X-Men: Second Coming

X-Men: Second Coming 1-2

Uncanny X-Men 523-525

New Mutants 12-14

X-Men Legacy 235-237

X-Force 26-28

This has everything I want out of a crossover - A self-contained story with a simple premise to drive everything forward (Hope Summers returns from the future.  Bastion and his forces want to kill her.  The X-Men want to save her), amazing fight scenes, no waste-of-time subplots, and great energy.  On top of that, the writers here do an excellent job of conveying a sense of desperation as the story progresses.  The X-Men face certain destruction all the time, but I actually thought it might happen at times here.  

On the con side: Terry Dodson, while a wonderful artist, has a style that’s completely at odds with the tone of this story.  They kill Nightcrawler.  They kill Ariel.  (Which I couldn’t care less about, I have no memory of her time as an X-Man, but I’m annoyed by the fact that Nightcrawler gets this huge sendoff and her death gets absolutely no mention.  It’s callous and unnecessary.)

I’d forgotten how much fun both Second Coming and Messiah Complex are.  Super happy to have revisited them here.

So much of an impressive splash page is about how you set it up...

Chef's kiss.

So sadly true.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Good

Heroic Age: X-Men

Uncanny X-Men 526-529

Blech, the epilogue is a lot less interesting.  Hope Summers activates the powers of five mutants, presumably the foundation for a new team or something.  Uninteresting and cuttable.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: No

Rating: Didn’t suck (Cutting)