All New X-Men #15

All New X-men #15 by Brian Bendis and David Lafuente

I like the cover for this book first of all, as it mimics a romance book and hints at what will happen in the book. Jean Grey and The beast? What a strange pairing. A 3.5/5 from me.

The issue begins with a funny non-verbal exchange between Jean and Rachel Grey (Rachel is basically jean’s daughter from an alternate universe) and they move away from each other.

Here’s something I don’t understand, who the heck does Kitty Pryde like? In GotG she’s dating Peter Quill long distance, but in X-men she is kissing Bobby Drake (which freaks past bobby out) along with being like really tight with wolverine (though I don’t think that’s a love kinda relationship). I double checked the wiki and found out that she dumps bobby later on and THEN starts dating Star Lord. I find the conversation funny because Bobby is confused over Kitty loving his future self and not him, but the past version doesn't like her and blah blah…

Jean continues to show advanced control over her powers that she didn’t normally in 616 during her training with Beast while bobby and scott head out on the town (in wolverine’s jeep, again). In the last issues, they had to take his motorcycle too...can’t they just get their own car or something? I’d love to see them in a classic 60’s car for one thing. Is wolverine the only one who owns a vehicle in the school?

Meanwhile, Jean accidentally reaches into Hank’s mind and figures out that he liked her in the past (which I’m not even exactly sure was true if you look back at the original run, in fact a few panels pointed out that he was very sexist...unless he was putting on a front. Plus he even had a girlfriend at that point or was at least looking at other women. Though it seems like bendis never cares about continuity anyway and sometimes it works...and sometimes it doesn't.). Anyway, she visits the past hank to go have a chat. He is furious that she read his mind and screams that he belongs with Scott. However, the past jean points out that SHE is not the one in love with him, her future self is. They have a rather charming kiss that brings a refreshing twist to the series. The cover actually delivered this time! (Besides the fact that cyclops isn't watching them and yelling...) This jean doesn't want to be the same as her present self, and neither does Hank (knowing all the mutations he will go through). By the end of the issue, we see jean consider throwing away the marriage certificate. Next time we go into the battle of the atom event!

Overall, this issue was really plucky and fun with some fun teen moments. This really feels like Bendis writing ultimate spider-man if that makes sense. Plus it has one of the newer artists for Ultimate Spider-man. It is more of a fun stand alone issue that continues to build on past Jean’s character. This is a 9/10 for me. I really enjoyed the art and story since it wasn’t hyper tense (where the writing might have mattered more) or ruined by the writing in any way. It almost reminds me a bit of Scott Pilgrim a bit, in the sense that it is a personal light and cartoonish story. I want to clarify that his style does not fit the series as a whole, but for a stand-alone (I would almost call it filler) story it works very well.