New Comics!: The X-Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Generation Hope #7:  Gillen continues to do a great job with these characters, really hitting the nail on the head when it comes to conveying them as ordinary kids who just happen to have super-powers.  I enjoyed that Hope, the Great Messiah, was completely unable to convince the Fetus that life didn't suck.  It's nice to see that she can't solve all the problems the Lights encounter.  Similarly, Laurie's recitation of facts about Germany's excellent education system and highly-progressive work hours and vacation allowances was funny, as was Kenji telling the kid he couldn't really help him.  The ending is cute, keeping with the light-hearted nature of the stories we've seen so far.  Gillen isn't sending the kids against Mr. Sinister in these stories (though I'm sure those days are coming) but he manages to keep me interested, giving us an interesting meditation on life without being overly expository or lecture-y.  All in all, I continue to be pleasantly surprised by this series. 

X-Men:  Prelude to Schism #1-#2:  OK, so I don't know anyone who doesn't have event fatigue, a feeling made worse for me by the pretty awful "Chaos War" and isn't being helped by the somewhat meandering "Fear Itself."  But, that being said, these issues of "Prelude to Schism" were actually pretty interesting.  We see the X-Men facing an unnamed threat that could wipe out Utopia (it could possibly be Bastion, I think), but waiting for Cyclops to make some sort of decision.  Cyclops, meanwhile, is given advice by Professor X (in the first issue) and Magneto (in the second one), both of whom spend most of the issues reflecting on their own failures of leadership and their relationships with Scott.  Although it could've been done cloyingly, Jenkins actually handles it superbly.  He's got a real skill for portraying emotions without inducing eye-rolling, a talent that I wish more comic-book writers had.  I'm excited to see where this event is going, which, honestly, I don't think I've ever been able to say before, at least not recently. 

Uncanny X-Men #537:  This issue starts off angry and just keeps getting angrier.  Gillen really builds the suspense here, giving the issue an awesome Hitchcockian vibe as Kitty wordlessly and frantically stumbles through Utopia seeking someone to save Peter.  I'm going to have to re-read last issue, because I'm not entirely sure why Kruun's knife can magically injure a phased Kitty (maybe it's coated with the cure?) or the significance of Haleena striking what looks like the M'Kraan crystal.  But, seeing Peter in his underwear more than compensates for those questions.  I really like what Gillen continues to do with this book, because he never takes the easy road.  When the Breakworlders appeared a few issues ago, I didn't think we'd see the X-Men on the ropes like we do here.  I'm excited to see how it all resolves itself, because it's anyone's guess at this point.

X-Factor #219:  The General Ryan mystery arc wraps up here in a fairly dark way.  Monet shatters Ballistique's mind, but decides to allow her to live.  JJJ, Jr. is sleazy as ever, revealing that he had held back information from the team.  Layla leaves Guido's hospital room in tears when it's revealed that Guido is, indeed, probably soulless, given that he's talking about the "weight" he feels has been lifted off him.  Unfortunately, despite a lot happening, I can't say I particularly liked this arc.  JJJ, Jr. and the Black Cat seemed more or less oddly wedged into it, distracting from the story .  Monet, Shatterstar, and Wolfsbane also all seemed particularly blood-thirsty here, which isn't exactly out of character for any of them (and understandable given the Guido situation), but it felt little over-the-top at times to me.  Honestly, I'm looking forward to putting this arc behind us.

X-Men Giant Size #1:  Um, OK, I bite.  Wow.  My heart sank when I saw that the Neo were (at first glance) the enemy in this issue, because, after rummaging around my mind a bit, I remembered that it was the terrible Neo stories in "Uncanny X-Men" that partially led me to give up the X-books entirely.  So, I was a bit nervous as I continued reading, despite the fact that I actually found myself enjoying the first few pages.  The art was impressive, and Yost did a great job of giving us an epic battle without the action getting convoluted because of the significant number of characters involved.  Then, just when I was coming to the conclusion that maybe Yost was rehabilitating the Neo as not totally ridiculous villains, we get transported into the past, where we see the original X-Men fight the Brotherhood of Mutants.  (I wasn't as impressed with the art here.  I know they're going for a retro style but I think this section would've been even better if Medina had just done the whole issue.)  Despite feeling like a non-sequitur, the battle between the young X-Men and the Brotherhood was enjoyable.  Just when I'm wondering why exactly we're given this trip down memory lane, though, BAM, we get the Evolutionaries appearing and all Hell breaks loose.  Yost foreshadows the events that are about to happen by giving us a scared Cyclops, something I now realize I don't think we've ever seen before, at least not to the extent we see here.  The reason behind Cyclops' fear becomes readily apparently when the Evolutionaries wipe out the Neo.  When I say "wipe out," I mean, "destroy totally."  All of them.  Yost really shines here, giving us a story that slowly reveals itself to great effect, culminating in a spectacular cliff-hanger that leaves me counting the days until "X-Men" #12.

X-Men Legacy #249 (Age of X Epilogue):  This issue is a bit...odd.  Magneto takes Rogue to a museum of the Holocaust in Los Angeles to show her a photo of a man he killed after the war.  The man was a scientist who experimented on Jews held in the concentration camp where Magneto spent time as a child, and Magneto forced him to hang himself lest Magneto injure his family.  He relates this "parable" to Rogue because, to his mind at least, it has something to do with her conflicting emotions about him and Remy and tells her to choose Remy.  I'm still not entirely sure what it means, though.  Is he saying he'll kill Remy if he hurts Rogue or something less sinister?  However, we never really get resolution, because the issue then turns to Frenzy and Legion.  Carey is, I believe, building toward creating the permanent team for this series -- Professor X, Magneto, Rogue, Gambit, Legion, and Frenzy -- but I think he tries to do too much here.  I didn't really buy that Magneto would take Rogue all the way to Los Angeles just to show her a photo, and, again, I'm not even sure what the parable really meant.  At any rate, we'll see what he has in store for issue #250 next month.  Hopefully it'll wrap up the post-"Age of X" stories and move us into the new status quo.