Review: X-Men Battle of the Atom Part 7

I’m way behind in this review series and indeed way behind on the blog in general. With National Novel Writing Month (aka my annual month long self-imposed exile from working on the blog) coming up in just days it’s pretty upsetting how little I’ve been able to write and post the last few weeks. I’m going to try to post a few articles before Friday marathon style but we’ll see if I’ll be able to manage it.

Anyway this is the next part in the Battle of the Atom X-over that’s taken over the X-Men titles. This review is of [Non-Adjective] X-Men #6 which was written by Brian Wood with art by David López (pencils) Cam Smith with Terry Pallot on inks and Laura Martin with Matt Milla on colors. Check out the previous reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

Full review after the jump.

"An offspring of Wolverine that turns out to be evil? What a novel concept"
-Said no one in years

As Wolverine and his team, along with the future X-Men, travel back to the Jean Grey School he reveals to Rachel Summers that he has doubts about their futuristic counterparts’ story. Once they arrive and discover that Teen Iceman and Teen Beast have been taken by Magik into the future Xavier tells his team to drop the facade and lashes out against the modern day X-Men. They disable the present day heroes and now fully intend on fulfilling their plans with no regard for the collateral damage (i.e. “innocents”).

Well I don’t have a lot to say about this book. I will say that unlike the last issue of Non-Adjective X-Men where the main cast seemed to get shuffled into the background of their own book I felt this issue really gave key cast members (and even a supporting character like Bling) a chance to shine even amongst the chaos of the plot of this issue. I especially loved Psylocke as an incredible, and nigh unstoppable, badass. In general this was a better read than issue five of X-Men and continues the trend of the last few parts of the crossover having above average storytelling.

Jubilee and Cyclops leading the X-Men? Is it my birthday?
[Also note that Magneto is clearly colored wrong]

Now that the future X-Men have revealed their true colors their personalities are starting to shine through and they’re becoming more interesting than previously. Especially Xavier, who refers to himself as “Charles Xavier” for the first time in this issue, seems particularly sinister and sociopathic. Makes me wonder what type of upbringing he must have had to be so openly hostile.

The artwork is very solid, though the coloring makes some mistakes (specifically giving Magneto the White a non-white color scheme). But aside from that there’s not much to complain about the art. I n fact there’s not much to complain about this issue at all. Although I have to say that Wolverine apparently revealing he never trusted the future X-Men kind of rings of B.S. to me since he was awfully compliant with them from the get-go. There’s this scene where Xavier exposes himself as the villain he is where Rachel Summers start yelling about how “Logan was right” and I just had to roll my eyes. In fact in my paranoia I have to say I wonder if this wasn’t a subtle (well, not really “subtle”) and mean spirited jab/joke at the “Cyclops Was Right” fan movement that began immediately after Avengers vs. X-Men’s less than positive ending. It could be nothing but then again maybe it’s another example of the universe’s disappointing favoritism towards the claw wielding antihero over Cyclops.

Marvel, are you f@#ing trolling me?

Another good issue. This series has made a pretty good turnaround. I liked what this issue had to offer and was happy to see the adjective-less, all-lady X-Men book get another quality issue. I have only minor problems with this book but at the same time I don’t have a giant amount of things to say about it in general. At this point not only am I behind in reviewing this series but I actually haven’t read past this point. Right now I’m excited to read what’s next.

I give X-Men #6 4 out of 5 Adorable Pandas.

Pros

-Mostly good art

-Awesoem character moments

-Strong story

Cons

-Some missteps with the art

-Wolverine being right despite the fact that we all know Cyclops was right.