X-Poundations Episode 0

X-Men Status Chart

So I made a neat graphic to show everyone where everybody is a little bit more easily.

X-Men checklist

New reviews and hopefully other blog posts are coming soon, but for now, let's see if we can nail down exactly where everyone is post Schism.

Original X-Men characters

Professor X - Seen in WatXM but unknown as to where he is settling.

Cyclops - Utopia, Leader, X-tinction team

Jean Grey - White Hot Room

Beast - Jean Grey Institute

Ice Man - Jean Grey Institute

Archangel - Unknown pending the end of the Dark Angel Saga in X-Force.

Havok - X-Factor Investigations

Magneto - Utopia, X-Tinction Team

Toad - Jean Grey Institute

Polaris - X-Factor Investigations

Sunfire - Unknown

Banshee - Dead

Mimic - Unknown



All New All Different X-Men

Storm - Utopia, X-Tinction Team

Wolverine - Jean Grey Institute, Head Master

Colossus - Utopia, X-Tinction Team

Nightcrawler - Dead but replaced with an alternate reality counterpart, and...some gremlins called Bamfs

Kitty Pryde - Jean Grey Institute, Head Mistress

Lockheed - Jean Grey Institute

Rogue - Jean Grey Institute

Emma Frost - Utopia, X-Tinction Team

Sebastian Shaw - Utopia



Other X-Men and X-Team characters

Marvel Girl (Rachel Summers) - Jean Grey Institute

Psylocke - Utopia, also serving with X-Force

Dazzler - Utopia

Longshot - X-Factor Investigations

Gambit - Jean Grey Institute

Jubilee - Utopia, circumstances unknown

Joseph - appearing in Magneto Not a Hero

Marrow - X-Cell

Hepzibah - Unknown

Stacy X - Unknown recently seen in contact with Teen Brigade

Cecilia Reyes - seen on Utopia during Fear Itself, believed to be based in New York City

Sage - last seen fused with the Exiles Crystal palace

Boom Boom - Utopia

Warpath - Utopia

Domino - Utopia

Northstar - Utopia, Alpha Flight

Namor - Utopia, X-Tinction Team

Dr. Nemesis - Utopia, Club X

Kavita Rao - Utopia, Club X

Madison Jeffries - Utopia, Club X

Chamber - Jean Grey Institute

Husk - Jean Grey Institute

Omega Sentinel - Formerly in coma on Utopia, now unknown

Thunderbird (Neal Shara) - Unknown

Cable - seen active in attacking the Avengers

Hope Summers - Utopia X-Tinction Team, Lights

Doop - Jean Grey Institute

Frenzy - Jean Grey Institute

Fantomex - X-Force

Deadpool - X-Force

M - X-Factor Investigations

Siryn - X-Factor Investigations using name Banshee

Quicksilver - Avengers Academy

Multiple Man - X-Factor Investigations

Shatterstar - X-Factor Investigations

Pete Wisdom - MI - 13

Captain Britain - formerly MI - 13, soon Secret Avengers

Meggan - In company of Captain Britain

Kylun - Unknown

Mondo - Unknown

Cerise - Unknown last scene in deep space

Ferron - Unknown

Widget - Unknown

Pip the Troll - X-Factor Investigations

Skids - unknown, last seen working with Shield

Abigail Brand - S.W.O.R.D.

Strong Guy - X-Factor Investigations

Mystique - dead, body given to Hand for revival

Callisto - X-Cell

Dark Beast - recently in company of Archangel, unknown

Layla Miller - X-Factor Investigations

Richtor - X-Factor Investigations

Darwin - formerly with X-Factor, currently unknown

Random - Unknown, last scene on Utopia

Sunder - Unknown, presumed de-powered

Juggernaut - left powerless post Fear Itself

Deathlok - X-Force

Blink - recently revived and joining with New Mutants

X-Man - Working for Cyclops with the New Mutants

Exiles - currently Unknown

Forge - Unknown

New Mutants

Cannonball - Jean Grey Institute

Mirage - working for Cyclops with other New Mutants

Karma - Jean Grey Institute

Wolfsbane - X-Factor Investigations

Cypher - working for Cyclops with New Mutants

Warlock - working for Cyclops with New Mutants

Magma - Working for Cyclops with New Mutants

Sunspot - Working for Cyclops with New Mutants

Magik - Utopia, X-Tinction team

Legion - Unknown, last scene in company of Professor X

Lila Cheney - Intergalactic Rock Star

Students

Surge - Utopia

Wind Dancer - depowered unknown

Prodigy - Utopia

Elixir - Unknown

Pixie - Utopia, Lights

Beak - Teen Brigade

Angel - Teen Brigade

No Girl - Utopia, Lights

Ernst - Jean Grey Institute

Cuckoos - Utopia

Kid Omega - Jean Grey Institute

Glob Herman - Jean Grey Institute

Loa - Utopia, Atlantis

Crosta - Utopia, Atlantis

Dust - Utopia

Trance - Jean Grey Institute

Mercury - Jean Grey Institute

Ink - Utopia

Rockslide - Jean Grey Institute

Anole - Jean Grey Institute

Greymalkin - Jean Grey Institute

Armor - Jean Grey Institute

Blindfold - Jean Grey Institute

Gentle - Jean Grey Institute

Bling! - Jean Grey Institute

Match - Jean Grey Institute

X-23 - Avengers Academy, traveling with Gambit

Penance/Hollow - Avengers Academy, Loners

Hellion - Jean Grey Institute

Warbird - Jean Grey Institute

Indra - Jean Grey Institute

Kid Gladiator - Jean Grey Institute

Broo - Jean Grey Institute

Cipher - Jean Grey Institute

Velocidad - Utopia, Lights

Transonic - Utopia, Lights

Primal - Utopia, Lights

Zero - Utopia, Lights



Other mutants and related characters

Outlaw - Unknown was scene recently both on Utopia and in the company of Deadpool

Dragoness - Unknown, seen recently on Utopia

Avalanche - running bar in San Francisco

Litterbug - Unknown, last seen on Utopia

Bliss - Unknown, last seen on Utopia

Lorelai Travis - Unknown, last seen on Utopia

Rhapsody - Unknown, last seen on Utopia

Timeslip - Unknown, last seen on Utopia

Vange Whedon - Unknown, last seen on Utopia

Mortis - Unknown, formerly in coma on Utopia

Stinger - Unknown, last seen on Utopia

Amelia Voight - Unknown, last seen on Utopia

Ariel - thought dead during second coming, since then believed to have survived

Erg - Unknown, last seen on Utopia

Empath - in Utopia jail

Firestar - Young Allies

Daken - Building criminal empire in Los Angeles

Weapon Omega - unknown, last seen with Osborn's Dark X-Men

Exodus - due to show up soon in X-Men Legacy








Thats most everyone, if I missed anyone you think is relevant at all, or if you see any mistakes, please let me know.

Views of the Atom: X-23 15, X-Men Legacy 256-257, X-Men 19, X-Men Regenesis, Gen Hope 12, Uncanny X-Force 16, and Jason Aaron's Wolverine.

Well its been a while, but now that I have all the xbooks coming in regularly (save Wolverine, Daken, and arguably Deadpool)  I feel more confident in getting this thing updated regularly.

X-23 15


Picking up on surprising cliff hanger from last issue, Marjorie Liu's X-23 continues to impress me as strong and idiosyncratic book that's absolutely imperative for Marvel to be publishing right now.

The plot itself revolves around Laura, who has come to New York on personal business regarding her past, falling into an adventure with the Future Foundation.  The series makes use of some old school continuity (namely that Sue Richards, Spiderman, and X-23 have all at one time or another become Captain Universe) to spin a cool sci-fantasy tale that spins right out of the ol' Micronauts books.

This is kind of a huge departure in tone for X-23, and its incredibly welcome.  The series up til now has been quite good, but its scope up until this point has seemed quite narrow.  Involving Laura in a new kind of adventure, surrounding her with characters whose points of view are so different from those of the X-Men, its a welcome change of pace.  The story is a tad bit out of left field, but thats hardly any real kind of draw back.

I'm especially enjoying Valeria Richards, Sue and Richards ultra-precocious super genius daughter interacting with X, these are both dangerous young women with some problems figuring out where exactly they belong in the world, and I think X-23 using that as a kind of motif in its stories has been a great sort of touchstone.  The book is always full of very strong, but also very troubled female characters, and watching them emphasized AS characters is a joy.

Phil Noto does the art for this arc, and its always gorgeous, though he draws perhaps the most inactive looking Spider Man I've ever seen.  He's not in anyway bad at action, but he may not yet have picked up on how to portray really constantly dynamic characters like Spidey.


X-Men Legacy 256 and 257


Parts three and four of the Five Miles South of the Universe story line bring us some interesting stuff.

Before I really go into this, I want to stress how much this feels like a classic Claremont styled X-story.  Multiple factions, tons of different elements, and high stakes, not just (as it so often is these days) just for the X-men or Mutant race, but for all the regular people around them.  If you miss that feel of adventure and action in your x-books this is really for you.

This story has been setup as a big rescue mission, Rogue, Frenzy, Gambit and Magneto using some power taken from Legion to teleport deep into space and rescue Rachel Summers, Havok and Polaris.  Initially separated they found themselves on a city sized space station falling into a sun and in the middle of a war between the Shi'ar and an insect like species.

In 256 we find that all the trouble is actually the work of an incredibly sadistic and disenfranchised alien mutant named Friendless.  He hates his own people, he hates the Shi'ar, and he's telepathically manipulating the leaders of the two races to wipe each other out.  Rachel battles Friendless, and the X-Men all re-unite, along with a group of Shi'ar space pirates from a much earlier arc of Legacy.  The mission objective seems concluded, and the conflict between the aliens has even stopped, but the station is still falling into the sun, and Rogue sacrifices her borrowed teleportational ability to gain the knowledge to fix it and save the thousands of people on board.

257 sees the X-Men splitting up one group lead by Magneto trying to find a ship to get them off the station, while Rogue and Frenzy gamble their lives to stop the station from falling farther into the sun.  The issue is filled with a lot of high intensity drama as Friendless returns and manipulates both alien factions into targeting the X-men.

This has been a great story, really surging with unexpected developments and great action.  Theres some time made for some decent character development with Rogue, Magneto and Frenzy, and its nice to see the Shi'ar side characters getting some time to really flesh out their personalities.  Havok and Polaris are left with fairly little to do, they are less of characters in this story and more plot objects...a position those particular too have occupied time and time again throughout X-Men history.

I really can't stress enough how much Mike Carey gets the X-Men.  Gets what it is, and what kind of stories it needs to tell.  So many other books try to make the X-Men about humans vs mutants or saving the mutant race, but those aren't really things you can ever get a satisfying conclusion to.  They are the situation that gives the X-Men tension, and are better left as a kind of background.  Carey instead tells a mix of super personal stories mixed with extremely large scope adventure that has always made for the best kind of X-Men stories. He also introduces, and makes you care about new characters.  From Frenzy, who has quickly become one of my favorite X-Men, to the way he handles Magneto AS an X-Man, but without ever losing what makes him a terrifying antagonist, to characters like his alien ruffians.  Carey blends old and new in a way few of even Marvel's so called Architects can.

Art is still Koi Pham, decent but muddy, and without a lot of the visual flare that I prefer in my comics, but his work is very expressive, and thats a huge postive in an x-story.

X-Men 19


Conclusion to the Victor Gischler penned Betrayal in the Bermuda Triangle, X-Men 19 is a fast paced conclusion to nifty pulp adventure team up between the X-Men and the Future Foundation.

On a mission to rescue Lee Forrester an ex of both Magneto's and Cyclops' the X-Men and FF have gone to another dimension, and found themselves embroiled in a war between the humans lead by Skull the Slayer and aliens from the planet Skorpius.

I have to say, I don't really know anything about Skull the Slayer or this dimension that the two teams hae landed in.  I don't know if this place is an already established location, and these are all previously introduced races of peoples, or if this is all new.  It feels like the former,  but it could be the latter.  Either way, we aren't really given a lot of time to learn about these people.  That isn't so much a problem to me if these are a bunch of old comic ideas that have been given a chance to cameo here, that kind of thing is always nice, even if a tad rushed, but if these things are new, its a tad more disappointing, still, all the unique races and elements add a nice sense of window dressing to the thing, so under no circumstances are they a complete waste.

The story is a bit muddied or maybe just rushed, with Doom pretending to switch sides so he can learn about the enemies, and Cyclops Emma and Sue captured. Most of the heavy work is done by Pixie in this issue as she takes down the macguffin stopping psychic powers from working thats been holding off the Skorpius' rival race, and then frees the capture Cyclops and co.

The big villain in this, the Skorpius Emperor has a vaguely defined ability to manipulate the earth around him becoming a sort of plant ground based shape changer, and you get a really fun sequence at the end of the book where the X-men and FF combine their powers to stop him

This is a fun book, but its fairly obvious that the story was less about itself, and more an excuse to team up the FF and the X-Men, and to play guys like Magneto and Doom off of each other, and that would be great, EXCEPT, Victor Gischler still doesn't have the best grasp of all these characters yet.  There's some he's definitely got a hold of like Emma, and he actually writes an excellent Pixie which is really nice.  He has some good Dr. Nemesis and Reed interactions too.  The whole book would just have played out a little bit better if he maybe had some more time under his belt finding voices for guys like Magneto and Wolverine.

Still, it was a lot of fun, and I'd probably recommend the trade to someone who was just looking for something fun and irreverant.

X-Men Regenesis and Generation Hope 12


I've decided to review these together as they cover quite literally some of the same material, are written in teh same time frame and by the same person.

Kieron Gillen has quickly become one of my favorite X-Men wordsmiths.  His take on characters, and his ability to express subtleties and motivations under the surface are almost without peer, and because of that his X-Men Regenesis is masterly.

The plot is fairly minimal, X-Men choose who to follow, while Cyclops and Wolverine campaign for a few of their favorites.  Nearly everyone's reasons are very clear, and make good sense following the last few years of X stories.  Theres a couple of more suspect choices, Bling! for instance is not someone I saw wanting to go back to the school, but even in those circumstances I can see the logic.

The dialog throughout the story is well wrought.  In particular scenes between Cyclops and Storm, Rogue and Magneto, and probably most importantly in my mind the scene with the young X-Men.

I can't stress how important it is that Gillen addressed them, and addressed them well.  They are the crux of this, they are what the Schism was about, and its interesting, because while these X-Men are concerned about their future, so are the fans of the younger gen of X kids, it mirrors our concerns in a lot of ways.

Billy Tan's art works, and he does a great job illustrating the tribal framing device which Gillen uses to weave  the story together, but his visuals are a bit blurry sometimes, and theres some very odd coloring going on in the book.

Several pages of Regenesis also deal with Hope, Transonic, and their conflicts and concern over 14 year old Oya, the mutant who killed to defend the X-men during Schism.  These pages also appear in Gillen's Gen Hope 12.

Gen Hope has been my favorite Marvel book since about issue 4, and while this is sadly Gillens last on the book its a wonderful exit.  Besides dealing with the elephant in the room of Oya, it sets up the ability for the next writer James Asmus to take the various Lights in a lot of different directions rather than necessarily strictly following whatever Gillen would have done.

Like Regenesis its fairly light on plot, mostly being vignettes of character interactions.  Transonic confronts Hope about Idie only to be almost instantly cowed by Hope showing honest to god vulnerability and pain.  A fun scene involving a beach cook out leads to some enjoyable antics, and theres an honest to god revalation about Velocidad that elevates the character above the kinda second rate Johnny Storm role he's been in since the beginning.

Also as a plus the team gets a new member in the form of Pixie, which adds some romantic akwardness into the mix.  I'd personally seen this particular addition coming since before Schism when they failed to rescue the last Light before he committed suicide, and it was nice to see my suspicions play out as well as see Pixie find herself a more fixed position in the x-books.  Shes been a fairly major character for a while but has gotten fairly little actual recognition.

As always though, Gillen leaves the book on a note that doesn't really allow you to trust much of what you've seen, because as always the subtle control and influence Hope has on her Lights always ends up showing, and you once again have to look at everything you've witnessed, and wonder just exactly how much was the Lights, and how much was Hope, and moreover, how much of it was Hope subconsciously affecting them and how much was it her actively controlling them.  Even as Gillen leaves these questions remain, and because of that there is no Marvel book more intriguing.  I hope Asmus is up to the challenge of writing characters with so may layers and so much subtlety.

Art is as always on Gen Hope very good, Steve Sanders picking up pencils this week and doing some really wonderful stuff with Zero's powers, sadly I'm not looking forward to the incoming Roberson, he drew the Gen Hope characters back in Uncanny 439 and gave them all nearly identical body types and similar faces, not a bad artist, but not a great pick for drawing young women.



Uncanny X-Force 16


Arguably the best book Marvel is publishing, X-Force continues to deliver high stakes sci-fi action and suspense with great writing and incredible art.

The climax to the Dark Angel Saga is coming, the Apocalypse possessed Warren Worthington III working on a plan to start evolution on earth over again from the beginning, Psylocke captured, every member of X-Force battered by Apocalypse's Horsemen and the Age of Apocalypse reinforcements Dark Beast has gathered.

Dialog is as always great, and while I dont necessarily worry for the lives of our characters, I do worry for their souls, and even for the fate of the great villains.

Remender continues to write the best Deadpool we've seen in years, and makes Fantomex shine maybe even more so than Morrison.  His Archangel is chilling, his Psylocke a real presence, and all of his new villains are immediately arresting individuals.  he's even made me love Deathlock, this is the very best of comics here.

The setting still revolves around The World, and we still have yet to see exactly what will come out of the experiments that Fantomex has kept there.

No book in Marvel keeps me on the edge of my seat as much as this one.  Buy it now.


On a seperate note I recently read though Jason Aaron's run on Wolverine, I won't review it in depth here, but I'll say its a very mixed bag of interesting elements and plodding plots.  It has a lot to recommend it, but it is slow and drawn out far longer than it needed to be.  I mostly bring it up though, because it very much sets up Wolverines state of mind going into Schism, and honestly Schism prolly would have read a lot better coming directly out of it.

Well that's it for Views of the Atom this week.  See you soon for another Mutant Watch, and hopefully coming soon a regular podcast

My first video, watch me ramble about X-Men Schism in black and white.

Lets see how many time I said ummh or called Schism a really smart story.  Also can you tell that I closed my eyes a lot...  That I definitely have to work on.

Mutant Watch

Vange Whedon

Evangelyne Whedon is a fairly minor character to come out of Chris Claremonts X-Treme X-Men.  A mutant lawyer who fought in the court room for mutant rights, the character play a significant role in one, maybe two arcs of the book, and then was basically ignored until a recent issue of Gen Hope made use of her.

Why have I deemed her worthy of talking about today?  Well, mostly because given the way that the X-books are constantly escalating into the grounds of political/action drama, and given the demands of the world when working on those things, the X-Men are probably going to need a lawyer representing them more often in the future.

Gillen's new run on Uncanny promises a more pro-active team working under some Machiavellian principles, and manipulation of the legal system will probably be necessary for them to accomplish their goals.  Gillen has already used Whedon once in this role, and I wouldn't be surprised if she continued to be a recurring supporting characters as time goes on.

I wouldn't, however, expect to see her on the field of battle, as her mutant power is to turn into a raging giant red dragon whenever blood touches her...kinda impractical.

Dr. Nemesis

If you have read any x-book post Second Coming you've almost certainly noticed Dr. James Bradley.  Dr. Nemesis is an honest to goodness Golden Age super hero who Matt Fraction retconned into a scifi mutant nazi hunter.  He was very much a pet character of Fractions, brought in by Beast to help for the X Club, the X-mens scientific cabal for getting mutant kind back on track.  His powers are basically that hes smart and athletic  but hes also enhanced his own eyes to allow him to see through things, and detect genetic anomalies.

Dr. Nemesis has become more or less omni-present in the x-books of late, probably because the Xmen these days no longer have Beast or Forge, as such someone has had to step up and become the head of the X-Men's science division, and that man happens to be the ever cranky Dr. Nemesis.

The crankiness is probably also what lends himself to being used.  As a more or less constantly surly and cynical character, hes fun to contrast against a lot of the more idealistic X-Men.

While Beast is returning to Wolverine's X-Men, expect Dr. Nemesis and the X-Club to continue to play a large roll in Uncanny for the foreseeable future.

Kid Omega

Quentin Quire was the main character and main antagonist of Grant Morrison's Riot at Xavier's story several years back.  Arguably the best X-Men story of the last decade, Riot presented a new view of rebellious mutant youth culture.  An introverted, too sensitive, too intelligent too POWERFUL young mutant suffering a personal trauma and awakened to the exhilaration of narcotics tries to find a way to make himself feel important, and so he starts his own tiny revolution.

Quentin is a massively powerful telepath, but at the heart of things he mostly wants to feel accepted and like he belongs.  For a while Quentin had ascended beyond humanity and dwelt in the White Hot Room, the plane where Phoenixes live.  We don't know why he's come back to this level of reality, but it seems that it has to do with the fact that he feels unfulfilled.

While Quentin played the anarchical terrorist in Schism his actual goals and intents are probably not nearly as diabolical as he'd like people to believe.

Thats it for this weeks Mutant Watch, come back next week and we'll talk about Transonic, Zero and Husk.

Astonishing X-Men 42, Uncanny 543, X-Men 17 - 18, X-Factor 225 and X-Men Legacy 255.

Quite a backlog to talk about.

First, a quick shout out to Vengeance 3.  Not an X book, but it features X alums Angel and Beak in significant roles, Beak being badass as ever, really cant stress enough how good it is to see those two again.

So starting with Astonishing.  I don't know if its because of the rotating nature of Astonishing, or if its because this story so obviously happened forever ago given Kitty's status, but I've had a hard time investing in this story.

Its not poorly written, the kernel of the idea is a good one, if one I've seen before in other forms, and its always nice to see Abigail Brand, the fact that S.W.O.R.D. was as short lived as it was is truly a comic tragedy.

The art is interesting to look at, if perhaps a bit messy, maybe its just Juan Bobillo's take on the Brood, they always look just a tiny bit off.  I will say that even as a Brood, he draws a really dynamic and powerful Colossus thats made me appreciate the characters power for the first time in a while, and his Storm rocks a costume which I normally find to be the worst the character has ever worn.  Really Bobillo excels at drawing beautiful girls, and neat scifi stuff, if not non human characters, but being able to draw less human looking stuff should be a requirement for working on an Xbook.

I mostly picked this up to learn a bit more about the Brood kid who is joining Wolverine and the X-Men next month.  We get a fairly good bead on his mindset, which is about what you'd expect, as one of the only good Brood, he's an outcast, a mutant among his own kind.  I like the Brood kid, but I really wish that his head was a bit more Brood shaped, instead of the rounded look he possess.

Overall its not a bad issue, but maybe a tad rushed, or maybe just a tad stretched for something that should feel like an immediate action story.


Moving on to Uncanny 543, this is a book I really thoroughly enjoyed.  Gillen shows a deft hand at maneuvering mutants through tricky situations, both those involving super hero action and those involving personal or political drama.

This issue concludes the Fear Itself tie in that saw Juggernaut under the control of the Serpent marching on Utopia, issuing and Ultimatum to destroy either it or San Francisco.  This particular caveat really works for both the Fear Itself story and for the X-Men, really capitalizing on the already present fear of mutants in a way few of the other Worthy really have.

Juggernaut showing himself more unstoppable than usual, Scott, having gone this route so often now it must feel natural, has decided to make a deal with a devil, this particular devil, Cytorrak is the source of Juggernauts normal powers.  Cyclops sent Magik, who had recently endangered and betrayed all of the X-men in a gambit to get revenge on the demons who have abused her for years, to deal with Cyttorak and become the new Juggernaut in order to fight him.  Colossus of course, unwilling to see his already black stained sister tainted any further steps in and becomes the Juggernaut in her place, and so is able to stop the Worthy's march on San Fran.

Colossus like a lot of the 70s X-Men had in many ways run his course as a character.  No one was doing much with him, and he'd basically been boiled down to a couple of tropes, as people dont seem to like seeing their characters trying something new in these uncertain times, thats why, despite not caring much for the visual, I really approve of Pete as Juggernaut, the juxtaposition of his artists soul against the incredibly destructive nature of the Juggernaut promises for some really interesting and insightful situations going down the road.

If I'm to complain about anything in the issue, it would be Greg Lands art.  It told the story competently enough, but, as is usual for Land, the man draws basically one or two girls over and over, its completely impossible to tell Magik from Emma by a face shot.

Oh and speaking of Emma, theres a subplot in this going on with her and Hope, thats really really fun to see.


Next I'll speak quickly about X-Men 17 and 18.

The issues involve the FF and the X-Men going to another dimension to rescue some old acquaintances.  The main rescue-ey in question is a woman who has a past with both Cyclops and Magneto, so it works rather well from that angle.  Even more fun is seeing this particular mix of characters.  Having teams that include Dr. Doom and Magneto on them make for some of the most interesting dynamics in a super hero book in years. Also letting some of the newer but prominent X-characters like Dr. Nemesis and Pixie have some time to interact with Marvel classics is always a good idea.

The dimension they are in gives us a lot of great aliens, and weird races of people to play with, its all a lot of fun, if a bit rushed.  I can mostly forgive this, as its obvious this is meant to be a quick romp, but the one thing I can't forgive is the fact that the writer Victor Gischler just doesn't seem to have the knack for writing character interaction that well.

Its not terrible, but a lot of his dialog comes off as awkward, like when he has a guy introduce the Future Foundation as the FF, or just some of the more mundane things he has Magneto say.  Gischler I think could polish this stuff, but given the schedule he's on, and the rotating cast of characters he has to deal with, I dont think he's really had enough time and experience with these characters to find their voices.

Its a shame too, because this is a story so rife with potential for interesting character discussions.

 All in all X-Men 17 and 18 were a fun enough rollick through a kind of pulp atmosphere with some of my favorite Marvel characters.  The art is good enough, and the plotting is quite fun.  Gischler just really needs to get a better handle on some of these characters voices.

X-Factor 225 picks up from a plot point left from the recent 224.1 issue, as Madrox and co are called upon to investigate a murder which took place in Madrox's previously abandoned family home.  As its X-Factor crazy shit abounds.  Madrox had just visited the woman who was murdered and spent several hours talking with her and her apparent son, when the police call to have him investigate her body, they find they know nothing about any child at all, then the womans body gets up and starts talking, and THEN it starts to get weird.

X-Factor is always  throwing mysteries at us, which keeps it engaging, but sometimes I wish it could just relax a little bit, clear the decks, and let us enjoy the character drama.  Oh and is there ever character drama.  Richtor has just gotten his powers back, and his actions are now causing boyfriend Shatterstar some jealousy, and Wolfsbane, depressed over her rejection of her mystical wolf baby has taken to binge eating.  Horrible as this might be to say, I hope this plot point continues for a while as I'm all for actually having a character with a weight problem in a Marvel book.

X-Factor is exciting, interesting, and somewhat exhausting, a great book, but a bit of an undertaking.


Last up for the night we have X-Men Legacy 255.

This is a book I'm a tad conflicted about.  Its very much of a classic X-men style, but the whole thing is a bit...convenient.

This comes out of a plot point left of from Age of X, where Rachel Grey's psychic manifestation called out for help from the X-men.  Rogue temporarily gifted with an amazing teleporting power she stole from one of Legions rogue personalities has taken a small group of Xmen to the rescue, and has of course landed in a heck of a mess, and of course ran into the one group of Shi'ar that shes managed to piss off in recent history.

Despite all the story conveniences, the really classic feel of this piece is a lot of fun, and as usual its fun to see Rogue kicking ass.  The Xmen have landed in the middle of a conflict between the Shiar and an insect like alien people that the Shiar had enslaved.  The insectoid aliens have somehow mind whammied Havok and Polaris into their service (man thats REALLY classic X-Men there) and the Xmen have to get them back, and stop the entire space station they are on from falling into the sun.

As a side note I'm really enjoying Frenzy.  Mike Carey, as he usually does, has take a character I couldn't give a care about, and made her into someone I'm really enjoying seeing as an X-Man each month.

I guess any of the slight dissatisfaction with this issue I have could be layed on Steve Kurth's art, which though competent, doesnt exactly set the atmosphere that well, though he draws some great looking horrific aliens.

Thats it for a while.  Next week I'll come back with the final Schism discussion, but before then look forward to a post about some more obscure but neat mutants that I hope to become prominent going forward into the regenesis.