- Written by Brian Michael Bendis
- Art by Stuart Immonen
- Cover by Stuart Immonen
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With my review of issue#28 (here) I talked about how the writers of this book have almost written themselves into a complicated time travel, alternate future corner which is going to be incredibly difficult to write their way out of. Now here we are discussing issue #29 and the writers are beginning to do exactly that by moving the story in to a final conclusion in the battle with young Xavier’s Brotherhood first introduced in the ‘Battle of the Atom‘ arc.
What the writers are essentially admitting is that the ‘Battle of the Atom‘ story never really came to an end with its last part and has actually become part of the lifeblood of the ‘All-New X-Men‘ title.
We ended issue #28 with all of the main characters in some serious peril as Xavier’s had taken over the hive mind of the Stepfords and was pitting all the characters against each other whilst Jean fought for control.
That battle continues through much of this issue but with Xavier’s power weakened his control on the other mutants in his Brotherhood is finally broken leaving him in the custody of Maria Hill and S.H.I.E.L.D.
The artwork is the standout aspect of this issue, the level of craziness that Immonen, Grawbadger and Garcia to the melee scenes is Marvel at its finest and this issue in particular has some brilliant action set pieces.
Where other comics lie within the constraints of their colour schemes ‘All-New X-Men‘ is all over the place from bold pinks and blues during some of the hive mind scenes to deep reds and browns in some of the scenes in the school. Then there are those moments when skin tones and colours are normalised and he book takes on a very realistic feel. Although it might sounds like the colourists don’t know what angle they are going for it works well together and makes the comics feel more like an episode from an animated series than something you would find in a book.
The story continues to be driven by the need to get way from the ‘Battle of the Atom‘ story. At present it is the single most defining arc of this title and as such the characters are struggling to move on. The young X-Men are still looking for a real purpose to live in this future world of theirs, e present day X-Men are still struggling with being the parental figures to their young counterparts.
At the moment the most drive and purpose is coming from the future Brotherhood X-Men and their unrelenting mission to wipe out the past.
As the story heads towards its conclusion it has at least begun to simplify which is possibly the writers way of acknowledging that things have become to complicated in the last few issues.
There’s a nice coda to the issue featuring Angel and Laura which is a sign of hopeful times to come which lightens the mood after so much intense action.
I sound like I’m complaining but this is still currently my favourite Marvel title and the on,y one which sits on my subscription list and should be a must-read for X-Men fans.
3 stars
