Uncanny X-Men 27, Wolverine and the X-Men 10

Uncanny X-Men 27

Matthew Malloy is still out there, wreaking some serious havoc and baffling the X-Men and SHIELD, nearby in a helicarrier. In an attempt to quell him, Rachel Grey creates a big psychic image in front of him, showing the X-Men and Avengers ready to fight him with Xavier leading the pack, asking if Malloy will allow him to rebuild the barriers in his mind for the good of the world. Malloy waffles between trusting him and hating him but ultimately begins to wonder if maybe he shouldn't be using this power to do much more. He sees through Rachel's trick and lays waste to the helicarrier, transporting most of the X-Men back to their homes (though some remain unaccounted for). Everyone is caught off-guard by this strange tactic but Scott Summers recovers quickly enough for Magik to teleport him back to Malloy, where Cyclops convinces him that he believes what Charles did was wrong and that he wants to help mutant kind, maybe the way Malloy wants to express his new powers. Cyclops asks Malloy if maybe he wants to talk a bit and Malloy consents.

The big plot development here, obviously, is that this sudden omega-level or beyond mutant is potentially ending in Cyclops' smaller camp of militant mutants, tipping the scales of the battle. I have my usual issues with Bendis books (namely some mood-breaking back-and-forth dialogue and quips) but my hesitation about naming this a good arc stems from something bigger here, I think. I don't like SCHISM and I don't like what's spawned from it. Do I think the X-Men probably needed some sort of a shakeup? Yeah, I guess so. Was SCHISM intriguing? Sure. I liked the idea of an increasingly more militant Cyclops and an increasingly more caring and protective Wolverine. On the flipside, I don't think it's carried well and it's clearly weighing on the writers at this point too. Obviously the added wrinkle of "Scott Summers killed Professor X" has extended the life of the split but I even think that's weak. Doing no research on the subject, I'm not sure there's a single character involved in these fights that hasn't been brainwashed or possessed or controlled or what-not. So has Cyclops been skewing another way for a little bit now? Well sure, I suppose people are starting to get more cynical of him. But should they erase their long history with him and his new people because he, very clearly under control of the Phoenix Force he couldn't contain and that they all knew he couldn't contain, was partly responsible for the death of his mentor? Look, I think not. What I'm getting at is that I don't think this whole antipathy between the two sides is warranted and that's entirely what this story is going to boil down to. I also have some amount of problems with omega-level+ mutants just appearing. ANYWAY. Doesn't mean this won't be an interesting story, just means I'm having some trouble buying into it. I also have been wanting to write a tiny bit about the ramifications of SCHISM for a little while now and the WATXM review should be pretty short so WHY NOT PUT IT HERE? Like that cover though.

Total Score: 3/5


Wolverine and the X-Men 10

Wolverine's ex-girlfriend Melita Garner visits the Jean Grey School to collect interviews for her upcoming book on Wolverine, a book that wolverine didn't want her writing but that Beast believes she should write, if just to serve as required reading for the students of the school. She talks with a number of Wolverine's friends and colleagues who all very clearly miss hero. She saves a couple of the big ones for next time, though, between Storm and Quentin Quire.

It's essentially a book of remembrance, showing how everyone is taking the loss and how everyone loved Wolverine. Plenty of books, I'm sure, will be doing this sort of thing over the coming months so I'm sure we'll have plenty of opportunities to talk about these retrospectives, but you could certainly do worse than to read this one, which is sweet, moves pretty well, and highlights a number of different artists. Sometimes the switch between artists is understandably jarring but each section settles into its rhythm nicely.

Total Score: 4/5