All-New X-Men #36

By Brian Michael Bendis, Mahmud Asrar and Marte Gracia

The All-New X-Men are still trying to find their way back home as they team up with the Ultimate X-Men. Dr. Doom is now standing in their way as they try to find the new mutant who accidentally made their worlds collide.

There are a lot of people who criticize Brian Michael Bendis for many things, but all that aside, the man can write a ton of different characters. As this story concludes one of the potential plots Bendis leaves us with involves Beast possibly getting a bit darker. With a cast this large there will be characters that don’t get enough panel time, but Bendis does his best to give everyone at least something to do. Iceman continues to be written very well under Bendis’ pen as well. This is the way fans want the character to be, as opposed to the punk that is currently going around in the X-Books. The one negative thing about the issue is that it felt a bit rushed at the end due to Bendis focusing more on the interaction of the different universes.

The art this issue is handled by Mahmud Asrar with colors by Marte Gracia. As stated before, Asrar has really improved as this series has gone on, but he still has some very misshapen panels where characters faces look odd. There is also a panel of Teen Jean using her psychic power to get into Doom’s mind that doesn’t look right. It could be that the colors are too dark and Jean’s powers look like they’re cutting into her head or it could be the way it’s drawn. With the exception of those few gripes the pencils are well done. The colors are pretty good as well by Gracia as he takes full advantage of some of the darker worlds the team travels too. His shading looks great in these panels and he continues to be a great compliment to Asrar’s pencils.

All-New X-Men is still behind schedule, but Bendis has put together a pretty good story arc here. There was a ton of expectation for this arc and they may not have been met by some, but if you take it for the fun journey it was, you’ll have a good time. Mahmud Asrar continues to grow on this title and can honestly become a very good artist in the future, but he still has some work to do. All in all, this wasn’t an earth shattering story, but it was an enjoyable one.