For me, the weirdest part of this issue is the idea that anyone could even remotely believe that Charles Xavier wasn't capable of doing what he reveals that he did here, namely erase a powerful mutant's knowledge of his own powers.
I mean, seriously. Do I even have to list the number of times that Xavier used his powers unethically, leading to ruin for the team? He deleted Magneto's consciousness, resulting in the birth of Onslaught. He erased Scott's memory of the death of the second team of X-Men, resulting in the enmity of Vulcan. Plus, those moments are just the ones that I can recall off the top of my head since they were the denouements of two major events. Who could even begin to remember all the other times that Xavier crossed the line with disastrous results? If Marvel got an intern to catalogue all the times that Xavier crossed said line, I think that she'd find a plethora of examples of Xavier tampering not just with someone in the short term (like rendering an opponent unconscious in battle) but altering his life or personality in the long term. Is Scott really that outraged that Xavier did so once again?
Moreover, if he is outraged, shouldn't he be outraged that Xavier could somehow justify deleting the memory of the most powerful mutant to ever live, but couldn't help Rogue or Scott control their powers? Isn't that more outrageous? We've seen Xavier cross the line so often that the line itself is just a distant dot on the horizon at this point. But, Xavier maintained his integrity when it came not to helping his own students? I'd be more outraged about that if I were a guy who only ever saw the color red.
In other words, the revelation that the X-Men have to face a scary new mutant is fine and everything, but I just don't buy Scott's reaction. Sure, Bendis uses Bobby to (probably accurately) suggest that Scott is overplaying his outrage to justify killing him, but it doesn't make the story any more interesting. Xavier once again unethically controlled someone. Next!
Moreover, Bendis shows a little too heavy hand in structuring the story. Charles refuses to reveal the rest of his Last Will and Testament until the X-Men check on Malloy. Really? It's seems just an obvious attempt to delay the inevitable, making me wonder why we're subjected to the Malloy story in the first place. Why not just get to the good part? I'm assuming Bendis has a reason, but it seems a lot more likely that the remaining revelations will have a more direct impact on the X-Men's lives than their upcoming battle with Malloy.
The only really good part of this issue was Logan's comment about how well behaved he was being; I admit that I LOLed at that. Otherwise, meh.
** (two of five stars)
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