I'm including "Magneto" #10 with this review since it essentially takes places within the confines of "Uncanny Avengers" #24. We watch the Skull use Xavier's telepathic powers to torture Magneto with the memory of his concentration-camp jailer, until Alex, Rogue, and Wanda free him at the end of both issues. It's not essential to understand the events of "Uncanny Avengers" #25, so you can skip it if you're looking for tie-in issues that you can safely avoid. However, it does give the reader better insight into why Magneto ends issue #25 the way that he does, submitting to his rage and killing the Red Skull.
Notably, Magneto does so without using his mutant power, beating the Skull to a pulp with his own hands (and, later, a concrete block). One thing that "Magneto" #10 does give us that "Uncanny Avengers" #25 doesn't is the scene where Magneto bites on a capsule of mutant-growth hormone (MGH) once the Avengers free him, giving him the powers that we see on display in parts of issue #25. I'm not really sure why Remender didn't include that part in issue #24, to be honest. In fact, if I had one complaint, it's that the rescue scenes in both issues play out differently. Beyond the MGH discrepancy, the dialogue is also entirely different. It's not a fatal flaw, but it seems a weird oversight for two books where the authors are theoretically telling the same story.
Magneto's murder of the Skull actually allows for the release of Onslaught, clearly setting up the start of "Axis." Thankfully, Remender doesn't just use it to segue into the main event. He also shows how Magneto has returned to his roots. Despite his efforts to change, the Magneto that we see here is exactly the same guy that we saw when he appeared in Cape Citadel. He's not only fueled by his rage (a rage that we understand a little better after the trip down bad-memory lane in "Magneto" #10), but he's also confident that he, and only he, can save humanity. We're beyond him helping Scott Summers implement his vision for mutantkind. In other words, Magneto is back...just in time for the Skull to become Onslaught.
One interesting question left hanging out there is the future of Charles Xavier. Alex himself starts to raise the possibility that Charles' brain could be used to resurrect him, and Remender seemed to be leading us in that direction last issue as well, with Charles speaking to Rogue in her memories. Remender now appears to have taken that possibility off the table, with Xavier's brain clearly crushed in this issue, making me wonder what outcome this event is going to deliver. Also, I don't think we ever got an explanation of why the Skull kidnapped Alex, Rogue, and Wanda in the first place. Are we going to see him similarly start attacking the X-Men to fill his concentration camp? Or, were they just there to set the plot in motion?
On the eve of "Axis," I can't say that I have a firm grip on the Skull's plans. Sure, he's got his concentration camp, but it seems unlikely that he would think that he'd really manage to get every mutant on Earth into it. It's clearly just a stepping stone. The question is whether it's setting up something that we'll see in "Axis" or if it's going to be like "X-Men: Prelude to Schism," where it has no impact on the actual story. I guess we'll see.
*** (three of five stars)
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