By: Brian Michael Bendis (Writer), David Marquez (Artist), Marte Gracia (Colorist), Cory Petit (Letterer)
The Review: There’s something about this issue that feels just right. I think it’s a sense of everything starting to feel a bit more comfortable, of everything and everyone slotting into place. If we use a ‘Moving House’ analogy, the first 5 issues were the difficult bit; hefting the sofa, fridge and countless long boxes onto the delivery van and unloading them into your new digs. Now everything’s unpacked, the beds are made and (despite your girl’s best efforts) the Hot Toys have set up shop on the mantelpiece once again. Now it’s time to start living here. Of course, it’s also the time you start finding out that the heating is on the fritz and your next door neighbour has just started learning to play the drums…
Now the initial confrontation with Scott’s brotherhood is out of the way and the decision’s been made to stay and sort out the future, the original X-Men are settling into the 21st century, taking their first tentative steps towards building relationships with their modern counterparts. So far Hank’s situation has been fairly well documented and Iceman’s has been relegated to the (admittedly funny) joke of perpetually annoying his older self. As such, this issue largely focuses on Jean and Scott, with Angel getting a bit of time in the spotlight near the end.
For Jean this represents an internal struggle. As in, right inside her head. With her telepathic powers still blooming and causing nothing but torment, Kitty Pryde steps in to help mentor her in how to assert some control. They’re affecting scenes as they’re played out with a good deal of empathy between the former/future team mates; Kitty’s become a kind of elder statesman for the X-Men at this point and Bendis imbues her position with a pitch-perfect sense of humility. Rounding things off is a diplomatic (though slightly stiff) Storm who gently announces Jean as the de facto leader of her displaced team. It’s a winning display of Girl Power from some of Marvel’s most powerful ladies and it’s nice to see this side of things play out so maturely…
….because really, the guys were never going to play that nice. Still, Cyclops, what did you expect? Stealing Wolverine’s bike, cash and jacket was never going to end well. Bendis has given little tastes of the continued friction between the two leading X-Men but the relationship plays out on a bigger stage here. Having taken his leave of the school and its hostile, alien environs, Scott decides to take a trip into town with the aforementioned appropriated goods. It’s not long before Wolverine tracks him down and, following some terse words and faltering attempts at talking about feelings, the optic blasts and Adamantium claws soon get to popping. The hostility between Cyclops and Wolverine is one of the most enduring and entertainingly antagonistic relationships in comics and it is no less so under Bendis’ control. It’s also heartening to see that even when Summers is a snot-nosed, gangly, pre-pubescent kiddy-wink, Wolverine still wants to open him up like a tin of beans. Awwwwww.
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Filed under: Marvel Comics, Reviews | Tagged: All New X-Men, Beast, Brian Michael Bendis, Cory Petit, Cyclops, David Marquez, Iceman, Jean Grey, Kitty Pryde, Marte Gracia, Marvel, Marvel NOW, Marvel Reviews, Storm, Warren Worthington, Wolverine, X-Men | 1 Comment »
