New Mutants #3: "Nightmare" and "Uncanny X-Men" #167: "The Goldilocks Syndrome"

Countdown to "'Ah'm Nigh Invulnerable When Ah'm Blastin'" (New Mutants #3):  "Ah thought Ah was invulnerable when ah blasted.'"

Countdown to "'Ah'm Nigh Invulnerable When Ah'm Blastin'" ("Uncanny X-Men" #167):  "It's a good thing Ah'm pretty much invulnerable as Cannonball."

These summaries continue to take me longer than I thought they would:  the first one here took 50 minutes and the second one took 40 minutes.  But, we cover a lot of ground here, so it was worth it.  After this point, though, I'm going to try to cut back a bit.  We'll see how that goes.

Summary
Dani awakens believing she saw the Brood Queen's face in her storm-drenched window.  She acknowledges she's been on edge for days and wonders if her powers have started turning her own "secret terrors" against her.  Suddenly, the Queen leaps through the window, grabbing Dani and noting Dani's spirit forms can't hurt her.  Dani realizes if the Queen can grab her she can stab the Queen, but her knife doesn't slow down the Queen at all.  Dani flees her room to warn her friends, hoping their combined powers can stop the Queen.  However, she finds each teammate dead of their worst fears:  Juliana has mowed down Roberto with a machine gun, Xi'an has been assaulted again, Sam is buried in a mountain of skulls, and a mob is burning Rahne at the stake.  The Queen appears again, grabbing for Dani.  Dani tries to leap out Rahne's window, despite it being on the second floor, but the Queen manages to grab her.  As Dani flails, she discovers the "Queen" is wearing a mask.  She rips off said mask, revealing the bear who killed her parents.  It asks if she's forgotten it, and Dani then startles awake, realizing it's not even raining.  She expresses relief that Roberto and Sam are alive as they enter her room; Roberto tells her they heard her screaming.  She then frets she's losing her mind.  Later, Xavier is at her bedside and tells her she's fine; her heartbeat and temperature are normal.  He assures it was a bad dream, despite Dani swearing how real it was.  After everyone leaves, Dani frets Xavier's thinks she imagined the monster in the Danger Room, her own fault for using the Room on her own after he instructed her not to do so.  However, she's sure the monsters were real and assumes they'll return for her again.  She checks her knife to be ready, only to discover blood on it, proof something real happened.

Dani runs to tell Xavier about the knife, only to overhear him in his study on the phone with Dr. MacTaggart in Scotland.  He tells Moira that Dani has increasing psychopathic tendencies, such as extreme paranoia and schizophrenia.  Dani is devastated, pondering whether she only shows people terrible things because she's wicked (and hurtful and evil).  She contemplates suicide with her knife, not hearing Moira on the other end of the line screaming at Charles to conduct a mindscan before bothering her again.  (She also reminds Charles that Dani checked out fine the previous summer).  Banshee approaches Moira, telling her she was a little rough with Charles.  He asks if she's tense because of "the boy," and Moira confirms she is.  She grieves over how Charles has a son he doesn't know he has, a child she and he dreamed of having when they were in love.  But, she also thinks about the son she and the X-Men had to destroy and laments why her child couldn't have been the one to survive and bring Charles joy.  (Ha!  Don't worry there, Moira.)  Sean then creepily presses her to marry him so they can have their own children.  He asserts Proteus was who he was because he was conceived in an act of violence whereas their children would be different because they'd be conceived of love.  (You should probably leave the genetics to Moira, Seannie Boy.)  Moira tells Sean she can't take the risk, and Sean goes for a walk, cursing Joe MacTaggart's memory.  Sean stumbles upon Illyana singing a song to the sun, and she tells him it's in her best friend's memory.  Sean recalls it's Kitty's birthday and figures Illyana means her.  He assures Illyana the X-Men have only been kidnapped and have escaped worse situations.  Illyana then thinks about how he's talking about the here and now, but she's thinking of Limbo, where Belasco killed some of the X-Men and she killed others.  (OK...?)

Back at the Mansion, Xi'an offers Dani a towel after she finishes her morning laps in the pool.  When Xi'an remarks how cold the water must be, Dani says it helps clear her head.  She confesses the Professor thinks she's "looney," and Xi'an asks if she is.  Dani tells her someone or something has been after her since she came to the School.  She thought its goal was to drive her from the team, and, as she's refused to leave, the situation has gotten serious.  She also confesses she thinks the Professor is involved.  Meanwhile, in the Danger Room, Sam sees stars after he slams into a cushion at full power.  Xavier tells him the readings were off the charts in terms of his force, but then switches to an agility exercise.  When Sam is unable to turn and slams into one of the moving rings through which he was supposed to fly, Xavier realizes he needs to maintain a minimum speed to remain flying.  (He also expresses relief he measured Sam's ability to take punishment before he had him try to fly through the rings.)  Sam confesses the only thing wounded is his pride, and Xavier assures him everyone else has felt that way, too, at some point.  In the shower after his workout, Sam is lathering up shaving cream when suddenly he blacks out entirely and awakens to cold lather.  He sees a note written in shaving cream on the mirror telling him to go the boat house, and he storms in there furious at Xi'an for possessing him against his will.  Roberto tells Sam she did the same to him and Rahne, but Dani tells them it was on her behalf.  She confesses her story to them, but Sam refuses to believe her, not unreasonably noting the Professor could've just kicked her off the team if he wanted her gone.  He also recalls the Professor is a doctor, so he may be right about Dani's mental state.  However, Sam changes his tune when he opens the door on an alien landscape.

The team is shocked, and Xi'an notes they can't get to the Professor since he's in the Mansion and the altered landscape makes it hard to tell where it would be.  Dani then leads them into a tunnel, telling the team she's been exploring the tunnels under the Mansion.  Sam recalls the Professor asked them not to do that, and Dani responds with a simple, "Yup."  She then tells them they have no choice:  either the Professor is a victim or the perpetrator, but, either way, they have to get to him.  As Dani opens a portal, the Brood Queen attacks.  Dani tells the team it's the creature that attacked her, and they spring to action after it offers them their lives in exchange for Dani.  Xi'an tries to possess it, but fails, after its alien and evil mind stuns her.  Meanwhile, Dani can't access its mind at all, leaving her helpless.  Rahne swallow her fears and attacks, grabbing the monster's leg, as Sam fires up his powers, slamming into its side.  However, when the dust settles, the monster is gone.  Sam wonders if it dissolved since monsters do that on TV, and Roberto mockingly wonders if the Enterprise beamed up the creature.  Rahne then points out a hole in the wall, and Roberto correctly identifies the material as organic, pondering whether they're now inside a living organism.  Roberto pushes them to investigate, acknowledging Rahne's reasonable fear that they, too, will begin to change, but asserting they can't abandon the Professor.  (He offers to hold Rahne's hand.)

The team notes the organic material gets stronger as they head into the Mansion and realize it must be the source.  Xi'an compares it to the Danger Room, wrapping illusion around reality, given it conforms to the basic structure of the Mansion.  Xi'an also wonders if the creature stalking Dani is really that strong, given it hasn't defeated only five untrained youngsters.  As if accepting the dare, a tentacle appears from the wall, grabbing Bobby, and he fires up his power to rip it off him.  However, the Queen attacks, grabbing Dani while its allies attack the others.  Dani's mind is on fire, and she awakens trapped in a study.  She asks the Queen why it didn't just kill her, as it tried to do outside the Danger Room, and she confesses she changed plans.  The Queen now plans to impregnate the New Mutants with eggs so they can become Brood Queens.  Dani realizes her pounding headaches mean the Queen has been having her use her powers, and the Queen confesses to doing so.  In fact, she tells Dani she augmented Dani's powers to make the images real, as Dani would eventually be able to do as an adult with more training.  The bear, Queen, and tunnel have all come from her imagination.  The team then arrives to save Dani, and she has Xi'an possess her to break the Queen's control over her.  However, this inspired plan backfires when the Queen uses the link to grab control of Xi'an.  She attacks Roberto, who knocks out Xi'an (with apologies), and the Queen is gone again.  It reappears and grabs Rahne, and Dani tells Sam to knock her unconscious, which he does (again, with apologies).  Sam wonders if it was Dani all this time, but Xi'an confirms she felt the Queen's alien (and evil) presence through their link.  Xi'an expresses concern about Dani's health given the impact of Sam's power-backed blow, and they're all in trouble when the Professor realizes what they've done to his study.

Later, Roberto approaches Dani on the porch.  He encourages her to cheer up a bit, as the Professor believed their story after he mind scanned them and is searching for the monster.  Dani figures it's just a matter of time before it returns and wonders if she should just leave to keep everyone safe as even the Professor isn't sure if he can shield her from the Queen's influence.  Roberto tells her not to do so, as they're all friends and friends stick together.  Dani hugs him, telling him she really needed to hear that.  But, she worries the Professor is involved, as the creature knew so much about them.  Roberto swears no one is that good of an actor and puts his arm around her.  He points out a shooting star, telling her it's a good omen.  Dani isn't having it, reminding him they don't really know the Professor all that well.  Roberto wisely tells her they'll cross that bridge when they come to it, and Sam calls them into the TV room for "Magnum, P.I."

"Uncanny X-Men" #167 starts where "New Mutants" #3 ends, with the kids watching "Magnum, P.I."  As the ladies talk about how handsome Tom Selleck is (fair), they're all surprised when the X-Men bust into the TV room.  The kids leap into action, with Cannonball slamming Colossus into the yard.  Scott is impressed by the kids' guts and realizes Xavier may not have told the kids about the X-Men.  He announces the X-Men mean them no harm and tells them to hit the floor, reminding himself any delay could prove fatal.  (He undermines his "no harm" point when he fires an optic blast the kids' way to get them to hit the floor.)  Meanwhile, Kitty phases through the walls of the second floor on her way to the Professor, hoping someone else gets there first (but knowing they won't) and fretting they could be wrong about the Professor.  Psyche uses her powers to rattle Scott -- showing him as a monster with uncontrolled optic blasts -- as Rahne surprises Kurt by leaping at him in wolf form and Sunspot takes on Wolverine.  Logan knocks Bobby aside, marveling at how the kids would be dangerous if their skills matched their guts, and Karma tries to stop him with her powers.  She's stunned when he shakes off her possession as he makes his way upstairs.

Meanwhile, Kitty exposits that the Brood Queen who kidnapped them revealed she had an agent on Earth, and Logan put two and two together to figure out it was Charles.  Kitty is rightfully concerned a Brood Queen with Charles' powers would quickly take over Earth, and she realizes it's why the kids are at the School, to host Brood embryos.  (She's a smart one, that Kitty.)  She's relieved she doesn't have to shoot Charles with the Shi'ar gun she's carrying when she finds him in human form, but then she realizes he's "napping" at his desk despite the noise downstairs.  She exposits she's trying to protect her thoughts from him, but she's probably doing a lousy job as she's scared.  Charles "awakens" and tells Kitty she should've heeded Wolverine's injunction and fired (despite him not issuing said request, as far as I can tell), and Kitty frantically opens fire.  Logan hears the blast as he makes his way up the stairs and screams out Kitty's name, but Bobby is on him.  Meanwhile, Kurt teleports from Rahne's grasp and knocks Dani and Xi'an's heads together.  However, the hero-on-hero brawl comes to an end when Kitty's body comes flying down the stairs and Xavier emerges, telling the X-Men not to worry about Kitty as she's beyond help.  Creepily, the Brood Queen then exits from his spine, telling the X-Men they should fear for themselves.  Scott blasts the Queen outside the Mansion, and Colossus heads after it.  (He's knocked Sam unconscious somehow.  As he runs, he reflects on how Sam was roughly the same age he was when he joined the X-Men and hopes he isn't hurt.)

Colossus comes upon the Queen and realizes she isn't even hurt.  He pledges to stop her, but she reads his mind using Charles' powers, taunting him with the fact she knows his every move before he does.  Dani and Xi'an (who've apparently recovered) follow Cyclops and Logan in hot pursuit.  Dani asks if the monster is the same one they faced, and Logan tells her to stay put, as they'll handle the situation.  Dani asks who "you creeps think you are," and, when Logan tells her they're the X-Men, she helpfully reminds them they're dead.  Kurt teleports above the treeline to locate the Queen, and everyone heads that way.  She then hurls Colossus' body at them, telling them it's hopeless.  But, Logan is totally a badass here, leaping on Piotr's unconscious form mid-air and springing at the Queen with claws extended.  Expecting her telepathic powers to predict his attack, Logan veers from aiming at her heart at the last minute, slicing her stinger.  Infuriated, she uses telekinetic powers (I think) to hurl him from her.  Xi'an realizes they should be helping the X-Men, but her attempt to posses the Queen is no more successful than it was the first time she tried to do so.

The Queen flees to heal from the wound Logan delivered, but Binary appears, knocking her back.  Storm then uses her powers to disorient and freeze her, declaring that the Queen defined the stakes of the battle when she declared it to be to the death.  However, Storm is unable to deliver the final strike of lightning, and Logan tells her not to worry:  she is who she is, and he is who he is (i.e., the killer on the team).  However, Cyclops (oddly) tells him it's his responsibility as Xavier's first student, and he apologizes to the Queen's prone form.  But, Xavier surprises Cyclops by communicating with him telepathically, revealing the mental transformation was incomplete and Storm's attack allowed him to get the upper hand.  But, he says the Queen will eventually emerge dominant and confirms Cyclops has no choice but to kill him.  Scott then refuses, realizing Jean played that game with him, too:  he'll be damned if he loses the Professor without trying to save him after he failed to save Jean.  He announces the X-Men fight to preserve life when a chance exists and asks if anyone has any objections; hilariously, Logan answers, "Lots," as Storm says, "None."  (Seriously, it's a funny moment.)  Sam and Dani marvel at Cyclops in the background.

Later, aboard the Starjammer, Cyclops asks Corsair if he's chasing rainbows in trying to save Charles, but Corsair asks if it matters if he is.  Moira and Sikorsky announce they think they can clone Xavier a new body from tissue they had in storage and then transfer his mind to the new body.  (Apparently you can't de-evolve a Brood Queen, which makes sense given she emerged from Xavier's skin like a butterfly from a cocoon.)  Meanwhile, Kitty is thrilled to awaken to Illyana and Piotr sitting at her bedside.  Storm watches from the sidelines, noting she also kept vigil over Kitty.  She smiles at Kitty's joy in seeing her best friend and the man she loves, but also acknowledges she feels alone, as that joy would previously have been directed at her.  Leaving the room, Storm chastises herself for feeling this way, noting she coped when she wasn't acting as a parent, though it was a role she happily filled.  She encounters a nervous Kurt, who watches the New Mutants marvel at the view from the ship.  He wonders if they'll accept him, and Storm reminds him Kitty was initially afraid of him but got over it.  Meanwhile, Scott chats with Corsair, continuing to express his concern over Charles.  He coyly notes Charles is almost as much of a father to him as Corsair is, and Corsair acknowledges the debt he owes Charles for raising Scott into the man he is.  Scott asks if he'll stay on Earth, and Corsair says he's been gone too long:  "Christoper Summers -- Major, U.S. Air Force" is no more.  He plans on visiting family and friends but he'll then return to the stars; Scott intriguingly asks if he'll take him with him.  Corsair says he will if he wants and then invites him to meet his grandparents.  (Really?  Scott didn't know he had grandparents?  Jesus, Corsair, you really were a crappy father, even when you were on Earth.)  Corsair then asks if Scott is too big to give his father a hug, and, I got to say, I choked up a bit.  The moment is interrupted with the appearance of Gladiator.  He demands to see Lilandra, and Corsair acknowledges it's a big deal, since he swore he'd only board the Starjammer if the Stajammers were enslaved or dead.

In the medbay, Lilandra wonders if Deathbird has become Empress as the Brood promised her she would be if she delivered Lilandra and the X-Men to them.  She wonders if she has the will to lead another rebellion.  Gladiator arrives and confirms Deathbird is as mad, in her own way, as D'Ken.  But, he also has graver news: in his encounter with the Fantastic Four, he learned Galactus had come to Earth to die, but Reed Richards not only healed him but also gave him a new herald.  (I'm not sure Reed would describe this sequence of events in the same way.)  Lilandra appears as a hologram to Reed and Sue in their bedroom, declaring that she will seek vengeance against them if Galactus destroys a world dear to the Shi'ar.  (This sequence gives us Johnny Storm in his tighty-whities as he and Ben enter the room to see about the disturbance, so, even if it's a bit of a non sequitur, I approve.)  She says Earth finally has to accept it has responsibilities in the wider cosmos.  She ends the communication, thanking Corsair for allowing her to use his technology and noting her ability to actually implement her threat is limited.  The group then rejoices when Xavier appears, with his spine completely healed.  He stands, but then collapses.  He explains he'd use his powers for years to block out the pain of his injury, so his body is rejected his attempt to stand.  Moira expresses confidence he'll eventually move past the block, though noting his stubbornness doesn't work in his favor here.  Kitty notes he'll have to use the Danger Room like the rest of them; Lilandra pledges her love and support, while Moira hilariously tells him she'll just kick his ass to get him into shape.  Charles announces his joy at seeing the teams together, apologizing for the nature of their initial meeting.  He then announces, to everyone's shock, Kitty will join the New Mutants, as it's too dangerous for her to be an X-Man.

The Review
These two issues nicely wrap up this series' opening arc, as the Brood Queen's possession of Charles explains why both he and Dani have been acting weirdly lately.  Moreover, the team builds on their experiences fighting the Sentinels; whereas they had mostly fought as individuals in that fight, they come closer to fighting as a team here.  The X-Men's return also makes their roles a lot clearer, as they're no longer worried about replacing them and able to focus on their training.

First, I'll say Claremont really gets the youth of the team.  It makes them brave and loyal even when they're afraid, as we see with Rahne attacking the Brood Queen in her wolf form despite Claremont telling us she's as afraid as she's ever been.  But, they're also unskilled.  The Brood Queen is using Dani's power to create real -- and not holographic -- nightmares, telling her she would've eventually been able to do the same thing as an adult.  Moreover, Dani's plan to have Xi'an possess her, breaking the Queen's link, is inspired, but Xi'an doesn't possess the psychic defenses to keep the Queen from simply taking control of her.  In fact, the only way the team can stop the Queen from using Dani and Xi'an's psychic abilities against them is to knock them unconscious.  Cyclops and Wolverine both comment on how the kids would be dangerous if their guts match their skills.  With the X-Men back in the picture, Claremont's focus on the kids' lack of skills sets up the rest of the series nicely, as the focus now shifts to them as students.

To continue on a theme from previous issues of Claremont's brutality, we open this issue with Dani awakening in a terror as a storm rages outside.  The Brood Queen appearing in Dani's window in a flash of lightning is terrifying, and the Queen herself is then revealed to be the bear who (supposedly) murdered Dani's parents.  Dani can't even flee the scene without murder haunting her, as she stumbles upon scenes of her dead friends.  Later, the Queen tells Cannonball she'll "feast on [his] living heart" if he makes a move against her.  In other words, the Queen didn't come to play.  But, Claremont goes even further:  Dani seems suicidal as she contemplates her "wicked" soul after overhearing Xavier on the phone.  It's hard to believe this issue would get past any censors today.

At this point, Dani is clearly the most prominent character.  Her comment on her powers are interesting, because it's the first time we consider her powers might not be just to pull people's darkest fears or "anguished memories" from their minds; she might just be doing that because of her own trauma.  But, she's not motivated entirely by trauma; she has spunk independent of that.  I loved when she reveals she's been snooping around the tunnels system under the Mansion despite the Professor's prohibition on them doing so.  She's also the only one clear-eyed on the Professor's involvement, particularly after she realizes the extent to which the Brood Queen understood their powers.  We see the kernel of the adult she'll become once she matures and her powers develop.

Separately, the X-Men are fascinating to watch at this point in their history.  Storm throws some serious shade at Kitty when she (mentally, not to Kitty herself) dismisses Peter as the man Kitty thinks she loves.  Damn, Storm.  Storm's jealousy over Kitty's ties to the Rasputin siblings is fascinating as I had honestly forgotten she had this kind of maternal bond with Kitty.  That said, she also shows why she's often portrayed as the adult of the team; she acknowledges her childish feelings and chastises herself for them.  Scott and Logan are also great examples of who they were in this period.  Logan is all ready to murder the Brood Queen as the team's resident murderer, and Scott is shown as indecisive, as, frankly, he often is, despite his reputation to the contrary.  But, his decision to embrace hope in terms of possibly saving Charles represents a step in the right direction.  It shows us a hint of the man he becomes before he goes down a much darker road.  All that said, Moira continues to be my favorite character at this point, as she's in essentially a constant state of rolling her eyes at everyone's foolishness.

I'll admit that it felt like Claremont had to vamp a bit to meet his page target, as the sequence with Lilandra and the Fantastic Four felt totally random.  However, it was also a reminder of how closely the Marvel comics were connected in this era; they really put a lot of emphasis on the shared Universe in which all the comics took place.

At any rate, I'm really digging this series at this point.  I think it really stands up 35 years later.  In fact, teenagers right now might find themselves identifying more with the violence these kids face than they do from reading "Champions."

Uncanny X-Men #600 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Bendis has two pretty significant tasks here.  First, he has to wrap up any loose ends remaining from his 2.5 year run on the X-Men title.  At the same time, he has at least has to hint at the reality that the X-Men face after "Secret Wars."  As usual with Bendis (at least in terms of his run on the X-Men), he manages to make his way quickly to the ending here in a way that doesn't feel rushed, since he takes the time to hit the right emotional notes along the way.

The "Secret Wars" task is perhaps the hardest, because it's actually difficult to tell when this issue takes place.  (He's been pretty clear in tweets that Marvel's timing issues with "Secret Wars" is a major source of frustration.)  My guess is that it's post-"Secret Wars," though we still don't know how exactly we can tell the pre-"Secret Wars" world from the post-event one (other than perhaps the absence of the Fantastic Four).  It's pretty clear that "Extraordinary X-Men" #1 happens in the post-"Secret Wars" era, and three events here set up the status quo that we saw in that issue.  At the very least, then, if this story happen pre-"Secret Wars," it means that the status quo at the end of this issue sticks in the post-"Secret Wars" era.  (Jesus, I need a drink just writing those sentences.)

First, Hank leaves the X-Men after Storm stages an intervention that he mistakes (or doesn't, really) for a trial.  In "Extraordinary X-Men" #1, we learn that Hank finds himself with the Inhumans, researching the impact that the Terrigen Mists have on the mutant population.  Second, Illyana and Peter reconcile.  She lets him know that she's been studying under Dr. Strange and regrets that she didn't learn to control her powers sooner.  He simply decides to love her.  Was it a bit easy and simplistic?  Yes.  But, frankly, Peter's love for Illyana has always been a bit easy and simplistic.  The only time that it wasn't was during the "Dark Peter" phase in the wake of "Avengers vs. X-Men."  It was that Peter that threatened to kill Illyana (in "Uncanny X-Men" #18).  Bendis makes it pretty clear here that both Illyana and Peter have grown since then.  Even if the moment is rushed, he makes a pretty compelling case that this reconciliation would've happened eventually.  He just shortened the timeframe.  Finally, Jean comes to grips with being in the present by telling the team that she needs a break.  If they're going to be in the present forever, then she wants them to live their lives here.  It sets up her presence at E.S.U. in "Extraordinary X-Men" #1.  Although the larger mysteries about the Terrigen Mists and Scott's fate remain, Bendis gets the characters where they need to be for "Extraordinary X-Men" #1 to make sense.

With the requisite deck-clearing accomplished, Bendis is able to focus on the story that you can tell that he really wants to tell:  Bobby coming out of the closet.  Now, the media spoiled Bobby's coming out for me, so I wasn't as shocked as I could've been.  (That said, it wasn't all that shocking, given that we knew that his younger self was gay.)  But, Bendis handles it exactly as I'd want him to handle it.  Most importantly, Bobby admits that he's gay (yay!).  As a teenager, he just desperately wanted a part of him that wasn't hated and persecuted, so he pushed off the moment of reckoning.  Weeks became years, and he suddenly found himself trapped.  (Bendis does a much better job of having Bobby explain it than I do here, so you really should just read the issue.)

The part that I liked best was that Bendis presents us the Bobby that we all know and love, but the one that the X-Men themselves are quick to forget.  Jean reads his mind and reveals that he's worried that taking 10 percent of the energy that he puts into the X-Men and putting it into making himself happy would make him selfish.  It's a reminder that Bobby, at the end of the day, is the last of the original X-Men standing.  He may play the joker and be dismissed as one, but, to even his own surprise, he's Professor X's legacy.  It's not Jean or Scott or Warren or Hank.  It's Bobby.  Jean makes the case to him that he'll finally be the person -- and X-Man -- that he was meant to be by being true to himself.  I hope someone really seizes on that, the idea that the part of Bobby that always failed to meet his potential was the part focused on keeping himself in the closet.  With Bobby free, I'm ready to see a whole new Iceman.  In this way, Bendis is addressing haters that say that outing Iceman is simply a politically correct diversification of the line.  He's telling us that we're finally getting the Bobby that we always knew that he could be; now, we just know why he was struggling to be that guy.

Given his importance to Bendis' run, Scott actually gets short-shrift here.  The issue ends with Scott gathering all the mutants on the steps of the Capitol Building in Washington, DC to prove that they can be united and not kill one another.  It's here where Bendis is rushed.  We're not told how Scott manages to track down every mutant and gather them in Washington so quickly.  It's implied that he created the mini-Cerebros (something we also see in "Extraordinary X-Men" #1), but we're not given any insight into how he did so.  (After all, Scott himself was never a technological genius.)  Moreover, it's clear that it's not this Scott-engineered event that results in humanity hating the X-Men, as we learned they do in (again) "Extraordinary X-Men" #1.  For how important "Dark Scott" (if you will) has been not just to Bendis' run, but to the X-Men line since "X-Men:  Schism," it's weird to see him reduced to organizing a publicity stunt.  In case you were looking for an update on Bendis' other creations, the students from the New Xavier Institute, you'll be disappointed.  They're given only a few panels of sparring with Iceman here; I guess it shows that they're so well integrated into the School that they're little more than background noise.

Overall, Bendis does what he needs to do here.  A lot of the questions that I had in "Extraordinary X-Men" #1 have been answered, and, if nothing else, I'm thrilled to see Bobby come out.  It might not be a mind-blowing final issue, but, frankly, we didn't need that from Bendis.  It's a reflection of his careful and steady stewardship of the line over these last 2.5 years.

As anyone who's read this blog for a while knows, I really disliked Bendis during his time on the "Avengers."  ("Dislike" is probably generous.)  As such, I was skeptical on him essentially taking over the X-Men.  I had picked up the X-Men again with "Messiah Complex" in 2007, and I was thrilled with the amount of character development that every author brought to the table since then.  We watched any number of characters -- Scott, Henry, Bobby, Kitty, Illyana, Peter -- evolve into different people than they had been.  It was full of steps forward and steps backwards, but it was a thrill to watch it happen organically.  These developments didn't come from events that suddenly "changed everything" only for everything to look exactly like it originally looked after a few issues.  Instead, the events were the vehicles to show these changes.  Scott wasn't corrupted by the Phoenix in "Avengers vs. X-Men;" the Phoenix was the vehicle to show his corruption.

As such, when Bendis came on board, he was responsible for keeping this streak going.  It might've been crazy to bring the original X-Men into the present, but he's really successfully used them as the catalyst for change that Henry hoped that they'd be, even if the results are different than he expected.  Slowly but surely, Bendis brought the X-Men back together.  Everyone didn't rush together to defeat a villain and decided that they all loved each other.  (I'm looking at you, "Inferno.")  It's been a delicate rapprochement that happened in phases and feels precarious.  But, it's the X-Men, and it's supposed to feel that way.  Bendis leaves us with the sense here that this eight-year story -- the Rise and Fall of Scott Summers -- has come to an end, and he sets the stage for the new story, even if he's not going to be the one to write it.  So long, Bendis, and thanks for all the fish.

*** (three of five stars)

New Comics!: The "Regenesis" Edition #1 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

I'm posting these reviews in the order I read them, which came from the checklist, of sorts, published in the back of "X-Men:  Schism" #5.  I'll get to my thoughts on the whole enterprise at the end.  Enjoy!

X-Men:  Regenesis #1:  For all my bitching about "X-Men:  Schism," I have to say that Gillen does the best he can with the hand he's dealt here.  I've never seen more character development in a single issue.  It's hard to break down an issue that essentially consists of 20-30 conversations, but I'll do my best.  First, the framing scenes of Cyclops and Wolverine as tribal warriors were brilliant.  Tan does an amazing job artistically with them, and they convey the message Gillen is highlighting here, that the X-Men are now officially two different tribes.  Second, I thought all the conversations were great.  Tan has a gift at drawing faces that actually convey emotions, making him an inspired choice for an issue that, at its core, is all about emotions.  Stand-out conversations for me were Dani/Sam and Scott/Storm.  Despite my initial skepticism, I actually buy Storm staying.  I thought Gillen would go this route, that Storm would serve as the moral conscience of the team, and I think Gillen really sells it here.  (Of course, I'm left to wonder how she's going to commute to be on the Avengers as well.)  I also thought he did a great job with Dani and Sam, making it about the places where they find themselves in their lives and what they need at the moment to be the people they want to be (and, one day, be together).  Somehow, as he also does with Magneto and Rogue, Gillen actually makes their burgeoning relationship seem more viable for the decision to be apart.

At the end of the day, I can't point to any conversation that didn't ring true to me.  I loved Emma showing her commitment to Scott by liquidating her corporate holdings to fund Utopia (and still being Emma about it, telling Scott not to get all weepy).  I love that it looks like Bobby and Dazzler finally are going to get the leadership roles it's time for them to have.  As shocked as I am to say it, I'm probably most excited about "Wolverine and the X-Men," since it's where most of my favorite characters are.  (Actually, I'm most excited about Alex and Lorna re-joining "X-Factor," but it's always existed more or less outside the sphere of the rest of the mutant world.)  But, I'll keep getting "Uncanny," because, well, it's "Uncanny."  I am, though, to be fair, also intrigued by how Scott handles the divide.  We just saw him get delivered a major loss, and I thought Gillen did a great job showing his desperation as he handles his team dissolving around him.  That should be interesting to follow in the coming months.

I've made it clear that I think the premise of "Schism" -- that Wolverine decided that kids need to be allowed to be kids -- is flawed.  It's hard to see how it's Wolverine leading the school and not Storm.  But, I'm willing to look past it, because of the amazing work Gillen does here.  I think we're going to get some really great stories over the next few months as the mutant world re-arranges itself, and I can't wait.

Uncanny X-Men #544:  After the awesomeness of "X-Men:  Regenesis" #1, I have to say, I was a little disappointed with this issue.  Previously, in "Uncanny X-Men" and in "X-Men:  Regenesis" #1, Gillen gave us my favorite Cyclops, showing him with a sense of humor and a semblance of humanity.  But, the Cyclops we get here is more in line with other portrayals we've seen of him in the last few years, as completely detached from his emotions as he is his teammates.  "He's more machine now than man," to quote Obi-Wan.  Bobby tries to get a tearful good-bye, but, in the end, realizes it's simply time to go.  By using Mr. Sinister as a framing device, Gillen gives us a sign that maybe we're going to see Scott really tested here.  I think I could enjoy "Uncanny X-Men" in this post-schism world if it's about taking down Scott a peg, and I don't think anyone could do that better than Mr. Sinister.  In other words, I'm excited to see where Gillen takes us in this title, even if my favorite characters are in "Wolverine and the X-Men."  Speaking of the devil...

Wolverine and the X-Men #1:  Reading this issue, it's hard not to think that you've suddenly awoken from a dream -- a dream where everything was just a little wrong, a little off-kilter -- and found yourself relieved to discover it was, in fact, just a dream.  The X-Men return to Westchester and suddenly I realize why "X-Men:  Schism" was necessary.

Seeing the X-Men in the Westchester campus again makes you realize just how much Wolverine was right, that Cyclops had failed the younger generation, to the extent he even thought about it.  Aaron throws a lot at us in this issue, establishing a number of patterns and schticks that I'm sure we're going to see in future issues.  Given the scope of ground he covers, I'm not going to try to mention everything.  I will say that the idea of the entire mansion becoming the Danger Room is emblematic of what Aaron does here, taking core concepts of who the X-Men are and always have been and modernizing them.

It's all not glitz and tech, though.  The most poignant scene in the book, for me, was Logan running past the statue of Jean, asking her to wish him luck.  It's another nod to who the X-Men were and who Logan is trying to make them be again.  Along those lines, Logan's conversation with Charles is excellent, particularly their mutual acknowledgment that he's the last person they thought would be re-opening the school. Aaron also hits a home run by making much of the issue focus on Kitty and Logan.  We haven't really seen them together in this way in ages, something I hadn't realized until I saw them standing next to one another and thought, "Of course, Kitty would be the Headmistress.  Why didn't I see that coming?"  All these scenes -- Logan and Jean's statue, Logan and the Professor, Logan and Kitty -- accomplish what Aaron intended them to do, reminding us that, of the two core books, this one is the one rooted in history, in the relationships these characters have had for almost 50 years.  Cyclops has his rock full of murderers and psychos; Logan has his school full of family and friends.  (Speaking of friends:  Lockheed!  'Nuff said.)

Aaron underlines these changes by having members of "New Mutants" and "Generation X" in teaching roles, showing us just how far we've come (and how old some of us are).  (By the by, I LOVED the staff chart.  I'm a little surprised that Cannonbal is a "junior" staff member, though.)  But, lest the issue descend into touchy-feely hugs, Aaron kicks it up a notch by introducing Kade Kilgore to the mix at the end.  You spend most of the issue thinking it's just going to be a new take on the standard story you'd see every once in a while, particularly in "New Mutants," with the state inspectors playing the square.  Instead, we end the issue with an enormous monster poised to eat the mansion.  I mean, wow.

I began this issue the least excited about this title and end it possibly the most excited about it.  I'm on board, folks.

Uncanny X-Men #1:  Gillen goes where I was hoping he'd go here, giving us a Cyclops here who seems increasingly unhinged and an X-Men team slowing sliding into becoming the bad guys.  I loved Storm polling the room about who has gone through a "mainly super villain" phase and telling Scott he might be acting too quickly when he raises his hand saying he hadn't.  I'm glad Gillen is putting Storm at the center of this book.  She's been gone for so long, and it's great to see her back here.  You can just feel her discomfort, with Scott comparing the X-Men favorably to Iraq and North Korea and Magneto appearing at her side in combat.  The fight with the Dreaming Celestial was awesome.  This book is going to be pretty grim, so Gillen is going to have to keep delivering these sorts of epic battles if it's going to be fun to read.  I also hope it doesn't focus entirely on the "extinction team" but also gives us some of Dazzler's street team.  We shall see.  Overall, it's a pretty solid start.

Final Thoughts:  As I've mentioned before, I didn't buy the central conceit of "X-Men:  Schism," that Wolverine would get all touchy-feely and Scott would be all militant warrior.  But, Gillen and Aaron actually more or less get me to buy it here.  We see a changed Wolverine, particularly in "Wolverine and the X-Men," showing that Aaron all along wasn't arguing that Wolverine was the same person he was, but that he had actually come to the end of a journey.  I'm still not entirely sure I buy it, but I'm not going to hold it against this new enterprise, because these issues were some of the best "X-Men" issues I've read in a long time.  In the past, the X-Men would occasionally go on walkabout and leave Westchester, only to return in the end, the school being the X-Men' symbol of rebirth.  Aaron puts that pattern on its head by only having some of the X-Men be reborn, if you will, giving us, for the first time, both the more aggressive walkabout stories with Cyclops' crew and the more redemptive school ones with Wolverine's.  It almost makes you wonder why no one thought of it before.  But, here we are now, and I'm excited to see where Gillen and Aaron take us.

Uncanny X-Men #484-#486: "The Rise and Fall of the Shi'Ar Empire:" Parts 10-12

Uncanny X-Men #484:  After nine issues, Brubaker does a great job here of maintaining a certain level of tension, building anticipation for the denouement.  Through his conversation with Darwin, Vulcan is portrayed as more or less firmly accepting the dark side, if you will.  Meanwhile, the X-Men are a mess.  Rachel is conflicted over her emotions toward Korvus, while at the same time embracing killing when it comes to seeking revenge on the Shi'Ar.  Brubaker blows past that, but you have to wonder how different from Vulcan she is, given that they're both killing people in revenge.  Alex and Lorna, both under stress, embrace old habits.  Only Nightcrawler and Warpath have gotten to this point relatively unscathed, so you know something's going to happen to them at some point.  (As someone said in one of the letters columns in this run, Brubaker clearly enjoys writing Warpath.)  The meandering Professor X sub-plot finally found a point, with Xavier serving as bait for Lilandra.  The next two issues should be epic.

Uncanny X-Men #485:  This issue descends into chaos pretty quickly, as everyone's plans don't exactly go the way they thought they would.  The Starjammers arrive earlier than D'Ken and his cronies thought they would, disrupting the wedding celebrations of Deathbird and Vulcan (though, importantly, not the wedding itself).  Vulcan gets his revenge on D'Ken, as we all knew he would, claiming the throne for himself.  Corsair sees just how insane his son has become, and Alex realizes that Vulcan has to be stopped.  The only off-note in this whole story, for me, continues to be the Xavier sub-plot.  Although I get the symmetry of, as Vulcan says, Vulcan trapping Xavier in a rock, I still don't know if I buy that they would go through the trouble of staging a public execution, rather than just kill him.  The only reason would be that they're using him as bait for Lilandra (which they are), but, if they're using him for bait, then I don't know why Vulcan would be surprised when the Starjammers arrived when they did.  After all, they would clearly need Xavier still alive to be successful bait, meaning they anticipated the Starjammers would arrive before they would throw Xavier into the M'Kraan Crystal.  But, Vulcan expresses frustration over not having gotten his revenge against Xavier when the Starjammers arrive.  Confusing.  Moreover, I still don't understand why Corsair and Ka'Ardum allow themselves to agree with Lilandra's plan to go after Charles.  Corsair implies that it's to prevent D'Ken from doing something more with the Crystal than imprisoning Xavier, but I'm not sure exactly what. 

Uncanny X-Men #486:  Wow.  OK, I think Brubaker really accomplishes here what he intended to do, bring all existing plots and sub-plots to their logical conclusions.  First, the death of Corsair isn't meaningless here.  It shows just how far gone Vulcan is.  Vulcan didn't agree to become part of the Shi'Ar royal family just because he needed to belong and wanted D'Ken's acceptance.  He always intended to kill D'Ken; it's only by becoming Emperor that he would get the acceptance he needed and, wow, talk about an ego, that you need to rule an Empire just to feel accepted.  As such, Corsair was never going to be able to save Vulcan, something Alex always knew.  Vulcan slaying Corsair just underlined this fact and represented the death of the idea that Vulcan could be reformed.  Lilandra is a total mess here and, to be honest, you almost see the Chancellor's point in deciding to overthrow her.  She just makes one series of bad decisions after another, all in the name of saving Charles.  She's largely just as petulant a child as Vulcan is, if less lethal.  The ending really works, with Alex deciding to take up the helm of the Starjammers and defeat Vulcan.  I'm excited about reading "X-Men:  Emperor Vulcan," because I think it'll avoid some of the pitfalls of this 12-issue arc.  That said, I think Brubaker managed to deliver a great conclusion to this long arc.

Final Thoughts:  This arc definitely had some weak moments, but, overall, I think Brubaker told an amazingly epic story that will be remembered by fans for a long time.  Although some of the sub-plots were confusing at times, Brubaker did actually more or less resolve them all in a way that made sense and (for the most part) didn't feel forced.  The Blade of the Phoenix sub-plot, to me, was the most well done, particularly because it gave us the awesome new character of Korvus.  I found the Professor X sub-plot to be the weakest link, mostly because it was the only one to feel forced, given that it's whole purpose was just to give D'Ken bait for Lilandra.  The Secret Order sub-plot didn't feel forced, since, as I said, I more or less agree with the Chancellor that Lilandra is unfit for the throne, but it was a little muddled.  I wasn't sure, from time to time, who was doing what on whose orders.  But, the good news is that, even when I was confused or doubtful, it was rarely because I questioned the characters' motivations.  Brubaker did a great job of keeping everyone true to their character, a real marvel when, by the end, he's juggling 15 characters or so.

Moving past the specifics and focusing on the overall story, Brubaker really tells a class tale here of revenge and how it twists those seeking it.  Besides the obvious example of Vulcan, we see Rachel mirror his descent into blood-lust as the arc progresses.  Moreover, beyond those seeking revenge, almost everyone involved in the arc finds him- or herself morally compromised.  Alex and Lorna commit themselves to killing Vulcan, breaking the cardinal rule of the X-Men (as Alex himself notes).  Lilandra makes a series of bad decisions in the attempt to save Charles, costing the life of Corsair (not to mention the Shi'Ar troops fighting on her side).  Xavier has once again led a personally-driven mission that results in him having blood on his hands and leaves his charges emotionally scarred.  It's not often that you see these sorts of dark turns of events in a Marvel comic, and I applaud Brubaker for avoiding wrapping up the story in a nice, neat bow and for making sure that the events have real, tangible effects on the characters.  At the end of the day, the X-Men's mission -- to stop and, hopefully, to redeem Vulcan -- failed.  You don't see that every day.

All in all, it's a great arc that presents a different take on the X-Men than we normally see.  It merits a read for anyone who enjoys intergalactic X-Men stories.

(P.S.:  If you enjoyed "Rise and Fall," check out "What If?  X-Men - Rise and Fall of the Shi'Ar Empire."  I actually bought it years ago and read it without having read "Rise and Fall."  I, obviously, likely understood few of the references, particularly because they involve nods to "Annihilation" in addition to "Rise and Fall."  But, in some ways, the ending is a more satisfying emotional conclusion to the arc than the real ending.  I won't spoil it if you haven't already read it, but I'd recommend it to anyone that really enjoyed this arc.)

Uncanny X-Men #481-#483: "The Rise and Fall of the Shi'Ar Empire:" Parts 7-9

Uncanny X-Men #481:  Brubaker is really building steam now.  The plot to overthrow Lilandra gets more and more interesting, at least in part because I wonder where it's leading.  It appears that K'Tor is involved in the "Secret Order," given that, last issue, he put Vulcan in the same prison as Deathbird and the Secret Order agent who freed Vulcan sent him straight to Deathbird.  However, I'm not sure where the Chancellor fits into the scheme.  He seems unaware of K'Tor's actions, since he comments that one of their "people" would have not likely been the cause of her escape, so I'm not sure if the Secret Order people are his "people" or if he has different "people."  I'm also not entirely sure why the Order would want to free Deathbird, since she's from the same bloodline as Lilandra.  But, it's pretty clear that Vulcan's arrival in the Imperium has set a number of events in motion, and Brubaker is slowly fleshing out the details of these events.  The X-Men are still more or less drifting through space, but it looks like they may actually DO something next issue, which is exciting.  Alex's lament over their failures was a nice bit of characterization on Brubaker's part, even though I wish we'd one day get a confident Havok.  But, I'm digging Korvus and Rachel, so at least the X-Men side of the house isn't a total wash.  Bring on the Starjammers!

Uncanny X-Men #482:  Mysteries wrapped in enigmas!  First, the X-Men.  Finally, they do something!  I always love a good Starjammer story, and this one doesn't disappoint.  The conversation between Corsair and Havok mirrors thoughts I've been having about Vulcan.  On one hand, he's so tortured that you hope someone can make it right.  You hope that his father and brother appealing to him would break through his crazy and put him on the path to redemption.  But, as Alex says, it's hard to see how someone that far gone could be saved and, even if he is, his crimes are not easily dismissed.  On the Shi'Ar conspiracy front, everything gets muddled with the return of D'Ken, particularly given that he appears alongside Deathbird and Vulcan.  WTF?  I'm still not sure if we're dealing with one or multiple conspiracies against Lilandra.  If the Chancellor planned to return D'Ken to the throne, then why was he surprised when Deathbird was freed, particularly given that it appears her release played a role in D'Ken reclaiming the throne?  Moreover, I'm still not sure how Xavier fits into the mix.  Why exactly were they torturing him?  Where they planning something beyond torture for him?

Uncanny X-Men #483:  Huh.  I'm still not 100 percent sure what's happening with the Shi'Ar.  It appears that the Chancellor is in fact in charge of the Secret Order.  As such, I'm confused why he seemed unaware of the Secret Order's involvement in the release of Deathbird in issue #481.  But, I'm willing to just concede I'm misinterpreting that remark, since it's a small point.  Brubaker also clarifies here that the Secret Order isn't against the entire House of Neramani, as I originally thought, but just specifically Lilandra, for her actions when she was under the influence of Cassandra Nova.  I'm not sure what happened in that arc, though at least it makes sense now why they would free Deathbird.  Speaking of her, Brubaker does a great job with Deathbird and Vulcan here.  You can feel him slipping away, moving more and more past the point of any redemption.  Again, it reminds me of the conversation Dick Grayson and Jason Todd had in his first arc in "Batman and Robin," where he admits he's beyond redemption.  It's like watching an impressionable teenager get involved with the wrong crowd.  D'Ken uses Vulcan's need to belong to subvert his need for revenge, bringing him into the fold of the conspirators.  The last quarter of this arc has "tragedy" written all over it.

Final Thoughts:  At the end of the second quarter of this arc, the X-Men were still drifting in space and Vulcan just met Deathbird.  Now, he's formed an unholy union with her, on the verge of joining the House of Neramani, and the X-Men have joined with the Starjammers to enter full revolt against the Imperium.  It's pretty clear this arc isn't going to have a happy ending...

New Comics: The "Fear Itself" Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Avengers #17:  OK, this issue is a hot mess.  I honestly don't know where to start.  The good?  I guess the best part of this issue is that I can almost see the bright light at the end of the dark "Fear Itself" tunnel.  The bad?  Tough to say.

Bendis seems to totally abandon any attempt to put this particular story into the context of the larger events we're seeing happen in the main "Fear Itself" title as well as the secondary series.  Let's break it down a bit:

Just like in "Avengers" #16 (see that review for more details), we see the Avengers in this issue dealing with an event (the fall of Avengers Tower) months after it initially happened ("Avengers" #14).  The Tower presumably fell after "Fear Itself" #3, since it's in that issue where the Thing becomes a member of the Worthy, and he's the one who takes down the Tower.  Although it makes sense that Hawkeye, Ms. Marvel, the Protector, and Spider-Woman would be behind everyone else in seeing the destruction of the Tower (since they were in Brazil fighting the Hulk in "Fear Itself" #3 and "Avengers" #15), this issue still would have had to happened before "Fear Itself" #4, since they are seen having already reconnected with the Avengers and New Avengers in New York in that issue.  So, it seems, for the events of "Fear Itself" #4 to make sense, that "Avengers" #14-#17 all happened between "Fear Itself" #3 and #4.  The Tower falls ("Avengers" #14), half the Avengers fight the Hulk ("Fear Itself" #3 and "Avengers" #15), Cap tries to take out Sin ("Avengers" #16), everyone regroups in New York ("Avengers" #17 and "Fear Itself" #4), and the Avengers battle the Serpent and Sin in New York ("Fear Itself" #5).  Makes sense.

The problem is that it clearly doesn't.  As mentioned above, Sin and the Serpent fought Captain America and the Avengers (including the Brazil crew mentioned here) in New York in "Fear Itself" #5 and then left the city to make their way to Asgard in Broxton, Oklahoma.  In fact, Sin is standing next to the Serpent at the end of "Fear Itself" #6 when he arrives in Broxton.  However, in this issue, Sin randomly appears to make her way to Heimdall's Observatory (formerly located in the Tower) to enter Asgard.  So, how does that work?  Is Bendis implying that she entered the Observatory to enter Asgard somewhere between "Fear Itself" #3 and #4, when this issue would in theory take place, only to reappear in "Fear Itself" #5 to fight Cap and the Avengers, with no mention made of her time in Asgard?  That seems to be the only explanation to make sense.

However, I think it's actually Bendis showing the Serpent call all his Worthy to him as he approaches Broxton.  (He does the same with the Juggernaut in "Uncanny X-Men" #543.)  However, that would be placing this issue after "Fear Itself" #6.  Plus, Sin is with the Serpent at the end of that issue.  So, what happens?  Sin leaves the Serpent, travels to New York, and enters Asgard through the Observatory?  That could make sense (depending on the events of "Fear Itself" #7)...except for the fact that we've firmly established that this issue happens between "Fear Itself" #3 and #4.  It wouldn't make sense for this issue to happen after "Fear Itself" #6, because it would mean the Brazil crew were both in New York to witness the devastation in this issue AND in Oklahoma with Cap in "Fear Itself" #6.  (Maybe they all suddenly developed Wolverine's ability to be in two places at once.)  In other words, it can't happen both between issues #3 and #4 AND between #6 and #7.  So, either it happens between issues #3 and #4 and Sin's entry through the Observatory into Asgard is an error, or it happens between issues #6 and #7 and Bendis' depiction of Hawkeye, Ms. Marvel, Protector, and Spider-Woman just arriving in New York is an error.  But, it's definitely one or the other.

I know it seems nit-picky, but, as I said in my review of "Avengers" #16, I find this lack of attention to detail distracting because it complicates the motivations of characters.  For example, in this issue, everyone is mad about the Tower falling, whereas, in the main title, they already moved past that event months ago and are focused on new threats.  It would've been nice to see this anger before "Fear Itself" #4, so that you can understand their mindset in that issue and "Fear Itself" #5.  I think it's part of what has made "Fear Itself" feel so hollow, since the emotional aspects of the events have been sub-contracted to the tie-in series, which don't address them until months after they happen.  These sequencing questions really make me wonder if Marvel put an overall editor in charge of "Fear Itself."  My guess is no.  It seems pretty clear that the authors of the tie-ins just got short snippets about the larger plot of the main title and had to more or less insert their individual stories into where they thought they'd fit into the larger arc.  The problem is that you can't have a book like "Avengers" be SO poorly synced to the main title.  They're THE AVENGERS.  They play a pretty significant role in this series.  If I, a fan, can tell the sequencing of their appearances are so poorly synced with the rest of the series, how can some editor not tell?

Moreover, if I'm getting really nit-picky, in true pet peeve #1 fashion, despite what the cover depicts, Hawkeye and Spider-Woman do not/not get busy while New York burns in this issue.  Also, someone needs to tell Bendis and JR JR that Spidey lost his Spider-Sense, which seems to have magically re-appeared here.

I've said it before and I'll, unfortunately, say it again:  this event needs to END.

Fear Itself:  The Home Front #6:  This issue is, perhaps, the worst issue of any comic book I've ever read.  I'm tired of trying to give it credit for the Speedball story.  Gage is actually just telling the same story he initially told.  It's like I'm in "Groundhog's Day."  All four stories in this issue suck, one worst than the other.  I mean that literally, too.  Each story just gets worse than the other.  I STILL can't believe I'm buying this series.

Fear Itself:  Youth in Revolt #5:  I've liked this series for most of its run, but this issue is pretty grim.  It's hard to be overly sympathetic to any of the characters, even though I think McKeever is, unlike all the other authors, accurately showing what it would look like when a bunch of completely exhausted superheroes are finally pushed over the edge and begin tearing each other apart.  I'm hoping someone gets a redeeming moment in the final issue, and I'm intrigued what's going to happen with these characters after the series wraps up its run.

New Mutants #31:  We begin this issue with Dani trapped inside one of the undead gods, something that apparently happened last issue but I don't exactly remember.  At any rate, the undead god in which she finds herself engages in battle with the New Mutants, and her new crow friend helps her realize that her teammates are right...um...outside, as it were.  Dani claws her way out the undead god's mouth, though I'm not exactly sure how she managed that, since she was having trouble figuring out an escape plan before she was inspired by the arrival of her teammates.  At any rate, the issue was pretty fun, particularly with its somewhat shocking ending, Hela hanging on a pike.  I also found the undead god's memories of Odin's confrontation with the Serpent interesting, particularly because I haven't seen anything about their confrontation before.  (I'm assuming the Thor series are covering that.)  The New Muties defending Hela's castle against the undead gods should be a pretty good story next issue.

Uncanny X-Men #543:  It's hard to read this issue and not think that this story is exactly the type of story we all expected to read when we heard of "Fear Itself."  I mean, everything falls apart here, because the "good guys" are forced into morally compromised positions to fend off the "bad guys."  I loved Kitty's speech to Colossus, about how he's always ready to die for her but she needs someone who's ready to live for her.  OMG, yes.  I've been waiting for her to get there for YEARS.  Although I was initially optimistic after the Breakworld arc that we would finally get a happy Kitty and Peter, I'm perfectly happy not to get one if it means that Kitty finally puts down her foot when it comes to Peter always sacrificing himself.  Kitty and Peter being happy presumed that he'd stop throwing himself in front of the bus.  If he can't do that, it's time for them to end, and I really applaud Gillen for being, like, the only X-book author ever to draw that conclusion.  Moreover, I like the Scott we get here, by which I mean I don't like Scott here, but I like Gillen's portrayal of him.  First, Land does an amazing job of showing Scott's confusion when he sees Colossus.  It's one of the few moments where I've ever seen the modern Scott Summers actually show a moment of conflict, a moment of wondering whether he made the right choice.  Second, his conversation with Sadie is disturbing.  Given that this issue happens along the backdrop of "X-Men:  Schism," it fits with the scary Scott we've seen lately.  Gillen uses both these instances to show a Scott who isn't quite the person he thinks (or hopes) he is.  Looking at this arc, I can say, with certainty, that Gillen is the only author who really took "Fear Itself" and made it his own, using its premise to further his characters while at the same time telling a story that made sense in context of the event.  Well done, Kieron.  Well done.

Uncanny X-Men #478-#480: "The Rise and Fall of the Shi'Ar Empire:" Parts 4-6

Uncanny X-Men #478:  OK, it's probably time something happens here.  After last issue, which more or less served as a recap of "X-Men:  Deadly Genesis" for those folks who didn't read it, I was kind of expecting we'd see the X-Men makes some progress in their attempt to find a way to track down Vulcan.  Instead, they're still lost in space, and they don't really seem to have a plan to resolve that problem.  They stop at a Shi'Ar space station to re-fuel, but, if I'm not mistaken, it would take them a fairly long time to make it to the Imperium without the stargates.  (After all, as we learn in this issue, Vulcan had gone through -- and destroyed -- 55 percent of them and still hadn't reached the throneworld, Chandilar.)  But, the X-Men seem content to make their way lazily through the Imperium, despite the fact their mission has a fair level of urgency.  I mean, don't get me wrong, it's a decent issue.  The fight with the Skrulls was fun, and I enjoyed Brubaker giving us a fan wank with the conversation between Havok and Polaris about Jean.  I'm also intrigued by Brubaker's decision to add to the mix the Shi'Ar's hatred for "the line of the Phoenix."  But, both the Skrulls fight and the Phoenix business felt like distractions.  Moreover, the addition of the two Shi'Ar crew members' recognition of Professor X is probably just going to continue to derail us.  (Can't Rachel just read their minds?)  At this point, it's probably time for something to happen.

Uncanny X-Men #479:  OK, something happens!  I was first impressed by Brubaker's ability to juggle several different plots and storylines over the course of multiple-issue arcs in "Captain America," and I'm no less impressed here.  Although it's still a distraction from the main plot (the X-Men chasing Vulcan), Brubaker delivers a winner with the Blade of the Phoenix story, giving us a tragic figure in the form of Korvus, whose life story closely matches Rachel's.  (Moreover, the fight scene between the two of them was awesome.  Full props to Tan for that one.)  I liked how Brubaker took the time to do some character work with Nightcrawler and Warpath, with Warpath expressing his frustration with traveling in space (preferring to have grass under his feet) and Kurt marveling at the wonders of it.  For me, the only down note continues to be the Professor X sub-plot.  The addition of the two Shi'Ar "guests" last issue felt forced, and it does so again here, somewhat bluntly serving merely as a means of advancing the plot.  (Brubaker addresses my question about Rachel reading the guests' minds from last issue, but can she really not break through Shi'Ar counter-telepathy training and read their minds?  Moreover, given that everyone BUT the Professor thought it was a bad idea to keep them on the ship, why would they allow him to do so?  I thought we proved in "X-Men:  Deadly Genesis" that blindly following his orders isn't a good idea.)  But, I asked for something to happen and I got it.  Brubaker may be stalling with these additional sub-plots, but at least he's making it mostly an enjoyable experience.

Uncanny X-Men #480:  This issue is pretty awesome.  Brubaker is doing a great job fleshing out Vulcan.  He's dealt his first real defeat at the hands of Gladiator, but not before seemingly killing half the Imperial Guard.  Although Vulcan has killed before, I feel like this issue is where we see his real brutality, where he finally gets the opportunity to prove himself against beings on his level (and not just the innocent victims he's previously killed).  But, he fails and, as we see in his conversation with his younger self, he lacks the maturity to fully handle that failure.  Although it bordered on excessive exposition, I felt like that conversation with his younger self was really useful, underling that, under it all, Vulcan is a scared teenager.  Brubaker has given us several factors driving Vulcan's instability -- the effects of the Shi'Ar rapidly aging him, the shock of waking from his coma having been left for dead by Xavier, the horror of seeing his own mother's death through Corsair's memories.  But, it's the scared teenager part that on one hand explains how that instability manifests itself (in the need for getting revenge and proving himself) and on the other hand makes Vulcan (almost) a sympathetic character.  Just like he did with Bucky Barnes, Brubaker is doing an excellent job creating a truly tragic figure, this time on the darker side of the spectrum.  I can't wait to see how the addition of Deathbird to the mix is going to go.

Final Thoughts:  This second quarter of the arc started slow, but I trust Brubaker to be moving us slowly but surely to a spectacular finish.  You can feel Vulcan's rage building and building as he faces obstacles for the first time and everything doesn't go according to his plan.  He radiates a need for acceptance, but he's ultimately a villain because he can't bring himself to take it when it's offered.  He's like the intergalactic, mutant version of Jason Todd, which raises the question:  why are bad guys always so sexy?

Uncanny X-Men #475-#477: "The Rise and Fall of the Shi'Ar Empire:" Parts 1-3

I wasn't planning on reviewing "The Rise and Fall of the Shi'Ar Empire," but I'm finding reviewing is like a drug!  I decided to read this arc partly because I was interested in the Vulcan character after reading the "X-Men:  Deadly Genesis" TPB a few years ago.  But, mostly, it's because of the current storyline in "X-Men Legacy," where Rogue and company go into space to retrieve Havok, Marvel Girl, and Polaris, and because the events in "Rise and Fall" play a part in "War of Kings," which I'm approaching as I make my way through the "Nova" series.  In other words, I'm mostly reading it as background.  But, after the awesome first issue, I find myself sucked into the world Brubaker creates, so I definitely want to talk about it.  I'm going to be a little easier on myself, though, going with the paragraph review rather than a full-on page review with summaries, goods, bads, etc.  Enough shop talk, though.  Onto the reviewing!

Uncanny X-Men #475:  As an issue setting the stage for an ambitious 12-issue arc, this one should be taught as the urtext at Comic Book Writer University.  At first it appears that the Professor, who has lost his powers as a result of the events of "House of M" and his respect as a result of the revelations of "X-Men:  Deadly Genesis," is gathering a small team just to rescue Polaris, an initial stab at addressing past mistakes.  (I'm not exactly sure what happened to Lorna, but, with Lorna, it's always something.  This time, it appears it was Apocalypse.  Last time, it was Magneto, and Malice before him.  Whatever.  It would be nice for her actually not to be a mess for once.  But, I digress.)  We see him recruiting several of the team members, and only his conversation with Rachel implies that something more than rescuing Lorna is at hand.  The story of retrieving Lorna, in and of itself, is an exciting one.  Brubaker puts together an inspired team, with Warpath taking on the role usually reserved for Colossus, an addition that adds a new element to the interactions between the characters.  (Moreover, Tan beautifully captures Warpath's kinetic fighting style, thriving in his depiction of close-quarters combat in the streets of Cairo.)  But, Brubaker kicks it up a notch when he reveals the twist, that the Professor was leading the team to rescue Lorna not for Lorna in and of herself but to add her to the team going into space to retrieve Vulcan.  This twist is brilliant not just because of the awesomeness of the X-Men rocketing into space once more, but also because it seriously underlines how much of a bastard Charles Xavier is.  He seemed fine with Lorna wandering the streets of Cairo until he needed her.  I mean, both Havok and Xavier mention that she should've expected them to rescue her, but, seriously, why did they wait until they needed her to do it?  For me, this behavior gives added weight to the impact of the revelations in "X-Men:  Deadly Genesis."  Brubaker creates a sense throughout the book that Xavier is going behind Scott's back to put together this team and bring them on yet another crazy mission.  Xavier may be talking about redemption, but he's not exactly doing anything different.  I don't know how Brubaker manages to do all that in one issue, but it's why the man's good at his job.

Uncanny X-Men #476:  Brubaker does a great job building on the situations he set into motion in the first issue of this arc.  As I mentioned before, Warpath is a great addition to the team.  If it had been Colossus, the character dynamics would've derived from a well-oiled team fighting the enemy yet again.  Instead, Brubaker creates tension, since Warpath hasn't been completely integrated into the X-Men way of thinking.  He argues with Havok and he brushes off Xavier's attempt to chastise him for killing.  Moreover, the conversation between Scott, Xavier, and Alex clarifies the question I had from the first issue, if Xavier had sought Scott's approval before leaving (and, though I didn't mention it, why Alex had forgiven Xavier enough to agree to go with him).  As he does currently in "Captain America," Brubaker is a master of characterization, and he really excels when he's carrying relationships from issue to issue.  By creating the sense that Xavier was sneaking behind Scott's back in the first issue (and waiting until this issue to show the conversation they had about the mission), Brubaker is slowly playing out the shift of power from Xavier to Scott.  Having cleared the decks of those issues, Brubaker now hurls us into the matter at hand, the X-Men in space.  Awesome.

Uncanny X-Men #477:  One of the nice things about a 12-issue arc is that you're not exactly in a rush.  Brubaker pauses the X-Men's story here, leaving them drifting in space, in order to focus on Vulcan and what he's been doing since the end of "X-Men:  Deadly Genesis."  As implied at the end of last issue, we see that Vulcan doesn't just possess a Havok-like level of power, but also a Cyclops-like command of tactics.  After learning about the Shi'Ar stargates and capturing a ship to access them, Vulcan goes about destroying the gates as he makes his way to the Shi'Ar throneworld.  However, he leaves one gate intact, so that the X-Men can make a jump from Earth...and then find themselves with no gates left to lead them further.  Brilliant.  The rest of the issue fleshes out Vulcan as a character, giving us a better sense of just how tortured Vulcan is than we got form "X-Men:  Deadly Genesis."  Brubaker explains how the trauma of Marvel Girl showing Corsair's memories of Vulcan's "death" to him is really what drives him over the edge, an edge on which he had already been standing when he awoke and realized that he and his teammates had been left for dead by Xavier after their failed attempt to rescue the X-Men on Krakoa.  It's hard to view Vulcan as a sympathetic character, but Brubaker actually brings us close to it with this issue, an excellent character study of a seriously troubled character.

Final Thoughts:  We're a quarter of the way through the arc at this point, and Brubaker has set the stage for a really exciting story.  If I didn't know Brubaker from his "Captain America" run, I'd be a little skeptical that amazing things were going to happen, given that, after three issues, Vulcan is only now approaching the Shi'Ar Empire and the X-Men are drifting in space.  But, I know Brubaker is taking his time, building the story, creating small sub-plots that will all come together at the end.  As such, it's been fun to watch him ply his craft here, creating a fully-realized world with real-life characters.  I can't wait to see where it goes.

New Comics!: The "Fear Itself" Edition

Before I start, I have to say that the tie-in issues reviewed here don't really do all that much to further the main "Fear Itself" plot.  The "Avengers" tie-in issue finally shows the team reacting to the death of Bucky, but does so months after it's been resolved (or, at least, moved past) in the main title.  The "Fear Itself:  Youth in Revolt," "New Mutants," and "Uncanny X-Men" issues are well-written stories, but they're still dealing with a small aspect of "Fear Itself," namely the Juggernaut's march across America and its consequences.  In fact, I actually can't remember if the Juggernaut has even appeared in the main title, or if he's just been entirely shunted to "Fear Itself:  Youth in Revolt" and "Uncanny X-Men."  I think it's pretty clear if you've been reading this blog a while that I'm not a fan of "Fear Itself," but, at this point, I'd really just like my regular titles back, particularly given the increasingly tenuous connection they have to "Fear Itself." 

Avengers #16:  Looking at the issue itself, I mostly enjoyed it.  We finally -- FINALLY! -- see the Avengers and Steve Rogers mourn the loss of Bucky Barnes.  (Seriously, how has it taken so long?)  Steve decides to take on Sin to exact his revenge and takes Sharon Carter, Victoria Hand, and Maria Hill with him.  I thought the decision (and justification) to take Sharon, Victoria, and Maria was really well done, with Steve reasoning that diverting a superhero from the ongoing battles would raise Sin's attention.  Moreover, I thought Bendis did a great job of using Maria Hill as the lens through which we viewed the action.  Throughout the mission, it's clear that the team is being driven by their emotions and grief.  They fall into Sin's trap because they are seriously off their game, despite not being "off their game" kind of people.  Bendis uses the ever-competent Maria Hill to great effect here, since, if even Maria Hill is off her game, you know Steve must be beside himself.  Moreover, the fact that both Victoria and Sharon kill people in this issue adds to this sense that emotions are driving their actions and, as Cap is confronting Master Man, Bendis raises the possibility that he, too, may snap. 

Unfortunately, Bendis decides to introduce a deus ex machina here, preventing us from seeing whether Steve is driven to murder.  Instead, we get some character I've only maybe seen once arriving and taking down the whole castle by using her earthquake powers.  I mean, WTF?  We're just getting to the interesting part -- the great moral dilemma -- and some D-list character suddenly appears and ends it with her "earthquake powers?"  Did the fight really have to end?  I mean, if Master Man is so strong, why is he knocked unconscious but everyone else is fine?  Bendis then continues the dive by giving us Steve randomly wandering around the ruins screaming "SIN!" like he's Marlon Brando.  He also abruptly leaves his post-game recap interview mid-sentence, saying simply, "I'm so sorry, Bucky."  Given that that comment is likely to be the last thing we ever see Steve say about Bucky, who I'm assuming is going into the Memory Hole after this series, it's a serious, serious letdown.  These bizarre last few pages really dragged down the book for me.

Also bad?  The art.  I actually like JR JR, but he's awful here.  I mean, half the time, I had no idea who anyone was.  It's like he drew the issue in five minutes and left it to the inker and colorist to flesh out the details.

All that said, I had enjoyed most of the issue until it took its bizarre turn, so it wasn't a total loss.  The real problem I had with this issue, though, had less to do with it and more to do with "Fear Itself."  One of the problems I'm having with "Fear Itself" is that the issues that flesh out the motivations of the characters seem to be appearing at least a month late.  I mean, Bucky was killed in "Fear Itself" #3 and his death is addressed in "Fear Itself" #4 and #5.  But, we're just seeing the Avengers and Steve grapple with his death here.  We needed to see that BEFORE issue #5, so we could've gotten a sense of the desperation that essentially leads them to give up the battle in the climatic scene in that issue.  I'm assuming that the events of this issue happen between "Fear Itself" #3 and #4.  After all, Steve faces Sin in "Fear Itself" #5.  Knowing that, it does make Steve occasionally seem crazy here, until you remind yourself that this issue clearly happened before "Fear Itself" #5 (not that anyone tells you that in the book).  It's just yet another reason why this entire ordeal of "Fear Itself" needs to end.

Fear Itself:  The Home Front #5:  This issue continues the pattern of this series, with the Speedball story being moralizingly annoying, the second story giving us minor characters in a forgettable story with a vague plot, a totally bizarre "Moment with...," and a final story with even more minor characters in an even more forgettable story with a nonsensical plot.  I still can't believe I'm spending $3.99 on these issues.

Fear Itself:  Youth in Revolt #4:  McKeever continues to do a good job on this series.  We see the heroes involved in this story have a complete and total meltdown.  Prodigy is snapping under the strains of commanding a losing battle while Gravity takes out his rage at the situation (and, clearly, his guilt for abandoning the battle) on Hardball.  McKeever gives us a cliffhanger, with Gravity implying that he becomes a murderer, though we don't know if it's because of his accidental strike on Komodo or the earthquake he and Hardball cause due to their fight.  But it's not the cliffhanger that will make me come back next issue; it's the tale McKeever is telling.  He continues to tell a compelling story about the pressures a group of C- and D-list superheroes face trying to do the right thing when all seems lost.  Moreover, McKeever excels at raising questions about what exactly constitutes "the right thing."  The attempts by the rest of the cast -- Cloud 9, Komodo, Rage, Thor Girl -- to save the innocent civilians while Gravity and Hardball go to war on each other is a great display of heroism.  You come to expect that sort of heroism on the part of your superheroes, but McKeever reminds us how special it is.  I hope he's given a series with these characters after "Fear Itself" ends, because I'd love to see the stories he could tell without "Fear Itself" hanging around his next.

New Mutants #30:  This issue is OK.  It sucks that DnA got forcibly sidetracked by "Fear Itself," because I'm much more interested in reading stories about Dani and her team serving as the X-Men's loose-end tie-up-er-ers.  I'm not entirely sure who, exactly, Dani is fighting at the end, other than the fact that they're some sort of nightmare entities re-animated thanks to the Serpent's return.  Meanwhile, the rest of the gang is in Hell ("two 'L's") trying to avoid negotiating with Mephisto, who, in the end, convinces Amara to go on a date with him in exchange for sending them to Hel (one "L").  For the last 30 issues, the various authors on this title have done little more than address, in passing, the fact that Bobby suddenly finds himself in love with Amara, so I'm actually hoping that Amara going on a date with the Devil (presumably after "Fear Itself" ends) will finally bring some sort of action to this long-simmering sub-plot.  Compared to other "Fear Itself" tie-in issues, this one is pretty good.  Compared to DnA's usual issues, it's mildly disappointing.

Uncanny X-Men #542:  Like he does in "Generation Hope" #10, Gillen give us a two-for-one deal here, moving forward existing sub-plots while at the same time furthering the "Fear Itself" plot.  First, "Fear Itself:"  Gillen delivers one of the better tie-in issues I've read.  So far, as previously mentioned, these tie-in issues haven't really forwarded the main plot of "Fear Itself" too much.  This issue doesn't exactly do so either, but it does give us the best story related to "Fear Itself."  By focusing on the Juggernaut over the last few issues, Gillen has been able to let the fear of his impending arrival grow.  Whereas all the other books seem to be just bounding from event to event, reducing the possibility of the stories having any sort of emotional impact, Gillen shows the X-Men throwing everything they have at the problem and still not stopping the Juggernaut.  (Contrast their efforts here to the Avengers surrendering after three panels of action in "Fear Itself" #5 and you'll see what I mean.)  It actually felt like Cyclops was playing a video game, trying to match combos to see which one could defeat the boss.  By giving us these scenes, Gillen manages to convey the sense of desperation and fear that we're supposed to be seeing everywhere else, but aren't.  Looking at the ongoing stories he furthers here, we see Emma coming to the conclusion to which I allude in my "Generation Hope" #10 review, which is that Hope Summers is a lot more tied to the Summers/Grey family and the Phoenix Force than she or anyone else (other than Emma) is aware.  It seems pretty apparent that it's the fear infesting everything as a result of the return of the Serpent that brings Emma to this conclusion (even if it turns out being correct), which just goes to show how well Gillen does integrating "Fear Itself" with ongoing "Uncanny" plots.  Finally, we see Colossus take one on the chin, possibly sacrificing his soul to save Illyana.  I had asked, at the end of the Breakworld saga, for Kitty and Peter to have some time to just be in love.  It looks like we may not get that.  Gillen hints here that Illyana might not be as reformed as we thought, since she lifts nary a finger to save Peter.  All in all, Gillen delivers possibly the best "Fear Itself" tie-in issue I've read.  Between the upcoming Emma/Hope and Colossus/Juggernaut battles, I really can't wait until next issue.  (Also:  Adam X?  Whoa.)