Amazing X-Men #11 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

OK, Yost and Kyle definitely lost me here.  For the first three issues of this story, I thought that we had a pretty simple plot on our hands:  some dude accidentally turned a significant portion of Canada into cannibals, activating the Wendigo curse on a wide scale.  It was pretty straight-forward.  The main tension driving the story was how the X-Men were going to cure the infected people without killing them.

However, we take a serious turn for the bizarre in this issue.  Suddenly, some "great beast" named Tanaraq is using the spread of the Wendigo curse to make a play for power in the spirit realm that he and other beasts like him inhabit.  He seems to be mad at "higher beings" and humans (though he may actually conflate the two) and uses his new-found power to break the geographic limit of the curse so the Wendigo can spread around the world.  Although it took me two readings of Tanaraq's conversation with Snowbird to get that, it makes sense (more or less).

My real question is why it was necessary at all.  This veer into the supernatural doesn't really have that much to do with the original plot.  Presumably, the X-Men are still going to have to cure the Wendigo, thereby denying Tanaraq his power source, but it seems hard to see how Yost and Kyle are going to wrap up both stories in just one issue.  In other words, it's really late in the game to be introducing plot twists.  I would've preferred that the focus be on Alpha Flight and the X-Men working together to cure the Wendigo, without this third group getting sent into the spirit realm to muddy up the waters.

** (two of five stars)