By Brian Michael Bendis, Chris Bachalo & Tim Townsend
As promised by Bendis, this month we get a solo Magneto story. Erik attends a rally/protest for mutants. He has thoughts about killing the entire crowd; this of course makes him drool. He runs into Dazzler who tells him that there is something going on in Madripoor. This gets Erik’s attention, and he has to go down there, but what he finds isn’t what he expected.
There really isn’t a whole lot left to say about Brian Michael Bendis’ writing. He has the ability to take on a series and make it a best seller and a quality book. In this issue he does a phenomenal job with Magneto. Seeing him drool over his daydream, to his fight in the Madripoor bar are all signs that Magneto is still every bit as complex as he’s always been. Seeing Erik’s reaction to certain residents in Madripoor is also pretty priceless. Bendis is essentially setting up the Magneto solo series here, but this was another fine issue from him.
Chris Bachalo is on the art duties this issue and does a decent job. There are some great panels, like Magneto’s dream about destroying the rally, and there are some rough ones too like Erik walking into the bar or downtown Madripoor. Bachalo is a hit or miss artist and he has done fairly well on this title, but occasionally you’ll get odd panels without details. He’s an artist that you either love or hate, there really isn’t an in-between for his work. The colors by Tim Townsend are good as well, and the texture to Bachalo’s art always makes it an interesting read.
Uncanny X-Men has been focusing on single characters for several issues, which is fine, but there should be more team interaction in this book. The loss of Magneto could hurt, but if Bendis and Bachalo get back to using all the other characters, it will be fine. This was a good stand alone issue, but would like to see more of the team dynamic in the future.
