Battle of the Atom, Bendis' Uncanny X-Men

X-Men: Battle of the Atom 1-2

All-New X-Men 16-17

X-Men 5-6

Uncanny X-Men 12-13

Wolverine and the X-Men 36-37

As fun of a crossover as I remember.  But upon reflection, nothing really happens.  It’s either arguing about whether to send the original X-Men back to their time or a fight sequence.  No real story development.  The only twist is that the future X-Men turn out to be the future Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.

Sometimes, though, fun action scenes and good writing is all you need.  (Thanks to Brian Michael Bendis, Brian Wood, and Jason Aaron.)  The art’s sweet too, except for Wolverine.  (Couldn’t have kept Nick Bradshaw for just a little longer?)  

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Pretty good 

Uncanny X-Men 14-35, 600

This is just too readable to rate as anything less than Good.  Couldn’t put it down.  Even though there are definite problems with some of the stories (Dark Beast came out of nowhere, and left just as abruptly.  The time travel fix to Matthew Malloy is simultaneously too easy and completely problematic.  Cyclops just...comes to his senses), Bendis and Chris Bachalo have created a delightful page-turner here.

Neat exploration of Morph's powers, but Bendis never really uses him again.

Nice to see Kris Anka's pre-Runaways art.

Awesome that Magneto reuses the same bullets.

Yeah, this was a dick move.

Very very cool layouts by Marco Ruby.

He's got a Sam Keith vibe with his faces.  (Plus, more Kitty Emma snark.)

I know it's just mostly red, but great colors by Val Staples.

Like I said: Dark Beast comes and goes in one page.

Sweet Bachalo art.

And like that, Scott's "revolutionary" phase comes to an end

Stuart Immonen's clear (but random) homage to X-Men 1...

...by Jim Lee.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Good 

Uncanny X-Men Annual 1

All-New X-Men Annual 1

A side story about what happened to Eva Bell when she disappeared for a panel in an issue of Uncanny.  It’s as heartbreaking as intimated, nicely done.  Andrea Sorrentino has a lot of Jae Lee in her art, but it’s definitely a beautiful style all her own.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Good 

Schism, Wolverine and the X-Men

X-Men: Schism 1-5

A contrived event to shake up the X-Men and allow Wolverine and Cyclops to run their own teams.  Writer Jason Aaron comes up with a decent flashpoint: Cyclops wants to use his mutant students to fight in the ongoing war against humanity; Wolverine wants to keep them out of it and preserve their innocence as long as possible.  

I like the pre-teen Hellfire Club and the action’s pretty darn good.  The art is impressive even if it’s a different artist per book (Carlos Pacheco, Frank Cho, Daniel Acuna, Alan Davis, and Adam Kubert is an undeniably sweet lineup.  Even if Cho’s Cyclops looks like shit.)

What's with the giraffe neck?

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Pretty good

X-Men: Regenesis 1

Wolvie and Cyclops choose sides after Schism.  It’s a glorified selection of the most powerful kickball teams ever.  Pretty fun for what it is.  Some of the reasons are a little sketchy, but overall a nice character piece.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Nice

Wolverine and the X-Men 1-13

Wolverine and the X-Men Annual 1

I love the idea of Logan starting a new school in Jean Grey’s honor.  I love that it’s constantly about to fall apart, whether it’s physically, financially, or emotionally.  The teachers are just barely keeping it together, and the students are really not helping.  (Not that they’re trying to.)

Jason Aaron infuses the perfect amount of lightness to the title.  Like Joss Whedon on Astonishing and Grant Morrison on New X-Men, he recognizes the fun inherent in a bunch of kids with powers.  Broo and Kid Gladiator (he gets a full solo story in the annual!)  are my particular favorites, and he gets way more mileage out of Quentin Quire than I would have thought possible.  

Chris Bachalo and Nick Bradshaw rotate on art duties, a nice tag team.  Bradshaw is a fine acolyte of the Art Adams school, and Bachalo is Bachalo.  (Though this run comes during one of his more chaotic/unclear storytelling spells.)  

Kid Gladiator punches stuff.  It's what he does.

Bachalo draws a sweet Beast.

Heh, B-.

Idie is the latest in a storied line of Wolvie mentees.

The exasperation is *chef's kiss*

Emma/Kitty snark, this time with Rachel!

Great art all around.

I saw this cover by Jorge Molina in a house ad and really dug it.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Pretty good

Wolverine and the X-Men 14

So bad.  Colossus (possessed by the Phoenix Force), goes on a date with Kitty.  He spouts out every single “I’m helping the world, why does no one else get that?  I’m going to kill them all” cliche in the book.  Painful to read.  Keeping because it’s in the middle of a run.  

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: No

Rating: Stupid

Wolverine and the X-Men 15-18, 24

Aaron is really good at the issues that focus on a specific character; Warbird back in issues 13, Kade Kilgore in 16, Doop in 17.  (Of course Mike Allred does the art for the Doop issue..)  

Not a fan of Broo getting shot in the head here.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Nice

Wolverine and the X-Men 19-23

This is where Aaron loses me.  The Frankenstein circus thing went four issues too long, I found none of it fun.  Cutting.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: No

Rating: Didn’t suck (Cutting)

A+X 2

A random team up issue: Rogue/Black Widow, Iron Man/Kitty Pryde.  Fun fluff!

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Nice

X-Men 1-3

The X-Women get their own title, written by Brian Wood.  It’s as fun as I wanted it to be, but I stopped buying after Olivier Coipel left the title.  He’s really good.

I'm so on board for this lineup.

I love unimpressed babies.

Archer Psylocke.  Excellent.

The 50th anniversary poster.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Nice