This issue is difficult to follow in a way, because Jet Black consciously rejects all the usual tropes that a comic involves. She tells the S-Man who attempts to befriend her that his sob story about his family dying in Genosha won't convince her to join his side. (She doesn't even let him get her drunk.) She also rejects the Red Skull's attempt to get her to join his side by cutting off the pretty speech about hate that serves as his trademark. It's hard to manipulate someone who doesn't have the patience for it. Similarly, it's hard to know where an issue is going when the character refuses to follow the well worn path.
The S-Man's story is possibly the best part of this issue, since it fleshes out the story that Remender has been telling in "Uncanny Avengers." We've never really been properly introduced to the S-Men; we've only really ever seen them serve as the Skull's shock troops and little else. Getting some more background about one of them implies that we're going to be seeing more of them in the future, in both that title and this one. Moreover, the story in and of itself is intriguing. The S-Man's father uproots them because he believes in the mutants' cause; however, the son only comes to resent the mutants for giving his messianic father a cause, one that forces them to leave their otherwise happy life in the Soviet Union. When his family is killed in the Sentinels' attack on Genosha while he was studying abroad, it confirms his belief that this sort of associative compassion is a weakness, one that cost him his family. In that way, he serves as the inverse of Jet, a man raised in compassion who embraces hate. I honestly can't wait to see more of him, particularly as a foil for Jet.
When it comes to Jet herself, I was actually somewhat confused by the ending. After fleeing the Red Skull, she suddenly herself standing in the alley where she was originally approached. We're left uncertain if the events of this issue actually happened (though I think that they did, to be honest), particularly if the image of her father was real or not. I'm not really sure why Remender went with this sort of mystical ending, but hopefully it'll become clearer at some point.
*** (three of five stars)
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