Leftovers 10-29-14

Pretty short week for full reviews this week but, like I said yesterday, not too many giant books out there. Let's just blast through this.

All-New X-Men 33

The ANXM search through the Ultimate Universe trying to make sense of their new surroundings. Angel and X-23 find each other, Jean leans on the Ultimate Spider-Man, Iceman gets in some trouble, and Beast is rather trapped in Latveria. It's extremely similar to Bendis' GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY 15, which featured the Guardians all split up in foreign places, some faced with the unknown and some faced with enemies, in little almost-vignettes to show that they're all confused and lost. Like I said with that one, worth a miss. Total Score: 2/5










Death of Wolverine: The Logan Legacy 3
Sabertooth has latched on with an army unit and is brutally killing just a bunch of people, even going so far as to kidnap a shorter one per night, dress him as Wolverine, and murder him. His dreams are filled with Wolverine mocking him, telling him that he'll never be complete without Wolverine and laughing at him for never getting to kill his true rival. It's weird and heavy-handed and the art is interesting but often lost me as to what was actually happening. Full-on crazy Sabertooth is not a Sabertooth I have any interest in, though I'm rather burned out on any Sabretooth after a few years straight of seeing him show up what feels like every week. Total Score: 2/5


Death of Wolverine: Deadpool and Captain America 1

Steve Rogers calls Deadpool in to help him thoroughly clean and destroy Wolverine's stuff, insistent that no one should find his genes and clone him (is this regular procedure when a hero dies?). The last piece is a knife used to stab Wolverine that was sold to AIM not long ago. With the clock ticking, Deadpool and Steve launch an attack on an AIM base and secure the knife again. When they return home, Cap leaves Deadpool to destroy the knife. Deadpool, though, returns to Butler's base and considers cloning Wolverine himself. It's a decent team-up, one we could have expected after their arc together in DEADPOOL. It's got a few laughs and some sweet moments between the unlikely allies, but it's nothing particularly groundbreaking, like I thought their first arc was. Total Score: 3/5






Deathlok 1
Henry Hayes is a Deathlok and has no idea. When he's sent on missions by his handlers, he returns mind-wiped, believing that he was assisting Medics Without Borders in war-torn areas. He also returns home to his life as a single father of a teenage girl named Aria. However, things might get complicated as his last mission had him attacking Black Tarantula, among others, who seemed to survive, unbeknownst to Deathlok, and he's drawn the eye of Maria Hill, who covertly promotes a promising researcher named Andrea Hope to active agent, tasked with finding as much as she can about this new Deathlok. It's an interesting starting point for this new series, though its best attribute this issue is actually how quickly it reads. With so much new information and characters and storylines coming at us all at once, this issue could drag, too exposition-heavy to keep us interested. Instead, it moves well and switches locales and perspective a lot, keeping the reader interested, if not yet invested. Total Score: 4/5


Elektra 7
Matchmaker has been killed by the experimentally juiced up Lady Bullseye who can become intangible as she pleases. Still not a problem for Elektra, who allows herself to take a few hits to force Lady Bullseye to become solid, allowing her to stab her then, as she goes intangible, Elektra breathes her enemy in. It's kinda disturbing. Anyway, she defeats Lady Bullseye and returns to Sidewinder, demanding he take her to the Assassin's Guild leader. He leads her to New Orleans where she's ambushed by other assassins she's defeated but are now similarly juiced up like Lady Bullseye with varying new powers. It's a tough fight but she bests them once more, finally making her way to someone at least pulling some of the strings. The guy says he doesn't lead the Guild but he can make this go away if Elektra lets the weird doctor experiment on her too. She, of course, refuses, kills the pair, and returns to Sidewinder to find out who leads the Guild. He doesn't know but believes Bullseye, currently catatonic and in SHIELD custody, does. Elektra sets off to bust Bullseye out. Elektra continues to be great, handling all of the amped up assassins who come her way and illustrating just how next-level she is in this community. The art isn't my favorite here, which is unfortunate because Del Mundo's really was up there. It's also a bit strange that she destroys so many people this issue that could have been issue-long fights. I'm not that upset about it, nice to see a book move quickly instead of trying to milk every fight out, but it's a tad weird in this community. Also, Matchmaker is dead and I hate this book for that. Total Score: 4/5


Fantastic Four 12
Wyatt and Spider-Man talk to Johnny, who IMMEDIATELY comes to his senses and visits Ben, explaining that someone is clearly pulling the strings here and that Ben needs to get out. In Latveria, Valeria tells Doom she has to go home to try to pull her family back together, leaving Doom, who has devious plans once more. Finally, Reed accuses Mr. Eden, with a great deal of exposition because who would ever want to see him work towards a discovery when we could just have him talk about things he discovered off-panel, of engineering the portal opening in the Baxter Building. Mr. Eden isn't really Mr. Eden though, Reed's lab partner Cully is Mr. Eden and he's doing all this because he hates Reed. WHAT A DUMB ENDING. I'm going to give this the very slightest benefit of the doubt here as we all know FANTASTIC FOUR is ending soon, so it's entirely possible these dumb twists and dumb turns were meant to unfold over multiple issues instead of twenty pages, but STILL. We don't care about the GASP, it's not MR. EDEN, IT'S CULLY thing because we don't care or know about either of those characters. Reed accuses him of engineering everything with a ton of evidence we're just learning about NOW, which is like a detective story where we see a moonlighting detective doing his day job then suddenly, apropos of nothing, solving the whole case on the last page of the book. It's all terrible and I do not like it one bit, my friends. Total Score: 1/5


Guardians of the Galaxy 20

FINALLY, the end of Star-Lord's story reveals that an already dying Nova sacrificed himself to transport Drax and Star-Lord back to their proper universe and that Thanos escaped too. There's also some crap about how Nova was in love with Gamora and he swore Star-Lord to secrecy about all of this, which is why he didn't tell Gamora or the crew earlier. If it is indeed the death of Richard Ryder (doubtful, as that old comic book axiom of "we didn't see the body" certainly comes in to play), it's a pretty stupid death; a standard sacrifice with questionable motivation marred by a prolonged and unnecessary admission of love. It's the worst kind of superhero death, cliche and boring at the same time. Then Gamora goes off and sheds a single tear. Total Score: 1/5






Inhuman 7
Black Bolt is still alive and Maximus is using his telepathic powers to control the missing king, focusing his limited powers entirely on Black Bolt. Medusa knows that her husband is alive and sends a pair of Inhuman investigators, one from the old kingdom named Auran and one NuHuman named (by Auran) Nur, to track him down. They eventually do find Maximus and Black Bolt and Auran, knowing that Maximus likely can't control their minds while he's focused so hard on Black Bolt, somehow doesn't realize that Maximus would be willing to use Black Bolt to attack the investigators, which he does, blowing out a huge part of the penthouse they're staying in overlooking New Attilan. Nur, though, may still be alive, ready for the next move. There are some interesting things in here, particularly between Maximus and Black Bolt, but the whole book is dragged down by a lot of exposition and re-explaining what's going on all over the universe wherever Inhumans are concerned. I also kind of like the idea that Soule is introducing new Inhumans all over the place, moving them into our consciousness slowly so he can eventually bring everyone out at once and we won't be overwhelmed. It's a smart play for a franchise looking to build. Still, the writing will have to get out of its own way and start trusting the reader a little more before the book can really take off. Total Score: 3/5


Marvel 75th Anniversary Celebration 1
It's an extra long (and double-priced) book to commemorate 75 years of Marvel, replete with a story about the start of the universe, an old Stan Lee script illustrated by Bruce Timm, a Bendis Jessica Jones story, a Tom DeFalco Spider-Man story, a Len Wein Wolverine story, and a slew of covers from a slew of illustrators for books that will never exist, all credited to Brian Michael Bendis. Is it worth your money? No, probably not, unless you really love Bendis because this book is just chock full of him. It's always nice to see some of the legends like Lee, DeFalco, and Wein, but their screen-time is limited and the stories are somewhat fun throwbacks, nothing you haven't read a thousand times before. Six bucks though? I'm not gonna tell you to spend that. Total Score: 2/5






Nova 22
Nova talks his way back out of expulsion with a reluctant Principal Philbin then goes trick-or-treating with the X-Kids at the Jean Gray School. It's a bit of a reset issue and it works well enough for that with a couple of nice moments and an easy, generic story. Nothing to write home about but not a complete failure of an issue, as I maintain it's important to rest every few issues and let our hero have a slower day now and again. Total Score: 3/5


Thunderbolts 32

Six months after the fall of the Thunderbolts, Red Leader runs his new compound from Kata Jaya, the spot of the team's very first mission. He's plotted his whole life perfectly and now his only problem is that he has a crush on his biographer and can't seem to win her affection. However, all is not well for Red Leader as the Thunderbolts have been gathering intel about the new compound and have led the Avengers there to help take it apart. Red Leader has plenty of plans in place to pick apart his old team but they all crumble when his biographer turns out to be the SHIELD agent Hawkeye had been working with in disguise. She shoots him from behind and the T-Bolts and Avengers win the day, though it's made clear to Red Hulk that none of them want to join him again. It's a fun ending to a book that has certainly had its ups and downs (though mostly ups, particularly from halfway or so on). Deadpool has a particularly strong issue here, though the rest get a little bogged down by the sheer amount of characters and the focus being on Red Leader. Also, Mephisto sends the spirit of vengeance back to Johnny Blaze, to his dismay, which is a fun moment. Total Score: 4/5


Wolverine and the X-Men 11
Melita interviews Spider-Man, Storm, and Quentin Quire about the passing of Wolverine, though "interview" probably isn't the right word. She talks to each of them and gets more from some than others. The Spider-Man bits are mostly fun and work pretty well and the Storm stuff is more or less what you want out of Storm. To be fair, the Quentin stuff is what you can expect from Quentin too, but I still have to ask if we need this much Quentin Quire in our lives. Anyway, strong "in memoriam" kind of arc and, like last issue, it's nice to see so many artists paying their respects to Wolverine. Total Score: 3/5

All-New X-Men 32, Uncanny X-Men 26, Wolverine and the X-Men 9

All-New X-Men 32

The time-displaced X-Men have been sent to the Ultimate Universe by the uncanny powers of a new mutant they overwhelmed because they are just terrible at this and why does anyone leave these dumb kids alone for more than even a minute? Anyway, Beast ends up in Ultimate Latveria, Iceman ends up with Ultimate Mole Man, X-23 ends up in an Ultimate football game and on the run from Ultimate cops, Angel ends up in Ultimate Savage Land with Ultimate Wolverine, and Jean Grey ends up with Ultimate Spider-Man, whose mind she reads to learn where she is and who escorts her to Amadeus Cho, who has been working with the portal to the 616 universe. Of course, it's disappeared by now and the original X-Men, already stuck out of time, are stuck out of their dimension.

On the plus side, now that the X-Men have been stuck out of time and space, there are very few places they can get stuck that would be new to them. Also on the plus side, the issue moves relatively well as the X-Men are separated and largely not back-and-forthing with one another but having somewhat terse conversations with the people around them. The issue also bounces around between the X-Men, who are inexplicably separated after they run into plot-device girl, so the pacing mostly keeps up. On the downside, though, this book continues to feature very few likable characters and very few likable plots. Doesn't really leave them in a particularly good spot.

Total Score: 2/5


Uncanny X-Men 26

Xavier's will has further split his X-Men, with Scott angry that Xavier was a hypocrite for not giving the extraordinarily powerful Matthew Malloy a chance to control his powers and everyone else angry at Scott for being a hypocrite and also for being Scott. Even though Scott doesn't want to, they go to find Malloy, running into SHIELD on the way. SHIELD saw the disaster Malloy just caused (perfect timing, Xavier's will!) and is on their way to try and take him down. Meanwhile, Scott's new X-team runs simulations fighting the Avengers in their Danger Room until healer Christopher muses (that's a pretty dope joke, you guys) that perhaps they're not the good guys if they're training to fight against the good guys, which leads to an equally dumb fight about the mutant revolution.

There are ideas here but they tend to be brought up and argued so clumsily (mostly just that every point is argued so immediately and so clearly ignoring other facts or ignoring reason for their own purposes) that it's easy to roll your eyes at them. I know that from personal experience. Obviously Christopher has the right idea (and whichever Stepford Cuckoo that says he should have picked up on it soon is right too) but it's a complicated issue when thinking about Scott's resentment that the Avengers haven't helped them enough and that SHIELD isn't really on their side and SHIELD tends to work with the Avengers so they may be guilty by association. However, it's brought up by a bunch of teenagers (and the thirty-year-old David) so it has all the tact and grace of a bunch of dumb teenagers arguing then all feeling like they maybe won the argument. That would then almost be excusable if that's not how the grown X-Men fight too.

Total Score: 3/5


Wolverine and the X-Men 9

Quentin Quire has seen his future and isn't thrilled by it so instead ends up sitting on a pile of money from the Phoenix Corporation and an insane amount of telepathic ability. Where go with all of that, plus a substantial resentment of Wolverine and the X-Men (the man and the team, not the series), but the Hellfire Club? He's now the White King of the Hellfire Club and throws himself a lavish birthday part that Wolverine tries to sneak into to have one last talk with Quire. He's found out and beaten pretty mercilessly until Quire hears him out. However, that doesn't go particularly well either as Quentin starts to command the partygoers, dressed as various X-Men, to attack Wolverine while Quentin responds to Wolverine's attempts, laying much of the blame for Quentin's future at his feet (and perhaps rightfully so, perhaps not, it's complicated). Finally Quire lets Wolverine go after forcing him to look inward for the source of the problem and revealing that Quire himself doesn't believe he won, just that Wolverine lost.

It's a tough blow to Wolverine, who has invested so much time on Quire and the other kids (which hasn't gone unnoticed and doesn't go unmentioned by Quire here) only to find that maybe they don't love him for it and maybe, if the future Quire saw is accurate, he didn't necessarily help things. It's a pretty good issue and like a lot of this series it's more complicated than it has to be, for better or worse. It's better because being a little more complicated allows Latour to go deeper and really get into some of the complexities of the characters, but it's also a little worse because it continues at times to be a little hard to keep straight (even writing the summary, which tends to settle out any issues I've had digesting the plot, didn't clear everything up nicely for me, but then maybe it's not meant to). Still, it's been as deep a character study on Quentin Quire as we've seen since his creation and it's not unimpressive for it. Also pretty strong art from Jorge Fornes throughout, and he's asked to draw quite a lot.

Total Score: 4/5

Comics this week

Okay, we're going to switch it up because I'm not super-duper thrilled about the books out this week. I don't love going negative buuuuuuuuuuut, after some ridiculous amount of these posts, I'm going to mention the five books I'm least excited about because I think I can reach five without stretching, which I'm not sure I could do going the normal way. Sorry pals who don't like when I get negative. Just know, as is the nature of comics, any one of these could be great this week. I'm just not thrilled with them ahead.

All-New Invaders 9
Have I mentioned that I really love the Invaders and I'm really sad by how much I don't like this book? Because that certainly is the case. We'll see as they enter their third arc if things have changed any for this book.

All-New Ultimates 7
I had to read one of these last week! Why is there another one so soon? Maybe releasing them back to back means they won't have to spend most of the issue recapping who all these meaningless and uninteresting characters are.

All-New X-Men 31
Geez, we're three-fifths of the way into this post and we're STILL stuck in the ALL-NEW section. I've been against this book from its very premise so maybe some people have already written off my opinion (teamed also with my typical dislike for series writer Brian Michael Bendis) but if that's true, why do you keep coming back? Look, now I'm not just negative, I'm openly confrontational and argumentative. Feh. What did I hope to accomplish with this post?

Savage Hulk 3
Are we still in the first arc or did we get past that? I honestly can't remember. I certainly have not enjoyed this series as it's started, though I think there's still hope for a book like this one. I've just been real bored to this point, am I right?

Wolverine 12
Perhaps a controversial pick as Paul Cornell's second WOLVERINE series comes to a close and we prepare to move forward to the DEATH OF WOLVERINE mini-series but that doesn't mean I'm willing to forgive this last issue. Maybe my point for this post was just to include books that will likely never make it on to a typical pre-game post. Hey all you books, you can all try to be a DEADPOOL and turn around enough to at least be in consideration.

All-New X-Men 30, Amazing X-Men 10, X-Men 18

All-New X-Men 30
Bendis (w) and Pichelli (a) and Gracia (c) and Petit (l)

X-23 and Angel escaped all the drama to go on a date and spend the night in one of Warren's rich person apartments and Laura admits to not remembering much of the last night and does NO ONE find this a really, really creepy story? It can't just be me, right? I don't pick up on things all that easily and so feeling really creeped out by this scene must make it pretty obvious, right? Okay, anyway, Emma wants to train Jean but there's prolonged bad blood between them because they both keep failing the Bechdel test and I think they're trying to figure out who fails it harder? That's the takeaway, I think. Anyway, they end up bonding? Is there a person who cares about this?

Okay, look, I'll be the first to admit I'm in a bad mood today but I read this comic last night, when I was in a mildly better mood (until after I read the comic). I tried working out all the "benefit of a doubt" ways to talk about this issue but the bad mood has ensured those have all gone out the window. I'll still start it the same way: I know that I tend to badmouth Brian Michael Bendis on this blog a lot because I don't really care for his style and I think his characters, save a couple, are fairly weak. I have no real desire to badmouth him. I do believe there are reviewers and critics out there who legitimately enjoy the mean part of the job or the controversy of attacking well-liked writers/directors/actors/whatever. I am most definitely not one of those people so I hate coming off attacky at anyone, but especially Bendis who is clearly well-liked and well-regarded (he's gone from a couple of prime AVENGERS titles to a couple of prime X-MEN titles, not to mention all his other past books). THAT SAID, I absolutely hate this series and I really, really hate this issue. I talked a lot above about the strange and terrible women in this issue but that didn't even talk about Kitty's weird relationship or scratch the surface of how poorly written and out of character I think Laura was or REALLY about how uncomfortable the idea that Laura couldn't really remember the night before and woke up in one of Warren's homes with him shirtless and had to have Warren describe the night for her. I'm REALLY uncomfortable about that. Let's not forget, too, that this is the second issue since Laura's joined up with the team (not that long ago) where a cover has featured her making out on a dude, which seems both wrong and odd. And I get that Emma and Jean have this built-in sexist rivalry between them in their history but wouldn't it be a thousand times more interesting if they had some other thing to talk about? Other than ol' just-right porridge Scott Summers? They're two of the most powerful telepaths ever (despite Emma's current situation) and they go to train and they're like "HEY, LET'S CONTINUE COMPETING OVER SCOTT" and then they spend some time locked in each other's minds and just stand up laughing together because, as one of the Stepfords puts it, they've bonded. I want to complain about how incredibly lazy it is to just have two psychics stare at each other for a panel and then come out going "we're pals now!" but I'd have actually accepted a completely silent issue with Pichelli art because I think it'd be far stronger than this.

Total Score: 1/5


Amazing X-Men 10
Kyle and Yost (w) and Barberi and Coello (p) and Wong and Coello (i) and Rosenberg (c) and Caramagna (l)

Wolverine (and much of Canada) has been transformed into a Wendigo and the X-Men are having some trouble dealing with these problems. They keep whacking Wolverendigo away while they plot and Alpha Flight shows up and everybody jokes around a bit while the Avengers watch the border (plus side, the curse doesn't extend beyond Canadian borders) and they need to bring the injured Talisman to a very specific place that leads to the spirit realm but when they take her there they find it's also full o' Wendigos. Maybe this isn't the time for jokes, Bobby?

There is something of a strange tonal shift in this issue as the plight of the Wendigo suddenly becomes a little less serious with all these pals coming together and having a good time. I'll be honest, I think if this is the tone you set up in the first issue or two of this arc then it totally works. But where the first issue or two of this arc had a really serious tone, this one doesn't quite stick the landing. Some of the dialogue and jokes aren't bad and, if it were maybe a little more sparse, I think there's a way this could hit a little better. Instead, it feels out of place and oddly unsympathetic. Seriously Rockslide, pull yourself together. This is why no one brings you to any of the fights or uses you in any of these books.

Total Score: 3/5


X-Men 18
Guggenheim (w) and Tolibao (p) and Tadeo and Yeung (i) and Mounts (c) and Caramagna (l)

The X-Men are fighting an airborne AIM virus by burning it out of the air when Abigail Brand calls them to request their presence. A not-dead/not-paralyzed but certainly comatose Deathbird has suddenly turned up in orbit and Brand isn't sure why and wants a team of 3/5 psychics, particularly ones with experience with Deathbird (who happens to be Rachel Grey's aunt by marriage) and the Kree, to check the situation out. She's also called in Cecilia Reyes to examine Deathbird. The whole thing, though, is interrupted when Sidrian Hunters attack the Peak, coming for Deathbird or, as Cecilia reveals, Deathbird's unborn child.

There are some interesting moments here and Guggenheim has a pretty good feel for the humor he wants to bring to the team. Sometimes, though, it overloads a little and the dialogue ends up slowing a bit more than you'd like, taking something away from the action and the story itself. Good dialogue, particularly good funny dialogue, should never really feel like a slog and while Guggenheim certainly  isn't writing poorly, parts of the issue start to drag. Still not a bad issue and it left me interested where the story would go.

All-New X-Men 29, Amazing X-Men 9, X-Force 7

All-New X-Men 29
Bendis (w) and Immonen (p) and Von Grawbadger (i) and Gracia w/Keith (c) and Petit (l)

X-23 hits Xavier Jr. from behind, breaking his grip on the Stepford Cuckoos and releasing everyone, including his own Brotherhood, from his hold. As he attempts to regain control or to get the X-Men to kill one another, Jean Grey and the Stepfords team to keep him at bay while Laura keeps Raze busy. Eventually, after much banter, the X-Men capture Xavier and Raze, sending them to SHIELD with the explicit direction that they keep strong power dampeners and sedatives on the pair, while the innocent "members" of the Brotherhood are sent back to their own time. STILL, somehow, worst-character Maria Hill allows Xavier to write a message to himself in the future, warning them that this plan didn't work either (presumably she didn't know that's what he'd write, but come on). Also, Warren takes X-23 out on something of a date.

The cyclical and continuous nature of comics means that you almost never see a door explicitly closed. Even when, say, Si Spurrier erases David Haller from the Marvel Universe entire, there's almost always some sort of backdoor. Spurrier didn't really leave one but he acknowledged that someone could certainly come along and change things back anyhow. Still, this "enemies of the future can't be defeated until their dead" sort of backdoor is a dangerous and cynical one, one that allows a seemingly infinite amount of second chances. What might be more dangerous (and perhaps more cynical from me) is that I'm already totally sick of Xavier Jr. and his story. I was sick of it in BATTLE OF THE ATOM. Also Maria Hill continues to be terrible simply to move the story forward and now X-23 and Warren are a thing, apparently. I feel like this is all a new coat of paint on an obviously old story (guys, it's not even THAT old).

Total Score: 2/5


Amazing X-Men 9
Yost and Kyle (w) and Barberi (p) and Wong, Meikis, and Barberi (i) and Rosenberg (c) and Caramagna (l)

The Wendigo curse is spreading, having already enveloped an entire town, and no one is quite sure how to handle it. The US military wants to keep it across the border, though they're eventually outvoted by Thor and Captain America. Meanwhile, officials are suggesting people move south, hopefully keeping the plague behind them. The X-Men, of course, are trying to find Wolverine in all of this. Eventually they manage it, tracking Wolverine and his newfound allies Talisman and Puck, but they're still heavily outmatched by the power and numbers of the Wendigo. Talisman thinks, given enough time to perform the spell, she can change the Wendigo back to their true human form. The X-Men circle her to give her the time but the fight has proven too much for Wolverine, who collapses, turning into a Wendigo himself, and attacks Talisman.

Yost and Kyle, in their second issue of this young series and of this arc, keep the action up here, showing a true Wendigo infestation and making sure to illustrate just how devastating it is. It's so big that two prime Avengers make an appearance in an X-Men book. There's a bit of characterization mixed in with all of the action and the tone, with each character getting a little bit of time in the spotlight, at least long enough to establish a bit about his or her personality. It's a strong issue though I think it suffers a little from a strange desire to jump around in time and to cast the scale of the disaster against a running news broadcast about it. It stretches the issue a bit longer than it needs to be, slowing things where you don't want anything to be slowed. Still a strong issue and another good look at the new creative team.

Total Score: 4/5


X-Force 7
Spurrier (w) and R. Kim (a and c) and Sabino (l)

X-Force has the closest thing they're likely to get to a day off and they're spending it at home, mostly hitting on one another. Psylocke flirts clumsily with the guaranteed one-night-stand Cable but retracts it later when he goes a little too fundamentalist for her liking, MeMe pulls Fantomex into her world, using the Nantes in his head to tell him that she's bored and maybe they could hook up at some time, and Marrow is convinced that Doc Nemesis wants to sleep with her, even as he explains to her all the ways she's broken. Meanwhile, a past Cable had sent Domino to follow a money trail that would point to Volga's investors which pits her directly against Volga in his new robotic body even as Cable forgets she's out there. The issue ends darkly as Volga (who has been spying on X-Force) captures Domino and as Fantomex reveals that he's been killing Cable the last few days to make himself feel more important.

I talk frequently about the occasional need for a series to take a slight break, something to reset the action and slow things down a bit. X-FORCE, unwilling to really take time off, keeps the pace and the darkness off by introducing frequent Cable collaborator Domino to the series and immediately having Cable's "die everyday" revelation have some serious repercussions. Cable going fundamentalist by promising that X-Force will not cease and will even spy on possible threats to make sure their goals are achieved is paralleled by Volga making a speech to Domino that says more or less the same things Cable is, even ending with a pair of panels that put Cable and Volga's faces side-by-side. METAPHOR.

Total Score: 5/5  

All-New X-Men 28, Uncanny X-Men Special 1

<Quick note at the top here: I know I've already said I'm going down to speed rounds as the main review style for now as things in my life get a bit busier but then, as always happens, I've ended up summarizing and breaking down every part of the book almost immediately. So here's the new attempt - I'm going to really speed up my summaries and hope that my analysis section, while obviously longer, will be shortened by how ridiculous it looks next to such a short summary paragraph>

All-New X-Men 28
Bendis (w) and S. Immonen (p) and Von Grawbadger (i) and Gracia (c) and Petit (l)

The future's Brotherhood is still attacking the ANXM with a battle plan this time that revolves around their last defeat, thanks to time travel. Members of their group are maybe not 100% on board with this but they're all being puppet'd by Xavier. Jean Grey uses her newfound power to hold people in place to hold Xavier, launching the immense psychic attack on the school, while X-23 dives at him.

I think the things that could be interesting about this series are dictated by whether or not you think the concept holds up. If you're totally onboard with the time-traveling X-Men stuck in the future and gaining new powers through shaky explanations and new alliances through shaky justifications, then I can see there being interest in a story that similarly bends the timeline and aligns people who maybe wouldn't align themselves and that's explained away by Raze saying that the mutant timeline is already so screwed up that it probably doesn't matter how often they go back in time to mess with things. I think I've said this before, even going so far as to using this same analogy before (possibly because I'm uncreative and possibly because once you've spent any amount of time grading high schoolers' papers you start to see this major flaw almost immediately), but it's like reading an essay where you don't buy the thesis or, worse still, where there is no clear thesis. Everything you write afterwards will fail to hold up because it's all just information and evidence that won't prove anything because there's nothing there to prove. Setting aside those issues, the book moves well enough and the colors and art help to accentuate the tension of the issue (though it wouldn't be so bad to break away from the reds and blacks for a little bit soon).

Total Score: 3/5


Uncanny X-Men Special 1
S. Ryan (w) and Ackins (p) and N. Lee, Poggi, and Pallot (i) and Redmond (c) and Cowles (l)

Scott's team stumbles across old pictures of Magik and are shocked to see how happy and young she looked. Then they're whisked away on flight training with Scott, where they're shot out of the sky and Scott is captured by Death's Head leaving the kids to try to figure out, along with the called-in Magik and Emma Frost, how to track a mercenary they can't even identify. Irma and Benjamin are sent to infiltrate SWORD as new recruits to figure out who the merc is and Benjamin runs afoul in his search of Iron Man, who identifies Death's Head and offers to help.

There are maybe a few incongruous plot points here, things that don't totally make sense or that don't link particularly well, but overall the book (part one of three, it claims) reads fairly well. Cyclops is taken to a man actually looking for Havok which leads to some interesting questions and decisions, Iron Man's involvement with a group he doesn't yet know is actually Scott's X-Men is a possibly fun touch, and the promise of Nova having something to do with this (per the cover) is a similarly interesting touch. Can't help noticing that the Death's Head in this issue looks rather like the original Death's Head and Tony's had dealings with Death's Head II in recent days but that's just nitpicky. Still a fairly fun book with a team that has some amount of potential, however it's meant to be used.

Total Score: 4/5

All-New X-Men 27, X-Force 5

All-New X-Men 27
Bendis (w) and Immonen (p) and Von Grawbadger (i) and Gracia (c) and Petit (l)

The Evil X-Men Brotherhood (the ones from the future who messed with everything in BATTLE OF THE ATOM and who need a better distinguishing name) have found the Xavier School and begun to attack, with Raze, the shapeshifting son of Mystique and Wolverine (it would seem), posing as a wounded X-23 and stabbing the healer first. Things get crazier as future Jean Grey and Charles, the psychic son of Mystique (posing, at the time, as Moira MacTaggert) and Xavier, launch a psychic attack on everyone at the school, even taking control of one of the Cuckoos to keep their power up. Only past Jean Grey, Emma Frost, and Cyclops remain hidden from the attack. When the evil brotherhood starts to get a location on young Jean, Emma knocks her out to keep them all protected, though it sends Jean into a state where Charles can talk to and threaten her.

Story
I'm doing everything I can to see this as a new story, something removed from BATTLE OF THE ATOM which I so loathed. It is extremely difficult to do that, though, as everything still seems to be linked to BOTA because that's the only time these characters have appeared. As such, the story right now is limited and we can only assume this group is here because they didn't like the way things turned out in the aftermath of BOTA and seek to rectify it (or to send the ANXM back to the past. There's more history given for Charles and Raze though not really enough yet to explain why they're both so mad, though that's surely coming. This issue then is dedicated mostly to the siege on the Xavier School and kind of makes you think "hey, maybe these kids aren't getting enough training in?" Okay, maybe that's not fair, they're facing two Mystique-mothered children with Wolverine and Xavier all mixed in there and another Jean Grey, on top of some others. Still, we'll have to wait a little longer before we can get a full sense of this story. 4/5

Character
The biggest character moments are for the enemies, as we do see a bit of flashback history for Charles and Raze. There's a bit here and there for other characters through the dialogue, but they seem to be our focus right now. Cyclops' team's healer, Christopher Muse (I had to look his name up because I do not have any sort of connection to these kids), gets a teeny bit of characterization and story as he freaks out over dying (understandable) and as we learn that he can heal himself, even if it's unconsciously. Still, not really an issue for characterization of our main team but it's kind of weird to me that this book has shifted so much into being a book about both the O5 team and Cyclops' team when it had originally been the O5 team and where Cyclops' team already has a book. 3/5

Writing
Still a bit of back-and-forth dialogue which, as ever, feels incredibly out of place in big and tense fight scenes. There are times to let off the gas with dialogue and a big fight scene always seems like one of them. There's also opportunity to keep everyone suspicious and paranoid and tense and Bendis touches on it a bit but I think the jokes and the quips kind of get in the way of that tone really establishing, which is a shame because the fight, for however forced it kinda feels, is still an interesting one as it develops (it's hard not to view the convenience of a team that has two sons of Mystique, one with Wolverine DNA and one with Xavier DNA, fairly cynically but that doesn't mean the fight still can't be interesting). 3/5

Art
I always like Stuart Immonen's art and I've come to really appreciate Marte Gracia's colors. I think the art really helps the book in a lot of ways and kind of draws the eye away from any problems in the story. 5/5

Miscellaneous
I don't know if you guys could tell but I'm having a lot of trouble separating this from BOTA.

Total Score: 3/5


X-Force 5
Spurrier (w) and J. Molina (a+c) and Sabino (l)

X-Force is prepped for an attack on Volga after getting all the information they could out of the dead Aggasiz. It turns out Aggasiz, a mutant who could travel through other dimensions, had worked for Volga stealing all sorts of weapons-tech from other universes in exchange for his kidnapped family's safety. The most problematic tech he stole was a sort of enhanced super soldier serum, which gave people incredible powers but also faded after a certain amount of time, killing the soldiers who used it. For Volga, that's not so much a problem, as he realizes country's will still use the serum and just come back for more when their batch dies (because he's truly horrible). This is, it seems, also what happened to Marrow (though she, clearly, didn't die) and, as she attacks Volga's compound, she wonders why she remembers so little of her experience. However, as her narrative rattles on and she continues referencing whoever she's talking to as "baby," it dons on her that she was pregnant before Alexandria and that they killed her baby. Psylocke manages to figure out what's happening right as it happens and makes sure Fantomex and Cable are covered as Marrow lashes out, wrecking through Volga's troops. Volga himself finally comes out and talks to Marrow, revealing that she knew the risks going in but that she volunteered in the hopes of getting her powers back. With Marrow out of the fight (now paralyzed with countless emotions) Volga's men knock out Psylocke and Fantomex and take all three with them as Volga reveals that they injected Cable with the soldier serum at Alexandria too and wonders why he hasn't died yet. It's not so big a problem, though, since he has a way to expedite the process and affixes it to Cable before tossing him off his HQ, allowing him to explode below while Volga ends up with the three other mutants.

Story
Good god, there's a lot happening here. Spurrier's a master at seeding little bits here and there throughout an arc and then watching it all hit home in one big reveal. It's Marrow's turn for narrative again this time and we get to see the pieces all start unraveling as her narrative leads us right to the fight and X-Force's loss. There's so much happening as we learn about how Marrow and Cable have powers again and we learn a good deal more about Volga (who is, by his own admission, a "comedy Russian bad guy") and the story of our team propels to an entirely new place. It's a pretty dark book and it's a pretty deep story and it's rather a thrill to watch it all come together (or come apart, as the case may be). 5/5

Character
Plenty is explained about a couple of our characters, which would be probably enough to boost this character score up by itself, but X-FORCE goes further than that. Each of these guys have such a distinct personality and we get a chance to see them all in their distinct roles, as Cable commands and leads, Marrow fights until the shocking news and then fights even harder and then shuts down, and Psylocke does what she can to keep everything moving the right way. The team knew about Marrow's baby and knew that the memories hadn't been removed from her, she'd repressed them because she couldn't deal with them. Psylocke tries to calm Marrow down when she learns and then tries to keep Volga from revealing the full truth to Marrow because she knows the impact it will have. Lots happening with every character, even with the noticeably quieter Fantomex, who continues reeling from last issue's crushing defeat wherein he started to see that maybe he wasn't the best there ever was at everything. Here he stays quieter, claiming to have a headache, and finds himself even more miffed as his bullets fail to kill the soldiers. Volga gets tons of characterization and it's totally over the top but he recognizes how over the top it is so Spurrier gets his chance to combat that accusation before it can land. Solid stuff all around, just an incredible book and we're only five issues in. 5/5

Writing
I have to think that all the writing I've done on this post already has told enough about the writing of this issue. I'll just mention that the pacing is really great, starting a little slower as they wait to attack, then instantly getting into it but in the same sort of balanced way that traditional superhero fights go until the revelation about Marrow's baby, which brings everything to a halt before really escalating the pace and, again, dropping it when Volga makes his big reveal. Between that and the wonderful Marrow narrative, Spurrier's got us right in his pocket. 5/5

Art
Jorge Molina steps in to do the art on this one and I think the change works pretty well, though I've liked Rock-He Kim's art (which is, I think, probably exactly what I said last issue, which also featured Molina on art). His Marrow is a little softer, even prettier, so that when she bones out (there's got to be a better description than that for her power) it's more abrupt and more fearsome. It's particularly effective in this issue when she also withdraws back into herself and we can see how small and devastated she is. Really strong stuff. 5/5

Miscellaneous
Geez, what a book.

Total Score: 5/5

All-New X-Men 26, X-Force 4

All-New X-Men 26
Bendis (w) and S. Immonen (p) and Von Grawbadger (i) and Gracia (c) and Petit (l)

Regular age Scott goes to console Jean after she has a nightmare wherein she destroys her team with the Phoenix Force. After a talk that gets a little weird but that Scott pretty firmly shuts down before telling Jean that Emma will be working with her to control her powers, Scott is rebuked by Kitty for being alone in a room with Jean. Later, X-23 decides to leave, setting out before anyone can stop her. She comes across Angel, out for a morning fly, and reveals that she's leaving because young Scott didn't say goodbye before he left. She storms off but runs across someone posing to be young Scott who attacks her. She crawls back to the Xavier School claiming that someone here must be a shapeshifter as the bad future X-Men from BATTLE OF THE ATOM walk away.

Story
Young Scott is gone, Jean is interested in old Scott, and Kitty is mad. The issue ends with the cliffhanger ending promising some story coming but for now, most of this issue is dedicated to minor story advancements and characterization. There's also growing concern for both Hank McCoys out there as young Hank tries to piece everything together and as Scott worries for older Hank given the state of his recent failures (bringing the young X-Men here and not being able to send them back). On the heels of a few little crossover events, this issue serves to slow things down a bit, which is occasionally necessary. 3/5

Character
I'm pretty thoroughly on record talking about my feelings about this book and about the young X-Men's return. I think the stories haven't been compelling enough to justify the massive shift in...well, everything and I don't think the writing has been strong enough to really drive this book to any new territory. However, it's the characters that I'm hating the most. On top of the back-and-forth dialogue, many of these characters have come off as simply obnoxious, starting with the always-talking Bobby, moving to the ever-bland Scott, and dragging down the suddenly intolerable Jean Grey and the all-over-the-place Kitty Pryde. It's made it hard for me to like any of these characters and I can't care about their problems if I don't like them. In fact, I rather hate the people who have been the big focuses so far (particularly Kitty and Jean, which is especially hard because I really like Kitty normally and I am, at worst, ambivalent about Jean). This issue does no better, concerning itself some more with romances and sniping. 1/5

Writing
Plenty of back-and-forth here which starts to grate but it makes more sense here, in something of a resting story issue than in the midst of combat or tense situations. I have less trouble buying this type of dialogue when it's in this sort of situation because there's a little more time to let these conversations happen. I still find it grating after some time (it happens pretty quickly in the Scott-Jean talk but it's okay later except that Bobby is a moron and that gets a little hard to keep following) but it's at least more applicable here. 3/5

Art
I like Stuart Immonen's art plenty. I like the way he draws these characters and I like the ways they express themselves. There are a couple of double-page spreads in here that I don't quite understand because nothing particularly drastic happens in the page. It just feels a little like they have to fill a DPS quota on this book and so they can come in anywhere. Still, not bad art overall. 4/5

Miscellaneous
Judging the character of this book in this new scale is very difficult for me because I actually have to think about why I'm feeling what I'm feeling (which isn't new to a lot of my reviews) but more than that, I have to consider whether to grade the characters based on I find them, based on their long history, or based on whether they fit into what Bendis has already written in this series. For all intents and purposes, these are his characters right now and so he's writing them mostly consistently to his vision for them. Can I grade harshly if he's being consistent? I, as you saw, decided that yes, I can. I'm all for writers changing things about characters. I get it. It's been a while since these characters were created. Times change, stories change, characters need to change too. What I'm less okay with is little personality changes here and there that don't fit with their pasts and also seem to have been borne of nothing. In this case, the fact that Kitty has become intolerable as the leader of this young team could be because she's taken on a new responsibility and she needs to put on her teacher voice, as it were. But it doesn't really come off that way; instead, it comes off feeling like she's just crappy to everyone. I'm happy to judge things like this harshly.

Total score: 2/5


X-Force 4
Spurrier (w) and Molina (a and c) and Sabino (l)

X-Force is after a French superpowered guy named Le Necrogateur, a character who has the ability to read the minds of dead people. It's a useful little trait and it's one that's particularly necessary for the team now as they try to figure out what information the now-dead Antonio Aggasiz had on Volga. Fantomex leads the charge to try to lure Le Necrogateur out using another superpowered person (don't know if these guys are heroes, villains, mutants, etc. so it's hard to label more specifically) named Anaïs who has the ability to talk to cats and more catlike abilities. The chase goes rather badly for Fantomex who has to watch as everyone around him begins to outperform him which comes at odds with his programmed-in belief that he's the best there is at everything. He goes into his own mind to meet with EVA where she parses out the trouble he's been having and recommends, because it's possible she's not exactly in her right mind right now, that he simply kill anyone who may be better than him in anything.

Story
The story here has to do with the Volga storyline but it has more to do with the story of Fantomex, which is a story well worth diving into right now. Spurrier does a phenomenal job meshing story with character here as Fantomex's journey of self-discovery is inextricably tied to the actual journey they're going on and to the future of this series. It's very strong and it's very interesting and it's getting into some pretty scary territory for the team. 5/5

Character
It's no secret that I love Fantomex but it's hard to argue that he's one of the more complex characters out there today. Even without a long and sweeping history like some of these characters have, his origin and his powers are some of the more hard-to-define powers out there. That wasn't necessarily made easier by the fact this his three brains were split into three different characters and each brain controlled separate powers. Spurrier promised big things out of Fantomex during this series and he's already delivering pretty heavily, immediately diving into his created French accent (he reveals here that he can't speak French) and his built-in superiority complex and everything else. Fantomex physically can't imagine anything bigger and more important than himself and Spurrier is using that to show a man in serious conflict with himself. It's a little heartbreaking and it turns dark very quickly, even amidst a few really funny scenes. 5/5

Writing
The story bounces back and forth between the chase of Anaïs and Fantomex's talk with EVA, meaning that their dialogue carries throughout the entire issue and both narrates what's happened while also explaining its relevance. It doesn't hit you over the head with any of it but it works really well in terms of showing us everything that's happening. It's good writing and the talk with EVA both serves as a useful device to advance the plot and makes for a compelling plot line all its own. Fantomex himself brings up early in their talk that he's been avoiding her because he's not sure what the brain-split has done to EVA and where her loyalties lie. Those questions certainly persist through the issue as she asserts herself and eventually recommends that the sane option would be to make himself the best there is by killing everyone else. The tone of the issue is fantastic, switching between somewhat light-hearted and extremely dark as the issue wraps up. Brilliantly done. 5/5

Art
Jorge Molina taps in for Rock-He Kim on this issue and does an admirable job. I've liked Kim's work a lot but I think putting Molina on the Fantomex-centric issue ends up paying off because the book is a little lighter and a little more kinetic and Molina's more cartoonish style works really well for it. It's not necessarily easy to make Fantomex particularly expressive considering his face-covering mask but Molina puts a lot of emotion in the eyes and it's what we need amidst all the drama going on inside his mind. On top of that, letterer Joe Sabino helps with a lot of expressive type. 5/5

Miscellaneous
Really fun book and another really good issue. While we're on the subject, I re-read X-FORCE 3 last night and BOY that was a good issue. I don't know if I gushed about it enough last time. Spurrier is writing some of the best and most interesting characters out there right now.

Total score: 5/5

All-New X-Men 25, All-New X-Factor 6

All-New X-Men 25
Bendis (w) and Marquez (a) and Ponsor (c) w/ Timm, L. Martin, A. Adams, Mack, Young, J. Keith, R. Rodriguez, Bermejo, Gracia, K. Williams, JG Jones, Del Carmen, J. S. Campbell, Ruffino, Wicks, Shiga, Hipp, Wittert, J. Parker, M. Wilson, J. Thompson, P. Smith, Wiacek, and Bellaire (a and c)

Beast (present day Beast, not Beast of the past in the present) lays in bed being lectured by the Watcher about how his decision to bring the original X-Men to the present was so bad that it's ruined the chance of happiness for mutants ever again. We see a ton of different possible timelines from a slew of guest artists (seen above) with a brief close-up on every one of the original X-Men and see all the bad futures they could have and all the good futures they can't have before Beast asks for help resetting things and Watcher tells him that he's deplorable and that he only watches and can't act.

Okay, so this is a weird little boy-who-cried-wolf situation because I tend to spend a lot of time not enjoying ALL-NEW X-MEN (I spend a lot of time actively not liking it which shows just how sad I am) and then this issue comes out. Don't get me wrong, I still don't like this issue but I dislike it for more reasons than normal and I even don't like it for the message Watcher's sending, although it's the message I've wanted sent since day one. No, what I don't like about this one is the fanfare. It's an oversized issue with what the cover claims is "the greatest artist roster ever assembled." I have no qualms with that claim and the art is pretty impressive throughout (though it takes some questionable turns here and there) but I don't understand why it has such a roster. It's the 25th issue of an X-MEN book. It's not like people are surprised it made it to 25. Even with Marvel's sometimes flagrant renumbering, 25 isn't a huge, huge mark to reach. DEADPOOL celebrates issue 27 this week. THUNDERBOLTS and IRON MAN are both on issue 24 this week and I'd be quite sure neither will pull out all the stops for issue 25. Even a book like X-MEN LEGACY that must have been constantly on the bubble numbers-wise hit 24 before the big 300th issue. Even putting that aside because why should I complain if comics get celebrated every once in a while, this story simply isn't that good. Like, it's a perfectly serviceable story but it feels perfectly serviceable as a .1 or something. It lands between arcs and it gives something of a recap of what's happening to give readers a jumping on point. The story, then, is fine for what it is but let's not act like what it is is something absolutely groundbreaking and worthy of the attention this book wants from everyone. Look. I shouldn't complain, this book has some great art in it (I particularly shouldn't complain because David Mack and Skottie Young each get a page and I adore them both). I just hate fanfare that feels so cynical. And I just flat-out don't like this book.

All-New X-Factor 6
David (w) and Di Giandomenico (a) and Loughridge (c)

The team goes to see Doug Ramsey, AKA Cypher, in the hopes that he'll shed some light on Warlock's current situation. Doug's been having some bad dreams wherein he becomes an incredibly powerful villain and kills all of his friends and he's decided he's going to throw himself off a cliff to prevent it happening. However, X-Factor shows up in time to shake him from that notion though it's still clearly sitting in the back of his mind. Danger scans him and discovers that he has a piece of Warlock tech in him and, despite his protestations, removes it to show it to him. He discovers that it's been sending transmissions about him to Warlock. The team and Doug go to find Warlock and the Magus, following the transmission from the piece of Warlock previously in Doug. When there, they're welcomed by the Magus who reveals that he's just trying to carve out a life for himself in the wake of the destruction of his home planet. The techno-organic virus that had infected him before gave him the ability to break from traditions once held by the Technarchy, meaning that he was able to set aside his enmity for his son and work together with him to promote their race. Now the Magus really is just a businessman trying to live life on Earth. He allows Warlock, who explains that the machinery in Cypher was just to ensure he didn't hurt himself as he'd been thinking of doing, to leave with X-Factor and the two former New Mutants join the team.

The book is coming together more and more and as these two new members join up with the team we can start to see that there are plenty of plot lines waiting to be unraveled. On top of the Quicksilver+the Uncanny Avengers storyline, there are burgeoning details about Cypher, about Danger and Warlock (Warlock quickly falls in love with Danger) on top of the Danger and Gambit weird thing that's happening, about Polaris' mental state, about the whole Serval thing, and even about Harrison Snow's affair with his personal assistant and his newly introduced and troubling wife in this issue. The characters are starting to come alive in their own way now too and it seems like things are really starting to fall into place for this book. Now there are a number of threads to be pulled, all of which could seemingly unravel everything, and still, presumably, plenty of other plots to build on going forward. Peter David lasted as long as he did with a book like the previous X-FACTOR because he write a solid team book and knows how to layer in problems for his characters as well as anyone in the business. They don't always work and sometimes the characters start to sound a little similar but by and large he manages to build a team that has a lot of heart and personality and a story that is barely keeping itself together in the best of ways. That's starting to come through here and ALL-NEW X-FACTOR could be primed for a nice run.

Deadpool 26, Guardians of the Galaxy 13

Deadpool 26
Posehn and Duggan (w) and Koblish (a) and Staples (c)

Another flashback issue for DEADPOOL as we go into the past to find Deadpool teaming up with Nick Fury to stop a time-traveling Hitler from scouring the timeline and killing Nick Fury to stop all of the interferences the Howling Commandoes have caused. Hitler gets his hands on a time machine when, just like has happened so often to him, a time traveler comes attempting to kill him and he defeats the time traveler. He goes through time trying to destroy Fury at various points in his life but has finally honed in on what Hitler sees to be his weakest time; his time between the war and the CIA. Cable and Deadpool have figured out his plan and are time jumping to try to save him. A giant battle ensues and Hitler actually succeeds, but not before Deadpool can send off a postcard which Cable receives in the future, allowing him to jump to the moments before Fury and Deadpool die and save them. The three of them slaughter Hitler then place him in the bunker while Deadpool yells through the door as Hitler about how he's going to commit suicide knowing the war is unwinnable.

This book is right on the edge of being maddeningly frustrating because there are parts of it that, ignoring how offensive some people may read it, are truly very funny and then there are parts that just carry on way too long and seem to be for no one's benefit. For example, I don't have any idea who is finding the many narrative interjections and editor's notes funny, particularly given how pervasive they are. On the other hand, there's a lot of really funny material in here, both in idea (the idea that Hitler constantly has to battle time travelers coming to kill him) and in the writing and things (in a sentence I never thought I'd find myself writing, Hitler is kind of the funniest part of this book). The style of the book, just as the style of all these flashback style issues, mimics a different time in comic history and it does a good job representing that time. Some really funny stuff in here but it's hard to really outright recommend this one because it is kind of hard to get through with all of the unnecessary stuff.

Guardians of the Galaxy 13
Bendis (w) and Pichelli and Marquez (a) and Ponsor (c)

Jean has appeared in the middle of the fight and announces that she understands that she's been the Phoenix and they're right to be upset about it. However, she says, it's not like anyone else would have been able to control the Phoenix either so it's ridiculous to put her on trial when the Phoenix was always going to come and always going to be an unstoppable force. On top of that, the Shi'ar killed her entire line on the off-chance it might help, which isn't sitting well with Jean and she fights Gladiator using newfound power, an ability to meld her telepathic and telekinetic powers together, rather in the way that Psylocke does but maybe even bigger because anything goes, right? Oracle finally calls the fight off mid-battle and rebukes everyone, but it does the job of making sure everyone keeps away from one another, though Scott uses the opportunity to threaten at Gladiator for a while. They all go their separate ways and, upon returning home, Kitty kisses Peter Quill because I'm so mad and Scott announces that he's going into space with his dad and Kitty continues to be an ineffective professor and I'm still so mad.

Hey guys, if you like regular Bendis stuff and double-page spreads, you'll absolutely love this issue. That's about what I can say for this because I'm really having some trouble wrapping my mind around it. Bendis is doing so much to write his own history (as he is wont to do) that he's making things more and more ridiculous. On top of that, his go-to relationship stuff is always love triangles and, hey guys, I'm real sick of them, about as sick of them as I am of Bendis choosing the character he likes the best and flooding them with girls. This also continues to make it known that Kitty is perhaps the worst choice for mentor of these kids as she continues to show literally no control over them despite being completely capable in whatever other role she takes on in other books. GUYS. I'm really frustrated. If you like this book, I really am happy for you and I hope that you continue to do so. I'm also hoping that GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY returns to the state it had been at before - it was certainly a slightly better book than ALL-NEW X-MEN and it's very clear that this TRIAL OF JEAN GREY crossover has been altogether too permeated with ALL-NEW X-MEN to really land with me. It also goes to my theory that Bendis is better writing solo titles than team books, at least in my view of him, and so adding multiple teams to this one didn't help anything for me.

All-New X-Men 24, All-New X-Factor 4

All-New X-Men 24
Bendis (w) and S. Immonen and von Grawbadger (a) and Gracia (c)

J-Son, King of the Spartax empire, interrupts Gladiator's tribunal to ask why Jean Grey has been put on trial for crimes she hasn't committed and why he'd still be going after her even after he's done so much to harm her, like hunting down her family to destroy any sort of genealogical attraction the Phoenix felt to Jean Grey. Of course, this leads to a delay in the trial and to a very angry Jean Grey. She's escorted back to her cell while Gladiator and J-Son argue but she breaks away from her captors, escaping into the city. Meanwhile, the Guardians, O5 X-Men, and Starjammers manage to secure a Shi'ar ship with the aid of Angela and fly it down to the planet, hoping to go unrecognized. They land and find themselves immediately discovered by Gladiator and his Imperial Guard. They quickly get into a fight before Jean emerges and asks to be brought back in and tried as a murderer.

It continues to be a little hard to review this book (and a good deal of Bendis' books, but the difficulty increases steadily the more characters are involved. I should make a graph) because my problems with the dialogue and the interactions and the tone and the double page spreads and everything else is already so well-documented. There's probably something deeper I could say about the fact that nothing changes in the style of so many of his books from issue to issue but it seems petty to complain about that; clearly if Bendis is popular, he's going to keep writing in that style and putting out books that fit that formula. So maybe one of my issues with this whole series and everything else that's come out surrounding this in the last year is that it's all so boring to me. I very rarely have found Jean Grey interesting, I tend not to be too connected to the Phoenix as a whole but particularly Jean Grey is uninteresting in the hands of many writers, and she and Cyclops, the oatmeal of the superhero community, are really at the center of this series, just like Cyclops is the center of UNCANNY X-MEN. Of course, it doesn't help that I have had real misgivings about the conceit of ALL-NEW X-MEN since it launched and I am getting more and more sick of stories about "can we kill an innocent person to stop crimes they may commit?" which means that, at least for right now, literally nothing about this book is working for me. Okay, and there IS something to be said about the fact that the format of these books never seems to change and I don't feel invested in ANY of these characters, partly because I know they all must get back to the past at some point and because I just haven't been given a reason to care about any of them yet. Too much to complain about in so little time.

All-New X-Factor 4
David (w) and Di Giandomenico (a) and Rosenberg (c)

X-Factor has discovered that Gambit's old associate Nil was the one responsible for taking considerable funds from Serval Industries and that he did it using a a very damaged Danger, former X-Man. Now she seems to have no memories and a distinct desire to kill her captor. Gambit, who has the closest semblance to a relationship with her on the team, tries to talk her down to no avail before Polaris destroys her body with her powers. However, Danger can inhabit other mechanical forms and quickly inhabits the team's ship to preserve herself and continue to fight. Her body rebuilds itself and she transfers back into that, ready at last to kill Nil, who finally offers himself up in the hopes it will save the island. Gambit refuses to allow it though and jumps on Danger again, this time kissing her before she can strike at anyone. Somehow, this restores her to herself enough for her to recognize Gambit and stand down. The team convince Nil to give back the money he took and they all leave with Danger in tow. Without discussing it with the rest of the team, Gambit promptly offers her a spot with X-Factor.

Okay, so let's get the compliments out of the way first. The issue moves pretty well. Peter David has a tendency to chew scenery a bit and load up dialogue with exposition and it happens here to an extent but, despite that, the issue moves quickly enough, keeping the action intense enough to merit a very action-based issue. There are, of course, still some flaws after that. The big one is the cliché yet also inexplicable return of Danger's memories after a kiss from Gambit, who admits himself that he never had any sort of romantic link to the robot, the living embodiment of the Danger Room. They had spent time together in various X-meetings and the like but I don't even think they've had a particularly close bond at any point. And yet, here we are, as the issue winds down, with Gambit kissing a robot and it having enough of an impact on that robot that her memories return and her homicidal rage is quelled. It's simultaneously a giant cliché and a deus ex machina, all wrapped neatly into one package. I think that the interesting things that are happening in this book are getting somewhat overlooked by moments like that and some of the exposition pieces. For example, I think David is developing something very interesting with Polaris but I think it's going to be hard to get to it if the book can't get past some of the set pieces. I'd also like to see a little bit more happening with Gambit and Quicksilver. It's a hard book to judge right now because we're only four issues in so there hasn't been a lot of time to really get into it with some of the characters and still tell compelling stories but I'd like it to at least go one way or the other. This story wasn't compelling enough (it basically boiled down to "Danger is crazy for some reason and Gambit's kiss made the crazy go away") and it ended up just taking away from the book as a whole. Still, four issues in isn't unusual for a book to still be finding its footing.

All-New X-Men 23, All-New X-Factor 3

All-New X-Men 23
Bendis (w) and S. Immonen and Von Grawbadger (a) and Gracia (c)

The ANXM find themselves in space alongside the Guardians of the Galaxy in the quest to find Jean Grey. They know that it was the Shi'ar who took her and have been tracking the Shi'ar ship but it's not gone unnoticed. The two factions quickly get embroiled in a space battle with various members of the Guardians deploying to fight the Shi'ar in space and others and the ANXM staying behind in the ship, where they get unlikely support from the thought-dead space pirate Starjammers, led by the Corsair, Cyclops' father Christopher Summers. Meanwhile, Jean continues to be told that she's on trial for crimes committed by the Phoenix and ham-fistedly tries to explain that she hasn't committed these crimes.

I would, perhaps, be less averse to this series (despite its horrible conceit) if issues read as quickly as these summaries went. Instead, thanks to Bendis' famous back-and-forth dialogue, the issue ends up losing both its tension and its pace. Bendis tries to restore it with the Jean Grey bits, putting her up against a seemingly impregnable foe, and with the tension Scott is clearly feeling (Scott, who will soon star in his own ongoing soon from Greg Rucka), but it falls short when you have Bobby making non-stop jokes and Rocket making non-stop (grr) fake swears. Of course, there is a time for comic relief in the midst of a serious situation but it tends to be bad if it's impossible to separate the two. I've pretty much been solidly on record about my dislike for the conceit that the O5 X-Men are in the present in the first place but I'm willing to accept it if it still yields good stories. This one feels like an attempt to bring up the trope of "can you find someone guilty of crimes they haven't yet committed," a question asked constantly in comics and other media and one that Bendis himself has even asked in the last year in AGE OF ULTRON. So I'm not on board with this plot, I'm not on board with the dialogue, and I'm not really on board with a lot of these characters. Guess how I'm feeling with this book?

All-New X-Factor 3
David (w) and Di Giandomenico (a) and Loughridge (c)

X-Factor is starting to get its bearing as Gambit moves into Serval Industries, Polaris continues to lead the team, and we discover that Quicksilver is working on behalf of Havok to keep an eye on Polaris and the entire set-up for the Avengers. Any sort of subtlety to the potential corruption or evil of Several Industries, too, can be put to rest as Snow reveals that he's planted a camera in Polaris' eye and as he offers a job to last issue's enemy, Dr. Hoffman. Of course, he doesn't tell any of the X-Factor members any of this and he sends them out on a new mission to find someone who hacked Serval's servers and made off with all sorts of plans and ten million dollars. Their physical trace leads them to the hidden Thieves' Guild island and Gambit immediately knows that Nil, the technomancer who threatened Gambit's leadership in his own title, must be behind it. They go and investigate and find that Nil has upped his abilities by hooking X-Man Danger up to his set-up. When Polaris frees her, Danger attacks all of them.

Plot-wise, there's a lot going on here. Serval is taking a very obvious step towards evil corporation even faster than I expected it would, Danger's a danger, and Quicksilver is, as Gambit suggested, a spy for an Avengers team. Aside from the introduction of Danger, though, all of these plot points are expected plot points, going so far as to even be plot points that Gambit, a character in the book we're reading, has expected them all along. In that way, the big plot shifts aren't super meaningful to us because they're plot shifts we've all been expecting and they're plot shifts only three issues deep, while we're still trying to figure out what this team is all about and who Serval is. Granted, we are only three issues in so these plot shifts may just be red herrings to cover bigger issues, but, on the face of it, it's not a terribly compelling set of plot twists. In addition, the writing ends up focusing a lot on quirky little quips and shoe-horned jokes. I'm a pretty big proponent of Peter David and his work (particularly his long work on the last X-FACTOR book) but this series isn't selling me quite yet. Of course, I'll keep reading it but that doesn't mean much coming from me, the guy who willingly reviews every single one of these jerk books.

All-New X-Men 22, X-Men 9, Marvel Knights X-Men 3

All-New X-Men 22
Bendis (w) and S. Immonen and von Grawbadger (a) and Gracia (c)

The ANXM team is back from their meeting with the Purifiers and everyone's relaxing their own way. For Scott and Jean (and, inadvertently, Warren), that means arguing about her knowing the future and being upset and Scott being upset and drama and so on and so forth. The fight ends as Jean storms off and is promptly kidnapped by suddenly attacking aliens who, according to Kitty, seem to be Shi'ar. They put everyone attacking them in bubble forcefields and take Jean away in one without a giant fight. As soon as they've left, the Guardians of the Galaxy pop by and realize that they're too late.

Right off the bat the pacing feels a little strange in this one. Things move pretty well for the second half of the book but the first half is largely made up of Scott and Jean fighting across a cafeteria table (and across Warren for comic relief). Though the back-and-forth dialogue is pretty prevalent in this scene, I actually think that it works here because they're meant to be kind of quickly shouting at one another and it doesn't often step into strange asides and quips. Instead, it feels like a real fight. So my problem, then, isn't with the writing of this scene, it's with the length of it. Maybe halfway through it I think it's safe to say it could have ended. There's even an out there that could have still sent Jean walking away and the issue progressing from there. It might be an attempt by Bendis at trying to give just a little more characterization to the three characters present in whatever way he can but it feels like it just overstayed its welcome, causing readers to have to push through the end of a fight they already fully understand and, worse still, to which they know the ending. Still, it's not one of the weaker issues of the series for that, as the pacing almost immediately picks up (though again, I'd say there's a bit of waste in the second half insofar as how often people explain what's happening in the fight, but that's pretty petty, even by my own admission) and the ending paves the way for the now started TRIAL OF JEAN GREY. Solid Immonen artwork on this one but, then again, it's always solid Immonen artwork.

X-Men 9
Wood (w) and T. Dodson and R. Dodson (a) and Keith, Woodard, and Mossa (c)

Lady Deathstrike has moved her operation, along with Enchantress and Typhoid Mary, to a new office in Dubai where she hopes to power her small team up and hopes to bring Arkea to life. The X-Men are trying to track them but not finding much until Jubilee and Karima find a Cortes jet landing in Dubai. Monet is ready to strike and aimed at the top seven floors of the building, all of which are owned by Cortes and seem empty, aside from the villains. Monet blasts through but it's just too late; Arkea has already been revived, taking the body of Cortes' assistant Reiko, and amped up the powers of the other three. Enchantress, her powers fully restored, manages to grab and hold Monet until she loses consciousness while Mary and Arkea escape. Mary and Arkea talk about the X-Men, whose databases Arkea still retains from her first appearance, and it gives Arkea an idea: she begins to take over other entities all over the world (including, possibly, Karima again) and plans to attack the X-Men on every home base she knows.

The stakes are pretty quickly rising here as Arkea comes back online. There's still plenty of intrigue and questions as Sublime returns to the X-Men to help for one reason or another but it's largely out in the open now as the audience is privy to Arkea's rebirth and her plan going forward. The team building and characterization is mostly in the actions of characters as everyone has her role and takes to it immediately, with Jubilee and Karima trying to track Arkea, Storm and Psylocke meeting with Arab superhero and peacekeeper Sabra to ensure their fight with Arkea keeps from starting a war, Monet as the strike force, and Rachel probing Sublime for information and directing the others. Everyone has an individual voice, even as some of our characters have fewer lines and are maybe a little out of focus. Meanwhile, the plot is running full tilt now and our players are largely accounted for, though there are hints that Arkea might be picking up new enemies for her sisterhood, as Enchantress deems it. As X-MEN moves firmly out of the event it was wrapped up in, it's progressing extremely well with Brian Wood doing his "raising all the stakes" thing perfectly as expected. Good stuff, excited to see what comes of it.

Marvel Knights X-Men 3
Revel (w and a) and Peter (c)

As the X-Men onsite begin to see their memories come to life as a result of Darla, powered up by Krystal's drugs, things start to break down pretty rapidly. Tons of old X-Men villains and horrors descend on the town and tensions immediately start running high, particularly from Wolverine, who has apparently gone crazy and is set on killing Darla for what he saw in her memories and what's happening all around them. As he and Rogue fight pretty brutally over it, Kitty tries to get Krystal to safety. Meanwhile, a mysterious group practically running the town and creating the drug that everyone in the town has been using, a mutant drug born of a mutant who arrived in the town some time ago, is ready to jump into the fight and do so by killing the sheriff of the town, Krystal's uncle Jasper. As Kitty and Krystal try to get away, an entity that Krystal refers to as Jasper appears in the car and attacks Kitty from behind, forcing her to phase through the moving vehicle and stranding her on the road in front of a mob of angry townspeople.

The chaos of this book is really ramping up and it's easy to lose track if you miss a single panel. In that respect, the interesting and rather gorgeous art is almost a hindrance to the book as you kind of want to skip the writing just to look at the artwork. It's the sort of book that might take a couple read-throughs to really comprehend (and even then I'm not sure I've got it all) and to really see it. I'm not the type to start complaining about pretty and experimental art in a book. The plot is maybe a little convoluted but this is the sort of story that I'd like to see the results before I officially condemn the plot. I think that it's something that could wrap up really nicely or could go entirely south depending on how Revel moves from here. This serves, then, as a very interesting midway point for the limited series and continues to set itself apart from a lot of the other books on the shelves with its action, its intimate team, and its artwork. Pretty neat issue, looking forward to how this one wraps.