Uncanny X-Men #21

By Brian Michael Bendis, Chris Bachalo and Tim Townsend

Uncanny X-Men has been picking up some steam and moving along quite nicely as of late. Brian Michael Bendis has been playing around with some different mutants and been stirring up the drama. This month we pick up where we left off, with Cyclops blasting Beast and losing control of his powers.

One of the things that Bendis has a knack for is interesting story telling. Readers have definitely been treated to that lately as Cyclops and Magik visit former friends at the Jean Gray School. Bendis had a golden opportunity here to write the cast of the Wolverine and the X-Men and he really did them justice. Storm actually seemed like the strong character that she is, as opposed to being wallpaper. The most memorable scene this issue though should be the Magneto/Dazzler panels, which will no doubt make fan boys smile. Bendis continues his streak of good issues as this will be one of the best reads of the week.

This month the art takes a bit of a dip as Bachalo turns in a sub par issue. There are some confusing panels that are really hard to figure out what is happening in them and then there are disproportioned characters too. These things take away from the storytelling and make it less enjoyable. That’s not to say that there aren’t good things in the issue, Bachalo draws the scene with Emma and her girls very nicely and there is a cool flashback scene between Magneto and Blob that is a sight to see. Overall though, the art could have been better.

Bendis has been building up to the mysterious identity of who is behind the bubble mask and we may get the answer soon. Brian is riding a nice hot streak of quality issues for quite some time, which will hopefully continue. Chris Bachalo didn’t have his best issue, but there is nowhere to go but up. He’s very capable of turning in excellent work and hopefully we’ll see it next issue.