Alpha Flight #9

Alpha Flight #9
Writing: Steve Seagle

Art: Roger Cruz

What Went Down:  Alpha Flight’s supervisor General Clarke, who bears an uncanny resemblance to DC’s Lex Luthor, is overseeing Alpha Flight through the robot Manbot’s cameras.  In the cockpit of their Alphajet, the team discusses how they need to keep a low profile to avoid sparking an international incident in the U.S.  They are supposedly tracking Wolverine through his adamantium skeleton, although all the fans know this is a lie because Wolverine doesn’t have adamantium bones any more.  They also discuss the video footage they saw of Wolverine killing Madison Jeffries.

Back at Department H, an aide interrupts General Clarke, saying it’s about a new harvest named Lilli.  Clarke calms the Lilli, who is trying to escape, and insists she can leave at any time.  She is then sedated under the pretense of removing a security mark.

We get the same scenes from Uncanny #355 of Wolverine confronting the team, with some minor added dialogue between the Alpha Flight characters.  Clarke observes that Wolverine smells Guardian, and the audio and video cut out for a moment.  After Wolverine drives off, we get to see an argument between the members of Alpha Flight before Guardian flies off to confront him.

There is an interlude with the mutant Sunfire talking on the phone with someone.  He reveals that he has been in Canada getting treated by Dr. Huxley, and he has discovered he is dying of radiation poisoning.

The fight between Wolverine and Alpha Flight occurs exactly as it did in Uncanny #355 with Rogue flying by and retrieving the X-Men to help Wolverine, except of course the art is a little different.  The one difference is that we get to see what Murmur saw when she examined Maggott’s mind…it’s a dark room with lots of tentacles in it.  Cannonball and Flex stop the fight, and General Clarke demands to be informed when the team arrives.

How It Was:  I don’t really know how to label this one.  It’s not so much a crossover as a reinterpretation of the same events from a different team’s point of view.  That’s actually a really interesting idea, and in a story where both sides have competing agendas, this format would work pretty well.  Given that Alpha Flight’s members are so clearly in the wrong in both issues, it’s not quite as effective.  The worst offense of all is that this issue isn’t solicited at all in Uncanny #355.  If you’re going to try to cash in on the popularity of the X-Men, wouldn’t a good place to start be to tell X-Men fans to buy this comic?

As for the different perspective, the majority of this issue is a scene for scene rehash of Uncanny #355.  Most of the different scenes are just exposition setting up why Alpha Flight is after Wolverine, which was already clearly defined in the beginning.  I will admit to being somewhat intrigued about the overall conspiracy driving the plot.  Parts of it make me think that it might be a precursor to the plot of the Weapon X ongoing in the mid-2000s, although that certainly can’t be the case.  The only problem with this is that Clarke is such a generic evil military-type that I don’t have much faith in this going anywhere ambitious.  However I do like the setup of Sunfire dying of radiation poisoning, although it feels like that might belong more in an X-Men comic.

We do get to see a little more of the dynamics of the Alpha Flight team.  Younger James Hudson isn’t an uncontested leader, Radius has problems with lots of team members, and Manbot is a spy directly under Department H’s control.  Oddly enough, plot points from the X-Men issue aren’t explained for the sake of Alpha Flight readers; nobody ever mentions that Sauron is the one in the bag, and the reveal of Maggott’s mind being just a room of tentacles is a real let down.  I don’t even think the issue explains who the X-Men are or defines their members like the Uncanny issue clearly defined Alpha Flight.  The art’s good, although the coloring is a little dark and muddy at times. 

This is just a weird experiment that was poorly executed.  It might’ve made more sense as a two-part crossover, but it feels weird to have these two teams come together and then have no real resolution.  I can’t say that the story makes me feel strongly about either of the teams; it feels really abrupt and rushed. 

C-

Astonishing X-Men #4

Astonishing X-Men #4
Writing: Scott Lobdell
Art: Joe Madureira

What Went Down: We’re treated to a gorgeous one page spread of Blink angrily calling out Holocaust. Of course Holocaust underestimates the youth, and a fight begins that ends with Blink dropping the villain in a vat of chemicals. Meanwhile, the rest of the X-Men are still fighting Infinites.

Elsewhere, Magneto has been captured by Apocalypse (which happens in Amazing X-Men). Apocalypse taunts Magneto and threatens his loved ones. At the plant, prisoners scheduled for processing are about to be executed. Sunfire saves them all and frees them.

Holocaust survives the acid and attacks Morph and Blink, but together with the other X-Men they beat him. Holocaust tells Rogue that Apocalypse has captured Magneto and Bishop before teleporting away. Iceman shows up to stop Rogue from following Holocaust, and Sabretooth also shows up after healing from his wounds. Rogue ends the issue by swearing that they will save Magneto and Charles as well as end the Age of Apocalypse.

How It Was: Action, action, and more action. If you can’t tell by the brief description above, most of this issue is fighting. And really, isn’t that what the grand finale of a story should be. The seemingly docile Blink gets to shine with a little aggressiveness as well as some creative uses for her teleporting powers. Plus the Infinites make for excellent cannon fodder. And the fight at the end with Holocaust is awesome, except for Holocaust’s anti-climactic escape at the end.

Even with all of the action, Lobdell doesn’t let up with the cool character moments. Morph and Rogue share a great scene together when Morph thinks she’s dead, and Sunfire gets to sort of redeem himself by saving a large group of people. So many writers don’t understand that to make a good team book, every character has to shine, but Lobdell has this concept nailed.

Overall this was a fantastic series. It is a little weak how Sabretooth just pops up on the last two pages after his death was made into such a big deal. But as I’ve said before, his personality was probably the weakest (i.e. Wolverine wannabe), and his death served the purpose of placing more focus on the other characters. Still, there’s no real reason to bring him back since he doesn’t serve that big of a purpose in the finale. While this series doesn’t have a lot to do directly with Apocalypse, it is still a really well done series that does justice to all of the characters and the setting.

A

Astonishing X-Men #3

Astonishing X-Men #3
Writing: Scott Lobdell
Art: Joe Madureira

What Went Down: We open on the Infinites chasing after the feral Wild Child and trying to stop him from bringing intel to the rest of the X-Men. Wild Child is shot, but Morph and Sunfire save him. Then Wild Child touches Rogue, allowing her to see his memories and learn where the factory is.

Sabretooth wakes up and finds that he is a prisoner of Holocaust. The villain brags about how nothing can stop Apocalypse etcetera etcetera, followed by cutting Sabretooth’s throat. We then see a flashback of Wolverine and Sabretooth rescuing a young Blink from a burning building. Morph tries to lighten the mood, but Sunfire gets mad at him.

At the Xavier Estate, Magneto is testing Bishop, asking if Bishop would kill him to save all of humanity. Nanny, Magneto’s robot nanny in charge of his son, sounds an alert and takes Charles through an emergency exit. In the processing plant, Morph turns into a whale and transports all of the X-Men inside. A lot of fighting ensues, ending with Blink discovering the dead body of Sabretooth.

How It Was: This book is great; it has some straight up awesome scenes. One of the best is Morph rescuing Wild Child disguised as Holocaust with a top hat and cane, directly followed by a grim and stoic Sunfire incinerating all of the bad guys. It’s such a great juxtaposition of emotion and tone; I love it. Morph actually has a number of great scenes; the creators have a lot of fun turning him into a door, a brick wall, and even a talking whale. His one-liners and silly forms offer a great counter to more serious scenes like the “death” of Sabretooth.

Speaking of the death, while it’s impact is limited by the end of this series I really like how Sabretooth’s death scene is immediately followed by a flashback to him rescuing Blink after the turn of the page. This does a great job of setting up Blink’s behaviors next issue as well as sheds some light on her beginnings. The art continues to be phenomenal, with Joe Mad conveying both excitement and emotion quite well. My only issue with the issue is that the plot doesn’t move very far as we go from learning about the factory to initially arriving there. But it’s a small price to pray for all of the great character goodness in this issue.

B+

Astonishing X-Men #2

Astonishing X-Men #2
Writing: Scott Lobdell
Art: Joe Madureira

What Went Down: This issue starts out with the X-Men already in Chicago, trying to direct a mob of terrorized humans to safety; the people are terrified by the sight of Apocalypse’s probes coming to calculate the potential body count. Sunfire becomes angry and attacks the probes, causing more panic. Rogue absorbs his power to get him to calm down, but in the process she absorbs his memories of seeing Apocalypse defeating Sunfire and wiping out everyone in Japan. Sunfire is ashamed, but Rogue comforts him.

Back in Westchester County, Magneto is having a tender moment watching his son Charles sleep. Bishop comes in and insists that Charles isn’t supposed to exist, but Magneto explains that to a father it doesn’t matter. In Manhattan, Apocalypse is throwing a hissy fit because his minions haven’t detected the X-Men’s base yet. Rex gets the call with the location and Apocalypse is appeased.

In Chicago, Sabretooth tells Blink that he is going to stall Holocaust while the other X-Men evacuate the city; he also tells Blink to avenge him, since this is most likely a suicide mission. Rogue tries to stop Creed, but Blink uses her powers to knock Rogue unconscious and teleport Creed to Holocaust’s location.

Sabretooth confronts Holocaust, learns the location of his Infinite factory, and sends Wild Child to go tell the others. A fight arises with Sabretooth tearing off Holocaust’s helmet, but inevitably still failing.

How It Was: As I noted before, Astonishing X-Men’s strength is its strong personalities for its characters. Lobdell takes his cast of five and uses each issue to focus on what really drives each X-Man. Here we get an excellent flashback with Sunfire: dressed in his old uniform, surrounded by piles of corpses, and being held down by Apocalypse in a lake of the blood of innocents. In four panels, Lobdell is able to justify all of Sunfire’s erratic, impulsive, and angry attitude quirks and at the same time make us feel sympathetic for a very unlikable character.

All of the characters are equally interesting, although Sabretooth is kind of acting as a second-rate Wolverine; I say this because his relationship with Blink strongly echoes the Wolverine/Kitty or Wolverine/Jubilee dynamic. And I’m not quite sure how Blink knows where Holocaust is, and if she knows where he is, why don’t all of the X-Men just go and beat him right now? I guess we would miss out on a pretty awesome fight with Holocaust.

And while I’m on the subject, I feel like Holocaust is a wildly inappropriate name for a super villain. Yes, it’s a nitpick and I know that the word refers to any mass genocide and not a specific one, but the seriousness of the name doesn’t really fit with this basically one-dimensional villain. Marvel apparently agreed with me, because years later characters started calling him Nemesis again.

Still this is a fun book with actual overwhelming odds for the protagonists to overcome. Awesome efforts on writing and art make this really enjoyable.

A

Astonishing X-Men #1

Astonishing X-Men #1
Writing: Scott Lobdell
Art: Joe Madureira

What Went Down: Magneto gathers his X-Men to discuss the intelligence he received from Bishop about their world not being real. Many of the X-Men believe it is a lie, but Magneto is completely convinced. Suddenly a portal opens in the middle of the group and Blink flies out of it, followed by Sunfire, whose powers are out of control. Storm and Magneto help protect the others and get Sunfire’s powers under control, but not before a Prelate, Delgado, starts to climb through Blink’s portal. Blink closes the portal on Delgado, killing him. Sunfire tells the X-Men that they were in such a rush because he and Blink have learned that Apocalypse’s son Holocaust is beginning another series of killings in Chicago.

In Manhattan, Apocalypse’s servant Rex approaches his master’s fortress. He informs Apocalypse that because of Delgado, soon they will know the location of the X-Men. Back at the mansion, Gambit meets up with Rogue to bid her farewell. The former couple is about to kiss, but Blink brings Rogue’s son to her, purposely spoiling the moment. Blink doesn’t trust Gambit for some reason. In the attic of the mansion, Magneto contemplates Xavier’s influences and resolve. Nightcrawler shows up, and their discussion outlines the premises for all of the A of A titles and explains the set up of the entire story for those who might not know.

In the hanger bay, Quicksilver bids his stepmother Rogue goodbye because she is taking a team to Chicago to stop Holocaust. Going with her are Sabretooth, Wildchild, Sunfire, Blink, and Morph; Morph has a great scene where he impersonates Magneto to play a joke on Pietro. After the team leaves, Bishop asks Quicksilver why the team is going off. Quicksilver claims that if the X-Men are real in Bishop’s time line, then he should know the answer.

How It Was: The Uncanny X-Men AOA replacement is as good as anything Lobdell has written up to this point. Not a lot happens this issue except for reiterating the point of the crossover and setting up what all of the individual titles are going to be about, but the story still finds a center in the various relationships. Lobdell demonstrates his amazing handle of these characters and their voices. Whether it is Magneto confiding in Kurt, Blink’s mistrust of Gambit, Morph’s refusal to take anything seriously, or Quicksilver’s awkward/heartfelt good luck to his younger stepmother, all of these characters feel like they’ve existed for years. The dialogue does such a great job of acquainting us with the new status quo, but at the same time we can still see hints of old personalities, roles, and relationships that weren’t allowed to develop under these new circumstances.

The token action scene does feel a little forced; I can understand Blink and Sunfire trying to make a quick escape, but why wait so long to close the portal? And Apocalypse doesn’t get a whole lot to do. But what this story nails on the head is its tone. From Magneto’s conflict over a better world vs. his son to the nonchalance of the X-Men about going on missions where no one is expected to come back, the darkness and hopelessness really raises questions in the reader’s mind about who is going to survive and how this all is going to end. Plus, most of the revamped designs for the characters look really awesome. Standouts  include Iceman and Sunfire, but I also love the little details like how Rogue has the same style cape as her husband Magneto or how Sabretooth wears big gloves to cover his claws. Joe Mad really outdoes himself with this one by creating costumes that are visually dynamic, but also help to flesh out the characters and reflect their new histories and personalities.

This is such a solid issue; while it is initially disappointing that the X-Men aren’t immediately taking the fight to Apocalypse, the story in Chicago turns out to be an exciting, memorable experience, even if it doesn’t really affect the grander scheme of things.

B+

Uncanny X-Men #286

Uncanny X-Men #286
Writing: Whilce Portacio, Jim Lee, and Scott Lobdell
Art: Whilce Portacio, Jim Lee, and Art Thibert

What Went Down: Colossus is reunited with his brother Mikhail, and it is revealed that Mikhail is the actual savior from the prophecy. All of the rebels decide that they now have two saviors on their side. Mikhail has the power to stop the portal from destroying both worlds, but he refuses to.

We learn the tragic origin of Mikhail. As a Russian cosmonaut, he was forced to fake his death when the government found out he was a mutant. Mikhail and a group of scientists were sent into the void and crashed. When he awoke, he found that he was recuperating in the palace with the former Avatar, or king, and his daughter Tra-Mai-A-Zath. Mikhail and the king’s daughter were married, but when he returned to the wreckage of his vehicle, Mikhail learned that the king had killed the rest of his crew.

Mikhail then joined the resistance, who are pro-democracy. It turns out that the portal was responsible for the Avatar’s powers, so Mikhail tried to close it with his own mutant abilities. The end result killed everyone on both sides and made him very sad.

Elsewhere, Iceman freezes a bunch of goons who were hassling the local women; he and Sunfire learn the location of the rebel base from one of the women.

On Earth, multiple portals are popping up, and everyone is powerless to stop them. Reed Richards, Hank Pym, and Nick Fury make cameos so that the reader knows this is quite serious.

Colossus and Mikhail argue over what should be done. Mikhail walks away rather than risk everybody’s lives.

Over at the Triumvirate, Archangel is training with some soldiers of the Posse Comitatus, when he accidentally kills them all. It is revealed that Sha-Har-A-Zath, the current avatar, has the ability to control his will through touch. She’s also very bitter that Mikhail killed her parents and sister.

The mind controlled Archangel leads the Posse Comitatus into battle against the rebels. A huge fight ensues with Storm, Jean, and Colossus coming to aid the rebels. Archangel attacks Jean, but is stopped by the arrival of Iceman and Sunfire. For some reason, being shot by Sunfire’s heat blasts also cures Warren of his mind control.

Colossus is injured blocking a laser blast for his friends, which causes Mikhail to pull out two swords and fight. Sha-Har-A-Zath reveals that she is also a mutant, attacks Rasputin with some kind of pink laser, and then gets sucked into the void. Mikhail decides to use his powers, but with the assistance of the other X-Men, he is able to prevent the body count of his first attempt.

The X-Men make it back to the other side, with Mikhail in tow. Colossus has to give his brother CPR, but he makes it and learns about their sister. Awww, a happy ending.

How It Was: This is the Whilce Portacio’s last issue on art; he would later go on to help co-found Image comics with Jim Lee, Todd McFarlene, and a number of other influential artists of the time, leaving the X-offices, and Marvel Comics in general, totally screwed.

This is slightly better than the past two issues, as it isn’t all just set up, and events actually occur. While Mikhail Rasputin’s reappearance isn’t a huge deal in the long run, it does make for some great scenes with his brother. The part where Colossus confronts Mikhail and accuses him of abandoning his duty is really well done; it gets the right mix of Peter’s feelings of betrayal and anger as he calls Mikhail a coward not just for refusing to help the alternate dimension people, but also for running away from his life on the farm to become an astronaut.

The fight at the end is also pretty good; however, the supposed main villain of the story Sha-Har-A-Zath gets dispatched in one panel by the void instead of an actual character (and may I never have to write that name again). The whole story ends rather abruptly, and the reader never gets to see the impact of the rebels’ battle other than Jean swearing that they didn’t die. The end also suffers from the X-Men having to use their powers in ways that blatantly defy science; how can Sunfire’s power open a window between dimensions?

While everything comes off as rushed, from the ending to Mikhail’s origin, I still think it was a good idea to end the story and get the X-Men out of that dimension. It just didn’t work; the other dimensional people weren’t very interesting because they weren’t all that different from normal, everyday people. Other than having purple hair and advanced weapons, nothing makes them stand out. The Primate character who keeps following our heroes is a wasted opportunity to introduce the ideas and behaviors that could have defined these people and made the reader care about their all too cliché battle. Also, their dimension needed a name like Polemachus or Asgard; no creator is ever going to write another story about the unnamed dimension of the purple-haired people.

C

Uncanny X-Men #285

Uncanny X-Men #285
Writing: Whilce Portacio, Jim Lee, and John Byrne
Art: Whilce Portacio, Art Thibert, and Al Milgrom

Note: The price goes up twenty-five cents this issue. Stupid inflation.

What Went Down: Colossus, Jean Grey, and the rebel leader Primate fall out of the other side of the portal into some fantasy world. They notice that the rest of the X-Men are nowhere to be seen, and then they are attacked by a group of rebels who think that they killed the Primate. Jean and Colossus are both defeated, but the rebels surrender when they see Peter unarmored and mistake him for some kind of savior.

Meanwhile, Storm is dying in a desert. This is odd because normally the weather doesn’t affect her, but since she is in a different dimension she gets to feel the full effect. A stranger rescues her and takes her back to his house. He feeds Storm and asks how she found herself in a desert alone. When she brings up the portal, the stranger freaks out

Archangel stumbles upon a group of rebels fighting against the forces of the established government, which we later learn is called the Triumvirate. In a daze, Warren kills all of the rebels, and when he wakes up he is proclaimed a hero even though he has no idea what happened. This is an ongoing subplot from X-Factor where Archangel’s wings would control him and cause him to slip into rages because they were created by Apocalypse.

And finally we find Iceman and Sunfire in a bar after having fallen through a hole in the roof. When the bartender and his patrons show justifiable anger at having their property vandalized, the two mutants beat them all up and leave.

Back in the desert, Storm and the stranger are getting ready to ride giant lizards to the location of the portal, so they can stop it from destroying both worlds. Storm is pretty sure the X-Men will fix the problem, as should be the reader by this point.

Colossus and Jean are being lead back to the rebels’ base and trying to fit in with the group as best they can.

Iceman and Sunfire walk away from the bar, which is completely destroyed in background. Sunfire takes the time to backhandedly apologize to Iceman for attacking the X-Men during his first appearance. Since it happened almost thirty years (in real time) before this issue, Iceman isn’t too concerned. The pair hear about a steel warrior and go off to find their teammate.

Archangel meets the leader, known as the Avatar, of the Triumvirate; her name is Sha-Har-A-Zath, and she makes Warren a Lord Protector in her army.

Back at the rebel base, Jean and Primate are discussing the prophecy that Colossus is meant to fulfill. Jean finds him in a room with a harem of women, at which point he starts acting embarrassed and bashful. Storm and the stranger show up at the exact same time, and the stranger reveals himself as Mikhail Rasputin, Peter’s brother who was supposed to have died.

Back in the real world, the police are investigating the bodies of more mutants that Bishop and his team have killed. Witnesses have mistaken the XSE officers for the X-Men because of the black Xs on their uniforms, and Trish Tilby is doing a report on possible mutant gang warfare. Bishop again ends an issue with a vow—this time that his past will never come to be.

How It Was: On the plus side, all of the X-Men get their own individual plot lines in this story, so some of the characters finally get some room to breathe and let their personalities show a little. Archangel’s subplot is at the same time the best and the worst. On the one hand it deals with the internal darkness he’s been struggling against since his transformation, and the fact that he might be finally losing control is rather intriguing indeed. On the other hand, his plot deals with the monarchy of this dimension, and I get bored just writing Sha-Har-A-Zath and Posse Comitatus, let alone reading about them.

As for the other character beats, they’re okay. Storm’s plot at least has the mysterious stranger’s identity to keep readers invested, although the reveal that he is Colossus’s brother makes for a hell of a coincidence. Colossus and Jean’s arc has the mystery of the prophecy, but it’s never really resolved completely and comes off a little contrived in the end. Iceman and Sunfire’s journey is completely unnecessary, and the question of why Sunfire is even in this story is still a very pertinent one.

Above all else, the world is just really boring and not fleshed out at all. The only things the reader really learns about the culture are that there is a monarchy, some of the people don’t want a monarchy, and the people say “by the mother and son” a lot. It’s about as interesting as it sounds.

The Bishop plot continues and it seems like there may be serious ramifications for the rest of the X-Men. There aren’t, and the fact that a bunch of civilians think they saw the X-Men gun down other mutants in the middle of a club gets quietly forgotten. Oh well.

C-

Uncanny X-Men #284

Uncanny X-Men #284
Writing: Whilce Portacio and John Byrne
Art: Whilce Portacio

What Went Down: Sunfire, the Japanese fire wielder, receives a new costume. He’s out with a team of Japanese and Russian scientists exploring a mysterious portal on the Sakhalin Islands. The team tells Sunfire to use his powers on it, at which point something in the void attacks Sunfire.

As for the Gold Team, they are still on the Blackbird returning from the previous story arc. Colossus has broken his nose, and everyone wants to know how Jean stuck her mind in Emma Frost’s body. Jean has no idea. Jean and the Professor attempt to scan the White Queen’s mind when Forge interrupts them with an emergency alert from Sunfire’s science team.

Back on the island, Sunfire’s new armor isn’t doing much, as the attackers are immune to his powers. Just as they are about to finish him off, the X-Men appear to save the day. Jean notes that the attackers’ minds are very alien, even though they are all speaking perfect English.

During the fight, Forge launches some missiles from the Blackbird; he claims that they are only concussion missiles and will only give the attackers a bad headache. The invaders fire on the missiles, which explode and appear to do a lot more damage than just a headache. One of the soldier’s costumes is damaged and causes a huge explosion, revealing the leader of the group is a young woman in armor.

The girl, named Primate because it is some sort of military rank, says that they were actually trying to protect the Earth from the void, not invade it. The explosion opens the void and sucks all of the X-Men, Sunfire, and Primate into it. Xavier and Forge notice that the vortex continues to expand, even after the X-Men disappear.

Over in North America somewhere, Bishop and his assistants, Malcolm and Randall, are busy tracking escaped criminals from the future. They find three who have butchered some local women, and the XSE officers proceed to kill the bad guys. After finding the dead women, Bishop vows to save humanity from these villains.

How It Was: Well this is the beginning of a pretty inconsequential, and kind of boring, three issue arc. Basically the X-Men get sent to a fantasy world that they will never see again, and it’s not a very dynamic or original one at that. Still, that doesn’t happen until next issue, so I can’t really judge this issue on those merits.

It’s nice to see Sunfire again, although his new costume is really generic looking and he contributes absolutely nothing to the overall plot. This issue he gets completely beaten and then he acts like a jerk to Colossus, and in the next two issues he acts like a jerk to Iceman, and that is all he does for the whole story. Why is he here? I couldn’t tell you.

Also, the X-Men spend a lot of time going over what happened in the last story. This isn’t a bad idea in principle, since there are a lot of unanswered questions about Bishop, Fitzroy, and Jean’s powers that need to be explored, but nothing new is learned after three pages of discussion. The X-Men just get sidetracked and never bring up this quirk with Jean’s powers again.

As for the unnamed bad guys, they do have a very cool design and look awesome, but they aren’t really that interesting. One of them is called Primate for crying out loud. And the reveal that they were actually trying to protect the people of Earth doesn’t really work since the narration before made it pretty clear that the bad guys killed all of the innocent scientists. The Bishop subplot is okay; it’s nice to see he wasn’t forgotten.

The art is par for Portacio; some great characters and action scenes with most panels lacking any background art. For some reason the island Sunfire and his team are on has a blue ground with blue mountains and green water in the background; it is a very odd choice. Plus, some of Storm’s facial expressions during the issue can only be described as awkward—just check out the bottom of page 17.

D