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

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

Leftovers 9-3-14

There are still too many books left.

All-New Doop 5

Doop has learned that his mother is also his father and it's shaken him a bit. Still, with the help of Wolverine, he's able to settle himself down and restore the story to its rightful place, even wiping the memories of everyone involved so they can get back to the main narrative and he can return to his place in the margins. It's a nice conclusion for Doop and there's a nice moment between him and Kitty but still the limited series remains baffling to me, even insofar as why it exists. It's not helped by how much I disliked BATTLE OF THE ATOM. Total Score: 2/5









All-New X-Factor 13
Quicksilver's press conference has shaken things up a bit for X-Factor as Polaris stands up for her half-brother to Harrison Snow and then helps him stand up to Gorgon of the Inhumans, who attacks Quicksilver as he takes Luna and Georgia on a trip to Pennsylvania. Gorgon is furious that Quicksilver betrayed the Inhumans and "stole" Luna away, though Luna stands up for her father. Though Quicksilver is prepared to accept his punishment, ex-wife Crystal shows up to calm the situation a bit, taking Gorgon home to Attilan and allowing Luna to stay with Pietro a little longer. Still some good heart in this series as the team begins to stand up for one another and as Quicksilver gets some more development to bring him back to a more respectable place in the Marvel Universe. Total Score: 4/5


Avengers World 12

The Avengers and the new Euroforce work together to try to battle Morgan Le Fay in her new City of the Dead. After a quick bit of origin for each of the new Euroforce characters, Druid shows up to aid the team. Unfortunately, Le Fay quickly kills him. Bit of a surprise there. Anyway, another pretty strong showing here as Spencer does some quick work to create a bit of intrigue for Euroforce, begging us to ask where they've come from. I continue to quite like Checchetto's art. Total Score: 4/5










Deadpool vs. X-Force 4
Deadpool has inauspiciously teamed with Hitler to help Talbot control the world in the present. At Deadpool's disposal is a special gun that will erase its target from all of existence. After some attempts to set the past right, Cable shows up to have a final battle with Deadpool and Talbot. As Deadpool turns the gun on Cable, Cable uses his as-yet unrevealed telekinesis to redirect the blast to hit Talbot, erasing him from all of time and creating something of a paradox but fixing all of the past as Talbot never hired Deadpool in the first place. Not a bad ending but not necessarily a series that I believe needed to exist. Total Score: 3/5


Hawkeye vs. Deadpool 0

A hacker has been targeted after stealing the HR records of every active SHIELD agent. On Halloween, he attempts to get help from Hawkeye, who mistakes him for another ungrateful trick-or-treater and turns him away. He runs into Deadpool on his way out and slips his flash drive into the merc's candy basket. The hacker ends up murdered by a pair of goons dressed up like Punisher and Daredevil and quoting patriotic aphorisms. Deadpool and Hawkeye don't want to team up to solve this murder and protect SHIELD but it looks like they may be forced to, particularly as it seems like they may be going up against Black Cat sooner or later. Pretty fun first issue here as Duggan and Lolli play with Deadpool's typical writing and with homages to Hawkeye's current series that mostly hit the mark. Could be a fun team-up. Total Score: 4/5




Legendary Star-Lord 3
Star-Lord has been captured by the Badoon and wakes up in a Badoon jail along with a young Badoon child and a spy. With some help from Kitty Pryde in the form of a hologram, the trio break out of their cell and head for safety. Despite a hatred for the Badoon, Star-Lord is won over by the young Badoon child who leads Quill to a nice new ship, which he uses to bring the child to the orphanage he robbed in the first issue. Next stop: Earth for a confrontation with Thanos. I continue to believe that this series isn't living up to its potential, which I think could be a pretty high ceiling. Instead, it feels like, as I said last issue, the opposite of ROCKET RACCOON, seemingly trapped in the Marvel Universe and too attached to the new mythos of Guardians of the Galaxy (complete with a terrible "OOGA CHAKA" reference). Give me something fun and crazy, not something that feels tied down. Total Score: 2/5


Punisher 10

Punisher is in prison after his last run-in with Black Widow but prisons mean very little Frank Castle, who quickly enrages the right people and causes a prison riot, allowing him time to go talk to an older man in the prison named Hector Ruiz. Meanwhile, LA has exploded in crime rates and the police officers find themselves becoming more violent in response, with many getting suspended as a result of their actions even as the Dos Sols prepare for another strike. Edmondson keeps the tension up here though this one is still rather a break issue, giving us a chance to settle back into the LA storyline after a bit of time removed. Strong work and I really like that cover right over there. Total Score: 4/5







She-Hulk 8
An elderly Captain America has gone to She-Hulk for help after a deathbed confession from a ninety year-old man questions whether or not Cap killed a man decades and decades ago. As She-Hulk attempts to take the California-based case, she runs into a handful of problems and concerns, only to have them reach their breaking point when she learns she's going up against friend and fellow hero Matt Murdock in court. This book continues to be rather unlike any other book out there right now as it acts as half procedural and half superhero book. The case gets more and more complicated but it's happening on a backdrop of excellent character work and really strong Javier Pulido art. Total Score: 5/5


Spider-Man 2099 3
Miguel O'Hara worries what his reveal to Liz Allan will bring him at work and learns quickly that it will bring him something just short of blackmail, as she requires he accompany Tiberius Stone as Stone goes to a war-torn nation to sell Spider Slayers to the government, despite his objections. Sure enough, as soon as the two arrive, Stone is kidnapped by the rebelling forces. Unfortunately for those forces, Spider-Man 2099 isn't the only protection Stone has, as the corporation had already sent Scorpion to help against the uprising and that the Spider Slayers are already active in the country. There are some interesting ideas here but it's so far a little hard to stay invested in these characters, as David insists we care to some extent about what Liz Allan has to say about things and about Tiberius Stone, whose survival O'Hara counts on for his own life. Certainly not all bad but also not compelling enough to differentiate itself. Total Score: 3/5


Superior Foes of Spider-Man 15

Shocker yells at his old team for betraying him but ends up, of course, betrayed again as the new Sinister Six suddenly finds themselves winning all over the place after a successful raid of Owl's compound and now sitting on the head of Silvermane that could make them heads of the Maggia. After a successful fight against some of their hired help, angry to be cut out of the deal, things seem to be looking up for the villain team...until Owl teams up with Chameleon to find Boomerang, Overdrive makes a deal with Mr. Negative to give him the head of Silvermane, Beetle gives Tombstone the info about the head of Silvermane, and Speed Demon offers the head of Silvermane to Madam Masque because she's hot. Still plenty of fun with a lot of laughs and some great moments, particularly as the issue winds down and we start to see, juxtaposed with Boomerang's pride in the team, the many betrayals upcoming. Total Score: 4/5



Uncanny X-Men 25
The will of Charles Xavier includes, as we learned last time, the fact he married Mystique but it also includes the revelation that there is an extraordinarily powerful mutant out there named Matthew Malloy who Xavier met when Malloy was a child and who he realized was too powerful to allow to continue his regular life. Xavier installed a series of mental blocks to dampen the child's power and visited him yearly in the guise of another child until Malloy caught on to Xavier's trickery and asked him what was really happening. When he learned, he wanted all of his memories removed and the mental blocks reinforced. Now, with Xavier dead, the responsibility of checking in on Malloy falls to his X-Men, a task that may be trouble as Malloy's mental blocks have been removed and the young man finds himself burdened with immense power. There's an interesting story here but it's absolutely buried under narration, dialogue, petty fights, and banter. Also, the story isn't that interesting, let's calm down, okay? Total Score: 2/5


X-Men 19
Jubilee, with some consultation help from Beast, manages to reboot the Peak's systems and repair the shielding while the psychics on the team take out the attacking Sidrian Hunters. Monet, Psylocke, and Rachel Grey take a shuttle out to the last place Deathbird had shown them in her memory, meeting up with a few Shi'ar on the way. Meanwhile, Storm tries to repair the Peak but runs into complications as she's already exhausted from the last battle and is asked to generate electricity herself (not the way her powers work) and power up the ship. She may be in trouble as the suspicious Manifold Tyger attempts to "aid" her while the psychics discover that Deathbird had been brought by the Brood to a place where she and other creatures were experimented on. Some of the experiments, sadly, are still there and ready to attack. Like the last issue, some of the ideas are pretty strong and the dialogue and characters are particularly well done here. It's a good story that's utilizing every member of the team pretty well. Total Score: 4/5

Uncanny X-Men 24, X-Men 17

Uncanny X-Men 24
Bendis (w) and Anka (a and c) and Caramagna (l)

Beast, using Cerebro, knows where Cyclops and his group are. He's been unwilling to disclose such up to now because he doesn't want to deal with Cyclops any more but now the team gets on a jet and flies to the old Weapon X facility to gather their old teammate. They tell him what's happening and head back home with Cyclops, Emma, Magik, and Kitty following via teleport. Amidst fears that Xavier may have left the school to Cyclops, She-Hulk begins to read the will, which reveals a marriage to Mystique and a chip with a video recorded message from Xavier that promises a big secret reveal.

You know those complaints I occasionally lodge about a story REALLY dragging forward? Well here ya go. It also plays to my more specific criticisms of this rift in the X-Men Universe being a rift in name only since they're ALWAYS hanging out together. ALSO, while we're on the subject of issues I'm having, I roll my eyes every time I see that cover and remember the punk (is that what we'd even call it? Just terrible, is what I'd call it) makeover of Dazzler. Look, what I'm saying is that there are real issues with this issue. There are some upsides, particularly in that it looks like Bendis might actually be ready to go a little deeper with some of the characters he's had in his control for the last two years or so, including Ice Man and, maybe, Beast. Still, more bad than good for my own tastes.

Total Score: 3/5


X-Men 17
Wood (w) and Diaz and Briones (a) and Mounts (c) and Caramagna (l)

The X-Men have brought the fight to The Future only to be stopped in their tracks by The Future's defense mechanism Bloodline, which allows only people with The Future's DNA to enter. At Kymera's request, Beast has brought Shogo to the fight scene. Using her future knowledge and begging the trust of her mother and the other X-Men, she brings Shogo to the edge of Bloodline and cuts his finger, wiping the baby's blood on one of the plants in the forest. Bloodline, needing to adjust, shuts down for enough time to allow Jubilee out of her prison and the X-Men into the forest. However, even Jubilee is too slow as the forest rips through the ground and kills The Future itself. Not all is well, though, as Shogo is poisoned by the foliage. Beast is forced to admit that he used Arkea to save Primal and Sprite and asks Storm to trust him as well as he injects the strain into Shogo, which he does and it saves his life. The X-Men all head home relatively happy, though Kymera sets off to live in the world, understanding that her mother didn't ask to suddenly have a teenage daughter and that the two would likely butt heads to no end. She'll still be around, ready to help and to protect the baby Shogo (her best friend in the future), but she won't be at the school.

The Future's storyline is interesting and ends up being almost more of a story for Kymera, who saves the day with some risky maneuvers and the sort of decisiveness we've come to expect from a Munroe. It's not a bad issue (a particular highlight is an unleashed Storm, prepared and able to raze the forest to stop The Future) and the art is pretty solid throughout. It does feel a little anticlimactic for a villain who, just a couple issues ago, seemed so untouchable, to die horribly tucked away from all of our heroes. Still not a bad issue, just a strange ending and one that doesn't sit particularly well, as if Wood had to rush out to finish up the other storylines and check in with all of our key characters before the issue officially ended.

Total Score: 4/5

Uncanny X-Men 23, X-Men 16

Uncanny X-Men 23
Bendis (w) and Anka (a and c) and Caramagna (l)

As the team recovers from the most recent attack of the future evil brotherhood, She-Hulk receives a startling package. While Cyclops tries to talk to Eva about whatever it is she's hiding and her suddenly faster aging and as Emma, Magik, and Magneto try to help Dazzler track down Mystique, She-Hulk heads to the Jean Grey School and calls together Storm, Beast, and Iceman, waiting only for Cyclops to turn up so that she can read the last will and testament of Charles Xavier.

The issue serves as both the start to a new arc and a bit of a rest issue after the last arc. It drags a little bit in its own way, combatted well by Bendis by jumping around the X-Universe a bit. As the team settles back in, welcoming recent overpowered hero Hijack back into their midst, Bendis sets up the new story which will, he promises, rattle the X-World to its core. That said, it comes as a big sort of GASP moment at the end when She-Hulk informs the three X-Men around her that they'll need to get Cyclops to hear the reading of the will, which would probably be more effective if the two rival teams didn't see each other every third book or so. For someone who has sort of been excommunicated by the X-Men, Cyclops has still made a number of appearances, met with varying degrees of anger and I think it's weakened the series and the death of Charles Xavier a bit. I'd have liked it more if they could have kept this Uncanny X-Men team from the X-Men team or the Wolverine and the X-Men team or whatever entirely, really giving a sense of isolation. Instead, Cyclops has appeared in every major X-Men story, it feels like, and Bendis has even gone so far as to send the O5 X-Men with Kitty Pryde to Cyclops' side. Hardly feels as dramatic. Anyway, the total score/review for this issue is only for this issue, not for the faults I'm expressing about the series as a whole. So...

Total Score: 4/5


X-Men 16
Wood (w) and Buffagni and Sandoval (a) and Mounts (c) and Eliopoulos and Caramagna (l)

The Future, thrown a bit by Kymera's appearance and actions, has altered his plan and captured Jubilee instead of killing her and trying to take Shogo himself. He retreats to a safehouse in the Adirondacks and waits for the X-Men's response. They prepare an assault, readying even the students for the fight, despite the notion that students should stay away from the fighting and acknowledging that the kidnapping of an X-Man and the brutal attacks on their home are more serious than most things they face. As they begin their attack, they learn that The Future has all manner of futuristic defenses, including a sort of bio-coded forest which would only allow entrance to people with the same DNA as The Future, stopping even the powerful Monet in her tracks. When The Future makes an offer of a trade, Jubilee for Shogo, to Storm, sure that she will give up the baby that he believes means nothing to her, she declares war.

Things are getting heated against The Future and I think that the only problem with the story as a whole is that The Future is still such a foreign entity. That isn't altogether bad; the idea that the X-Men don't really know who they're facing and that they've never faced him before opens the door for plenty of fear and poor decisions. However, it does make it kind of hard to see how much of a threat he is. Obviously Wood has done his part, showing The Future effortlessly attacking the Jean Grey School and incapacitating Psylocke (actually hard) and kidnapping Jubilee (ehhhhhh, not so hard once you're IN the school). Even with that, though, it's hard to get a read on this guy. This is where the continuity of comics hurts the current comics because the X-Men, appropriately, are treating this as one of the biggest threats they've faced but long-time X-Readers are undoubtedly thinking of all the other villains in the team's rogues gallery and wondering why The Future stacks up so high suddenly. Again, not necessarily Wood's fault or the fault of this book but it is a problem when reading this story. Still, strong issue overall, harkens back to Wood's ULTIMATE X-MEN with the sentient seed and the forest that fought on behalf of the mutants of Utopia, even if now a pseudo-sentient seed is fighting against the X-Men.

Total Score: 4/5

Uncanny X-Men 22, X-Men 15

Uncanny X-Men 22
Bendis (w) and Bachalo (p) and Townsend, Deering, Irwin, Mendoza, Vey, and Olazaba (i) and Bachalo and Villarrubia (c) and Caramagna (l)

The helicarrier continues to attack the X-Mansion while Hank brings Scott to the perpetrator and Magneto shows up with the drained Dazzler in tow. While Triage helps Dazzler, Hijack reappears, hoping to join up with the Jean Grey School, and manages to take control of the helicarriers again. Beast reveals to Cyclops that the person behind all of this is, in fact, Dark Beast, from the Age of Apocalypse timeline. Cyclops kind of inadvertently kills him when he blasts open his big suit that DB claimed was keeping him alive. Cyclops and Maria Hill have an argument on the front lawn and SHIELD and the X-Men's relationship gets a little rockier.

Things have ramped up quickly in the SHIELD Sentinels' attack on the X-Men as suddenly everything is converging on the Jean Grey School, just as Hijack deus ex machinas his way over to the campus. Overall, the action is pretty solid and the book reads a little faster for it though it's hard not to feel like simply too much happened. Between the attack and Magneto+Dazzler and SHIELD and Dark Beast, it feels like there was zero chance for the story to have meaningful impact because we're jumping too quickly from one thing to another. How can you worry about the implications of Dark Beast's actions when you're busy thinking about how SHIELD let this happen? How can you question the limits of Hijack's powers when you're busy trying to remember if there was some dumb subplot about Maria Hill being attracted to Cyclops in just another example of Hill's character being weakened by Bendis? How can you wonder about what Dazzler's going to do next when you're thinking about how terrible Maria Hill is? Too much happening, though it doesn't necessarily make the book unreadable, just smaller than it feels it should be.

Total Score: 3/5


X-Men 15
Wood (w) and Buffagni (a) and Mounts (c) and Caramagna (l)

The Future, who has trained for everything and who will, according to Kymera, manage to separate Jubilee and Shogo, is taken aback momentarily by the fact that someone in the X-Mansion killed one of his men. It doesn't line up with what he believes about the X-Men and it gives him pause about how to proceed, recognizing that there's at least one wild card out there. However, it doesn't give him much pause as he manages to take out Psylocke on the front lawn and proceed inside, where he finds Jubilee and shoots at her, grazing her head with the bullet and knocking her out to take her, though he doesn't quite take Shogo. MEANWHILE, the BROMO-SUPERIOR Wood/Briones mini-story wraps up as Psylocke saves her students by killing her danger room boyfriend (weird) in a big teaching moment.

The Future, though something of an inexplicable villain right now, becomes a little more interesting as he gets a bit of narration in this one. We don't necessarily get anything of his motive or his personality, but we start to see just how dangerous he is. He continues the theme that Arkea started, the idea that knowledge is real power and that his knowledge of a situation makes him a far more impressive villain than simply being a strong combatant. Wood also does a good job to settle out some of the team issues by having Ororo show a little more strength here, coming back to a place where the others respect her more. There's also a really nice moment in this issue where Jubilee, talking to Beast while he tries, perhaps ill-advisedly, to save Teon and Sprite with a bit of Arkea, boosts Beast up by talking about how much of a rock he is and how she knows he'll always be there to protect him. PERHAPS some ominous foreshadowing but, in the here and now, it's a nice win for Beast as a guy who hasn't had a lot of those recently.

Total Score: 4/5

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

Gillen leaving IRON MAN, Waid leaving HULK

Gillen from his fantastic blog post today
on how to pre-order a comic at your LCS

News has broken on a couple of fronts in the last few days as the August solicits have come out. Chief among it has been the odd disappearance of IRON MAN among those solicits (as well as THOR: GOD OF THUNDER - as yet, I've heard nothing on that one). Kieron Gillen (seen at left) confirmed today that he is indeed leaving the book after ORIGINAL SIN. According to Gillen, he's been offered a major opportunity at Marvel (very exciting) and he needed to make room somewhere. He realized that ORIGINAL SIN would be a pretty perfect spot to leave IRON MAN and pulled the trigger, making his total issue count (including the Annual) 31, the same count he left UNCANNY X-MEN and JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY after. Guess we can't ask for more than that. Extremely sad to lose him on IRON MAN after a very impressive run but thrilled to hear about his new opportunity and to see that Marvel continues to recognize his strong work and reward it with greater opportunities. I've seen no news yet as to whether IRON MAN will restart or who will take it over.

In the same vein, veteran Marvel writer Mark Waid has announced that he is leaving HULK after ORIGINAL SIN (conveniently, he and Gillen will work together on the OS tie-in series ORIGINAL SIN: HULK VS IRON MAN) and that writer Gerry Duggan (already writing NOVA and co-writing DEADPOOL with Brian Posehn) will be taking over on that book. As seen below, Waid assures his fans that there's no bad blood, that Duggan will be great, and that he simply wanted to get further ahead on his other projects, which is a lot to say in fewer than 140 characters.

.@GerryDuggan will do a spectacular job on HULK. Zero bad blood--I just want to get further ahead on Daredevil and http://t.co/vOHwbZDFMi!
— Mark Waid (@MarkWaid) May 21, 2014

Also worth noting, though it's not Marvel related so I'm hiding it here, at the bottom of this post, that Si Spurrier has announced that he's doing a book with Alan Moore and I think that's pretty neat.

X-Men 14, Uncanny X-Men 21

X-Men 14
Wood (w) and C. Mann (p) and C. Mann and S. Mann (i) and Mounts (c) and Caramagna (l)

The Future has attacked two students, Primal and Sprite, and, in doing so, somehow broken past every defense that the X-Men have. Monet and Rachel tear off after Primal's shooter and track him to a train in an attempt to make a getaway. They manage to take him down before he can shoot himself, bringing him back to the school for questioning while Psylocke ups the mansion's defenses and Beast attempts to save the wounded. Storm calls everyone together to tell them that she's officially announced them as a team (AKA made it known to Wolverine) but her speech is interrupted when the Future strikes again shattering more defenses and breaking through where they were holding the original shooter. Storm's future daughter Kymera helps protect Shogo and trounces the shooter, who turns out to be a bomb, and the ensuing explosion complicates things further.

Story
The Future, despite his name, continues to be a frustratingly compelling villain, one who is able to inexplicably get past all of the mansion's many defenses and to remain hidden from even the talented psychics on the premises. Amid the fear of the Future is a story about the team forming and starting to work together as Storm begins to back down from her leadership position, allowing for more voices of dissent or more strategies and at least stalling the overthrow talk. Wood has always done a solid job at ramping up and balancing tensions and this issue is a prime example. 5/5

Character
There are a number of strong characters in this book and Wood should be praised for keeping their voices almost entirely distinct. It's the sort of book where you could focus on the words on the page and know who's speaking. The only time that that line gets a little muddied is with Rachel, who occasionally plays the side that's convenient to the advancing plot, though I'd also say that I'm not really sure I've read a really great Rachel Grey before and I'd say that I've read great versions of all of the other major characters elsewhere. 4/5

Writing
Wood bounces back and forth between locations and characters enough to make the book feel really fast-paced even when a lot of this issue is just fortifying defenses and reacting to last issue. It creates the sort of panicked and terrorized tone for the issue that allows the reader to begin to understand what the outlook is like at the school. Particularly effective with this is seeing Beast's full-on sadness at what's happening and his seeming inability to help the injured. 5/5

Art
Strong art from Clay Mann, as is typical. There's a nice panel as Ororo apologizes for her recent behavior and announces that they're officially a team where, though the camera is pulled back far enough that there's not much detail to the characters' faces, we get a good sense of the situation from the position and the posture of each character, with Storm fretting anxiously, Rachel listening o obediently, Monet with her arms-crossed, Psylocke with her hands on her hips, and Jubilee cradling Shogo. It's a nice characterization of all of them in the briefest of moments. 5/5

Miscellaneous
As in the last issue, the mini-story BROMO-SUPERIOR continues in this issue, again written by wood but with art from Phil Briones and colors from Matt Milla. It's fine, or whatever.

Total Score: 5/5


Uncanny X-Men 21
Bendis (w) and Bachalo (p) and Townsend, Irwin, Mendoza, Olazaba, and Vey (i) and Bachalo (c) and Caramagna (l)

Cyclops and Magik have lost control of their powers upon arriving at the Jean Grey School to question Beast on whether or not he's tracking their movements with Cerebro. The mutants at the mansion subdue the pair just as Dazzler arrives and demands to take Cyclops into custody. Beast fights her on it, convinced something is wrong with them and realizing he's best suited to understand what and who is attacking them. Maria Hill steps in and eventually sides with Beast, giving him an hour to study Cyclops. The mysterious entity behind the attacks sees his opportunity and uses the SHIELD helicarriers to attack the school while Beast begins to study Cyclops in his lab and realizes who is behind everything. Meanwhile, Magneto frees Dazzler in Madripoor and swears he'll help her find revenge.

Story
Though I thought that Cyclops' reason for coming to the Jean Grey School was kind of stupid and convoluted (the dude's just going to keep making excuses to go there apparently and the more he does it the less of a dramatic "OH NO, LOOK WHO'S HERE" sort of a moment it is. Soon we'll just assume he's a part-time professor), you can see here why Bendis chose to send them. Though the ends don't necessarily justify the means, we're here to examine this issue and not the last one and the at ion of this issue is compelling enough. I do have some problems with the fact that this book can't seem to go more than a few issues without pulling in the other mutants or SHIELD or anything else, but we are moving quickly to our mysterious adversary. The most compelling story of the issue, though, is Emma Frost's refusal to completely give up on Scott as a love interest. Just kidding, of course it's not that, I could not care less about that. I swear, every time I start to fight for this book, I'm reminded that I'm actually annoyed by it. No, it's Magneto. His determination to get Dazzler out and stop the MGH production is a nice arc for his character and it boosts this up from the 3/5 I was going to give this issue after remembering Emma Frost's contribution. 4/5

Character
Like last time, I'm going to fall back on Magneto's arc here because there's not a lot else to look at. There's Emma Frost and I continue not to care even a little bit about that relationship. Magneto's stuff is strong, I'm still not particularly into SHIELD's involvement though Maria Hill's agreement to let Beast check out Cyclops was both interesting and baffling. 3/5

Writing
Bendis reins in the back-and-forth dialogue here which I really appreciate since there's a lot of fighting and a lot of exploding in this issue and I really hate it in those moments. I think the tone of the book works pretty well but I'd have to put that to the colors as much as anything. Still, writing didn't hurt that and that's sometimes just as important as actively fostering it. 5/5

Art
As I said, I think the colors really helped the art in this one. Bachalo's art is typically impressive and it's extremely consistent. This issue loses a point in art for a weird gratuitous upskirt of one of the girls in the Jean Grey School (I'd call her Surge but I've not known Surge to wear a skirt and I'm unclear if she's there or not. Who knew I'd have to choose between blue-haired girls?). 4/5

Miscellaneous
I think this book has the ability to shine through some of the problems I've had with it but it keeps barely scratching that surface instead of leaping over it.

Total Score: 4/5

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

X-Men 12, Uncanny X-Men 19, Wolverine and the X-Men 2

X-Men 12
Wood (w) and Anka (a) and Keith (c)
Wood (w) and C. Mann and S. Mann (a) and Mounts (c)

The X-Men were tipped off about Arkea's location by Ana Cortes, who recognized that she was getting in a bit over her head by the end. Fortunately for the X-Men, their approach hadn't been expected and so Arkea's sisterhood hadn't moved from their off-the-grid location, far away from any sort of electrical signals in or out, meaning that Arkea cannot simply escape. Monet busts into the hideout first, plunging through the ground with Amora and leaving her brutally wounded. While Psylocke takes down Typhoid Mary, Rachel and Storm meet Arkea, in Reiko's body which also now holds Lady Deathstrike. Madelyne Pryor and Seline Gallo are with her and ready for a fight. Though they don't particularly relish taking orders from Arkea, they recognize that they're only alive because of her plans. Storm, though, offers them a chance to escape, claiming that they'll settle up later if they'll just leave Arkea by herself. They take the chance with almost no hesitation and depart, leaving Monet, finished with Amora, to hold down Arkea while Karima shoots her in the head with a specially made (by John Sublime) gun that will target and kill Arkea and leave the host body unaffected. With the day won, Karima announces she'll be leaving this X-team and joining Sabra and Gabriel. Story two finds Jubilee emerging from her mist form to distract the Sentinels attacking the beach, giving Quentin a chance to take control of the Sentinels and use them to destroy each other. Successful ending on all sides.

This issue leaves me a teeny bit conflicted. On the one hand, I do feel like the Arkea storyline was starting to drag a bit; though there have been brief interludes (including stupid BATTLE OF THE ATOM) this has been the ongoing story since issue one and I think it's seen better days. That said, it's hard not to see this ending as something of a rush job. Don't get me wrong, I still like the ending well enough; I like the combat and the planning the X-Men have and the fights themselves are certainly fun to watch. However, it feels like it came together really suddenly, with the X-Men able to defeat this foe that just an issue ago seemed completely in control. Maybe there's a greater lesson in that and maybe the change in expectations of a normal comic was the key. Still, it's a little jarring. ON THE OTHER HAND AGAIN, I'm excited to see how this team moves on to the next mission. Certainly, aside from, say, X-Force, my favorite X-team right now. For all that that says.

Uncanny X-Men 19
Bendis (w) and Bachalo, Townsend, Vey, Mendoza, Irwin, Olazaba (a) and Bachalo and Villarrubia (c)

While Hijack, recently released from Cyclops' team, is interrogated by Maria Hill and Mystique shows Sabretooth that she's manufacturing MGH from the captive body of Dazzler, the Uncanny X-Men travel to Chicago to track down a new and powerful mutant that popped up on Cerebro. When they get there, of course, it's a trap and they're faced with a giant Sentinel spewing new, smaller Sentinels that seem to interfere with powers they know about. As a result, many of this team's powers are shut down but the ones who aren't known about are unaffected. As such, Eva is still able to use a time bubble to protect them from an attack and Magik is able to use her new and improved sorcery to protect them from the rest. They manage to force the Sentinels to flee but Scott considers it the last straw, vowing to go to war with whoever is behind these attacks.

Okay, so readers of this blog probably know that I have serious issues with Bendis' preferred writing style for comics. I know it's something of an unpopular opinion and I almost hate it myself because it makes my life harder than it has to be, particularly when I go to review his books and the first thing I want to write every single time is "I don't understand why there's so much back-and-forth dialogue and what anyone is getting out of that." I swear that's not how I want to come at these reviews, just like I swear I'm not out to hate any of his books from the get-go (though I can't always put aside my biases and I'm not sure I should; I would hold a writer I like better to a higher standard because I know their work, why not the other way around?) because, though it's often easier to write reviews about books I don't like (got plenty to say, typically), I don't at all like not liking comics. So I guess what I'm getting at here is that I don't want to level my typical complaint of "I can't stand this writing" at this book even though I just have. On top of that, though, it's hard for me to see Scott as the kind of strategic genius he's meant to be when his plan of attack when the chips were down was "everyone separate and run away" and then he declared war on a foe he can't see. I have other issues, sure, but let's just say what I've said and be done with it, okay?

Wolverine and the X-Men 2
Latour (w) and Asrar (a) and Silva (c)

The Phoenix Corporation that has seemingly appeared out of nowhere has lit a fire under what seems like the entire Jean Grey School. Quentin has taken off, looking to find the Phoenix Corporation for whatever answers it may yield, Wolverine and Storm are forced to follow him, Evan is jealous of him, and Idie is worried about what the Phoenix logo being used by humans means for all of them. Solid questions all around but seemingly no answers anywhere. Quentin arrives at the Phoenix Corporation and immediately runs into a giant maybe-mutant, someone from the future and trained, he reveals, by the Askani priests (like Cable). He seems to know everything about everyone and has the ability to show them bits of their future and to attack their weakest mental points. He reveals to Quentin the path of destruction that lays before him if he continues on his path and, when Wolverine and Storm arrive and promptly attack him, he brings Storm's insecurities down around her and destroys Wolverine in the fight, ending it with what seems to be a threat aimed at Evan, Kid Apocalypse. Meanwhile, unrest surges at the school as Idie fights with Armor, left in charge in Wolverine and Storm's absence (where DOES Beast go all the time?).

There are a number of interesting irons in the fire (just how I like my irons: interesting) here as Evan's (certainly not wrongful) jealousy of Quentin and some of the images John, the Askani-trained maybe-mutant, reveals set the stage for a potential Apocalypse-Phoenix battle between one-time friends Evan and Quentin (of course, the Phoenix and Apocalypse have fought before, at least in other dimensions, but I don't know that it's ever been quite so personal). The Phoenix Corporation stuff is still somewhat shrouded in mystery but there are interesting aspects to the debate over it, including the use of the Phoenix imagery and name all by itself. In addition to that, Storm lays out a compelling argument (after laying out a resistant Wolverine) for why Wolverine needs to cool it, upset with him over his attack-first mentality and for refusing to seek counsel on matters involving Jean or the Phoenix or whatever else. There are some really good nuggets in here and I think it could translate to a really interesting story but I think we still have to learn a little more about what's happening before we can judge that aspect just yet.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

X-Men 11, Uncanny X-Men 17, Amazing X-Men 4

X-Men 11
Wood (w) and Anka (a) and Keith (c)
AND Wood (w) and C. Mann and S. Mann (a) and Mounts (c)

A story in two parts as part one, the significantly longer part, finds the majority of the team working to try to figure out what Arkea's plan is and why they've come across an empty boat. They actually do a pretty good job of figuring out what Arkea is up to, based on who she's allied herself with and where the money's coming from, tracing Arkea even to the resurrection of Selene Galio and Madelyne Pryor. Their solid deductions still don't stop the infighting amongst them, of course, not helped by the fact that now the always argumentative Monet is on the team. They also realize that the boat being out there has lured all of them out to it, leaving whatever other targets they might be at unprotected. CUT TO the second part of the story, illustrated by the Manns, which focuses on Jubilee leading the fight against the restored and constantly healing Sentinels. The fight goes well enough but Jubilee does the "vampire mist thing" and suddenly no one can trace where she's gone.

The X-Men aren't the only ones with infighting as Ana Cortes pleads with Typhoid Mary to kill her, worrying about the implications of the things she's done and knowing that she won't be able to keep up with the supervillains as their plans progress. On top of that, John Sublime is asking some pointed questions to Quentin Quire, the care of whom he has been not-so-lovingly placed under. There's a lot here to enjoy and a lot to think about as this book suddenly has real steam. The characters are all strong, the relationships between them are already pretty defined and are growing more defined by the issue, and the threat is becoming more and more real. In truth, the threat and the plot are still the vaguest part about this book, but that's a little to be expected with a new villain and a new team finding its way. It's rare that a team book features a team that feels so fleshed out so early on. Wood is deftly drawing on years of backstory from each of these characters to show that this isn't some randomly assembled team, it's a team meant to work together and who know better than to get hung up on their relationships. Lots of good stuff here and the art (I'm particularly fond of Kris Anka's) is matching the writing really well.

Uncanny X-Men 17
Bendis (w) and Bachalo and Townsend w/ Vey and Mendoza (a) and Bachalo (c)

It's training day for the new X-Men and Magik dumps them off in Tabula Rasa, the section of Montana that Archangel deposited a life seed in back in UNCANNY X-FORCE (but, you know, not the last UNCANNY X-FORCE. Thanks, comics). Everyone toys with their powers a bit and some of them have to square off against highly evolved life-forms. Eva goes through something serious that she refuses to talk about and it's possible she's aged a bit out there. Hijack's cellphone, which he refused to give up, alerts SHIELD to their whereabouts and, after a little bit of time, they show up and attempt to escort them out. Hijack turns their armor against them and they manage to escape before Magik brings them home. Cyclops is unimpressed by the way they handled themselves and particularly by the fact that Hijack didn't relinquish his phone and allowed SHIELD to track them, then didn't admit to his mistake when pressed about it. Unwilling to allow that kind of careless attitude, he kicks Hijack off the team and sends him home.

Here's the thing that's a little impossible to explain. I get why training is necessary and why showing the kids here training is necessary. I also get that they're kids and that they're unexperienced and even that they're very new to their powers. However, I can't believe that these kids would get dumped into some foreign situation and all immediately start back-and-forth dialoguing and talking about who Eva has a crush on (GUYS, it's Cyclops because Bendis can't go five seconds without throwing in a hundred love triangles with a lead male protagonist in his book!) and debating where they are. Of those things, the last one is the only thing I am willing to buy. The rest is just...it's kind of unbearable to read. I've talked at length about back-and-forth dialogue slowing scenes but the worst part is it's not even doing the job it's actually effective at doing, which is creating chaos. If someone who doesn't use that style of dialogue regularly starts using it, it makes a scene more out of control. More word bubbles, depending on the word count inside, can make things seem out of control and harried. If there are too many words, though, it just makes things slow down tremendously. It does that here and it makes everyone fairly unlikeable because everyone is the same and everyone is making this book a treacherous and slow read.

Amazing X-Men 4
Aaron (w) and McGuinness and Vines (a) and Gracia (c)

Nightcrawler and Storm work to free Beast from his rage and manage it just before he strangles Nightcrawler. From there, they set sail in their new boat and Nightcrawler and his legion of bamfs spread out to find the others, first rescuing Firestar and Iceman from Hell, where Iceman had tried to freeze the whole place and Firestar had tried to burn the whole place, before tracking down Wolverine and Northstar in the horrible icy lands of maybe-limbo. There are plenty of reunions and Kurt even explains the history of the bamfs, claiming that they were born in Hell of a union between a giant maggot and a shapeshifter and Azazel found them all starving and fed them his blood, binding them to him. Kurt, however, made a dark deal with them, one that has yet to be revealed, to bring them (or many of them, anyway) to his side and they, in turn, have helped him find his friends here in the afterlife to wage his war against Azazel.

I have combatting feelings about all of this, just as I did with Aaron's WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN. The comic landscape right now is a very different one than its ever been, allowing for books that are extremely dark, books that are much lighter, books that are deeper than ever, and books that are none of the above. I can't necessarily fit AMAZING X-MEN into any of these places and I'm not sure I should be trying to. It's absolutely its own book and I'd like to judge it on its own grounds and not weigh it against a greater universe. At the same time, though, it is undoubtedly part of a greater universe and that reality makes it very hard if not impossible to distinguish it. That greater universe, while certainly not having a unified tone, thus allowing books like X-MEN LEGACY or YOUNG AVENGERS or HAWKEYE or SUPERIOR FOES OF SPIDER-MAN in, tends to feel...I don't know, more grown-up than this book. ON THE CONTRARY AGAIN, comics started in the hands of children and it is sad that, aside from specific made-for-a-younger-audience books, there are no major titles out that kids can really read and get into (maybe SPIDER-MAN but that strays pretty dark occasionally too...like how Peter Parker's archnemesis killed him that time and took over his body). So it's hard for me to get into this book and hard for me to find a place in my brain for this book, as it was for WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN. I like to think I'm still capable of fun and whimsy but GEEZ, it's starting to look like maybe not so much. Oh, and I rather have decided that I don't care for Ed McGuinness' art style after seeing it here and in NOVA and finding all the same problems with it. Gracia's color work is solid here, though, and shows really great range as the issue traverses just about every imaginable landscape and lighting.