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

Amazing Spider-Man 1.2, Deadpool 30

Amazing Spider-Man 1.2
Slott (w) and R. Pérez (a) and Herring (c) and Caramagna (l)

With Peter still trying to attend counseling and maintain the busy Spider-Man schedule on the down-low, new possible hero Clash has his first outing, which goes rather unsuccessfully. Clayton Cole, though, unlike Peter Parker, comes from a wealthy family and is able to literally buy time with Spider-Man through his agent. Spidey, needing the money, shows up but is pretty quickly creeped out and webs Clash up and leaves, making himself a new enemy in the process.

There's a lot to this little limited tie-in series that could enrich a reader's understanding or view of Peter Parker at the start of his career, which is certainly a nice thing, but it also rather means that the story runs a little slowly as there's just maybe a little too much context, particularly for older readers. It is certainly still a valid Peter Parker story and does an interesting job weaving and winding between classic Spidey stories but it tends to move pretty slowly between those stories (seeing Peter Parker in counseling, it turns out, is maybe not so thrilling, partly because it's more Peter pretending not to be Spider-Man which wears a little thin after 50 years and partly because who would actually think that would be thrilling?). Still an entertaining enough story, even if Clash starts to sound a little like Max Dillon in Amazing Spider-Man 2, a villain I had a lot of trouble with (was he actually mentally handicapped? Should we be rooting for Spider-Man to defeat the mentally handicapped villain?).

Total Score: 3/5


Deadpool 30
Posehn and Duggan (w) and J. Lucas (a) and Staples (c) and Sabino (l)

While Deadpool and Dazzler, at the behest of Shiklah, seek out vampire nests all throughout New York, Preston and Adsit deal with what they saw in the ORIGINAL SIN explosion. Preston saw where she can find Eleanor and Adsit saw something horrible enough he's refusing to talk about it. Preston goes by herself to Chicago to visit Butler's brother. She finds Eleanor, hidden away in a doghouse and, back turned to the camera, Preston reacts to her visage.

Deadpool's plan to take down the vampires (a plan my girlfriend, not reading the series, referred to as "pretty funny, actually") is working pretty well, even if it's grossing Dazzler out. We get maybe a teensy bit too much of it here as things start to turn to obvious jokes and quips, making things a little cheesy to read at times. However, the plan remains an interesting one and the Deadpool-Dazzler team-up is fun and fresh. There are more hints to dire goings-on as Adsit remains silent on what he saw in the explosion, though hints that maybe he's not going to be so thrilled with Deadpool the next time they meet, and as Preston meets Eleanor only to be horrified by whatever she looks like or is or something. Plenty fun enough to read, slows down a little maybe midway through as we hit the point where they have to drag the issue on a little to leave the reveal for next time.

Total Score: 4/5

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

Uncanny X-Men 9, X-Men 3

Uncanny X-Men 9
Bendis (w) and Bachalo (a) and Townsend (c)

SHIELD agent Dazzler shows up at Fabio's home to try to talk to him about his new mutation and to get answers about Cyclops' new X-Men team. The atmosphere is not particularly welcoming and she ends up needing to stun Fabio and his family so he can remove Fabio from the situation. Meanwhile, Scott is trying to train his X-Men when the news report of Fabio's abduction hits them. Of course, SHIELD is pretty stupid, as is typical, and didn't think any of their actions through so the X-Men know where he's being held.

I've gone on and on before about the back-and-forth dialogue Bendis employs to make his books seem quick-paced and witty which, in my opinion, fail to do either of those things but rather make the book drag and make every character sound the same, which is to say less like an actual character. It hits home again here as he has a wacky, fun-filled scene at Fabio's house when Fabio's father pulls a gun on Dazzler. Yes, you read that all correctly. Fabio's father pulls a gun on Dazzler and threatens her and it's played off as part of the hilarity of the scene. Later, when SHIELD pulls Fabio in, it takes literally no effort for Scott's team to find him, which Coulson pieces together immediately after they bring the new mutant to them. Both of these things are examples of lazy writing. The people do whatever the plot dictates they do, no matter how inane and ridiculous, simply to move the book forward. The ending features Mystique because Bendis seemingly can't get enough of her and, as Bendis is wont to do, that means she's appearing everywhere he can put her (a la Hawkeye, Luke Cage, and Spider-Woman in his Avengers runs). I think part of the idea in the snappy writing here, if I'm being generous, is that the X-Men have always functioned as something of a family, people bonded together over a connection they didn't choose to have. However, it feels unlike any sort of family and more like a collection of of people who have never entered into a real conversation before in their lives and suddenly all they do is talk, with every character feeling the need to input at least fifty throwaway lines per conversation. So in short, I continue not to recommend this book.

X-Men 3
Wood (w) and Coipel and Morales (a) and L. Martin (c)

The team that left the school is closing in on Arkea back at the hospital she originally landed at, where she took over Jubilee's new son. Waiting for her there is a full wing of people with cybernetic neural implants, meaning that Arkea can take over any and all of them. That's what's waiting for Storm and company when they arrive. Meanwhile, back at the school, her bomb seems to have detonated, though not in an explosive way. Instead, it's done its own thing, hacking the systems at the school and creating, possibly, some Karima drones in the Danger Room. Can Kitty shut the Danger Room down in time? Will it matter if Storm and her team don't shut Arkea down? What will be left of Karima if they succeed?

There's a lot happening here for a three issue arc and it suffers in a respect. You don't want arcs to drag on too long or else they stagnate a bit. However, not giving enough time can make the whole thing feel rushed and poorly explained. That's how I came away feeling after this issue. Arkea certainly was a huge threat, the first and second issues showed that pretty well. In the final issue, though, she seems a whole lot less intimidating. She's sort of intimidating at the school but she's taking on Kitty and a handful of students and her most intimidating moment is when she shuts the oxygen off in a room they quickly break out of. If she's not involved in issue four (unknown, obviously) then this is a weird arc conclusion. Still, the team feels pretty good and they move in an appropriately coordinated way, leaving some faith for the coming series. Feels a bit early to give a judgment on this series, but I wasn't exactly blown away by its first storyline.

X-Treme X-Men 13, Wolverine 2

Some sad news upfront: Marvel has apparently made the decision to cancel the ongoing Winter Soldier series with issue 19 in June. I'm rather disappointed but not entirely surprised. More on Monday (likely, assuming I write the post in advance; like I said, I will not be around most of next week).

X-Treme X-Men 13
Lapham, Liu, and Pak (s) and Pak (w) and Mogorron and Valdes, Tadeo, Cuevas, Ho, and Wong (a) and Loughridge (c)

The pressure stays on for the X-Termination event with X-Treme X-Men 13. The creature who made it to the 616 has successfully brought down the Dreaming Celestial and imbibed it, but not before the Earth team found the Celestial's memory banks and realized that this creature is intending to bring millions more back that way to destroy the entire universe. Kurt (I'm calling kid Nightcrawler "Kurt" and AoA Nightcrawler "Nightcrawler," for a bit of a key here) helps teleport people back and forth through the portal but the strain of it shows on him. Meanwhile, Jean and Nightcrawler try to snag the Apocalypse Seed back from Dark Beast so that Jean can use it. In the ensuing chase, the seed gets close enough to one of the creatures that the teams can see the reaction to the seed's appearance. The creature shies away from it, so it does seem like using the Apocalypse Seed is a possible method to destroy. Prophet still believes that Jean can handle it so she'd be the natural choice. However, Prophet also decides that it's too late to save both worlds. Simple timing means that only one world is possible to save so they'll have to choose. Dazzler refuses to accept this and they decide that they could save both if all three creatures were in the same place. Sadly, the creature on 616 seems to have no plans of returning to the AoA. Kurt, already affected by the strain of everything, sacrifices himself to teleport the creature in. Dazzler catches him on a light slide as he falls. We're not given any final signal that he's dead, important to note, but it does seem pretty final and EITHER WAY it's pretty sad, probably more sad if the cover didn't have his team surrounding his fallen body. Nightcrawler stabs Beast through the back and they recover the Apocalypse Seed as the book ends.
So a few more twists, a few more turns. At least for now the 616 is safe but they have limited time to destroy these creatures before more show up and the seed seems the only way. The last couple books in this series have a lot of ground to cover, as they need to defeat the enemies, show us the seed's effect, and, presumably, give us a sense of what happens to the X-Treme X-Men and this whole Age of Apocalypse, as both books are officially over now. Two more books left in this event and it somehow seems like both too many books left and too few. It's a weird feeling. I suppose that could be a good thing, though, as it could just leave us right where we want with length. The event continues to be, in my opinion, the best one currently happening at Marvel.

Wolverine 2
Cornell (w) and Davis and Farmer (a) and Hollingsworth (c)

This book is confusing, so let's try to work it out. First off, there's some sort of weird maybe drug deal happening where cops and gangsters alike have joined up and at least one gang member was surprised by this and shot by everyone involved for his surprise. Then we cut back to Wolverine. That in itself raises a few questions. Is the business with the child Alex a distraction? Are the drugs the ones mind-controlling Alex? Are the people behind the drugs behind all of this? I don't know. So Wolverine continues to chase Alex, who is acting very strange but is still not hesitating to shoot people with the new gun. He's acting strangely enough that Wolverine quickly realizes that Alex is no longer in control of his own body. Alex momentarily evades Wolverine and Wolvy starts asking around for information in the street. A homeless person offers him a protein booster that will help his powers for a dollar, which Wolverine accepts, much to the surprise of the homeless person. Instead of rubbing it on his chest, as the homeless person suggests, Wolverine drinks it to "clear his palate." It seems like I'm going into a lot of detail for a throwaway scene, but it is kind of interesting to note and might come back later (Chekhov's gun and all, yes?). It's interesting in the "clear the palate" kind of way, but also in his attitude when he explains what he did to the thing inhabiting Alex, saying that it doesn't really matter what it was because he'll heal from it. So Wolverine and "Alex" have a chat about how much "Alex" has learned about Wolverine before he loses the gun and throws Alex off the building, saying goodbye to Wolverine and that maybe they'll talk again. Wolverine dives after them and saves Alex, allowing the gun to leave his sight to save the child. Alex snaps out of it and remembers Wolverine as the person who killed his dad and starts crying. The entity inhabits another guy who picks up the gun, but new Nick Fury shows up and shoots him before having a chat with Wolverine about how they want to play this. The Watcher shows up as the issue ends.
So there's a lot going on here and it doesn't all fit together just yet. It's still pretty interesting and it promises to keep up the pace as the Watcher makes his appearance. Some payoff's going to have to start seeping through, though, or else all this confusion for confusion's sake will wear a little thin. I like the way Wolverine's being characterized though. He comes off as quick thinking and weathered and like someone who has been in these sorts of situations before. He pretty quickly recognizes mind-control (as I feel more heroes probably should by that point) and does what he can to learn more without hurting Alex. His interaction with Nick Fury is nice because it's not the kind of typical interaction, wherein they have to get acclimated to one another or it's just an exposition dump or anything like that. Instead, Nick and Wolverine talk like two people who have known each other's histories and know each other's roles pretty well. Nick asks which of Wolverine's teams he wants to call in on this and Wolvy tells him that he wants them all to hang back for a bit. Wolverine also takes charge, saying that he has evidence in his shoulder (a bullet that went in and never came out) that will have to be removed delicately. It's the way I suppose I'd expect Wolverine to act. A lot of Wolverine comics prefer to go the surly route with Wolvy, which I think is in his personality, but it ends up kind of overriding some more sensible things I'd imagine Wolverine as knowing to do. Here he's acting sensible and taking help where it's offered, instead of shoving Fury away and chasing after the gun. So let's keep that up.

Uncanny X-Men 3, X-Treme X-Men 12

Uncanny X-Men 3
Bendis (w) and Bachalo, Townsend, Mendoza, Vey and Olazaba (a) and Bachalo (c)

Maybe my problem with Bendis now is that there's just too many words. I've said before that I think he's writing as if comics were a TV show or a movie but the mediums are completely different. Bendis has come out before as a fan of Gilmore Girls, which totally fits with his dialogue. I'm not saying Gilmore Girls is a bad TV show, just that it is a TV show. You can do the snappy dialogue and the fast back-and-forth in TV and in movies but I still maintain that it doesn't fit in comics. In comics, it's just a lot of word bubbles distracting from the point everyone is trying to make. And it appears in ALL of Bendis' comics. Each comic that comes out has someone (or some group of someones) in the background making extra but unnecessary points or quips or "geez, how did I do that...I still don't know how I did that!" kinds of remarks. It doesn't fit because it doesn't flow and because it distracts from whatever seriousness might be going on. All the kids, perfectly ordinary kids before their mutations appeared only days ago, are stunned by the appearance of the Avengers (which they should be) but won't shut up about it. We get it, you've never been in this situation. Frankly, I think most kids would be stunned silent in this instance. Apparently, though, they'd all be telling each other how they don't understand what's going on and making jokes behind everyone. So maybe it's not the right format. Maybe if this was a television show or a movie, this would all make sense and flow beautifully. Or maybe it's too many words for any medium.

Anyway, the Avengers show up to take Scott and Emma into custody and Bendis still writes Captain America as a one-dimensional jerk. No one in this comic seems to listen to anyone else in this comic. Cap doesn't listen to Scott and Emma saying that they weren't the ones who broke apart the Phoenix and forced it into their bodies and Scott and Emma don't listen to Cap saying that, no matter what, Scott still killed Professor Xavier. Cap then throws in the fact that Havok is on the Uncanny Avengers and it FEELS like Cap is admitting to making a PR move with his new Avengers team, which the Cap in Uncanny Avengers would probably also admit to, but not as a weapon. He did it because mutants need the press and the world needs to see mutants as friends, the same way they might see Avengers. Here, he says it as if he's saying "WHAT DO YOU MEAN I'M BAD AT MUTANTS? I'M GREAT AT MUTANTS! PRAISE ME!" Look. I have some issues with this issue. And with this series. And with this writer. I think I'm going down a pit of disdain for Bendis that no amount of "oh, but remember his run on Daredevil? And Ultimate Spider-Man?" can save. Magneto comes and reveals to Scott and Emma that he betrayed them to gain the Avengers' and SHIELD's trust. He says that now they'll totally trust him and he's done something no one saw coming and everyone hails it as a brilliant move even though it's so common, we have a regularly used name for it: double cross. I don't know. Guys. I'm having trouble being objective about this any more. Maybe I'm not. Maybe this is my objective reasoning. I think I would still feel this way without knowing Bendis wrote it, or without his back catalogue. But I don't know any more. Let's just move on.

X-Treme X-Men 12
Pak (w) and Araujo (a) and Kholinne w/ Caeli (c)

Things are again heating up in the X-Treme X-Men set of universes. The three evil Xaviers who had teamed up last issue opened a portal to the multiverse and offered sacrifices to it in order to take over the world only to find that whatever was inside was far worse. Dazzler and her team rebelled against the Xaviers but too late to stop the portal from opening, killing the Nazi and Witch Xaviers (the head-in-a-jar Xavier claims to have been manipulated by the other Xaviers but says he has done what he could to prevent them from finding Dazzler's team, which kind of fits, so they keep him alive for now). Now they're going through the portal to save the multiverse but quite possible sacrificing the world they left behind to whatever horrors are coming from the portal. Interestingly, this was billed on the "Road to X-Termination" event postcard as a prologue to X-Termination, the event that will center around AoA Nightcrawler trying to return to his dimension from the 616. So this portal seems to be something of a hinge to those events. We'll see.

Anyway, not too much else to talk about here. Basic character stuff, mostly stuff we already knew. Dazzler is taking the kid's gloves off and swears that, if killing needs to be done, she's willing to kill and to die. She makes sure her team is prepared for all of that too. So we'll see if that changes as the book goes on or if she'll have to kill to accomplish her goals. Lot of mini-X-Forcing around the Universe right now. I guess that's what happens when you have a book that's as great as Remender's come through the wires; everyone wants to use something of a similar formula. It seems the original threat of the ten evil Xaviers has subsided but given way to a whole new threat, which is probably Xavier-related anyway but I guess we'll have to find out later. AoA Nightcrawler might make a good fit for this new, suddenly violent team, should he find his way into it. Two Nightcrawlers on one team! Can you imagine? Probably. It's probably happened before. I don't know, comics are weird, you guys.

X-Men Legacy 6, X-Treme X-Men 11

X-Men Legacy 6
Spurrier (w) and Molina, Lee, and Wong (a) and Rosenberg (c)

This book never stops moving, it seems. Six issues in and David's still harnessing new powers and, don't be put off by how lame this sounds, discovering himself. I KNOW, I wouldn't have bought it if I read that either. But for real, he makes some incredibly important decisions that benefit his characterization like mad. On top of that, he finishes up the story in this arc with a bang and leaves us with an idea of the sort of things to expect all while creating a new and very complex villain for us to be on the lookout for. Not bad for one issue.

Legion, held at knifepoint by the rescued child Karasu while her possessed brother attempts to kill Blindfold, decides that he's fed up with being led and grabs a new teleportation power that sends him straight to Luca possessing Karasu's now-dead twin brother. Luca is one thrust away from killing Blindfold when Legion stops him, but he leads Legion on a chase through the X-Mansion. Luca, now in control of half of Blindfold's power, has set up a number of traps and contingencies for Legion to fall into. In some cases, Legion does, but in others, he avoids narrowly. Legion keeps a step or two away from Luca before Karasu appears again, threatening David to stop him killing her brother. As David faces a moment of weakness, an unseen personality in his head takes over and easily knocks the girl aside, telling Luca that he'll be useful someday, before giving way to David's true personality again. The fight against that personality takes a lot out of David so he's winded when the X-Men show up and Luca puts on the guise of a little boy again and blames David for attacking him and his sister. Before the X-Men can react, Blindfold, recovered, leaps in and slices Luca across the middle. She goes on to cool things down with the X-Men, who offer David a chance to stay and find help. Claiming again that he won't be led, he leaves, determined to go the extra step of his father's dream, actually accomplishing something in the fight for mutant equality rather than just being reactive. His evil personality is revealed, telling him that Blindfold will eventually kill David to save mutantkind. That personality is a disappointed Charles Xavier.

Lots of demons here, lots of plot, lots of character building, lots of support characters, just lots of everything. And it's all executed really well. David's personality (and his powerset) has grown stronger and stronger with each issue without sacrificing any actual feel for the character. His resolve is stronger, though this new demon is bigger than one he's faced yet. It'll be very interesting to see where we go from here.

X-Treme X-Men 11
Pak (w) and Segovia, Valdes, Crisostomo, and Ruggiero (a) and Kholinne, Noor, and Sotomayor (c)

Geez, lot of creators on this book. ANYWAY. So Nazi Xavier, unlike the cliffhanger of last issue might have led readers to believe, is totally a friggin' Nazi. Namor has lost too much at his hand and has been waging war on the psychic for about ten years, by Nazi Xavier's count, and he looks primed to kill the last 500 humans on Earth in his latest attack, all to get at Xavier. Though the X-Treme X-Men hate this new Xavier, they refuse to watch Namor kill the last humans, so they all work together to take out Namor before Dazzler sneaky-stabs Xavier, allowing the wounded Namor to finish the job. The team's Xavier tells the team that this completes their journey and that, in the morning, he'll bring them all where ever they want to go.

There's a little bit of characterization to follow, including a new relationship for Dazzler and Cyclops and Dazzler's admission that she's changed so much in this journey that she's not sure she can go back home. The others celebrate and recount the ten evil Xaviers they've killed and, of course, come up with only nine. They hurry off to find their Xavier, who is now bonding with two previously-deceased Xaviers (including the friggin' Nazi), promising the destruction of worlds. So there's somewhere for this book to go yet, as the team faces three evil Xaviers at once. Then they'll probably cut away real quick for the X-Termination event (I'm not sure if that will slide in neatly or if it'll be in the middle of this arc or at the end of this arc or even at the beginning, I'm not sure when it happens and, frankly, as I type this sentence, I'm only kind of sure that it WILL happen). That's about all I've got here. A lot of stuff happened but it was largely plot. I friggin' hate Nazis. Always worth mentioning that.

X-Men Legacy 5, X-Treme X-Men 9

X-Men Legacy 5
Spurrier (w) and Molina (a) and Rosenberg (c)

Boy, this book sure is a fun one. On the one hand, I don't think I'm ever going to get sick of the idea of David fighting his many powers inside his own brain to contain and control them. It's rife with action, interesting new abilities, character building, more or less everything I'm looking for. Meanwhile, David himself has become a pretty compelling character in his own right. He spends the beginning of this issue calling his mother, with whom he hasn't dealt in a while and hasn't really been a part of his life. It's an interesting look at David, who has recently lost the father who brings forth many conflicted feelings. He eventually hangs up before actually speaking to his mother and continues the issue. Stationed outside of the Jean Grey School, David uses some of his "200 omega-level split personalities" to find and transport a pack of dire wraiths to the school to distract the faculty and students as he mentally looks for Blindfold, who had previously told him that she thinks she's supposed to be his nemesis. That's right, everyone, Blindfold has an interesting story.

We learn in this story that her background, which, to my knowledge, hadn't really been revealed prior, is extremely dark. This by itself isn't a huge differentiator from many other mutants, as plenty dealt with hate and fear in their childhood. However, Ruth did watch her anti-mutant brother kill her mother for protecting her before nearly killing her. Then, in an unforeseen twist, we find out that the two children Legion protected last issue are working against him. The little boy Sojobo has been possessed by Ruth's powered-up brother (he ended up accidentally stealing some of her powers) and Sojobo's sister Karasu has been sent to distract Legion to ensure he doesn't stop Sojobo/Luca from finally killing Ruth. Legion, who is trying to turn his life around and affect the world positively while trying to wrestle down his own 200 inner demons, has been played and delivered everything to right where it was needed to kill Ruth, with whom he bonded last issue.

Like I said in the first paragraph, I'd've been thrilled with a book that was just Legion fighting down his split-personalities. Maybe, as with what happened last issue, occasionally whipping a recently contained one out to defend himself or someone else. I'd've been thrilled. But instead, there's all that PLUS actual meaningful plots with actual weight to them and real threats. It's very exciting to see where the story goes and how David reacts. How he reacts to this newest turn will be a pretty defining thing for this book. David's personality is clearly established and it's very clear that Spurrier knows where he wants to go with it, but I get the feeling that this kind of a twist is the sort of thing that will really illustrate what we can expect of David as we move forward.

X-Treme X-Men 9
Pak (w) and Diaz (a) and Kholinne, Noor, and Sotocolor (c)

I'll start this off by saying this isn't a book I typically look forward to. I'm not a big Dazzler fan (because I'm like most of the world) and I already care a ton about a lot of characters in the 616, I don't need NEW universe characters to care about. Also, the premise of the book is pretty neat, but always feels a little 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo to me (or a more relevant reference, whatever, I work with what I know and I know that REALLY well). I also have, even still, some trouble believing Dazzler would automatically ascend to team leader on a team that has not only a Wolverine, but a Wolverine that is USED to leading. In one of the more recent books Dazzler appeared in, she was grilling Pixie on her accent and dialectic words. Those kinds of moments are big in Dazzler's recent history. I'm not saying it's unlikely she'd ever become a leader, I'm saying it seems like a really fast transformation for our benefit, as the audience who knows her and not the rest of the team.

Still, this book moves pretty quickly. I was surprised to find that I was already done when it ended and that's usually a pretty good sign. I do like the idea that there are plenty of Xaviers out there who weren't so prone to good because it's interesting to see the world without his positive influence. There also has always been a real sense with Charles that he has some villainous qualities to him. I do think our Charles always believed whole-heartedly in his dream (though you have to imagine somedays he had to remind himself of that) but he was often stern and withholding to his students and, though he shaped up eventually, did occasionally read their thoughts to accomplish something or other. Not stellar qualities (though hard to curtail, I'd imagine, as a telepath), no, but he still fought for the right side. These are the Charleses that didn't or that didn't need to or something.

All and all, I recommend this book, though a little cautiously. It's typically a pretty quick read and the characters are endearing enough. If you're not a huge X fan, some of the alternate reality appearances and the weight of evil Xaviers might be lost on you and that might undermine your enjoyment. Such things happen, and I could understand it happening here. Even if you're not a big X fan, though, you should be able to follow the basic gist of the books solidly enough. Now might not be a bad time to jump on if you were considering it, as there seem to be a couple of permanent additions to the team just making their way in pretty recently and we might have some interesting and traitorous developments on their way. Also, totally respectable by me if my calling it similar to 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo gets you onboard. Totally respectable.