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

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

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

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

Total Score: 1/5


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

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

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

Total Score: 3/5


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

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

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

All-New X-Factor 9, Amazing X-Men 8, Amazing X-Men Annual 1

All-New X-Factor 9
David (w) and Di Giandomenico (a) and Loughridge (c) and Petit (l)

It's rather a rest day to start for X-Factor as the team returns home from their perhaps ill-thought-out mission to rescue Georgia Dakei with young Georgia in tow. She blames Cypher for the problems but seems onboard with Gambit, to Cypher's chagrin. Gambit is having his usual troubles with the team and its mission, troubles that will no doubt be exacerbated by the fact that he just unknowingly slept with Harrison Snow's wife Angela, as discovered by Harrison's assistant and secret lover Linda. Meanwhile, resident mad scientist Doctor Wexler DNA tests Georgia (pretty much just for fun) and reveals that Scott Dakei isn't her father and her deceased mother isn't actually her mother. Instead, her birth mother, Dakota Bennett, lives in Minneapolis and her birth father is unknown. Quicksilver argues on Georgia's behalf that she ought to be able to meet her birth mother and X-Factor brings her to Minneapolis, where she's greeted happily by her mother. Unfortunately, her birth father is apparently a supervillain named Memento Mori and he's been watching the house for a long time waiting for Georgia to return.

For a rest issue, there's plenty happening here. One of the good things about an issue like this, one that removes them from immediate action, is that we can get a sense of where the team is and how everyone stands with everyone else and what's happening in everyone's life. In many ways, the rest issues are some of Peter David's strongest because he understands the way a team works and knows that the important part of a team book is making sure they feel like a team. That was one of the strengths of his previous long-running X-FACTOR title and it's clearly at play here. There are certainly parts of this issue that drag a little and I'm still finding it a little hard to get behind the Georgia stuff (I'm not really compelled by her character as yet, but it's still obviously an early issue for her). Worth looking at in this book is a nice two page sequence where Georgia talks to Cypher and, when he leaves, she talks to Danger. The two pages are near-mirror images of each other with a few of the panels set exactly the same way and with Gerogia in the same position. Big shout-out to colorist Lee Loughridge on that one because he does pretty spectacular things with the very slightly different light on each page as time has passed a bit. I read it on my computer and could easily flip back and forth between the pages and it was pretty neat, you guys.

Total Score: 4/5


Amazing X-Men 8
Kyle and Yost (w) and McGuinness (p) and Farmer (i) and Rosenberg (c) and Caramagna (l)

It's important to note before I start this review and summary that Wendigos, the incredibly powerful, nigh-unstoppable Canadian murder machines that every so often run into Hulk or Wolverine, are created, thanks to a curse on the land, whenever anyone eats human meat. Anyway, two guys in Canada at a meat processing plant get into a scuffle and one accidentally shoves the other into a table at just the wrong angle, snapping his neck. To protect himself, the murderer shoves the victim into the meat grinder. Do you see where I'm going with this? Wolverine, kind of sick of being cooped up in the school and seemingly invited away, pays a visit to old friend Heather MacNeil Hudson (though she's labeled as Heather McDonald here so maybe I missed something?), AKA Vindicator of Alpha Flight. Heather tells him that her husband James Hudson, AKA Guardian, has been missing for some time and she's worried about him (they've also been fighting a lot lately, as they did the last time we saw either of them in FEAR ITSELF). She and Wolverine go to try to find him as back home Ororo worries about where the healing factorless Wolverine has gotten off to now. Wolverine and Heather quickly learn that Guardian was attacked by a Wendigo and immediately try to call in backup but they may be too late, as they're set upon by a whole slew of the creatures just as Ororo, with the help of Rachel Grey and Cerebro, calls an X-team to Canada.

AMAZING X-MEN so far has been an okay book, one that seemed to take the place of Jason Aaron's WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN in its lightheartedness and its near whimsicality. Now Craig Kyle and Chris Yost take over and immediately throw it into a much darker place, though the art of Ed McGuinness and colors of Rachelle Rosenberg still rather keep it a little lighter than most books. It's an immediately interesting story which will pit the X-Men, including, presumably, reintroduced Colossus, Nightcrawler, and Northstar, as well as a non-healing Wolverine, up against a ton of extremely powerful Wendigos. It immediately gets dark to the point where there was a legitimate chance that Heather was about to be torn in half by Wendigos. So bit of a different tone here but I certainly don't think it's the wrong way to go on this book right now. I also like the addition of Mark Farmer's inks on Ed McGuinness' pencils since McGuinness tends to draw action and certain people very well but sometimes makes people look a little too young for my liking and Farmer's inks seem to balance that a little. Overall, very good start to a new look AMAZING X-MEN.

Total Score: 5/5


Amazing X-Men Annual 1
Nero (w) and Larroca (a) and Oback (c) and Caramagna (l)

A new villain, who seems to be Inhuman though his origins are rather unknown and, presumably, will stay that way, named Meruda has been attacking and brutally killing members of Ororo's old tribe in Africa and has now targeted her cousin Abuya. Ororo rallies the X-Men and they set off to Africa, where they find Meruda is using Abuya's soul to power a dark and evil force. While the rest of the X-Men fight the beast, Ororo fights fellow elemental Meruda, who explains that Ororo killed his family and his tribe when she was a child with a sandstorm she could not control. Though all of this hurts Ororo and brings up some past doubts about what happened that day, she manages to fight Meruda down, destroying him in the process. Meanwhile, the X-Men manage to take down the beast and save Abuya. Ororo discovers, thanks to a spirit on the plains, that she was not responsible for the death of Meruda's tribe, that it was an unrelated sandstorm that killed them. There's a backup story in here by Marguerite Bennett that focuses on Firestar, too.

It's not an awful one-shot sort of story, focusing on Ororo and her past in Africa and that questions what could have happened thanks to a young girl who could control the weather but couldn't, you know, really control the weather. The story is a bit bogged down, though, by lengthy exposition and overlong dialogue. The art is alright but loses some points as well for one of the weirdest shots to end the story as we see Ororo from the back, butt clearly defined past her cape(?) looking out onto her team. Geez, egregious butt-use there, Larroca.

Total Score: 3/5