Author: Ed Brubaker
Layouts: Trevor Hairsine
Cover: Marc Silverstri
Finishes: Scott Hanna and Nelson
We are in the midpoint of the series and there are still lots of questions left unanswered. The editors at Marvel have embedded into our heads that the events in this book will shake the X-men’s world up. Well, to sum up real quick how I feel about the series so far: I don’t think its living up to its hype. Hell, its got one of the top writers on it and its still not going anywhere but a state of semi-confusion. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate the series, but I don’t love it…like many X-books its just there.
Spoil Free Review
Brubaker seems to know what to do with the characters; he has a nice grasp of the X-universe. With the exception of Nightcrawler’s accent missing (which is usually the first sign of bad writing) Brubaker does a nice job of writing everyone else. There are some nice moments between Scott and Rachel, which has been avoided for a long time. Trevor Hairsine has a track record of not being able to keep up a monthly title; well it is finally starting to show here in issue 3. He is no longer the penciller but just a layoutist(if that is even a word). The artwork looks really rushed…Beast looks more like the wolf man from Howling 3 than Hank McCoy.
What exactly happens in this issue without giving much away? Well Scott and Rachel are still being held captive by the “mystery” villain. We still don’t know much about the mystery villain except that he knows Scott and Xavier and has an interest in Rachel. He is really starting to get on my nerves because all he seems to like to do is hit Scott (which is ok in my book any day) and that is it….he keeps going on and on about the same things he did last issue. Not much happens here, Nightcrawler and Wolverine retrieve something that is supposed to be a big clue to the mysteries surrounding this story. The back up story is finally making sense, even the most dense reader can figure out where this is going…if the can’t well that’s what the Spoiled Review is for.
Click here to read the review with spoilers.
Alright, so yes rumors were true Banshee was the one to meet his maker in this issue. It really bothered me because all that is dedicated to his death is one big panel. Wolverine and Nightcrawler find his body and Kurt tears up and Logan just pats him on the back. One of their good friends is dead….and Wolverine has a look on his face like: “Damn hate to be him!!!” I really do hope they cover more of this in the issues to come. Kurt does make a weird comment, he mentions that Banshee must have crashed through the winshield of the blackbird. The last panel of issue 2 had Banshee screaming...so are they trying to tell me that his screams didn't break the windshield!?
The kidnapper mentions to Scott that he and Xavier were colleagues at one time. There is a flashback that Havok has, which involves Xavier and Corsair. Xavier tells Corsair not to tell his children he is their real father, now this really isn’t that big of a problem, I could actually buy this. Hell, that scene right there could have been featured in one of Claremont’s Classic X-men stories. The tape Banshee was risked his life for is recovered; Beast, Wolverine and Nightcrawler listen. Pretty much it seems that Xavier had Moira gather a team of mutants in case something happen to his X-men and I’m sure the dark secret is that they all died in a mission. Whether they were killed by Krakoa or the third Summers brother remains to be seen. I have a little problem with this, because if she is sooo upset about her team being killed why did she help Xavier recruit the new X-men and for that matter the New Mutants, but we’ll see how that pans out.
Speaking of the third brother he is supposed to show up in this series or at least finally be revealed. Well, if the mystery villain is the third brother, how can he hurt Cyclops with his blasts? I mean we all know damn well that Cyclops and Havok are immune to each other’s powers. Unless of course he is only a half brother, you know had a different baby daddy. Like ohh say Adam X: the X-treme. The mystery is really getting old, it just doesn’t have enough to keep me interested. Xavier is going to be made to look like an ass again and we are probably going to have some ramifications due to that in Uncanny. It’s pretty easy to figure out where this is going, unless of course Brubaker shocks us with something completely different.
Author: Ed Brubaker
