About Heroes

Author: Peter Milligan
Artist: Salvador Larroca
Colors:Jason Keith

If you got so irate with this book and you dropped it a while back, then I guess my review won't matter, but if you are a glutton for punishment like me: Welcome back to part three of Blood Of Apocalypse sucka! I can't believe I am paying $2.50 for this book, what is going to happen when it goes up to $2.99? Ohh hell, anyway the writing in this issue has been the best so far in Milligan's run (but lets be frank, that ain't saying shit!). I believe he is finally getting comfortable with his characters, but in like many cases too little/too late. Larroca's washes really helps the colorist in this issue, there are some really gorgeous pictures in this book. The two of them are finally complementing each other's works.

Famine! The cover implies that Sunfire is going to wipe the floor with the X-men's asses, but no as we have learned from previous years, covers have absolutely nothing to do with the interior of the book in most cases. So last time we left our heroes, Apocalypse was still hovering in his Thundercat Lair above the X-mansion. Famine and Pestilence have been out causing havok while War was suiting up with the help of Ozymandias. Only Death was left to recruit and if you have read other stories involving Apocalypse, you know he loves to recruit X-men or friends of the X-men. So who goes willingly to see the big A in the last issue? Gambit! That's right the raging Cajun, now I bitched enough about that in two previous post, so you can go back and read those if you want.

I meant what I said about this issue being Milligan's best issue so far in X-men. We have some nice fight scenes between Rogue and Sunfire that were executed well by Larroca. I actually buy Ozymandis betraying the Apocalypse. He's never been a great character and probably just used as a plot device in the Rise of Apocalypse mini series a few years back. That wasn't the only betrayal in this issue; it seems that War double crossed Ozymandis as well, by ratting him out to Apocalypse. We finally get some retaliation by the X-men that are led by Havok.

Of course there has to be bad points in this story, it is a Milligan X-men book after all. Alright here we go 1) Why for fuck's sake would Havok take a depowered maybe/maybe not Iceman, Rogue and Bling with him? Who's Bling, exactly, unless he is using her as cannon fodder. Rogue I can understand, but Iceman, isn't he still off and on with his powers? 2) Why does Mystique insist Gus is going to be able to defeat Apocalypse? Gus!!! Are you serious? Magneto, Cyclops or Professor X couldn't take down the might Apocalypse, but fucking Gus can do it! 3) Leave Skids alone please. Can anyone other than Louise Simonson write this character? First Rusty and her get captured by the Mutant Liberation Front, then she joins Magneto, then she gets lost in the artic with some crazy bitch in the later issues of X-force.

Poor Skids and poor Gambit fans. There might be some resolution to his decision though, he mentions that he is doing this for the X-men. So maybe in six months like everything else that happens in the Marvel Universe lately he will go back to normal. Certainly the best issue out of the whole arc and Milligan's run. It’s always good to see ScalpHunter, but Fever pitch I could have lived without seeing again. I will miss Larroca dearly, especially when Bachalo takes over the series in July. B-