Uncanny X-Men #600

By Brian Michael Bendis, Sara Pichelli, Chris Bachalo, Frazer Irving, Mahmud Asrar, Stuart Immonen, Kris Anka, David Marquez, Marte Gracia, and Jason Keith

To say Uncanny X-Men #600 is late is a bit of an understatement. This issue has been delayed so many times, it’s hard to keep track anymore. Today we finally get to see the finale of Brian Michael Bendis’ run and possibly have some light shined on what the heck is happening with many of the X-Men characters.

There were high expectations for Brian Michael Bendis’ run on Uncanny X-Men. As the series went on, many of those expectations didn’t seem to be met. This issue isn’t anything that will shatter the X-verse; there is good and bad here. The book is broken up between the “trial” of Hank Mccoy and some side stories of characters catching up or enjoying some down time. There really isn’t much of a trial per se, but just an airing of grievances. Bendis handled this part of the issue decently. Storm was written well as the moderator for the so-called trial. She wasn’t as harsh as she could have been, but Bendis writes her nice and firm. The section with the two Bobby’s was well written, but for any long-term fan, it was probably cringe worthy. Bendis has an interesting point on the situation between the two, but if you’re an Iceman fan, you’re going to hate it regardless. One other section that stood out was the Cyclops revolution. You may feel a little misled since this was no revolution. You could argue that Bendis’ entire run was leading up to this and it just kind of fizzled out. There are also a few more stories thrown in there that are necessary, but not exciting enough to mention.

There were many artists and colorist on this issue, but the main standout is Sara Pichelli. She did the main art on the trial of Beast and it looked great. If Uncanny X-Men would have had an artist like Sara Pichelli for this run, it would have been a lot more enjoyable. Her lines are smooth and everything just looks great. She makes good use of shadows in her pages, which add to the scene. Kris Anka draws the story involving Colossus and Magik. His work is usually decent, but there are some panels here that lack a lot of detail and his minimalist approach is not successful. The worst art in the issue goes to regular artist Chris Bachalo. He didn’t have many pages to draw, but they just don’t fit here. Characters lack detail and going from the artwork from Pichelli or Marquez to Bachelo is hard. His style is extremely different and just doesn’t look good in comparison. The colorist that strikes the best chord is Frazier Irving. He colored his own stuff and it looks very nice. His use of deep blues and reds are a nice visual to end the book on.

For all the wait us fanboys and girls had, this really didn’t live up to expectations. Things are left open-ended and we still have no idea what happened to Cyclops or Emma Frost. These big anniversary issues are usually filler anyway. Bendis’ Uncanny X-Men run does come to a close, and that could be a good or bad thing for some. He didn’t have the impact he did on other titles, but it wasn’t terrible either. If nothing else, hopefully you’ll have been entertained during some of it.