Uncanny X-Men #26

By Brian Michael Bendis and Kris Anka

As we continue the Last Will and Testament of Charles Xavier story arc, we start to see people struggle trying to handle some of the news. Uncanny X-Men combines members from both sides of the schism on a mission to carry out Charles’ last request. The fact that some of these members don’t exactly get along is icing on the cake.

This issue was spread out into three different stories. Bendis gives us the main focus, which has Cyclops, Wolverine, Rachel and Storm off to find Matthew Malloy. Then we have the kids at the New Xavier School training in the danger room, followed by S.H.I.E.L.D. trying to come up with ways to fix Malloy situation as well. This issues pace seems a bit too slow, the part that we really want to see involving Cyclops’ team doesn’t get as much panel time as it should. The students get more panel time then they need and shouldn’t be that big of a focus in this arc, but they secure several pages. That being said, Bendis writes an excellent scene where Bobby freaks out about Cyclops, which shows just how much of an immature baby he truly is. The writing of Firestar this issue was absolutely great as well. Through her, Bendis is able to give us an outsider’s view of the crime Scott committed, and it comes off very well written. The panels between Scott and Wolverine are tense as always, and Bendis plays it up very nicely, however we didn’t get enough of it this issue.

The art is done by Kris Anka this issue, and is solid for the most part, but there are a few problems. The first panel we see is of Maria Hill, but she doesn’t look like Maria hill. The way Anka drew her; she comes off looking a bit manly. As the page goes on, she looks normal, but for some reason, she looked off in that first panel. Anka draws a nice looking Cyclops though, and we get a very sweet and shaded panel where the red of his uniform and glasses are prominent. It’s a very cool panel and a style that we could see more of. The students look good in their panel time as Anka shows that he has a pretty good grasp on the underclassmen. Anka does some of his best work this issue on the pages Bobby has his hissy fit. The shading is just right and more importantly, the facial expressions really display the anger inside of Iceman. While this wasn’t a perfect issue, Kris Anka has done some good thing to make it an enjoyable one.

Uncanny X-Men continues to be a good read every month. While there were some problems in the issue, it was overall better than most other books on the rack. Bendis is very good a crafting stories, and while the pacing is a bit slow now, Brian will weave it all together in the end and most likely blow your mind