I thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed this issue.
I totally get -- and accept -- the idea that future Xavier is hell-bent on getting revenge on the present X-Men for sullying his father's legacy. Although I still think that Bendis has to do a little more in fleshing out why future Xavier feels such filial loyalty to a father that he never met, I still like the idea. It has a certain symmetry, since, after all, the original X-Men are in the present because present Beast similarly felt that the present X-Men had mucked up stuff. Bendis is also really nailing the time-loop logic, with the future Brotherhood learning from its mistakes and correcting them in its next trip to the present. The next time that we see the future Brotherhood, future Xavier will know that Jean has fully developed her psionic powers, something that he didn't know this time and led to his undoing. Finally, it was clever to reveal that future Xavier forced the future Brotherhood to act. Bendis was going to need to flesh out the members' individual motives at some point. By making them puppets of future Xavier, he basically has given us all the explanation that we need (once he clarifies the aforementioned loyalty question).
My only quibble at this point is that we do need some explanation behind why, during "X-Men: Battle of the Atom," the future Brotherhood felt that it had to return the original X-Men to the past before a certain event transpired. It's entirely possible that future Xavier simply created that excuse to make it easier to control the other members, but Bendis need either to tell us that or to let us know what the event was in the first place. Once he does that, I'm pretty much down for a never-ending series of conflicts with the future Brotherhood. But, until he does it, I'm constantly going to be waiting for this question to be answered, since it was the condition under which we met the future Brotherhood in the first place.
Beyond the issues related to the future Brotherhood and its shenanigans in the present, Bendis does his usual great job of characterization in this issue. Given Jean's heroics, we get a sense that Emma and the Cuckoos are actually starting to accept her. Emma telling Jean that maybe she might not be destined to die in a horrible yet beautiful way has the hint of a teacher trying to inspire a student, and the Cuckoos appeared to let Jean into the Hive Mind. It's a comforting thought, that Jean might not have to be totally isolated, and the mind boggles at what five of the world's most powerful telepaths can do if they're working together. Moreover, Bendis gives us a great insight into Scott here. Standing over future Xavier's comatose body, he has a moment where he remembers killing our Xavier. Although Scott often says that he's haunted by his murder of Xavier, his constant insistence that it was all the Phoenix's fault frequently undermines that sentiment. Here, we see his grief more fully, and he's a more sympathetic character for it. It again hints at a reconciliation of both sides somewhere in the future, as Scott comes to atone for his crimes. Finally, it's just down-right impressive that Bendis handles such a wide range of characters so well. From future Deadpool's quips to future Beast's interactions with his younger self, it's all pitch-perfect.
I know that Bendis producing this sort of work on the X-titles has become common place, but I have to say that he's really telling an epic story here, between this title and "Uncanny X-Men." It reminds me of a more organizes and well-plotted version of the Gatherers story in "Avengers," and it continues to be a pleasure to read.
**** (four of five stars)
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