[Review by Doug Glassman, who Tumblrs at '80s Marvel Rocks!]

Dystopian timelines are a staple of the X-books. Partly it's because the original "Days of Future Past" story was so well-received, but these stories also fit thematically. If there's any group of characters where Murphy's Law will kick them in their collective rears, it's the X-Men. Some work better than others; for instance, Age of Apocalypse succeeded on an epic scale, while Bishop's future was so generic that it never really got its own timeline name. The X-Men: Age of X event, while smaller in scale than Apocalypse, is definitely in the win column, thanks to both Mike Carey's world-building and a mystery leading up to a clever twist. That it's only six issues long, plus three tie-ins, is a show of restraint; Apocalypse is long enough to fill two omnibuses.

Big spoilers lie ahead; if you don't want the twist ruined, click away now.

The story begins with Age of X: Alpha, an anthology following four major mutants: Cyclops, Cannonball, Wolverine, and Magneto. This is actually a bit of misdirection; only the last story is really key to the plot. That's not to say that Alpha is a waste of time: Cyclops gets a terrifying new origin as the Basilisk while Wolverine sacrifices his healing factor to stop the creation of the mutant cure. Only the Cannonball and Husk story seems extraneous; it's mainly there because the two titles crossing over were X-Men Legacy and New Mutants and at least one New Mutant needed to be in the lead-in. Magneto's story ends with a scene similar to the climax of the "Days of Future Past" film but in a larger scale as he abducts New York skyscrapers to build a fortress of refuge for mutantkind.

We pick up three years later as humans and mutants are at a stalemate: the humans attack Fortress X, and the mutants defend it with overlapping psychic and physical shields. Magneto is growing impatient, Legion is a constantly-shirtless hero, Rogue has become the memory-absorbing "Legacy" and the Fortress' most feared fighters are what we would call the New Mutants. The appearance of Kitty Pryde and a camera full of hazy pictures of the outside world bring chaos into an already untenable situation. Legacy's investigation into the mystery puts her at odds with "X," the mysterious force that controls the Fortress, until she finally finds a man in the brig whom she doesn't recognize: Charles Xavier.

One reason why Age of X is so enjoyable is because it keeps a brisk pace, using the introduction of various characters to also set up the central mystery. Suddenly seeing people like Moira MacTaggert alive again keeps the reader occupied; it's not even clear that there is a secret behind the story until the very end of the second part. Once that's in place, the threads start to unravel as Xavier regains consciousness, Legacy finds more evidence of how strange their world is, and X tries to stop them in their tracks by manipulating others. The truth finally comes out: Moira's responsible! Except that it's not really Moira . . . it's a facet of Legion's personality that's taken her shape. It's yet another story where Legion is at the core, but while it was a little incongruous in Fall of the New Mutants, it's built up to better over the course of this book.

Carey also makes sure to explain what the stakes are and exactly what's happened to the world. Essentially, Legion has separated Utopia Island from the rest of the world and created a false reality wherein he is the hero he always wanted to be. This has been foreshadowed with his shirtlessness and people name-dropping him in otherwise unrelated conversations. Legion can warp reality to a massive scale . . . but he's not great at details. That's why Kitty Pryde could escape and why Xavier still exists in the Age of X timeline.

The manipulation also has consequences; when reality returns to normal, everyone still has their memories. This means that the former supervillain Frenzy still remembers being married to Scott Summers, potentially throwing a wrench into the Cyclops/Emma Frost relationship. Others have further changes: Chamber, formerly of Generation X, regains his old combustion powers at the expense of his rebuilt chest and face. This isn't an event that can be written off and forgotten as "just a dream." This kind of ending also doesn't deflate the story; even classics like "Days of Future Past" can feel a bit hollow once the story is resolved. A recent Uncanny X-Men solicitation hints at something going wrong in Cyclops' mind; it might very well be the return of the Basilisk persona.

Rounding out the Age of X trade are the two "Universe" issues which really should have been put towards the front. They show what happened to the Avengers, Spider-Man, and Doctor Strange in this timeline. By the time you read the stories here, the twist has been revealed, so it becomes a little unclear about how much of these stories actually happened. They technically take place in Legion's head as the backstory for his own little fan-fiction universe . . . except that they also feature a few mutants. While the Avengers tale is quite sadistic and the Doctor Strange/Dazzler story is just dull, Jim McCann and Paul Davidson's Spider-Man story is one of the event's highlights. Hunted for being too similar to a mutant, Spidey sacrifices his life to save the woman he loves . . . a pregnant Mary-Jane Watson. It's as if McCann wrote the story as a big "up yours" to Joe Quesada's treatment of the character.

Despite this odd ending, X-Men: Age of X really succeeds as both a major X-Men story and as a narrative in its own right.

 Next week, it's back to GI Joe to simultaneously celebrate the Fourth of July and kick off the second annual Indie-Pendence Month.

[Review by Doug Glassman, who Tumblrs at '80s Marvel Rocks!]

The infamous impenetrability of the X-Men franchise is only partly due to the characters; the constant title changes and reboots can really throw a wrench in the works. For instance, X-Men Legacy Vol. 1: Divided He Stands follows the numbering from the Claremont and Lee "Adjectiveless" run and Grant Morrison’s New X-Men. Admittedly, as the title modifier implies, X-Men Legacy is targeted more towards long-term fans, with Professor X, Gambit and Rogue as its core characters. Mike Carey and Christos Gage, both of whom are continuity hounds, guided Legacy through most of its run. Carey’s first arc on the book spans two trades (technically three, but Original Sin is really its own story), with a massive cliffhanger between Divided He Stands and X:Men Legacy Vol 2: Sins of the Father.

We all know that Professor Xavier is a jerk, but the act that caused Kitty Pryde to make that statement doesn’t even rank on the litany of questionable decisions brought up here. Divided He Stands takes place directly after the Messiah CompleX [sic] crossover which introduced Hope Summers and revealed that Bishop is evil . . . ish. (That neckerchief was always suspicious.) The story opens with Xavier almost dead from a headshot by Bishop. He’s been saved by the Acolytes, Magneto’s former followers now under the command of the ancient mutant Exodus. The first chapter is confusing if you’re not up on your X-history or if you haven’t read Messiah CompleX directly beforehand. Carey, however, knows this, and much of the rest of Divided He Stands revolves around flashbacks and more familiar characters.

Exodus and a depowered Magneto repair Charles’ mind while at cross-purposes; Exodus is such a mutant supremacist that the now-human Magneto, whom he used to worship as a messiah, disgusts him. The resulting story is a little like “Shadowplay” from More Than Meets The Eye Volume 3, which was a great story so I don’t mind the similarity. One very cool artistic move was to have different artists illustrate the flashbacks and memories while Scot Eaton drew the main story. Billy Tan, Mike Deodato, John Romita, Jr., and Greg Land break up what could have been some artistic dullness, matching Eaton’s basic style while having their own characteristics. (Land’s contributions are brief enough that those who really can’t stand his style shouldn’t be bothered by it.)

As part of Xavier's mental therapy -- along with some bouts of mental torture along the way -- he's forced to observed the bad decisions he made. Some time is spent on the infamous Deadly Genesis mini-series which revealed a massacred X-Men team that existed right before the introduction of the “All-New, All-Different” team. Another point of focus is from back in the '60s, when Xavier faked his death and forced Jean Grey to not tell anyone that he was hiding in the basement. In fact, the one thing that Mike Carey doesn’t focus on which I wish he would have is the Onslaught incident; we do see Xavier’s mindwipe of Magneto, but their status as a merged entity goes mostly undiscussed. The aforementioned cliffhanger comes in the form of Mister Sinister, who as it turns out was a key part of Xavier’s childhood.

This retcon, explored in the first part of the Sins of the Father trade, actually makes a lot of sense. Since Sinister is at least 150 years old, he would naturally go after other powerful mutants long before he went after Cyclops. Some of this storyline ties into the “New Son” story from the old Gambit title and the Black Womb character who helped Sinister manipulate Gambit’s genetics. Some of the weirdness -- like the emaciated and elderly Black Womb wearing a corset -- is overruled by some key character moments, such as Xavier having to leave the Korean War due to the stress to his mind caused by the death and destruction around him. Gambit also enters the story at this point, joined by Sebastian Shaw of the Hellfire Club, who, like Xavier and the Juggernaut, was one of the children tampered with by Sinister.

However, the best part of Sins of the Father is near the end of the story as Xavier returns to the new island home of Utopia. His mental coercion to have Cyclops come out to meet him in the forest is the last straw in a long line of manipulation, as the White Queen enters the professor’s mind just to make sure that all traces of Sinister are gone. It’s just a bonus for them that they get to walk through Scott’s childhood and see how Xavier’s secrecy affected his life. Flashbacks by Marco Checchetto are done in a sepia filmstrip style to fit in with a “home movie” motif provided by Emma Frost. Unfortunately, the relationship between Scott and Xavier was too far gone to repair (as readers of Avengers vs. X-Men know too well).

So why was this split into two trades instead of one? I think part of it might be because the massive Rise and Fall of the Shi’ar Empire and Supernovas trades scared away some potential readers. Another reason is that Marvel wanted to collect two one-shots in Sins of the Father that fit well into the main themes of X-Men: Legacy. The first one, Odd Men Out, printed two previously unseen stories by the late Dave Cockrum. While the stories -- one featuring Professor Xavier playing catch-up with classic supporting character Fred Duncan, the other following the classic New Mutants on winter vacation -- aren’t too great, I admire the tribute. The other is a weird and fourth-wall-demolishing story by Stan Lee in which Magneto and Xavier beg Lee to give them a break from their hectic lives. This one probably could have been left out entirely, but I can’t argue with collecting as much as possible.

After X-Men Legacy Vol. 1: Divided He Stands and X:Men Legacy Vol 2: Sins of the Father, I still have a lot of catching up to do on Mike Carey’s X-Men: Legacy. He has a Geoff Johns-like sense of how to make continuity work in his favor. Next week, we’ll see that at work in a great alternate universe crossover.

[Review by Doug Glassman, who Tumblrs at '80s Marvel Rocks!]

Previously, on Uncanny X-Month…

Jean Grey died!

An ugly dying supervillain pretended to be Jean to freak out the X-Men while Scott hooked up with a girl who looked just like Jean! Plus Storm grew a Mohawk!

Jean really came back because she wasn’t really dead, and Cyclops abandoned his wife and kid to hang out with his high school buddies!

Scott’s wife turned out to be Jean’s clone, who summoned demons to New York all under the watchful eye of Mister Sinister!

Then they replaced Robert Kelly’s brain . . . with a computer!

Oof. Sorry about that, I’ve been watching way too much of the old X-Men animated series. Anyway . . .

At the center of New Mutants Vol. 3: Fall of the New Mutants is a potential plotline overlooked by writers for twenty years. Madelyne Pryor’s sacrifice to open Limbo required twelve mutant infants. One of them, Maddy and Scott’s son Christopher, would grow up to be Cable. The New Mutants turned the others over to the military, presumably so that they could be reunited with their parents. Unfortunately for the babies, this was right around the time when the US government was increasing its fear of mutants; the Mutant Registration Act would become a major concern in the X-books soon after X-Men: Inferno. With the X-Infernus storyline bringing Magik to the forefront around the time Zeb Wells launched New Mutants in 2009, the twentieth anniversary of the crossover was a great time to bring this plotline to fruition.

What made the New Mutants revival succeed compared to other team revivals is that the team had a clear purpose. It’s not just a reunion of old friends; it’s actually an official team of X-Men who all just happen to be New Mutants alumni. Cannonball, Sunspot, Mirage, and Karma were all teachers at the Charles Xavier Academy, so treating them as junior members again would devalue their contributions. This trade picks up after the events of Necrosha, which saw the return to life of Cypher and overtly violent actions by Warlock; both events are on the minds of the team as they are ordered by Cyclops to go on vacation. (I wish I had more to say about the criminally-underused Magma, but she doesn’t have much to do in this volume.)

Countering the New Mutants are the children of Project Purgatory, the results of raising those mutant infants in the time-displaced Limbo. They’re now young adults despite four years passing in the “real” Marvel universe; there’s a bit of a meta-textual edge to how Limbo’s “days inside, years outside” time frame plays out. Many of the Purgatory kids feature creepy mutations, such as arms that turn into organic flamethrowers or skin that hardens into rock whenever it’s cut, likely due to a mix of genetic tampering and Limbo’s own darkness. It’s clear that the kids and their military handlers have had a rough time living in one of Marvel’s Hell-equivalents, with quite a few soldiers sporting replacement arms taken from demons.

The project’s leader, General Ulysses, has a plan to control Limbo using a talisman powered by Magik’s Soul-Sword. This unfortunately drags the innocent Pixie, one of Magik’s friends and the user of a similar Soul-Dagger, into the mix, as she’s the first to be kidnapped and literally robbed of her soul for the process. Once Project Purgatory finds their actual target, they capture her along with the rest of the New Mutants, leading to some gruesome torture scenes. I’ll give Zeb Wells a lot of credit for keeping the plot moving and not dwelling too much on “torture porn." He also uses this as an opportunity to demonstrate just how strong the New Mutants are, with Cannonball and Mirage fending off horrifying physical and emotional pain. Karma, often a game-breaker as a telepath, is knocked out for much of the book, but she’s able to fight through her coma and really prove her worth.

The first two-thirds of the book work as a stand-alone as long as you’ve read Inferno, but the ending is going to feel weird if you haven’t followed the X-books for a while. Charles Xavier’s son, Legion, came back to life in the first trade of this series, and Karma was key to locking him within his own mind. He’s brought back as a weapon in Magik’s gambit to reclaim Limbo from its ancient gods. This resolves one part of Magik’s plotline and extends it in new ways to document the rise of the X-Men’s newest sociopath. When you’ve been abducted to serve as queen of a Hell-equivalent, de-aged, killed by a virus and brought back to life, that’ll happen. While I wish the arc was a bit more self-contained, I can appreciate where it fits into the bigger X-picture, and it does tie up some loose ends.

Another factor which drew me to read Fall of the New Mutants was Leonard Kirk’s artwork. Many readers will remember Kirk as a long-time penciller on JSA and he brings his considerable strengths to New Mutants. He really sells the creepy designs of Limbo and the Project Purgatory kids with Lovecraftian influences along with traditional Hellish features. I should also mention that the demons of Limbo speak a language which can be translated easily, as demonstrated by Cracked, and what they’re actually saying isn’t exactly what’s being implied. Considering the big part Cypher plays in the storyline, this is very fitting.

The Fall of the New Mutants trade works as both a key part of the New Mutants’ evolution and as a sequel to Inferno. While the book ended after the Schism event, many of its characters were able to stay visible, especially with Cannonball and Sunspot becoming members of the Avengers and Mirage starring as a co-lead in Fearless Defenders.

Next week on Uncanny X-Month, we found just how much a jerk Professor Xavier really was with a look at the opening arcs of X-Men: Legacy.

[Review by Doug Glassman, who Tumblrs at '80s Marvel Rocks!]

The two stories collectively called the X-Men: Inferno crossover are arguably the last entry point to the X-Men franchise before it became hopelessly convoluted. It’s the third in a series of major crossovers, but Inferno makes sense without reading Mutant Massacre and The Fall of the Mutants. One of its central conceits is breaking down the barriers between X-Factor (the original five X-Men) and the Uncanny team (focused around Storm, Wolverine, Colossus and Rogue). At this point, the Uncanny X-Men were thought dead, and they were convinced that the X-Factor team were traitors due to their mutant-hunting façade. It’s a miscommunication propagated by Madelyne Pryor, Cyclops’s ex-wife, whose son is in the custody of X-Factor and who ended up in Australia with the Uncanny team.

I mentioned that there are two stories involved here, both of which are two-title crossovers and are loosely linked. Apart from the Uncanny/X-Factor crossover, there’s also the New Mutants and their adventures with the X-Terminators, the young wards of X-Factor. The X-Terminators mini-series is not collected in the older paperback edition of Inferno that I have, but the pertinent events are explained well-enough in New Mutants. To be perfectly honest, none of the X-Terminators are all that interesting, with the few that are -- like Rictor and Boom-Boom -- later migrating to New Mutants and X-Force.

What I really like is that Chris Claremont and Louise Simonson built up the two stories around women victimized into becoming villains, creating some narrative parallels. Even though Madelyne was named after folk musician Maddy Prior, it’s likely not a coincidence that her name is also similar to Medea, who went on a rampage after being wronged by her husband. The story also explores her link to Jean Grey: as a clone of the heroine, she was never intended to have a life until her master pulled her strings, and then she had to deal with an interaction with the Phoenix Force. Meanwhile, the younger mutants finally resolve the fate of Illyana Rasputin, Colossus’ younger sister who was kidnapped and aged up in a demonic Limbo, becoming that dimension’s savior. (I’m not even getting into some of the more recent retcons about Illyana’s motives or I’d be here all day.)

A demon from Limbo, N’astirh, while warring with Illyana’s tormentor S’ym, has come up with a scheme to link Limbo to Earth using twelve infants as a sacrifice. N’astirh also unlocked some of Madelyne Pryor’s powers to transform her into the Goblin Queen while also using her son Nathan as one of the infants in the portal scheme. When this plan goes awry, N’astirh delivers the boy back to Madelyne, who has fully embraced her powers and brought out the negative influences of the Uncanny X-Men, putting some of them in her thrall. That’s just about the simplest I can reduce the plot to, leaving out some really unnecessary bits like the transmode virus getting involved and Archangel’s constant angst over his then-recent transformation by Apocalypse. Yet believe it or not, this whole book has a relatively low level of X-angst; that doesn’t really kick in until the arrival of Gambit a few crossovers away.

It all leads back to Mister Sinister; this is his first major plotline so that’s not the cliché it would later become. Sinister’s a really nasty piece of work here, with an utter disregard for his creations like Madelyne. Turning him into just another underling for Apocalypse really reduced his level of menace; Inferno demonstrates his skill as a master planner with plots reaching back to Cyclops’ origin. He’s actually not in the story for much of the second act, letting the X-Men get angrier and angrier until he meets a well-deserved end. There’s even some callbacks to the last time the X-Men got this angry and Colossus snapped the neck of Sinister’s henchman Riptide, who is suddenly alive in this story. (Spoiler: cloning.)

A major highlight in the artwork -- from Mark Silvestri, Bret Blevins, and Walt Simonson -- is the demonic transformation of New York City. People are warped into their darkest forms and items become sentient and deadly. I can sense two film influences here, Ghostbusters and Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, both of which were contemporary to Inferno. The former can be seen in the transformation of the Empire State Building into the locus of the Limbo portal; a group of “Ghostbusters” look-alikes are killed early on. The “Roger Rabbit” connection was a later realization that came while re-reading some of the New Mutants issues. Many of the now-alive possessed objects act like the Toons in how they exploit their forms for maximum mischief; when they worship Illyana, all I could hear was “Hi, Eddie!” from the Toontown sequence. Blevins especially shines in this crossover since he was used to turning Warlock into odd, personified objects.

Speaking of art, one thing I really enjoy about the old paperback version which I’m not sure is present in the hardcover is the title page. The entire thing is set up as an Aleister Crowley-style summoning diagram, with interlinking circles containing the different positions. There’s a later page showing the Uncanny X-Men and X-Factor casts as the Sefirot in the Kabbalistic Tree of Life (a concept Claremont used again in X-Men: The End). A lot of recent trades don’t put this much work into creating title pages; it’s a glimpse at a time when collected editions were a little more rare.

While the stories in X-Men: Inferno are a bit overlong, that’s just expected in a crossover, and the stories themselves have some great character bits. The artwork is also excellent; it may have just catapulted Silvestri over Jim Lee as my favorite Image founder. Blevins is an unsung master and Simonson, as always, can’t be beat. If you’re really new to reading the classic X-crossovers, you might be better off starting with the Phoenix Trilogy that I previously reviewed, followed by Mutant Massacre, but definitely make your way to Inferno.

[Review by Doug Glassman, who Tumblrs at '80s Marvel Rocks!]

Remember when I used to review Marvel trades? Let’s get back to that for a bit.

One of the Marvel NOW! initiative’s main concepts was “try everything," especially when it came to relaunching nearly the entire X-Men line. Of course, it didn’t always work out; the two X-Force titles have been combined into one and X-Men: Legacy is coming to an end, both because its story is over and because Marvel likely wants to reuse that title. But the wide range of X-titles has provided quite a few interesting reading options, with the stand-out for me being Brian Wood’s X-Men. It was the last of the original NOW! titles to launch since Olivier Coipel needed more time; as with John Cassaday, Marvel really needs to remember to not put Coipel on too many projects at once.

Even with the delay, the issues collected in X-Men Vol. 1: Primer kept up the readers’ anticipation for one huge reason: the entire cast is female. All-female or majority-female teams were another theme of Marvel NOW!, with Avengers Assemble revolving around Spider-Woman, Fearless Defenders being comprised entirely of women, and Uncanny X-Force having Puck as the only male teammate. These books are all unfortunately no longer being published for a variety of reasons, and hopefully Marvel won’t take that as a sign that female-heavy comics are unprofitable.

What separates X-Men from many of those books is that its cast doesn’t feel like a gimmick. All of its members have been part of the X-Men for at least twenty years (in real-time anyway) and nearly all of them were operating out of the Jean Grey School already. The school is the host of a number of X-titles, including Astonishing X-Men, and in a nice bit of continuity, Rogue mentions borrowing the speed of that team’s Northstar. I’ll give Wood a lot of credit for not using “Wolverine Publicity," instead having Logan not appear in the book until issue four, and only then after the main arc has ended.

There’s a lot of heavy X-continuity going on in Primer, although much like Joss Whedon run on Astonishing, a smart decision was made to use Grant Morrison’s New X-Men as the source. That book had a combination of wide popularity and an array of underused concepts which make it a well for newer titles to dip into. Wood brings back the villainous, mutant-hating John Sublime, a sentient spore in the shape of a man (just in case you doubted that Morrison created him). He was the ultimate villain of New X-Men -- let's not get started about how Magneto and Xorn fit into it or we’ll be here for weeks -- and he starts the book off by ... surrendering to Storm and her X-Men. As it turns out, he isn’t the real threat this time around. It’s his sister, Arkea, who can possess and control technology much in the same way that he can manipulate humans. Her existence works thematically with New X-Men, which also introduced Professor Xavier’s evil sister in its first story.

Arkea ends up taking over the mind of Karima Shapandar, a half-Sentinel woman who was a major character in the early 2000s before falling comatose a few years back. The possibility that they may have to kill one of their friends is a driving theme in X-Men, generating conflict between the more militant Storm and the ex-mutant hunter Rachel Grey. During this time, Storm also led Uncanny X-Force along with Psylocke, and her violent tendencies seem a little out of character. It’s clear that Marvel is trying to reclaim some of her '80s glory by giving her a Mohawk once more and making her angrier. Of course, she had just been through a nasty divorce with Black Panther -- who dissolved their marriage while they fought to the death in Avengers vs. X-Men -- so perhaps she does have some issues to work out.

Psylocke was given an excellent redesign for Marvel NOW! and a bit of an upgrade to her powers, now having the ability to form other weapons apart from just a psychic blade. She does take a bit of a backseat, along with Rachel, to some of the more exciting characters, especially Jubilee. After having little to do in the X-universe and becoming a vampire, Jubilee was given some great character development by Marjorie Liu as a mentor to X-23 and has continued her maturity by adopting an adorable baby, Shogo. Unfortunately, Shogo is actually the carrier for Arkea, who eventually takes over the cybernetic-implant hospital he was living at, but he gives the team a sense of hope for the future -- something the X-Men need after all the horror in their lives.

Rogue acts as the powerhouse of the team, and it’s a shame that they had to remove her from the book after the “Battle of the Atom” crossover to tie into her supposed death in Uncanny Avengers. Thanks to years of headlining X-Men: Legacy, she’s now a tactician as well, with an excellent use of Psylocke’s powers in the fourth issue, which serves as a "cooldown" issue with art by David Lopez. The final member of the team is Shadowcat, who has added massive shoulderpads to her uniform once more and is the team’s resident genius. She’s also one of the few people who poses a true threat to Arkea due to her ability to disrupt electronics. Coipel consciously draws Shadowcat and Jubilee younger than the rest of the team, making them all look distinct.

The X-Men: Primer trade is admittedly a bit of a ripoff at only four issues plus a reprint of Jubilee’s first appearance. However, that appearance is referenced heavily by issue four, and the next trade will have six issues to balance things out at the price point. If you’re an X-Men fan, you’re likely to have at least three favorite characters as cast members, so it’s worth a look.

[The fianal review in Doug Glassman's month-long spotlight of Kitty Pryde stories.]

After the “Schism” event in the X-Men titles, Cyclops took over the mutant micro-nation of Utopia while Wolverine founded a school for mutants in honor of Jean Grey.

If this sounds backwards to you, then you’re not alone. Wolverine himself questions this turn of events in the first few pages of Wolverine and the X-Men Vol. 1, as do numerous X-Men and the inspectors sent by the New York school board to investigate the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning. In fact, writer Jason Aaron seems to be on the defensive throughout the first issue, outlining many of the inherent problems of the school, such as a lack of teachers with certification and bathrooms that turn into Danger Rooms. Is this Aaron having fun with the reader, or is he airing his grievances with the plot he was given by the editors?

Either way, Aaron swiftly introduces the incredibly large cast. After Schism, Kitty Pryde and Piotr Rasputin went their separate ways, and Kitty is the glue that holds the school together as its headmistress. Beast is still present as the school’s technical genius -- a necessity given that the school is equipped with advanced Shi’ar technology. The other original X-Man at the school -- at least until issue four -- is Iceman, the least mature but potentially most powerful of the first five. When the school is attacked, Bobby Drake finally steps up. Another key faculty member is Rachel Grey, the resident telepath who keeps the kids disciplined.

One of the oddest choices in faculty members is Husk, who is forced to change her skin during an English lesson to silence the students. Another oddity is the perpetual sad-sack Toad, now the janitor at the school. I’m not exactly when he changed sides, but like having Beast and Iceman present, it adds authenticity to the title.

The student body consists mostly of memorable characters from previous younger X-Men titles. Some, like Rockslide and Glob Herman, have been around since New X-Men: Academy X. Others, like Idie Okonkwo from Generation Hope and the kindly Brood member Broo are becoming new favorites, especially because of the adorable romance developing between the two. The most important student is Quentin Quire, a.k.a. Kid Omega, a super-powerful anarchistic terrorist put under Wolverine’s custody by Captain America. Quire actually warranted his own mini-series, Wolverine and the X-Men: Alpha and Omega, which was a neat riff on Days of Future Past.

Just as the school opens, it faces a threat from something bigger than the New York Board of Education. The new, controversial Hellfire Club arrives to destroy the school. The mixed reaction comes from the members being super-powerful, psychotic pre-teens. Personally, I don’t mind them. The X-Men have faced far weirder foes, like Mojo and the Mutant Master, and the age difference makes sense considering the school element. Along with other threats, like an army of Frankenstein’s Monsters, the Hellfire Club unleashes Krakoa the Living Island, who makes an intriguing choice near the end of the initial arc. The attack even ends up solving the school’s problems, both with the school board and with their monetary woes, complete with a cameo from the X-Men’s lawyer, Matt Murdock.

After the first three issues, we get a stand-alone story introducing elements from Uncanny X-Force into Wolverine and the X-Men. I’m not a huge fan of X-Force in any of its non-X-Statix incarnations, but this is actually a storytelling necessity along with a probable editorial mandate. Two new students are introduced; one is the new child version of Apocalypse, the key figure in Rick Remender’s overall X-Force version. The other, surprisingly, is Angel, whose mind has been wiped. The sadness felt by the faculty, especially the other original X-Men, is palpable when they see what happened to him. However, there’s some comic relief when Deathlok, a cyborg from the future, predicts the fates of the kids with ... mixed results.

The other most controversial element of Wolverine and the X-Men is the artwork of Chris Bachalo. I’ll admit that it’s not to everyone’s taste, as it’s extremely cartoony and exaggerated. There are some moments where the action is obscured, such as when Husk intimidates her students with her rocky form, or when Krakoa attacks. However, I think a lot of this comes down to some very heavy inks, which were provided by seven different inkers, indicating that there were some scheduling issues. Nick Bradshaw’s art in issue #4 is far more clear and crisp. Future stories alternate the two artists, allowing fans of both art styles to be happy.

Along with the usual design sketches in the extras, two of the letter columns are included. These are answered by Kitty and Iceman, respectively, and other faculty members answer columns in other issues. There’s also a live Twitter session of issue #4, which I don’t entirely get. Why do a Twitter version of an existing issue? I think it would have been better to do a session of an unseen class for extra humor. A cool infographic provides cute stick figure versions of the characters as an organizational chart. It even includes characters not seen in the book itself, but are in the Astonishing X-Men sister title, such as Rogue and Karma. Finally, there’s the brochure, which could be the best extra ever included in a comic book. There are too many brilliant jokes to list them all here, but I’m particularly fond of “Algebra Sucks, I Know, But You Still Have To Learn It,” taught by Iceman.

Kitty Pryde, a.k.a. Shadowcat, has undergone an incredible character evolution, going from a naïve teenage girl, to a ninja, to a key member of the modern main team, to running the newest incarnation of the school that started it all in Wolverine and the X-Men. I hope you enjoyed this month's look into one of the most prominent (and earliest identified) Jewish characters in comics.

Next year (just a week away!) my reviews begin again with a return to Walt Simonson’s The Mighty Thor and a story he could only call “Ragnarok and Roll!”

[Continuing Doug Glassman's month-long spotlight on Kitty Pryde stories.]

Joss Whedon started out on Astonishing X-Men with Gifted, a book I enjoyed. Gifted kept up the momentum generated by Grant Morrison’s New X-Men, while also inspiring a new creative drive in the X-Men titles. The Dangerous arc that followed Gifted, however, was not quite up to par; even Joss Whedon admits that the story isn’t his best. But for Torn and Unstoppable -- collected here in the Astonishing X-Men Ultimate Collection Vol. 2 -- you don’t need to know much from Dangerous apart from the existence of Danger, the sentient—and angry—Danger Room brought to life, and about the Sentinel she created to attack the school.

However, you do need to know some of the New X-Men backstory to really get into the comics. The first arc centers on Cassandra Nova, the “evil twin” of Professor Xavier who was a major foe in Morrison’s books. Another villain, Negasonic Teenage Warhead, appeared in New X-Men’s first issue, and there’s a reappearance of the “Black Bug Room,” a terrifying place in Cyclops’ subconscious. On the other hand, Whedon brings back Sebastian Shaw from the Dark Phoenix Saga, along with an amazing visual homage to Wolverine’s “Now it’s my turn” panel from that story. They were included because Whedon was a fan during that era, but they also allow readers who left the franchise in the 1990s to ease into the new stories.

A fun sequence of Wolverine acting as the new Danger Room brings Hisako Ichiki, a.k.a. Armor, to the forefront. Hisako is the latest in the long line of “Wolverine’s young female sidekicks,” following in the tradition of Shadowcat and Jubilee. Their teacher/student relationship begins slowly, and it takes a wild turn when Wolverine is regressed mentally into a twelve-year-old. The original Origins story is a sore spot for some fans, but its existence is justified by how hilarious Wolverine is during the Torn arc. He’s a total sissy with antiquated social views. John Cassaday’s facial expressions really sell the sequences with Wolverine, especially in the sequence where he recovers.

The other X-Men are affected as well, with Beast regressing mentally into a mindless creature, Colossus getting beaten by Shaw, Cyclops losing his powers, and Kitty phasing uncontrollably. All signs point to Emma Frost as the perpetrator, and she is… sort of. The ending of Torn and the transition to Unstoppable outline Whedon’s major weakness when it comes to comics. On many pages, the last panel becomes the first panel of the next page, indicating a swift transition. Unfortunately, this obfuscates certain plot points, especially during the climax of the battle at the school. Whedon clearly struggled with how transitions are different in television and film versus comic books. I had to re-read the last pages of the Torn storyline to understand exactly what was going on and how the villain was dealt with.

Luckily, Unstoppable corrects a lot of these flaws and unfolds in a much more logical manner. It’s the culmination of the Breakworld plot begun in the first issues, putting the X-Men in space for almost the entire time. I’m not sure if this is a coincidence or a plot point, but none of the X-Men on the Astonishing team are able to fly. Only Shadowcat has any transportation-related abilities. This puts them at a disadvantage, and it forces them to rely on S.W.O.R.D. and its leader, Abigail Brand. The unflappable and arrogant Brand becomes a foil to the ever-logical Beast, leading to the romantic partnership seen in No Room To Breathe. Cyclops demonstrates his leadership skills despite temporarily losing his powers, and Whedon succeeds in avoiding making Cyclops the unlikeable jerk he’s been recently.

Kitty Pryde’s storyline throughout Astonishing X-Men Ultimate Collection Vol. 2 is linked with that of Colossus. The shock of the sudden resurrection of her longtime beau is still present, and Kitty is forced into a nightmare in which Piotr betrays Kitty so that the X-Men can take their young son. Even though it’s a hallucination, it felt so real that it spoils their relationship for quite a while. Their romantic relationship is one of the most memorable parts of both storylines; Kitty phases through the floor when they have sex for the first time. At the end, when Kitty sacrifices herself to stop a massive bullet from destroying the world, you can feel Piotr’s pain at losing her just after he came back.

Perhaps the greatest appeal of Astonishing X-Men was John Cassaday’s art. It took three years to publish twenty-five issues, but like George Perez, Cassaday’s art is worth waiting for; an advantage of waiting for the trade is not having to deal with such delays. He has a deep dedication to detail, carefully drawing his expressions and backgrounds and laying out the panels expertly. At the same time, he knows when to cut back on the details for dramatic effect. For instance, when Cyclops gets his powers back and lets loose, all the reader sees is the back of his head and a pure red background. It’s the perfect representation of his powers from that angle, and numerous pages are bathed in red shading to demonstrate Cyclops’ might. Cassaday even gives the male characters progressively more stubble as the story continues. to show the passage of time.

My favorite sequence involves the coordination of Whedon, Cassaday, colorist Laura Martin, and letterer Chris Eliopoulos. In issue #22, the team and Brand have a seemingly normal strategy conversation. This is where having the trade comes in handy: the page is reprinted in the next issue. However, this time, it’s overlaid with telepathic text bubbles, in which the real plan is discussed in secret to fool a bug on the ship. The original page is faded into the background, and Eliopoulos planned the initial word bubbles so that there would be enough space to put in the new ones.

I highly recommend the Astonishing X-Men Ultimate Collection Vol. 2, combining the Torn and Unstoppable collections. Despite some pacing and plotting issues, the dialogue is snappy, the character interactions ring true and the art is gorgeous. It’s worth getting this larger edition, as you save some money versus buying the two trades individually.

[Continuing Doug Glassman's month-long spotlight on Kitty Pryde stories.]

Marvel’s first big crossover, Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars, shook up the status quo in a number of titles. One of these was Uncanny X-Men. The budding romance between Colossus and Kitty Pryde was broken up due to editorial interference, with Colossus falling in love with an alien woman. This allowed Chris Claremont to move Kitty forward along a path of maturity. Since she was aging in relative real-time compared to the other X-Men, she had to grow up, and Claremont chose an unusual way to do so.

In the 1980s, Japan was the fascination of many Westerners, and Claremont was one of the biggest Japanophiles in comics. He and Frank Miller had revamped Wolverine with his own mini-series shortly before, adding a new roster of Japanese supporting characters. At the same time, Claremont felt the need to define “Yakuza” in each issue, so Japanese culture had not yet reached saturation in the United States. He occasionally resorts to stereotypes, including giving the main villain a sumo wrestler bodyguard, but it never comes off as offensive or ignorant. For instance, said wrestler is taken down through proper judo techniques.

By the end of the first issue of Claremont's six-issue miniseries Kitty Pryde and Wolverine -- collected a number of times by Marvel -- Kitty is starving, cold, sick, broke, injured and hiding in a dark corner of Tokyo while on the run from the Yakuza. Her father, banker Carmen Pryde, is in deep with the gangsters while trying to support his local bank in Deerfield, Illinois. To protect him, she sneaks on board an overseas flight without letting the other X-Men know. This is simultaneously brave and stupid -- but Kitty knows she’s making rushed decisions. Combined with extensive demonstrations of how she uses her powers, Kitty’s actions demonstrate that she had gone as far as she could go without a revamp.

Things get even worse for Kitty as the story goes on, and I give credit to Claremont for putting a character he loves through so much hell. Kitty has been cited as a template for DC’s Stargirl (the pre-New 52 incarnation), but Geoff Johns wouldn’t have allowed Courtney to be brainwashed by a sinister telepathic ninja master, eventually having her hair and clothes cut away in a very suggestive manner. Kitty’s assault comes courtesy of Ogun, the enforcer of the Yakuza boss, who also trained Wolverine. Ogun was also a contemporary of famed swordsman Miyamoto Musashi. Before there were different aspects of Logan's origin being published every month, this was one of the first clues about his past, opening the question of just how old he was.

The Wolverine aspect of the title comes from an interesting decision. Had Kitty called the entire team, Ogun would have been defeated much more quickly. Instead, Kitty turns to Logan -- in part because of his experience in Japan, and in part because of her rash decisions, knowing that he would keep the incident secret. In fact, apart from a phone call from Professor Xavier to connect the mini-series to concurrent events in Uncanny X-Men, no other X-Men even appear in the comic. The absence of Kitty's dragon Lockheed seems a bit strange, but he was hanging around with the New Mutants at this time.

By the time Wolverine arrives in Japan, Kitty has been possessed by Ogun and mentally trained in his ninja skills, allowing her to wound Wolverine. They escape and recover with the help of Wolverine’s crazy friend Yukio, who back in From The Ashes convinced Storm to get leather and a Mohawk. In those issues, Yukio was just manic. Here, she’s totally crazy, jumping out of moving cars and antagonizing the aforementioned sumo bodyguard. She and Carmen Pryde form a disparaging, bickering relationship which provides some much-needed comedic relief as the story continues. Kitty Pryde and Wolverine came out shortly after the issues collected in From The Ashes, and so the aborted Mariko/Wolverine marriage is addressed here as well, and an uneasy love triangle of Wolverine, Yukio, and Mariko emerges. (If the subtext is any indication, Storm fits into that love triangle at certain points.)

Wolverine’s training of Kitty owes a lot to another Japan-related piece of media: The Karate Kid. Some of Kitty’s exercises include manipulating a Zen rock garden and holding a sword above her head for hours at a time. The still-weak Logan combines aspects of Mr. Miyagi and Yoda, complete with leaning on a staff, forcing Kitty to face dangerous extremes while forging her concentration. While Kitty does defeat Ogun, it takes Wolverine to deliver the final blow. He’s not cynical enough to let Kitty go down his path. At the very end, Kitty takes on her new codename. “Sprite” and “Ariel” never quite fit, but “Shadowcat” lasts to this day.

The art here is provided by Al Milgrom, who I admit I knew of more as an inker rather than as a penciller. He uses Kitty’s phasing powers to a much greater effect than some other artists, using page-length panels to demonstrate her going down through entire buildings. He does his best to make her “air-walking” power look dignified, but that’s an impossible task for any artist. As part of Kitty’s new look, she gets a shorter haircut which, to be honest, I’m glad didn’t last. Not only is it ugly, but it was also chopped off by Ogun while he was taking over Kitty’s mind. Milgrom did create the basis of the Shadowcat uniform, although the mask would be added later, replacing some odd-looking eye make-up.

If you’re a fan of either title character, Kitty Pryde and Wolverine is an essential step in their character arcs. It’s also a fun read for X-Men fans in general. After the events of this story, Kitty lost control of her powers, joined the unusual British team Excalibur, and went to college. She was out of the spotlight for a few years, but she became a major player in the mutant world when she joined the Astonishing X-Men, where we’ll pick up her arc next week.

And tomorrow from Collected Editions ... I, Vampire!

[Doug Glassman's got a month's worth of Kitty Pryde spotlight reviews for you, starting now!]

Chris Claremont wrote Uncanny X-Men for seventeen years straight. In retrospect, it’s surprising that the two most important stories from that run are only separated by four issues. With the death of Jean Grey at the end of the Dark Phoenix Saga, the X-Men: Days of Future Past trade opens rather appropriately with her funeral. This is actually a framing device for an intense retrospective of the X-Men’s history up to that point.

Claremont and Byrne pack a lot of details into such a small space, from Magneto turning into a baby to the “All-New, All-Different” X-Men attacking Krakoa. It also inadvertently serves as a checklist of Professor Xavier’s questionable decisions. At points, Byrne imitates Jack Kirby and Dave Cockrum to enforce the sense of the series’ artistic changes. The original Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe wouldn’t come out for another two years, so this was a brilliant way to bring new readers up to speed after the Dark Phoenix Saga.

Cyclops leaves the team after the funeral. Because the rosters have changed and expanded so often since the early 1980s, this may not seem so important, but Cyclops had appeared in every issue since the title’s inception. This makes Storm the new leader of the team, and while Cyclops would return later, it was a role she would keep for years. The first trial of this new roster comes in “Nightcrawler’s Inferno,” in which the team must rescue Nightcrawler’s soul from Hell with the help of Doctor Strange. It’s actually an alternate dimension created by Nightcrawler’s stepmother, Margali Szardos, as revenge for his killing her son. The dimension is an accurate interpretation of Dante’s Inferno, complete with the City of Dis and a three-headed Satan. Nightcrawler has been put at the very bottom in the level of traitors. It's all eventually cleared up and Nightcrawler finally gets to celebrate a birthday with both of his families.

Kitty Pryde officially joins the team in issue #139. The cover of this issue memorably reads “Welcome to the X-Men, Kitty Pryde . . . Hope You Survive the Experience!” This quickly became the standard welcoming phrase for new X-Men, and she does have some trouble adjusting to her new life at the Xavier School. She’s terrified of Nightcrawler despite his genial nature, and Wolverine puts her on edge. Conversely, Storm becomes a caring elder sister and the seeds of the Kitty/Colossus relationship are sown. Kitty is an audience surrogate character who doesn’t get on the reader’s nerves -- something rare with that kind of character. Despite being naive and scared, she holds her own and grows as the story progresses.

The three male X-Men have a fascinating camaraderie, as demonstrated when Wolverine and Nightcrawler head up to Canada to help Alpha Flight with the Wendigo. Having served together since the start of the “All-New, All-Different” roster, they have become a coordinated unit, but it’s comprised of two different friendships. Nightcrawler and Colossus have more lighthearted adventures together, while Nightcrawler and Wolverine are closer to drinking buddies. Colossus and Wolverine work well together in battle -- they invented the Fastball Special, after all -- but they don’t hang out a lot in their downtime. It reminds me of the friendships of Hal Jordan, Barry Allen and Oliver Queen. Hal and Barry are friends, and Hal and Ollie are friends, but Barry and Ollie never quite gelled on their own [gosh, but I wish Geoff Johns had written a Barry/Ollie team-up in the old continuity. Say what you will about Johns, Barry, or Ollie, but that would have been awesome.]

After Wolverine and Nightcrawler’s Canadian adventure, we head into the title story and encounter a dark future. The Sentinels are in control and superheroes are nearly extinct in the far-off future of ... 2013. A future X-Man, Rachel, sends the mind of the future Kitty Pryde into her younger incarnation to prevent the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants from assassinating anti-mutant politician Senator Robert Kelly. In a nice touch, the X-Men realize that something is wrong when Kitty isn’t afraid of Nightcrawler. Meanwhile, Rachel would later be revealed to be Rachel Summers, daughter of that universe’s Cyclops and Jean Grey, who would later cross universes and become Phoenix and then Marvel Girl. It took Claremont a long time to expand on this initial appearance of Rachel, notably withholding her last name in the story.

What follows is some rather fancy storytelling, showing the action in both the present and the hellish future. This was the first sign of the coming massive rise of anti-mutant bigotry, with the Sentinels returning in a huge way. By averting Kelly’s assassination, the X-Men only make things worse, leading him to ally with the Hellfire Club and sending the main timeline hurtling closer towards the dark future. Meanwhile, the rest of the future X-Men start to fall, including Wolverine getting incinerated by a Sentinel. Days of Future Past indulges in the theory that “it’s an alternate universe, so we get to kill everyone,” which happens a lot in What If?” stories.

The final story is Kitty’s first solo adventure, as well as the first issue to be called Uncanny X-Men. She’s been left behind by the other X-Men as they go to a Christmas party. Unfortunately for her, the mansion has been attacked by an N’Garai demon, menaces that appeared back in Uncanny X-Men #96. Kitty uses her powers, agility and basic knowledge of how the Blackbird flies to defeat the demon and earn her keep as a member of the X-Men. A few years later, in Uncanny X-Men: From The Ashes, Professor Xavier wanted to demote her to the New Mutants; Kitty had a point in calling him a jerk.

In the X-Men universe, Uncanny X-Men: Days of Future Past was extremely influential, with other bad futures like Age of Apocalypse and Age of X taking their cues from it. The next X-Men film will also use it as its basis. Moreover, it serves as proof that even after such a major event as the Dark Phoenix Saga, the title could hold its own and even improve as time went on.

Next time ... Kitty Pryde goes to Japan and gets a major revamp.

[Guest review by Doug Glassman.]

While Uncanny X-Men: From The Ashes addressed the short-term effects of the Dark Phoenix Saga, this unusual trade introduces what may be the most important retcon in comic book history. Jean Grey returning to life changed comics forever. For those who call death in comics a “revolving door,” this book is the push that keeps the door going despite all attempts to stop it. It’s a revision so intricate that it required two unrelated books to pull it off and a new title to keep it going. X-Men: Phoenix Rising was the brainchild of Kurt Busiek, and it helped put him on the map as one of the best -- and most underrated -- comic book writers.

Yet apart from the idea, and a misspelled “thank you” credit, Busiek had nothing to do with X-Men: Phoenix Rising. He had merely pitched the idea of Jean Grey’s resurrection to Roger Stern, and it spread like wildfire, reaching John Byrne and eventually Jim Shooter, the EIC. Shooter had one caveat: if Jean were to return, she had to be innocent of the slaughter of the D’Bari in Dark Phoenix Saga. Busiek did this by retroactively making the Phoenix a being separate from Jean Grey. As shown in the middle of this trade, Fantastic Four #286, the Phoenix took on Jean’s physical form and basic structure, but its own hunger eventually won out over Jean’s humanity.

The first issue, Avengers #263, is relatively irrelevant, mostly existing to demonstrate Namor’s Avengers debut while the team searches for an unknown artifact at the bottom of Jamaica Bay. It had to be collected here, of course, but if I had been reading Avengers at the time, I would’ve been disappointed. The continuation of the story through the issue of Fantastic Four, on the other hand, is much stronger, coinciding with the team’s return to Earth after a long trip through space. Walt Simonson makes a few little jabs at fans complaining about the space stories; apparently readers were tired of “cosmic” stories at the time. These people were politely shut up a few years later by Infinity Gauntlet.

The third act, the first issue of X-Factor, is where the real change begins, starting with three of the original five set to retire, Iceman working as an accountant, and Cyclops as a father in Alaska. Around this time, anti-mutant hatred was really ramping up, and the five X-Men decide to masquerade as mutant hunters in order to rescue threatened mutants. In this first issue, they save Rusty Collins, whose fire powers flare up mid-kiss. People are too afraid by him and repulsed by his mutant nature to help or listen to him, but the disguised X-Factor pull it off; Rusty became a major character in the book and a fairly memorable mutant in general. Another major character introduced is Cameron Hodge, who seems to be Angel’s friend and assistant but who eventually becomes one of Marvel’s biggest bigots.

I’ll make my art notes first. The artwork is from John Buscema, Tom Palmer, Walt Simonson and Jackson “Butch” Guice, making it a solidly drawn book. Simonson’s writer/artist work is always amazing. Invisible Woman has some very unfortunate '80s hair, but otherwise, the art doesn’t stand out. Sue Storm had only been Invisible Woman for a short time, and Jean Grey initially thinks she’s an X-Sentinel (a robot disguised as a mutant) because she doesn’t call herself “Invisible Girl.” Jean herself stays in her half-ripped captive uniform from Uncanny X-Men #125. This is a bit odd; no one thought to give the mentally-damaged woman a pair of pants until the first issue of X-Factor?

So the writing ... I have issues with the writing. Some of the following issues may have been addressed in later stories. If they are, please let me know in the comments; I can only go so far with the Official Handbook. My problems have nothing to do with the central concept; Busiek found a genuinely clever way to bring Jean Grey back and not have her be guilty of genocide. If it feels a little hollow today, it’s because many other comics have done similarly large retcons without as much thought put into them.

The problem is that it makes a huge mess of who was doing what during the Dark Phoenix Saga. What, exactly, was the Phoenix? Technically, it was a replica of Jean Grey, but was it simply a vessel for the Phoenix Force or did it have a mind of its own? You feel a lot of pity for the Phoenix, a creature doomed from the start.

There’s also a lot of “over-writing”, with people speaking in paragraphs when only sentences are needed. Simonson’s Fantastic Four issue is very guilty of this; he might have been in Thor mode when he wrote it.

The real fumble of this story is what they do with Scott Summers. He’s first seen having an argument with Madelyne Pryor, a facsimile of Jean whom he married in Uncanny X-Men: From The Ashes. When he learns that Jean is alive, he leaves home and his wife and infant son behind. At the very end, we see Madelyne crying when a commercial for “X-Factor Investigations” comes out. This is not a valid reaction for Cyclops. No matter how much soul-searching he does, I do not buy for a minute that Cyclops, a man who grew up in an orphanage and had just found his father a few years earlier, would ever walk away from his child. I understand that they needed to get the original five X-Men together for X-Factor, but this was a poor way to do it. Cyclops has arguably never recovered from this moment; it’s a cornerstone of his “dickish” persona.

In all, X-Men: Phoenix Rising is essential reading for understanding the Marvel Universe, but not essential reading for pleasure. The dialogue is often clunky and X-Factor #1 just brings the whole thing crashing down. However, it’s worth at least a look for a major retcon done well.

[Guest review by Doug Glassman.]

Thirty issues of Uncanny X-Men later, the young mutants are still reeling from the loss of their friend, but they also have their own issues. I was initially unsure about picking up X-Men: From the Ashes, an old, out of print trade, but then I saw that the first issue has one of the best X-Men first pages of all time: “Professor Xavier Is A Jerk!” Spoken by Kitty Pryde, this apt description of the team’s morally ambiguous founder comes about because she’s been demoted to the New Mutants, and rather unfairly so.

Much as in Dark Phoenix Saga, Professor X is still not used to his ever-changing team. Kitty’s issues pale compared to her friend, Illyana, who was Colossus’ kid sister until she grew up into a teenager in a hell dimension. Other changes since the previously-reviewed volume include Lilandra Nerimani being banished to Earth, Professor X gaining a new, cloned body, and the reveal of Cyclops and Havok’s father being alive as the leader of the Starjammers.

Now that we’re caught up, the real changes can begin. From The Ashes picks up on plot threads left over from Dark Phoenix Saga while continuing on from other events in the X-Men universe. For instance, Wolverine has just completed his first mini-series and is now ready for his ill-fated marriage to Mariko Yashida. Even with the next Wolverine movie adapting his Japanese adventures, they still seem odd; Wolverine himself points out how strange it is for a gruff Canadian to be marrying a Japanese beauty. Romance is a running theme throughout the book, featuring the budding Colossus/Shadowcat couple, Nightcrawler’s romance with Amanda Sefton, and Scott Summers’ new girlfriend, Madelyne Pryor.

One of the troubles of reading comics so many years later is knowing about the retcons and character alterations that will come later. I wasn’t able to put Jean Grey’s resurrection, Scott Summers’ reaction to it and Maddy Pryor’s final fate out of my mind, and the story becomes quite tragic because of it. Maddy’s not a great character, but she is clearly the best thing to happen to Cyclops for quite some time. His struggle over whether to return to the X-Men or go off in space with his father and the Starjammers never quite seems to be a legitimate problem, but I liked the options that opened up to him. What brands this trade as a sequel to Dark Phoenix Saga is the return of Mastermind, who wants revenge for Jean Grey's actions. The lead-up to this is actually a nicely-done mystery, and there are moments where you might think that Jean really is back and ready to kill us all.

An important group of Marvel characters is introduced in this trade: the Morlocks, a group of mutant outcasts. Actually, the “outcast” part is self-imposed: they have been either forced underground or chosen a hidden life because of how they look. I really have to admire Paul Smith’s designs for the Morlocks. He put an incredible amount of effort into creating beings that are ugly both inside and out. At the same time, there’s Caliban, the simple, bug-eyed mutant who falls in love with Kitty Pryde and becomes her own Phantom of the Sewers. He gets a softer, kinder character design, so it’s easier to feel sorry for him.

The two most important character arcs are for Rogue and Storm, with the former joining the team against the wishes of everybody but Professor X. A lot of the emotional baggage around Rogue and Ms. Marvel is lost if you don’t know their background, and for once Claremont omits a lot of those details. However, Rogue’s interplay with Wolverine makes up for it, and you can see how some of this side of her character, merged with Shadowcat and Jubilee, worked its way into the film version. Despite the harm she’s caused, the Rogue of From The Ashes is just a lost girl with a broken mind, just at the cusp of a major character evolution. It would take a few more years and the introduction of Gambit to really get that ball rolling.

Storm, meanwhile, has become the team leader while Cyclops is on a break. During the team’s adventures in Japan, she comes under the influence of Wolverine’s crazy friend Yukio, along with a combat injury which makes her powers unstable, Storm’s personality starts to change, making her take on a harder edge. When she has to fight Callisto, leader of the Morlocks, Storm nearly kills her and ruthlessly takes over the mutant underground. Later, Storm unveils her new “punk” look with a leather outfit and a mohawk. It’s a rapid change of character that at times feels like it’s going too fast. Today, there might have been a “Fall of Storm” mini-series to cover these changes, but Claremont had the best of intentions with this rapid change.

The art for this trade is primarily provided by Paul Smith, with assists from John Romita Jr. and Walt Simonson. You can tell which issues JRJR did because the characters have square heads, which is my one main critique of his work. Smith’s art stands out from Byrne because of his rounder faces. Compare, for instance, Byrne’s and Smith’s depictions of Nightcrawler. Byrne draws Kurt with a sharp chin, while Smith gives him a rounded jawline.

One reason to seek out this version of Uncanny X-Men #168-176 is the cover, a gorgeous portrait by Arthur Adams. I’m not entirely sure of the in-print status of From The Ashes, but I found at least a dozen at Baltimore Comic-Con and at many stores in the Maryland area, so it should be easy to find. This is truly classic X-Men, and if you liked the Dark Phoenix Saga, you’ll find this to be a good sequel.

[Guest review by Doug Glassman.]

Almost every major comic book decision can be traced back to X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga.

It brought Wolverine to the forefront of the X-Men while introducing Emma Frost and Kitty Pryde, two of the X-Franchise’s most prominent women (plus the Dazzler). While she wasn’t the first superhero to die, the circumstances behind Jean Grey’s death elevated it into the epitome of the superhero death story. Her revival (which I’ll cover soon as well) helped open the floodgates of constant rebirths in comics. The effects don’t end at the Marvel Universe, either. The title’s popularity led to the revival of DC’s own young heroes as The New Teen Titans, which in turn gave Marv Wolfman and George Perez the cache to create Crisis on Infinite Earths.

I won’t hide spoilers this time around, because The Dark Phoenix Saga is a book where, one way or another, you probably already know what happens. Thanks to pop cultural osmosis, Jean Grey’s constant death and rebirth has become a running gag of sorts, and elements of it have made their way into animation and (barely) film adaptations. At its core, Saga is about Jean’s slide into mental disarray and Cyclops’ attempt to bring her back. This is a little hard at first, because the book starts right at the end of the Proteus saga, in which X-Men ally Moira MacTaggart’s possession-powered son ran amok. A lot occurred during that story, including the use of characters who are then ushered away for the rest of Saga.

After a long time away in space, Professor X is back and is helping lead the team once more. This leads to new complications: not only does he help find two new mutants, but he also comes into conflict with Cyclops and Wolverine, having not realized that they have grown as warriors without him. Even though the Dazzler is given her big debut here, she is quickly dropped from the story; even back then, Marvel editorial knew that the fad was going to end.

Amidst the changes, Jean Grey keeps experiencing shifts in reality, believing herself to be inhabiting the body of an ancestor during time slips. In fact, these are intricate illusions created by Mastermind, who has disguised his internal and external ugliness as Jason Wyngarde, Jean’s dashing love interest in her visions. When you read The Dark Phoenix Saga, take a look at the hollow-eyed Wyngarde and you’d never believe that he has at least two daughters (three depending on Pixie’s origin). His manipulations are tantamount to rape, controlling Jean’s mind, powers and body. In the Dark Phoenix’s one relatively good deed, he gets to experience his place in the universe for a moment, breaking him in a way similar to the Total Perspective Vortex from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

Dark Phoenix is one of Marvel’s most terrifying villains; as the Shi’ar point out, while Galactus eats planets, the Dark Phoenix eats suns. Consuming one planet leads to the death of five billion D’Bari thanks to a supernova. Sometimes, with powerful villains, the grand schemes aren’t as intimidating as their spur-of-the-moment actions. It’s reminiscent of Thanos’ Earth-wrecking temper tantrum in Infinity Gauntlet, and I think Starlin did that intentionally. It’s tragic, even if later retcons changed it so that this wasn’t actually Jean. Instead of a long-standing character losing her way, it’s a being that never had a chance.

I should also mention that the Phoenix and Dark Phoenix costumes are some of the best designs in comic book history, using the gold highlights perfectly. I really like the tiny phoenix belt buckle on the sash, a detail sometimes left out of other depictions.

The same can’t be said about the other villains, the Hellfire Club. Wyngarde, Sebastian Shaw, Harry Leland, Donald Pierce and the other Hellfire Club members just look entirely too silly (I’ll make an exception for the White Queen, as Frost was able to own her sexuality and use her skimpy costume to define herself). The Revolutionary War-era costumes work for the Royalist Society of America, whose stories in Jack Kirby’s Captain America and the Falcon were already a bit goofy. Claremont is striving for too much realism to get away with them. Their plan is also uninspired until they hook up with Robert Kelly at the end and sow the seeds for Project: Wideawake and other plots to come.

The Hellfire Club also has some silly-looking henchmen, whose faceplates seem to be constantly grimacing in terror. Maybe this is a side effect of the book’s famous scene wherein Wolverine threatens one of them and he starts quivering. After that, it’s hard not to see the others as quivering.

Claremont tends to over-describe in his writing, which has its positives and negatives. It gets grating during a collected edition because you sometimes read the same thing four issues in a row, but it also means that you can jump right in and have the backstory told to you. Again, compare this to Infinity Gauntlet, where I felt so out of the story that I had to wait for Silver Surfer: Rebirth of Thanos to come out in paperback in order to continue reading it. John Byrne’s storytelling skills are superb, often using clever fades to transition from one panel to another. For instance, in one panel, we see the team suited up, and the panel below it has the team in their street clothes in the same positions.

Without a doubt, The Dark Phoenix Saga is still a cornerstone of Marvel Comics and superhero comics in general. There are quite a few versions in print; mine includes a copy of a page from when Jean was going to live, along with the gorgeous covers from the Classic X-Men reprints. It shouldn’t be hard to find a copy, and if you’re interested in Marvel at all, then it should be on your shelf.

[Guest review by Doug Glassman.]

We return once more to the Dark Reign era and another story which proves that great ideas can come from bad scenarios. S.W.O.R.D. was introduced as S.H.I.E.L.D.’s space-based counterpart back in the pages of Astonishing X-Men. Led by Abigail Brand, a half-alien, green-haired badass, she quickly became the love interest of Beast. She and her organization played a key role in Secret Invasion ... mainly by failing to prevent the Skrulls’ infiltration. With Norman Osborn in charge and anti-alien sentiment on the rise, S.W.O.R.D. is at a rough point when X-Men: S.W.O.R.D.: No Time To Breathe begins.

The trade’s title is apt, as the story takes place over no more than two days and features numerous excursions through outer space. Beast and Brand really shine as a bickering but ultimately loving couple. I really appreciate Kieron Gillen for giving Beast, one of my favorite characters, a chance to star in a book. He’s the near-perfect combination of brains, brawn and humor, and he easily fits into both the Avengers and X-Men sides of the Marvel Universe. Even though S.W.O.R.D. lamentably lasted only five issues, it gave him enough of a presence to become a headliner in Wolverine and the X-Men. Brand works as his rough, uncouth counterpart who puts the greater good of the universe before everything else.

Despite having “X-Men” in the title, Gillen works around not having a truly big-name headliner by using some well-placed second-tier characters, many of whom happen to be my personal favorites. Along with Beast, one of the main characters is Lockheed, Kitty Pryde’s purple dragon. He’s not really her “pet,” as he’s quite brilliant and is an adept fighter. At this point in the Marvel chronology, Kitty was thought dead after phasing a gigantic bullet into the Earth’s core. As a result, Lockheed is a surly, depressed alcoholic who tends to use his flaming breath far more than he really should.

The villain of the piece is another classic Marvel character: Henry Peter Gyrich. HPG has been all over the Marvel Universe, starting with his fractious tenure as the Avengers’ liaison to the government. He’s responsible for the “pick seven” rule of the Avengers line-up, and he has a long past with Beast. Later on, he joined the anti-Mutant bandwagon, becoming a key figure in Project Wideawake and Operation: Zero Tolerance. Gyrich is the ultimate symbol of Marvel’s negative world outlook: despite constantly being publically evil, he keeps getting away with it. He’s also one of Marvel’s great jerks. He’s a human supremacist, constantly on guard against heroes, mutants, aliens, or other threats to his species.

When Osborn appoints him as S.W.O.R.D.’s co-commander, Gyrich quickly uses the opportunity to round up all of the aliens on Earth for deportation. Apart from being commentary on immigration, this is also a continuation of the “Earth vs. the Universe” plot thread from Avengers Forever and Maximum Security. This gives Gillen an opportunity to put in some good cameos. The best come from Beta Ray Bill, who turns himself in to prevent Gyrich from harming his girlfriend. At the end, Brand uses him as an example for why alien races shouldn’t try invading Earth. (Bill’s arch-nemesis is Galactus, and their battles have been quite close.) Other cameos include Marvel Boy, Rocket Raccoon, Warlock of the New Mutants (not to be confused with Adam Warlock), Karolina Dean from Runaways and Hulkling from Young Avengers.

Brand’s sidekick, a red, dragon-like alien called Sydren, is featured heavily on the cover of the trade, but he really does nothing. I think Gillen had big plans for him which were curtailed by the series’ cancellation, which is a shame. Another new character is the Unit, a robot built to conquer planets through diplomacy, the last of his kind. He’s a major manipulator and a really fascinating character. Near the end, he mentions that he was one of the powers approached to defeat Thanos in Infinity Gauntlet and, as you might remember from that review, it places him near the top of Marvel’s power scale.

There’s one more key player in No Room To Breathe, and it’s one that took me by surprise. He was mentioned in a few of the lead-up interviews before publication, but seeing the grand return of Death’s Head was truly a treat. For the uninitiated, Death’s Head is a bounty hun -- sorry, Freelance Peacekeeping Agent who was a major presence in the later years of Marvel’s Transformers comics. He has a memorable look, an affable amorality and an unusual style of speaking, yes? There are even a few Transformers jokes in the book, including a visual call-back to Unicron’s eye-gougings in the 1986 movie and Brand calling him a “Michael Bay nightmare.” He’s been redesigned a bit, with a new, grille-like mouth which might homage the similar redesign of Bludgeon from Transformers: Stormbringer.

The art is by Steven Sanders, a relative newcomer, and this is a great start for him. My only complaint is that many of his aliens look too similar, with a distinct snout. Unfortunately, he also gave Beast this snout, making him look a lot like a Bothan from Star Wars. Beast has been becoming more animalistic recently, but this is a step too far. However, Sanders’ art is otherwise excellent, with the fight scenes easy to follow. Another alien creation, the Metroliths, make up for the snouty aliens by being nifty rock monsters. They also lead to the funniest joke in the book, which, as always, I won’t spoil.

While X-Men: S.W.O.R.D.: No Time To Breathe isn’t the most important of Marvel reads, it is one of the most fun. Gillen is clearly having a good time writing all of this alien action, and I want to go back and read his X-Men and Thor books. When a trade makes you want to read more from an author, then it’s been successful.