X-Men #6

By Brian Wood, David Lopez, Laura Martin, & Matt Milla

“Cyclops was right!” This was a popular phrase muttered by many during the crossover Avengers Vs. X-Men. Fans once again have the opportunity to choose sides in this crossover as well, since Wolverine wants to send the X-Men from the past home, and Scott wants to help them.

Logan starts to have his doubts about the future X-Men, and he asks Rachel to take a peek into their minds, and what she finds isn’t satisfactory. There is an attack, the remaining young X-Men are rounded up, and there really aren’t too many left standing. There is hope on the horizon though; Scott and a new batch of future X-Men have to have a plan, right?

Brian Wood brought Ultimate X-Men back into relevance with his run, and he is doing a pretty solid job on his all female X-book. Wood excels in this issue because he’s very good at developing characters, and although most of these people have been around for decades, Wood still seems to make them cool and different. He is also really good at keeping continuity between books, which is sometimes forgotten by some writers. Wolverine is in real jeopardy, as he lies bleeding on the floor because he has lost his healing factor. These are little things that Wood does that make his writing addicting.

The artwork in this book is fitting for the issue. It’s clean and crisp, and being colored by Laura Martin never hurts. Most of Lopez’s panels are well drawn and easy on the eyes too. His battle scenes play out nice, and it’s not hard to figure out what is going on. There is also a bit of humor to it as well; seeing Doop and Gambit stuck in the teachers’ lounge while Doop eats a donut as the battle rages on upstairs is bound to at least make you smile. Good job from a rising artist.

As Battle of the Atom begins to unfold, the pieces begin to fall into place. The fate of the original 5 X-Men hangs in the balance, and fans may soon have the chance to heckle the Wolverine faithful by saying “Cyclops was right!”