By Brian Michael Bendis, Brandon Peterson, Brent Anderson and Israel Silva
All-New X-Men is a book that is getting a huge boost in girl power these days with X-23 joining the book. Kitty and Jean are more or less becoming the breakout characters of this series and X-23 is a bonafide scene stealer.
The purifiers have the All-New X-Men. Stryker wants to kill them as soon as possible, but he is waiting for A.I.M to arrive. Dr. Monica Rappaccini arrives and talks Stryker out of killing most of them because there could be severe consequences. Not all of the mutants are safe though, Kitty Pryde can be killed…and then all hell breaks loose.
Brian Michael Bendis has done some great things for the X-Men. This title is one that had a lot of skepticism surrounding it when it was announced, but has honestly been one of the best books on the shelves. This issue he continued his trend of quality story telling. It was nice to see people questioning the killing of the O5, this would create a humongous problem in the Marvel Universe. Seeing Cyclops develop a bit of a sense of humor is pretty cool too. For those who said he was too stiff of a character, here is a chance to get reacquainted with a fresh new take. The slowly building relationship between X-23 and Scott is also very interesting; it continues to be one of the more anticipated parts of the book.
The beginning of this issue is an homage to God Loves, Man Kills and it was actually drawn by Brent Anderson. It looks gorgeous and really sets the tone for the issue. Brandon Peterson’s art is, as always, very good. After the flashback scene, Peterson takes over and his art resembles Immonen’s a little bit. As the issue goes on it would seem like Peterson gets back to his own style. He has some excellent panels in this issue. The X-Men’s escape from captivity is wonderfully drawn for every character, and the last panel is awesome as well. There is a small gripe that in one panel: X-23 has red hair as opposed to her normal black. This is an error by the colorist and should never happen in a big company book. Other than that, great work, a wonderful flashback sequence.
This book is set for it’s second crossover as they face off against the Guardians of the Galaxy. Bendis is really cooking with this series and the future only seems to get brighter every month.
