By: Mike Carey (writer), Clay Mann (pencils), Jay Leisten (inks), Brian Reber (colors), Cory Petit (letters), Sebastian Girner (assistant editor), Daniel Ketchum (editor)
The Story: In this penultimate chapter of Age of X, we learn the answer to the question, “What’s going on?”
What’s Good: Well, from a story-pacing standpoint, we do learn the nature of the crisis facing the X-Men. It is not a terribly satisfying resolution to the mystery (as we get into below), but it does show compelling structure for the overall story and set the Age of X crossover up for a strong finish. One of the best things about this crossover is how long Mike Carey kept the mystery in place. For those keeping score at home, this was the fifth issue of Age of X (not including the Prelude and Age of X Universe issues), so Carey really just condensed Act II into a singular part of this issue. We only have one issue of the main crossover and one Age of X Universe issue to go, so the ingredients are in place for a slam-bang finish.
Another thing that I’ve enjoyed about this story is how it isn’t all about Wolverine. Now, that may change (more on this below), but given how 90% of X-stories revolve around or feature the hairy little bugger, it is really refreshing to see a story that focuses on Rogue and Professor X. Granted, this isn’t a surprise for anyone who has followed Carey’s lengthy run on this title because he has featured Rogue and the Professor a lot, but it is still nice to see for fans who have had a little too much adamantium in their breakfast cereal.
The art is effective. I don’t think it’s super-awesome or anything like that, but it very clearly tells what could be a confusing story with all these alternate versions of our favorite mutants.
What’s Not So Good: Okay, we’re getting heavily into the realm of personal preference AND SPOILERS here, so…
The tease all along has been that Age of X was some kinda of alternate universe or other timeline that would make it similar to classic X-stories like Age of Apocalypse or Days of Future Past. To learn that the basic problem is that the X-Men are all trapped inside of some mental construct being created by Legion due to Dr. Nemesis and Professor Xavier fiddling with his multiple personalities is a little disappointing. It also defies plausibility. So, the X-Men have basically been flopped out on Utopia for a week, and no one has checked on them? Black Panther didn’t pause from fighting crime in Hell’s Kitchen to call his wife? The Avengers didn’t need Wolverine? The X-Men’s new PR lady didn’t wonder why they weren’t keeping their appointments? Beast didn’t call to compare scientific theories with Nemesis?
Not only is it “all in their minds”, but it is setting us up for a finale that will heavily feature one of these psychic battles where the true battlefield is within someone’s head. Personal preference time: I’ve always loathed those stories because I’ve found them to be so straight forward because the battle takes place on one metric….the psychic plane. It’d be kinda like having a comic book that was all about superheroes lifting weights and every week Hulk wins. That is boring… But toss them into the jungle and have them fight and it is suddenly compelling. Hopefully, Carey has some tricks up his sleeve to make this more than a mental test of strength.
Also, where’s Wolverine? He kinda figured prominently at the end of the last X-Men Legacy issue of Age of X, but he is nowhere to be found here. One of the good things about this crossover has been the relative absence of Wolverine, but I fear that by showing him to us and letting us know that he is around, that perhaps he and Scott have worked out some secret plan where Wolverine will jump in with claws slashing at the key moment to save the day. Again, this is not a sin that Carey has committed yet, but I fear that it will be so. I hope that I’m wrong, because I really don’t need to see another X-story where Wolverine comes out of no where to save the day.
Don’t love the coloring on this issue either. Anytime faces feature colors that run from near-white to a deep-pinkish/brown that is a big turn off for me because with that type of extreme highlighting, I start to think about light sources and comparing the highlights on the face with the highlights on the uniform and hands which often results in light sources that are impossibilities (like a spot light inside someone’s torso).
Conclusion: The mystery is out of the way and we’re set up for a big finale. I honestly am not wild about the story now that we’re learned what is going on and have some serious concerns about the way this could end up (based solely on my anticipation). Still, if 90s X-Men and “battles of the mind” are your thing, it’s worth checking out.
Grade: C-
-Dean Stell
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