About Heroes

Author: Ed Brubaker
Artist: Mike Choi
Colors: Sonia Oback
Letterer: Joe Carmagna

Warning: Review contains spoilers
Uncanny X-men has been getting better and better over the last year. I believe that Bru has finally found the character’s voices and is getting comfortable with the cast. Sure Nightcrawler doesn’t pull out the classic mein freud or Colossus uses the tovarish line every five seconds, but they are still in character.

Nightcrawler, Colossus, and Wolverine are still in Mother Russia visiting the graves of Peter’s parents. They then go into a bar and make a crack at Juggernaut walking in, take down some Russian thugs, and are set to leave Russia. Meanwhile Cyclops and Emma are leaving the Savage Land to see what has happened to Angel and apparently Hepzibah, who seem to be caught in an acid flashback. The mysterious party responsible is a goddess who has managed to block Emma from finding her friends.

My biggest problem with the issue has nothing to do with Bru, but more with the editors. If you don’t want to know the ending of Joss Whedon’s Astonishing X-men, you might want to skip this issue. But yeah, it seems that Kitty Pryde doesn’t make it out alive or at least not back home with the rest of the X-men. Of course it doesn’t go into detail, but it still irritates me when they do things like this.

Sure, the book has been late and it’s not Bru’s fault his book comes out on time, but man they really drop the bomb in this issue. Also, since when does Cyclops need to be told what a Celestial is? Doesn’t he remember almost getting squashed by a Celestial’s foot during the Judgment War storyline in X-factor?

While the issue remains a fun issue to read, I really can’t believe they are following up Messiah Complex with a hippie villain. Also, I’m assuming that Hepzibah is now a “cat lady” and has lost all her skunk attributes. I think Mike Choi’s artwork is completely gorgeous, but of course Oback has lots to do with that. However, even though his art is very clean and pretty, I don’t think he is really suited for a team book like this. I think he draws everyone too young and he has the same faces on most the guys. But, his Emma Frost is nice to look at. So, overall it’s still a fun issue and I hope the revelation of the mystery goddess is not someone lame like Lorelei or Beautiful Dreamer. B-