Uncanny X-Men #20

By Brian Michael Bendis, Chris Bachalo & Tim Townsend

Uncanny X-Men is starting to heat up as Scott’s team has been getting attacked by sentinels. The mystery begins to deepen as Cyclops has a nice chat with Maria Hill, but what she knows, or doesn’t know, is surprising as well. The list of suspects isn’t getting any shorter and Cyclops’ team is running out of time.

This was a really well written issue by Bendis; he moved the plot along nicely and gave the readers some great character moments. As with every Bendis book, there is always some humor and the interaction between Scott and Maria hill was pretty classic. Bendis is also doing a very good job of crafting a mystery as to who is actually behind the attacks. A highlight of the issue is when Cyclops and Magik teleport to the Jean Grey school and get greeted by insults and barbs from some of their former teammates. Bendis writes Beast and Storm perfectly and continues to let Scott be the sympathetic character in the X-Universe. As is the norm in comics, Bendis once again leaves us with a cliffhanger that will make the next 30 days a little bit harder to get through.

Chris Bachalo is the artist for this issue and he has some good panels, but he also has some misses this issue. Certain characters look very slim (no pun intended) and disproportionate at times in this issue, especially towards the end. While there have been some knocks against Bachalo’s art for being a bit confusing at times, there really aren’t many panels that confuse with the exception of the last couple. All that being said, Bachalo does draw Scott very well in the middle of the book when he is talking to the troops about their plans in the cerebro room. Bachalo does his best work when he is able to draw close panels and give faces detail. This issue was drawn alright but could definitely have been better. Bachalo is capable of better work than what we saw here and hopefully he’ll get back on track next month.

Things are starting to get crazy for the revolution team. Bendis is giving the fans some payoff this month and the plot is beginning to thicken for Scott and his crew. Uncanny X-Men is starting to reclaim the throne as the flagship X-Men book and Brian Michael Bendis is pulling the strings. With a little bit better art from Bachalo, this book will trump all others in the X-Line.