Magneto (2014) #2

Magneto #2 (2014)

Writer: Cullen Bunn Artist: Gabriel Hernandez

Magneto is hunting down threats to mutantkind and trying to be a lethal protector (not unlike venom in his solo series). He searches for information on the sentinel from the last issue in a homeless community, which reminds him of the nazi ghettos. We get a really neat series of flashbacks to his childhood with gray scale coloring. The coloring and tone make these flashbacks resemble a black and white movie. The series, like I explained in my last review, is more standalone than anything else. It’s not connected to the greater x-men series going on but continues from right after the end of issue 1.

This magneto series is grim and violent, showcasing the villain’s ability for cruelty. In one scene he uses a pile of nails to take out a group of armed men who may be connected to the sentinels. The series is doing a really good job of both characterizing Magneto while also showing off a very dark and brutal side to him. This is the kind of thing that makes villain comics worth reading. Magneto even affirms that he is a monster because he is willing to treat people with the same cruelty that the nazis did.

Keep in mind I am not trying to say magneto is a nazi now! This has become such a fad around the internet lately, saying marvel is making Jewish characters into nazis. He says himself that he has become evil and is using their methods! Of course, he’s not a literal nazi, that would make no sense!

There’s also a sub-plot showing that magneto has a fan following now. They have shirts that say “Magneto was right” which I’m pretty sure is some kind of meme. Not sure where that will go, but it’s an interesting idea for sure.

Overall I’d continue to give this series a 10/10. It feels like a solid story that has great dramatic moments as well as solid artwork that has very few errors. It hasn’t disappointed me yet.

X-Men #5 (2013)

X-men (2013) #5 [May 5 2017]

Battle of the Atom Part 3

Written by: Brian Wood and Art by David Lopez

X-men #5 continues the Battle of the Atom event while having some focus on the theme of this volume of X-Men (Female x-men...x-women? Whatever, you get the point). We get some commentary on the situation by Rachel Summers, who is also from the future but disagrees with the future X-men who want to capture the time-displaced Jean and Scott. She helps the young jean and Scott to escape and find refuge with...the present ’Uncanny X-Men’ rogue team. Now the past Cyclops will meet the present Cyclops and his allies again for help. This was the whole point of All New X-men from the start, after all.

I actually think this is a great way to tie the books together while continuing the ongoing narrative of the crossover. For reference, the next book in the crossover is Uncanny X-men, which follows Cyclops’ team. It is kind of forcing the plot to follow the sequence of books, but it’s not a bad way to handle tie-ins (having the characters move from one team to another). There is a nice flow and pace to the story in general. Some people would argue that the crossover took away from the female-led x-men book by forcing this crossover story into it, but I feel like the focus of this book (the female x-men) still had an impact on the crossover. It’s better than completely ignoring those characters altogether when they are meant to be the focus of this book that happens to be crossing over.

We find out future Jean Grey wears the Xorn mask to contain her powers and that future Xavier uses inbuilt Cerebro tech to track mutants. It’s interesting to see these bits of x-men tech be re-appropriated in different ways.

It should also be noted that Bendis wrote the first two issues whereas Brian Wood writes this issue since he regularly writes this series. If that’s better or worse will depend on your opinion of Bendis’ writing.

The character focus that Wood provides is really nice, especially for scenes that show the dynamic between Scott and Jean. Drawing from the original nostalgic timeline, it’s important to remember that they eventually became a couple for a reason, and seeing them being forced to reevaluate their lives based on future knowledge is interesting. How would you feel as a teenager if you knew you were hanging out with your future wife (who would later die twice!). As they point out in the issue, it’s a big complication for the young x-men.   

Besides some cool moments (Like jubilee making the comment about having to adapt to having a child) nothing stood out to me as being super impressive, but I didn’t really hate the issue either It’s slightly above average.

Score: 6.8/10

All New X-men #16

Review Date: 5/13/16

All New X-men #16 (2013)

Battle of the Atom Part 2

Written by Brian Bendis and Art by Stuart Immonen

So we continue with the insane time-travel shenanigans. It wasn’t bad enough that have X-men coming from the past, now they coming back from the future to prevent the present events from happening. The cover looks like a mess to me, all the future characters are scattered around and out of focus and the monstrous Iceman. (“Is that thing supposed to be Iceman?”. I also guessed which one was Deadpool just based on the red outfit and the katanas) It’s a bit too convoluted, and I guess if I zoom in I can see a bit more detail...but it still seems sketchy to me. I don’t hate the cover, I just don’t like it. I actually enjoy the Immonen variant a lot better, but I could say that for a lot of variant covers. 2/5 for me, now let’s move on to the story.

We start with Scott’s team watching the giant sentinels attack from the last issues.Christopher, one of the new X-men who functions as a healer is freaked out by the fact that he brought Cyclops back from being nearly dead...and complains that the x-men are probably so used to being brought back to life that it wouldn’t seem strange to them. It’s an interesting meta-commentary on how much these comics disregard blurring the line between life and death like it’s completely normal. Meanwhile, Future!Deadpool informs the x-men that they are the x-men from the future. I love how the Icemen (because remember, there’s two of them…) has the same reaction to future-iceman that I had. Xavier from the future pops in to explain that he needs to prevent what happened with the time travel in order to help live up to his father. So, your idea to prevent the time-problems was to travel back to the past? I guess that might work...it worked in Days of Future Past, so why not now? (I’m not sure why he says 'grandpa' if Xavier is his father, but maybe it’s a typo). Again, Iceman echoes my sentiment in saying that it’s very irresponsible for them to just travel back in time. Future Kitty gets to hug wolverine, which is very charming. Then Deadpool shoves her out of the way and smooches him, which is hilarious.

Molly Hayes introduces herself as one of the former Runaways, and Wolverine doesn't really care to recognize her. Eventually, Wolverine starts a fight and chaos ensues. Though, he’s quick to point out that somebody was controlling him. We pull back to Jean becoming paranoid about the future x-men and starting the fight in order to escape them. The pair escape in the Blackbird and fly off to who knows where while the present and future watch. Jean finally starts to vent that she doesn't want to go back because she knows that the past professor will erase her memories...and she doesn't want to lose them. The focus shifts back to the Xorn looking person who is with the future X-men. Rachel points out that Xorn (Magneto) killed jean at the school. Then, this Xorn reveals that they are actually Future Jean Grey...who is now trying to stop her younger self. As someone who read the first part of Morrison’s run, I actually like the Xorn mask despite all the goofy plot twists that have gone with it. Next up in the order is X-men #5 (Which means I’ll probably end up reading 1-4, being the completist that I am).

Overall, I actually thought the issue was pretty solid. We get a few good character moments, the art is consistent and does a good job of capturing the characters [I’ve always been a fan of Immonen’s art throughout the series.]. I don’t think I would ask for much more here, this issue is a solid 8/10. I would rate it higher, but I’m not a fan of time-travel stories and I’ve already complained about how some of it doesn't sit right with me. Either way, now we move to the X-men series to see how the event continues. So far I’d say it’s a decent start.

Moon Knight #1 [2014]

Moon Knight Vol.5 #1 (March 2014)

Written by Warren Ellis, Art by Declan Shalvey

While it may seem weird that I’m going to be reviewing Moon Knight #1 from two years ago while the newer edition for All New All Different Marvel is already out, I do have my reasons. This issue was my first exposure to Moon Knight beyond the Moon Knight Saga recap book (2009). I also own one issue from the original Moon Knight Series, but I didn’t understand who Moon Knight was until much later. For some background, most of the modern moon knight series follows up on Bendis’ run from 2011 where Moon Knight’s psychotic tendencies are really put on full display. The series following, including the 2016 series, further explore the psychological side to Moon Knight, adding in more hallucinatory sequences and explanations for why he is having his breakdowns.

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I normally start with the cover, and I think this one is pretty good. Moon Knight’s face, large and intimidating, in white while the logo (a moon shape used for the 2nd O in the title) is shown underneath in black. It’s a simple, but effective cover. I’d give it a 7.5/10. It’s a good cover for an introductory issue for sure.

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The new series begins with Moon Knight returning to new york after moving over to LA. It is really annoying to me when some of these heroes will randomly move over to the east coast. In his last series, under Bendis, Moon Knight “spoke” to and used gadgets based on Cap, Wolverine, and Spidey...but it seems like he’s moved on from that phase. He’s quite aware now himself that something must be wrong with his head. The moon God Khonshu has four aspects, and Marc has always had four personalities at some point, including either moon knight or himself alongside others. He likes to wear white so that people will see him coming, wow, that’s pretty badass. At this point he’s working alongside the police and I now see why people compare him to Batman. Speaking of being a detective, Mr. Knight figures that a local killer is hiding underground...so, being crazy, he decides to go down after him. After he defeats a ex-soldier, we see that before returning to New York, Marc tried to get some counseling. Here we receive a more in-depth explanation that puts Marc’s multiple personalities into a more supernatural mold rather than just a simple psychological evaluation like DID. The issue ends with Marc literally sitting down to face his other personalities.

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The issue itself packs in a great introduction, and the fantastic colors + art really sell the book with this sharp sort of horrific style that really gives the entire thing a smooth feel while also being very grim at points (with images of shadow and skulls, sometimes blood and guts). It’s a very visceral book and I look forward to seeing what comes next now that the character has been firmly re-introduced. I hope to follow this character through this series and beyond into his newer series as well.

The entire book is easily a 9/10 for me. Very few flaws if any and a great start, but it’s not a masterpiece.

X-Men: Battle of the Atom #1

X-Men: Battle of the Atom #1 by Brian Bendis

Artists include (For the whole event):

Frank Cho, Stuart Immonen, Chris Bachalo, David Lopez, Giuseppe Camuncoli

The cover is really an interesting piece with all the contrasting colors and whatnot. I don’t really get why Storm and Wolverine get blank eyes where all the new characters at the top (one of them actually reminds me of Xorn) do have them. So it’s almost three covers combined together, and it makes it look almost a bit disjointed. Overall though, it does catch the eye and show off the cast in a colorful way. 3.5/5.

We open with Illiana (Magick) jumping into the future, which is never a good idea! We see a group of heroes (?) fighting Sentinels. Lemme see how to react to this….uh….

-A blue demon with a gattling gun

-A Monstrous looking beastial Iceman who kinda looks like a solidified yeti

-The Xorn looking guy shooting energy blasts

-Deadpool, looking a lot older with black glasses, is he blind? He looks right out of Old Man Logan or something.

This second page looks really cool honestly, especially seeing these neat new characters. I have no problem with them introducing new x-men characters and whatnot, as long as they remain interesting. I’ve seen some people complain about all these teen mutants in Uncanny and Wolverine and X-men, but I think it’s just as fun to meet new characters as long as they are well written. I read the NYX miniseries about a teen with Chronokinesis and it was a really awesome book, even if it was a non-popular mutant. The writer and character development is what matters.

We then cut to a rebellious punk mutant with piercings and a star on her face riding mutant dinosaurs. Honestly, this entire book so far is screaming to me “This is why I love comics!!”

The X-men dive into action, literally from the sky. The x-men try to fight the monsters, and Jean uses her telepathy to figure out this villain’s backstory (in a series of visual panels). Just when you think things can’t get worse, the present sentinels show up! Kitty uses her power to move all of them out of the way, but the sentinels still cause massive destruction.

At this point, the Uncanny X-men show up, including the displaced Angel. They decide to work together and spend a few panels taking them out, and afterwards the woman who started this whole thing decides to give up. Younger Scott gets blasted at least twice and almost dies (I actually wouldn’t mind if he did), but the new healing mutant (Christopher Muse) from Cyke’s team saves him. There’s also this neat blur effect as the stress builds, which looks partly interesting and partly strange. Looking at the plot summary, apparently this also represents that reality is destabilizing.

Here’s something that doesn't make sense. When younger scott almost dies, the older scott ceases to exist. However, since this younger scott is from another timeline/universe, so how would killing him kill the present scott? Aren’t they supposed to be separate? Bendis seriously can’t follow how most of this time-travel stuff works, but I don’t blame him...it’s confusing.

The X-men decide that, after seeing this, that they need to send the original x-men back right away because they’ll cause a problem. Though technically this argument has already been going on for like a dozen issues...so I’d think they’d just let them stay even if it kills the current Scott (wouldn’t that solve a bunch of problems and almost be a good thing?).

Suddenly, the time machine goes off and...the Future X-men from the start step through! I like the designs for the future x-men, and I’ll probably talk about them more next time.

Overall, the art in this issue is top-notch, but I feel like the story is making very little sense to me. How is killing one version of cyclops going to screw up the whole universe and kill his 616 self? I almost want to try to find another example in marvel where the same thing has happened with no problem, I’m sure there is one. Overall I’m giving this issue a 7/10, and I want to check out the rest of the event and meet the future x-men. Next time is AN-XM #16 (which I still need to pick up), so I’ll review another book for the next review.

X-Factor #12 (1987)

X-Factor #12 [1987] by Louis Simonson and pencils by Marc Silvestri

Mutant Massacre is over! But before I start the comic, I should give some background on Boom Boom since I skipped over her appearances in X-force because they were horrible. Teenager Tabitha Smith never got along with her parents at home, being an explosive mutant and all. Tabitha ran away from home to join Xavier's School for mutants. She first appeared in Secret Wars where she befriended the cosmic Beyonder, before demanding to be returned to earth. This brings us up to speed to the X-factor encounter. Her power is the ability to create plasma “bombs”. They can also be set to explode at a certain time or be created in a larger size.

Note: I'm reading from the black and white Essential X-factor volume 1.

Cover: I really love this cover: Great text, great background, and great action, showcasing Boom Boom at the front, plus nice colors! [found the color page online]. A total 4/5 for me. Most X-factor covers are awesome!

Page 1-2: 

The comic opens with a bang! (or should I say boom, since the comic is focused on Boom Boom and even the title of the story is “Boom Boom Boom!”) Angel is seen straining on a full page shot, injured and angry “No, you won't cut off my wings!” I'm pretty sure they are going to do that though. Jean and Scott defend him, explaining how his wings are important to him and have helped him save many people [most recently the morlocks during the massacre].

Page 3:The doctor is explains how angel's wings are broken apart and that they have no idea what to do about it. There is also infection setting in, so the only option is to cut them off. In a massively bleak panel, angel says he'd rather die than have his wings removed. Dang!

Page 4: 

Meanwhile, at the X-factor complex, we see the morlocks (listed below) hanging out with the X-men who saved them. Iceman and beast man the complex while the others are at the hospital. Skids and Rusty [the trainees] are also seen.

As for the surviving morlocks, we have Caliban, the mutant detector and later super-mutant powered by apocalypse. Leech, the power-nullifying mutant kid who is still alive. Tar Baby has the power to secrete sticky stuff from his skin, and no real info is available on him. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tar_Baby_(comics)]. Ape is next, and his power doesn't really make sense to me (object morphing?), plus we already have Beast. Ape and Tar Baby were later killed in a mutant concentration camp headed by the weapon X project. Erg seems pretty awesome, he absorbs energy around him and shoots it from his eyes. He is also still alive. The last one to note is Masque from the last few issues.

Page 5-6: 

Caliban says that he's scanned the Morlock's alley and that no one remains alive, one of the others corrects him by saying that they are the survivors [it also points to X-men #213 where others are shown to be alive]. Meanwhile, Boom Boom calls X-factor from 44th and Broadway and tells them how the vanisher tried to use her for evil. (I point out the location since I actually found that it's the location of that giant toys R us in new york. In the comic she calls from Fun O Rama. That's pretty cool.). Boom Boom then explodes the phone box and takes the money inside.

Page 7-8: 

Back at the complex, the Morlocks complain that it's probably a prank call and that they might not even have any room for another mutant. Caliban offers to help them track down the mutant, but bobby and hank turn him down. Meanwhile, at the hospital jean hears about an apartment bombing that occurred in new mutants #46. Sara Grey [jean's sister] speaks out about the tragedy. Jean cries out since the last time she heard of her was around the time of the phoenix saga. Scott also points out that his wife hasn't contacted him lately either.

Page 9-10:Scott and Jean continue to lump on the family drama. Jean also points out that her telepathic powers are gone, I'm pretty sure she still has telekinesis though. Meanwhile at the arcade, vanisher tries to keep boom-boom happy in order to convince her to steal more money. This is honestly kind of creepy since the vanisher seriously comes off as a creepy old man trying to get boom boom to do what he wants...

Page 11-12:

Moving on, X-factor arrives and boom-boom tries to convince them it was all a mistake while vanisher hides away. Boom [as I’m sick of typing that twice] slips a sneaky bomb right on bobby's neck. Hank and bobby chase her through the arcade. It's harder to recognize the characters in black and white to be honest.

Page 13: 

Boom regroups with vanisher, who tells her to just blow up the chasing mutant hunters...not a bad idea. Now that I think about it, does vanisher even have his powers of teleportation at this point? According to wikipedia, vanisher never lost his powers (even after M-day), so why doesn’t he just teleport away? Well...he does pop (yes, that's the sound effect) out of hank's hands. They actually recognize him too! Boom also escapes into the crowd.

Page 14: 

Bobby and Hank change into their costumes and prepare to track her down, assuming she's an evil mutant. They hear another explosion in the distance and comment that while Boom has control over her powers, she lacks self-control.

Page 15: 

Meanwhile, in Cleveland, Ohio... [what the?] Apocalypse recruits a bratty mutant girl with the power to turn organic things to dust. She becomes the horseman Famine. She is the third horseman to be chosen, and only one remains...

Page 16-18: 

Jean and Scott find Sara's house, and quickly break inside. The house has been rigged to explode by some anti-mutant terrorists (much like the apartment bombing). They fumble out of the explosion unharmed. Angel offers to transfer all his money into X-factor so that they can continue to do good while the two other x-men continue chasing Boom.

Page 19-23:

Boom smashes her way into a restaurant and the X-factor guys chase her out the back. She fools beast and iceman with a fake bomb and shows that she wants to negotiate with them. She explains her backstory. They offer to let her join X-factor and she accepts. On the last page, Scott explains that he needs to go find his wife, who he brought up many times in the issue.

I really feel like there are way too many sub-plots going on, and even disregarding those...there are still crossovers and interesting events going on in other books. This issue gets an 8/10 from me since I still think boom-boom is pretty cool.

X-Factor #11 (1986)

X-Factor #11, By Louise and Walter Simonson

This is the last issue of X-factor to tie into the Mutant Massacre event, and the 2nd to last part of the event in all.

Remember those old-school 80's and 90's events that were still super-overblown but not insanely hard to follow and pointless? I wish Marvel would scale back on the events these days. Hopefully Secret Wars is the last one for a few years.

Marvel has a really hard time digitizing the original X-factor series (I don't know why). So the only way to get the comic is in print or via the new digital comic shop [this issue is on there]. I'm reading from the black and white X-Factor Essentials Volume 1. Some of the issues are still missing from the digital catalogue.

Cover: 

How can I not love a cover of Cyclops in mid-air spazzing out with his eye beam. Also, it's on a dock or something. The background figures just look weird here and the villain’s hair is just...bizarre.

A 4/5 for me.

Page 1: So we start off on a really cluttered title page.

I should explain that morlocks are basically underground mutants who live in the sewers. The whole purpose of this event was to have the marauders (a group of evil mutants) kill a bunch of the morlocks (Hence the "mutant massacre"). We see Iceman and Beast get ambushed from above by a group of morlocks known as the Tunnelers. Upon looking at their lineup, I can't believe there is a mutant named “Blow-Hard”. Apparently, he can suck in air and then shoot it out as a gale force wind. That's not a bad power for someone with such a cooky name. Apparently all these characters were created for this issue. They also die in this issue, bummer! Considering that, I'm not going to bother describing them all.

Page 2-3: Leech (A friendly little green morlock who has the power to negate other people's powers) stops the attacking Tunnelers in their tracks, disabling their powers. They attack X-factor thinking that they are the bad guys. Leech then runs away so that X-factor can use their own powers.

Page 4: Cyclops, Jean, and Artie walk through the same set of tunnels, still separated from the group. Since I didn't read power pack, it's nice to see that all that happened was that Iceman and Beast and the power pack saved Caliban and Leech and are carrying them back to X-factor. It also explains how Thor appeared and saved Angel from the marauders.

Page 5-6: Artie shows a psychic image (he is mute, and this is how he communicates) that angel wanted Jean to see. It communicates Warren's love for her. Obviously this makes cyclops a bit mad...plus this love triangle is dragged back out again, it's been there from the start of the X-men #1! After hearing some noises, Cyclops is able to regroup with the other team and blast the crap out of the Tunnelers.

Page 7-8: Eventually the tunnelers realize X-factor (they recognize them as the mutant freedom fighter alias, the X-terminators) is not evil. Cyclops offers to shelter the Tunnelers in their complex, but they refuse. The next page also recaps that X-factor is seen as a mutant hunting organization and that the media found out that Angel was funding X-factor.

Page 9: Some fun facts about Berzerker that should be noted here: He has electric abilities and he can also tap into radio waves [using the electromagnetic spectrum]. He is the leader of the Tunnelers. He was also chosen to be in the X-men Evolution TV show since he was a interesting “bad boy character”.

Caliban also wakes up in Beast's arms. Caliban is a white skinned mutant who has the ability to sense other nearby mutants. After X-factor contacts their complex, Berzerker realizes who they really are.

Page 10-11: Angel is lifted into an ambulance. He was badly injured by the marauders in the previous issues. Protestors are now swarming outside the X-factor building. Even though Berzerker learns that X-factor is good, he still sees them as evil mutant hunters. The tunnelers sneak out of the building, walking past the police who are trying to control the situation with the protestors.

Page 12-14: The mutants make it to the pier before they are shot at by a group of armed thugs. Berzerker runs up and shocks one guy in the face. Meanwhile, Angel is being rushed into a hospital. Jean and Scott see a news report about the Tunnelers being attacked and run into action!

Page 15: In an interlude, Apocalypse (the villain) arrives at a hospital. He recruits an injured mutant who has the ability to create explosions, teleporting him away. Abraham is recruited as the Horseman of War. (the horseman of pestilence was recruited in uncanny x-men).

Page 16-19: Jean and cyclops arrive at the pier as police start shooting at the tunnelers. Jean swoops down and deflects the bullets. Cyclops tries to calm Berzerker down, and when he refuses...Scott fires a warning shot. Scaleface [a tunneler who transforms into a dragon] tries to reason with the police, but she is shot dead. Berzerker starts going...well...berserk. He starts zapping at everything, even cyclops.

Cyclops blasts back and berzerker flies into the water. The water ends up short-circuiting his powers.

Masque [who has the ability to reshape people's faces for better or worse] is the only one who survives. He is carried back to the complex. Much to my surprise, Masque is still alive in the current comics.

Page 20: In a second interlude, a group of poor mutants are being talked to by Vanisher [as far as I know, he was a villain from X-men #2 who used teleportation to steal things, I read that issue. Not sure where else he showed up.] one of the mutants, Boom Boom [of new-mutants/x-force fame] tries to blow him up, only to fail. Vanisher wants to use these mutants to steal things, but Boom doesn’t want to be involved.

As if this wasn’t enough of a cool issue, the doctors in the hospital report that the only choice they have is to TAKE OFF ANGEL'S WINGS!!

I give this issue a really awesome 9.5 out of 10. It is almost perfect for me! I like all the tunnelers [except that stupid Blow-Hard]. The only problem is that they all DIE! (besides masque, but that's not the point.) Berzerker was a really cool character and I feel really bad that he just fell into some water and died.

A really cool issue that ends of a horrific cliffhanger, we'll see what happens next some other time in X-Factor #12.

Generation-X #4: Christmas Special? (1995)

I picked up the next generation-X from the comic store [I own #1-3], and so far I really like this series. It's neat to read what was coming out the year I was born. The highlight for me is the Chris Bachalo art. He is the same artist who is working on Wolverine and the X-men. The writing by Scott Lobdell isn't too bad most of the time, and overall this is a neat series to read if not just for the art.

I keep forgetting to pick up issue -1! It's a bit harder to find.

I'll start with the cover. This issue is the so-called “Holiday Spectacular” and the cover is kinda lame compared to the last 3. It is arrangement of snapshots and previews for events in the comic. Even though it's simple and fun, I still think this cover is a 3.5/5. It doesn’t live up to the other awesome covers that I loved, and it's boring overall.

Page 1/inner cover:

oh my god! The inner cover is an ad for the live-action street fighter movie! :D that's funny.

Anyway, focus...

there's a little elf hanging above the page narrating the story. It names all the mutants, and I’ll talk about them here.

M has a whole bunch of powers from flight to super-strength, a grab-bag pretty much. Similar to Captain Marvel, I think.

Skin has the mutant power of...having a ton of extra skin, gross...Skin was also known as Angelo. Angelo was actually killed in that one issue of x-men that Linkara reviewed from Chuck Austin’s X-men, and that’s where I remember him from.

Sync has the power to “sync” up and mimic other people's superpowers, it seems to be based on an aura.

Finally, Jubilee...who really needs no introduction. For reference, her power is creating firework-like energy bursts. After Curse of the Mutants, jubilee got turned into a vampire [yes, really] and is currently working on her own personal life.

The leaders of the young mutant team are Banshee and Emma Frost.

Back to the plot: The mutants are hidden inside a truck headed towards Maine as a man with a gun approaches. I really like the way the snow effects are done here. The page edges are also decorated with colorful bells, very cool!

Page 2-5: For some reason the page is labeled as “page 4” by an elf holding a sign at the bottom of the page. It's still a cool page marker. Banshee [AKA Sean Cassidy] is greeted by a group of armed policeman as he drives into a roadblock. He says the students from the Massachusetts Xavier School are on a field trip.

Turns out that the sign at the bottom is leading to page 4, not actually page 4. Also, the credits are given here with a cool Christmas time as well as labeling it “Generation X-mas”. Nice touch.

The police are also aiming a gun at a local school. They are ordering a mutant to come out.

Inside you see Eliot, someone who actually looks like a realistic type of mutant hunchback. He just wants the police to leave him alone and learn at the school. The public doesn’t seem too willing to help him though.

Page 6: The story shifts to the Xavier School, and I'd like to add that the narration boxes are a bit weird. I think the narrator is supposed to be an elf or something. Overall they don't really ruin the issue. Also this page has a decorative border...I guess since it's a different place? Anyway, Penance is sitting in a bio-chamber hanging out with butterflies. Penance isn't really a person, it's actually some kind of armor that is being possessed. She uses sharp claws and spikes and has diamond hard skin. She is apparently present at Avengers Academy nowadays.

Page 7-8: Chamber arrives to greet Penance using psychic communication [seems like he wouldn't be able to talk since his face is full of energy stuff]. Chamber's power is that he basically has psionic energy engulfing his chest and face. It also seems to change color with mood, since it is purplish-blue in this panel while it is normally orange. Also in the base is husk and emma, who I know enough about already. It should be known that when the x-men broke apart husk and chamber both joined wolverine at his school, while emma went with cyclops. He was most recently shown in the new X-men Legacy.

Emma mentions that Paige [Husk] is very similar to her when she was young.

Page 9-10: Back to the bell-like page borders! As the police talk about Eliot the monster, a bad guy of some type is hiding in an ice cream truck and plotting something. The truck was in the background for a few scenes. Meanwhile, Banshee knocks a patrolman out with a sonic frequency and watches the scene from the rooftop with Sync. I like how the comic mixes these elves into the panel layout. One moment they're holding a panel and in another they're sleeping off one panel. Banshee has Sync try to copy Elliot’s power to see what his abilities are.

Page 11-14: The next page shows that Skin and M have disabled the police SWAT team. Speaking of the police, the officer explains how he doesn’t want anyone to be “contaminated” by the mutant inside the school. What a jerk. Jubilee acts as a scout, hiding in the crowd. Eliot yells back at the police that he isn't being treated fairly. Sync locks unto an aura, but he reports that it is not coming from the school...it's coming from the ice cream truck.

Page 15-18: This villain in really heavy armor bursts out of the truck in a full page shot. He is the “Orphan Maker”.

Apparently, he makes orphans out of mutants because he thinks that parents who abandon their mutant children should be killed. As the armed attacker shoots at Elliot’s parents, banshee unleashes a sonic blast! He stops the bullets, which seem to be made out of the villain’s bones. M then smashes into the attacker with super-strength. M says that according to the records, this guy is a mutant hunter. Skin then jumps on top of the orphan maker, making it hard for him to see.

Page 19-23:

Meanwhile, Jubilee sneaks into the school and tries to force Eliot to calm down with her tiny fireworks.

In a moment ripped straight from Of Mice and Men, it seems that the massive Eliot has already crushed his teacher after holding him. Well technically all the commotion gave him a heart attack...but whatever. Skin's uh, skin ends up jamming the orphan maker's armor and banshee actually lets him GET AWAY. Let it also be noted that Angelo has problems using his powers since it gives him headaches controlling the extra skin.

Oh and guess what! Eliot isn't even a mutant [in the x-men sense], he's just deformed. Looks like I was right on that one.

Page 24:Jubilee chimes in with a promo for Generation neXt, part of the Age of Apocalypse crossover. It replaced this title for four issues. Apparently all the X-titles were replaced like this, and I collected some examples like X-Man and Gambit and the Xternals, ect..

The issue gets a 5/10 for me. The narration and strange borders are more distracting than interesting, and half the characters are only given 2 pages of screen time. Plus the villain gets away and a civilian is dead. Don't forget that the main focus of the issue is barely a mutant (I'll forgive that). Anyway, the idea is that this issue is totally pointless overall. Nothing really went down and besides the art and snow effects. Plus strange page borders and annoying elf narrators. I didn't really find anything good in it compared to the other issues.

I'm going to be reading generation neXt digitally, just to see what's up.