Storm. Monet's determination is right on the money and Jubilee's restlessness towards not understanding her new role is solid. 4/5

Writing
Pretty solid writing throughout. The story comes across well and Wood does a good job switching between characters and even shifting the tone when the action starts to pick up. 5/5

Art
Clay Mann draws really impressive people and some pretty good action, though there's not a lot here. Still, the range from Ororo and Storm's talk to Monet and Rockslide's punching to Jubilee's dancing is a pretty wide range and Mann handles it well. 5/5

Miscellaneous
A first issue of a new arc is hard, particularly one following an arc that was so long. I think Wood and company gave just the right amount of downtime here before diving into the new story. Still not totally sold on the Future (also his name is the Future). This issue also has a little mini-story at the end by Wood and artist Phil Briones called BROMO-SUPERIOR where Hellion, Rockslide, Anole, and Broo go to train in the Danger Room on the heels of the Future's first attack on the Jean Grey School.

Total score: 4/5


Uncanny X-Men 20
Bendis (w) and Bachalo (p) and Townsend, Faucher, Holdredge, Mendoza, Olazaba, and Vey (i) and Bachalo (c) and Caramagna (l)

After the attack in Chicago, Scott decides to check in with Maria Hill personally, using the Stepfords to get into SHIELD unnoticed and ask his questions of her. They search her mind, to which she submits willingly, and find that she also believes that SHIELD could be behind the Sentinel attacks but knows little more (though she has an attraction to Scott because Bendis). Scott and the Stepfords leave and, back at base, realize that whoever is targeting them must be using Cerebro technology to do it. The list of people who can use Cerebro tech is very short and Scott narrows in on Hank McCoy. He and Magik pay Hank a visit at the Jean Grey School but are quickly found by SHIELD and attacked.

Story
Scott's war continues just as Mystique and Sabretooth continue their fight with SHIELD, Mystique still posing as Dazzler. It's hard to really get in the head of some of these characters because I'll likely never face the persecution and fear on these guys but I find it hard to buy that Scott would even feel the need to check on Hank. They weakly try to explain it all away by saying that it's probably not him but who knows, he certainly hates Scott these days, but it's hard to see even the most persecuted and feared man believing that Hank McCoy would employ Sentinels. Also, Maria Hill having a crush on Scott is INFURIATING. Bendis can't go two minutes without introducing another love interest for so many characters. 4/5

Character
Scott's character is so often in flux these days that it's hard to kind of pinpoint if he's in character or not. It's also hard to tell about Maria Hill because she's sometimes savvy and crafty and sometimes totally off-the-handle obsessed with one aspect of her job. I don't think these problems are this issue's, I think these are line problems at Marvel. Still, I'm going to lump the score for Maria Hill's crush on Scott into here so... 2/5

Writing
The tone works for this issue as things jump around pretty quickly to disorient the reader. In addition, it does feel like it's coming from a darker place right now, which is how things surrounding Scott should feel. The Maria Hill attraction thing (no, I'm not going to get over it and I HATE Maria Hill) feels a little out of place amidst all the serious Sentinel things going on. 4/5

Art
I like Chris Bachalo's art a lot and I think he does an interesting job matching tone here. There are times where I think that his art is almost too cartoony for how dark this tries to go but overall I think he manages to balance it out with a seriousness that matches Scott's concerns and the war designation Scott is so eager to give out. Also, I will admit that I'm still not really onboard with a lot of these costume designs. 4/5

Miscellaneous
I really don't think that my aversion to the Maria Hill-Scott Summers thing is out of place here. I think Hill is a stronger character if she's not obsessed with Summers based in part out of some schoolgirl crush on him. On top of that, it is one of my frequent complaints about Bendis that he tries to overload with love triangles and romances that I feel tend to bog things down. Don't get me wrong; there are romances and love triangles elsewhere throughout comics and every other sort of media, but we don't need it in every single comic.

Total score: 3/5


X-Force 3
Spurrier (w) and R. Kim (a) and Sabino (l)

X-FORCE needs to find Volga, their suspect for the bombing at Alexandria. Psylocke combs Cerebro to find Volga but settles for finding people who are thinking about Volga, honing in on one mutant in particular, a teleporter named Antonio Aggasiz who had escaped but was again captured by Volga and terrified of him. The team travels to Brazil only to find that many mutants are being held there because their home countries wanted them secreted away and punished for being mutants. With guards keeping an eye on Aggasiz, the other inmates ask to be let out of their cells to help take down the guards. Cable accepts their help but Psylocke refuses to let them become killers and puts everyone to sleep while she goes in and kills all the guards. She wakes the team but before they can get anything from Aggasiz, Volga himself appears in some sort of energy projection and kills the teleporter.

Story
The plot thickens as Volga seems to have some sort of powers though it had seemed for all intents and purposes previously that he was just a regular human. In addition, the look at the rendition of these mutants is as dark as anything else we've seen pertaining to these mutants and really helps illustrate the sort of conditions mutants live in more than fights with various supervillains could. 5/5

Character
Psylocke narrates this issue though her narration is far more sparse than the previous two issues from Cable and Marrow's perspectives. Instead, she puts her thoughts on her sleeve this time out, snapping at Marrow for calling her ability and methods into question and putting everyone to sleep before admitting to her team that she sought out X-Force, unlike the recruitment of the others, because she can't stand to be away from the killing. It's dark but it's really well done and we get a couple hints at more interesting developments down the road as she reveals she knows why everyone else joined up. Something interesting also happening with Marrow as her language centers do, as Psylocke threatened, seem to be on the fritz. 5/5

Writing
A really good comic book will more or less have this "writing" section covered based on the "story" and "character" sections because the plot, tone, and characters will mesh so well that I'll have nothing to add. Such seems to be the case here as Spurrier is showing us the world that Cable fears is out there already in this darker issue. 5/5

Art
I wasn't sure how I liked Rock-He Kim's art when the initial preview art for the series came out. Much like so many books with a steady artist, though, it's grown on me and come to match the tone so inextricably that I can't imagine another way it could be illustrated (though I saw preview pages recently for an issue done by another artist so I guess I find out). 5/5

Miscellaneous
The team is starting to come together here and the closer look at Psylocke really helps to establish some of the things Spurrier wants established. In this case, she shines a light on Marrow (who helps her own case by talking so much this issue) and on Fantomex (there's a great moment when she corrects his faux French and calls him a fraud but then later reveals that he's joined with the team because he needs help and won't ask for it). Even MeMe has a nice couple moments here. And her name is actually MeMe and not Meme. Who knew? Such is the flaw of writing in all capital letters all the time.

Total score: 5/5