Comic Review -- Avengers vs. X-Men #11 / Brian Michael Bendis, Olivier Coipel, Mark Morales, & Laura Martin

SPOILER WARNING!!  This review contains a BIG SPOILER about a character's fate in the Marvel Universe!  Please DON'T view if you don't know what it is and don't want it spoiled!

Overall, a good issue, though not without its flaws.  Still, it's heartening to see how this story has improved from its less than stellar beginning.  Hope you enjoy!

This video can also be found on my Youtube page!

GN Review -- X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga / Chris Claremont and John Byrne

In a lot of ways, this read was a long time coming.  I've read about the Dark Phoenix Saga for years, and I knew all about it: the seduction of Jean Grey, the Hellfire Club's involvement in her corruption, Phoenix's fall to malice and power and destruction, and Jean's final sacrifice so that her friends, her universe would live.  I've even read small segments of it: Jean holding in Scott's optic blasts so she could see his face, establishment of their psychic rapport, even a few shots of Dark Phoenix's debut and assault on her former teammates.

If this story proves anything, it's that knowing about a story and reading it are two entirely different things.

Collecting Uncanny X-Men #129-137, this arc does way more than I realized it did before finally cracking open the source material to read.  Sure, Jean Grey is manipulated, falls from grace, becomes a force for evil, and sacrifices herself during her final period of clarity; we all know that.  But a lot of other classic events occur during this story arc.

Kitty Pryde and Dazzler are introduced and foreshadowed as potential teammates.  Emma Frost is introduced as the White Queen, who will plague the X-Men in future storylines and eventually become one of their most prominent members.  And Wolverine finally throws down on the Hellfire Club by himself in a classic moment that has become the basis for his establishment as Marvel's badass-in-residence.

One other noteworthy feature about this story is the sheer density of the material.  It took me much longer to read this volume than it takes me to read most modern comics.  Chris Claremont packs every single panel with paragraphs of narration, exposition, and literary exploration as he weaves his epic tale of tragedy.  By comparison, most of today's comics seem to be written for an audience with a much lower attention span.  While I admit it could be a little exhausting to get through at times, I came through with a much deeper understanding and enjoyment of the story than I have with many.

The denouement of the story is what makes it particularly tragic, as the X-Men are kidnapped by the Shi'ar Empire for Dark Phoenix's crimes, and it is revealed that, though Professor X was successful in shutting down the Dark Phoenix, the possibility of her recurrence was all too real.  Jean, who was in control of herself at the time, knew maintaining that control for the rest of her life would be impossible, and engineered her own demise in the duel to the death between the X-Men and the Imperial Guard, regardless of the outcome and despite Cyclops's own plea with her to find another way.  Her explanation of how difficult it would be to keep the Dark Phoenix at bay is particularly moving and revealing, as we see that her absolute power would not only corrupt her absolutely, but also plague her for the rest of her life.

Artistically, I have to give props to John Byrne's work, and the many faces he so adeptly gave Jean as she switched from pure to decadent, from helpless to all-powerful, from angelic to demonic.  His depictions of the characters is widely considered classic, and while it looks less hyper-realistic than some of the art styles widely seen in comics today, it is nevertheless an excellent rendering that allows for a wide range of expressions and dynamics.  Emotion, action, and drama are all convincingly conveyed, enhancing the narrative immeasurably.

Overall, this classic storyline is a must-read for any serious comic book or X-Men fan.  It not only contains one of the X-Men's most heart-rending trials, but is well-told and well-drawn.  Highly recommended.

Comic Review -- Avengers vs. X-Men #3 / Ed Brubaker, John Romita, Jr., Scott Hanna, and Laura Martin

I really like the cover of this issue.  It's intense, personal, and vicious as Cap and Wolverine struggle for dominance.  Costumes are torn, sweat and what appears to be blood are flying, and both men are determined to beat the other.  The artwork itself is wonderful, and it really sells the idea that this issue will contain some violence.

Wolverine recovers from his ordeal with Hope and is told that Cyclops and the X-Men have surrendered.  While Cap and Iron Man argue about how to handle their new prisoners, Wolverine immediately recognizes that the X-Men are merely playing possum, and isn't able to prevent them from escaping by using Magik to teleport away.  Both teams set out to locate and retrieve Hope, but she's gone and found a way to scramble Cerebra's sensors into putting her at five different locations across the world, forcing them to split up.

While talking with her over the intercom from Wolverine's school, Wolverine detects some attitude from Rachel, who it turns out is feeding information to the X-Men.  Cap confronts Wolverine about his inability to follow orders and how he tried to kill Hope, and Wolverine responds that he knows how to deal with the Phoenix, and that Cap won't be able to save Hope from the Phoenix Force.  A fight breaks out between them, and Wolverine is expelled from their shuttle.  Calling Cap a blind old-fashioned fool, Wolverine pulls himself up and sets out after them, convinced that their fates are all up to him.

I will say, the writing in this issue has gotten a little better than what I saw in Round 2, but that's actually not saying much.  I think Ed Brubaker is doing what he can to ameliorate the poor direction of this story, which has clearly been written by committee.  Great swaths of action get glossed over, and some plot points are just flat-out ignored.  So the X-Men all surrendered, off the page?  Not impossible, I suppose, but given the amount of event skipping already portrayed in this series, I'd think the writers would want to keep bridging events on the page.  And why was the fight between Dr. Strange and Magik not shown?  If she can beat the Sorceror Supreme, I want to see how!

Also, if Emma was effectively de-psionicized in the last issue, why does she only regain her abilities after they've escaped from the Avengers?  If she actually had recovered her telepathy at that point, she could have just shut all the Avengers down psychically.  Why didn't she?  It just seems the logical effects of the storyline are discarded or ignored at the whims of the writers, no matter how ridiculous it looks.

I was happy, however, to see that Wolverine's conflict with Cap didn't directly involve him having a change of heart and deciding he wanted to fight on Scott's side now.  It came about for a perfectly plausible reason, though I am more than a little skeptical that Captain America is only now realizing how far Logan would go to defeat the Phoenix Force.  It really raises the question of just how much research Cap's done about the Phoenix Force and the X-Men's brush with it.  Any idiot should know that the X-Men have faced this thing several times, and are both more experienced and more vicious in dealing with it.

I was also glad they at least acknowledged the parallels to the Civil War in this issue, as they were becoming very obvious.  While Scott is not free of blame here--he was written like a crazy person in issue #1--Cap is increasingly showing his lack of preparation and realism in this arc.  He's brushed off the input of two X-Men experienced in dealing with the Phoenix; he was willing to imprison the X-Men for getting in his way, when there was technically no call to do that--I'm glad Iron Man was the one to call him on that; and he basically pulls a Spock on Wolverine when he won't start marching to his orders, ejecting him out the shuttle.

Art-wise... John Romita, Jr. is again drawing far too wide a scale for his work to come off as anything but rushed, blocky, and distracting.  Nuff said.

Overall, I'd say this is an improvement over the last issue, though between JRJR's art and the flawed storytelling, it still leaves a lot to be desired.  The fight between Wolverine and Cap is pretty cool, and while I'm not surprised to see the X-Men still have a few tricks up their sleeve, they didn't really do much this issue.  Recommended.

Game Review -- X-Men Legends / Activision

Back in 2004, when the Playstation 2 and the X-Box were slugging it out for dominance in the console gaming market, Activision put out one of the most epic comic book games of its time.  It was an action-RPG, featuring Marvel's X-Men characters, who were enjoying a massive upswing in popularity due to the success of two feature films. It ended up being a milestone, not just for the acclaim brought about by its own performance, but also because it was the start of a legacy, becoming the template for 3 sequel games.

I am, of course, referring to X-Men Legends.

Admittedly, it ended up being a few months before I got around to playing X-Men Legends.  The basic plot centers around the emergence of teenager Alison Crestmere as a mutant, one with the power to control and manipulate molten earth.  Fittingly, she eventually takes the codename Magma, but before she does, she become the target of an attempted kidnapping by Mystique and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.  The X-Men arrive on the scene and manage to stop them from taking her, and bring her back to the mansion to offer her a place at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters.  As the X-Men try to figure out what Magneto wants with her, they engage in a series of adventures against a multitude of some of their most dangerous adversaries.

The action-RPG style of X-Men Legends combines the best of freestyle button-mashing, combos, and basic hack-and-slash fighting with the kind of layered, engaging character advancement you get from the best role-playing games.  At the heart of it all, you have a wide-ranging, dynamic story featuring an enormous cast of playable X-Men, their most memorable allies and enemies, and a plot that, while not the most complex in the world, leaves plenty of room for a sequel to follow--which, it totally did.  While you experience a lot of story through Magma's eyes and character, there is plenty of development that occurs among the main X-Men characters, including a few very nice flashback scenes that recall old comic book stories and show some of the retro looks the characters sported in earlier years.

There's also a high level of versatility incorporated into the game world and mechanics behind utilizing your characters.  Some puzzles can be solved in multiple ways, through use of force, thought, or clever use of mutant abilities.  A wide range of powers and abilities, both passive and active, are available to every character as they level up, and they're managed through a clever and intuitive scheme of button combinations that make good use of controller layout.  There are also combination moves that grant extra experience and damage, when you manage to combine one mutant ability with another against a foe in battle.

Leveling up your character is also an engaging process, with more than just their raw powers up for improvement.  With the utilization of gear and ability points, you can also upgrade their basic combat characteristics as well.  That means you can make them more resistant to damage with armor, increase their defense, attack, stamina, and HP stats with ability points, and upgrade their powers and abilities, often all in one go.  This is the game that came before you got the option of alternate costume skins for your character, so that element is missing, but gets addressed and taken care of in the sequel, Rise of Apocalypse.

In the area of play control, there's plenty to praise and a little to gripe about.  Overall, it's very intuitive, with directional, attack, and other mechanical necessities rendered smoothly.  I do have issues with how the camera will occasionally zip to a highly inconvenient angle, but this occurs fairly infrequently, and can usually be corrected with a quick moment on the directional stick.  By and large, the game handles extremely well.

The graphics are also awesome, with plenty of faithfully rendered cel shade animation for the characters, and believably destructible environments.  It's not the most advanced graphics work, but again, this was the first of its kind, and subsequent titles update based on the classic look of this game.  The voice work is stellar, with the most notable bit of casting going to Patrick Stewart as Professor Charles Xavier, reprising his role from the hit movies.

Overall, this is a great game, and a wonderful beginning to the franchise that spawned X-Men Legends II: The Rise of Apocalypse, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, and Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2, all good-to-excellent games in and of themselves.  It combines an engaging story with good graphics, dynamic action, excellent voice work, and a feel to the X-Men universe that is very genuine and well done.  Highly recommended.

Comic Review -- Avengers X-Sanction #4: Sundown / Jeph Loeb, Ed McGuinness, Dexter Vines and Morry Hollowell

Oh, jeez.  Let's get into the laundry list of issues that I have with this issue, and the mini-series.

What was the point of this cover?  It lies, even as it tells the truth.  Sure, Wolverine and Spider-Man "fight" Cable in this issue, but why are they wearing completely different costumes from the cover?  I'm also none too impressed with the artwork, particularly how Wolverine's claws are sticking out of Cable's knuckles with no blood, no torn or strewn metal, and no reaction from Cable to that.  Underwhelming.

We start with an arguably unnecessary flashback to how Spider-Man and Wolverine realize their comrades are missing, and go off to find them.  Then, back in the present, Wolverine tears into Cable, disarming him of his gun, which Hope takes and fires at Spider-Man.  He dodges, pulls the weapon away from her, and then gets blasted by an annoyed Cyclops, not to be seen for the rest of the conflict.

While Cable struggles with Wolverine, Blaquesmith directs Hope to disarm the bomb Cable has planted on the captured Avengers.  With little time left, she yanks the bomb wiring out, with no harm.  The Avengers come to, and Red Hulk burns out the techno-virus Cable porcupined him with in the previous issue.  Against his own techno-virus and them, Cable stands no chance, and is handily defeated as the virus kills him.  Cap agrees to let Cyclops take Cable to Utopia as long as Cable's technology and weapons remain with the Avengers.

Hope visits Cable in the infirmary, where the techno-virus starts to infect her, but she engulfs both herself and Cable in a vortex of phoenix-shaped flaming energy.  It burns out the virus completely, apparently resurrecting Cable, who is now appears to be free of the techno-virus.  Cyclops and Cable have a conversation on the astral plane sometime soon after, and Cyclops promises Cable he'll protect Hope from the Avengers, if and when they try to attack her.

While I will admit this is the best segment of the story, I'll also qualify it with the realization that it's not saying much for the whole story.  As a setup for the upcoming Avengers vs. X-Men storyline (AvX), it is a success: it sets up the coming conflict between the two groups and teases the fact that this all-out fight will be caused by the return of the Phoenix Force as it seeks out Hope.  But it really doesn't do much more than that, the rest of the story feeling all too much like filler material that gives Cable an excuse to fight the Avengers.  Because, you know... that'll sell comics.

It's not due to any failing of the story plot, which is actually very simple.  It's basically due to poor execution, a sense of glossing over some very important details (Cable's continued ability to keep on going and capture prime superheroes, even as he gets progressively worse; Red Hulk's ability to simply "burn out" the techno-virus), and the feeling that many of these characters, who have such history together, simply ignore or miss out some prime opportunities for characterization and development... even as they bash each other's brains out.  And don't even get me started on Spider-Man's brush-off in this issue.  There's no way he would have stayed out of the fight that long.

Art-wise, things look passable, even good in places.  The 2-page splash featuring Wolverine and Cable joining the battle looked really good, and I think Hope's moment of Phoenix scariness looked appropriately powerful and unsettling.  Scott's reaction to her was right on the money.  I did, however, think the floating heads shot of the Avengers as Hope huddled over Cable's body could have been done differently.

Overall, I'll damn this issue with faint praise, since it's the only one of the whole mini-series that deserves it.  It does try to flesh out Cable's reasons for doing what he does, but the flimsiness of his present actions ruin the narrative too thoroughly for it to be truly saved.  If you can be happy with pure superhero slugfest action, then you might like this series.  If you need a little substance, this issue is really the only one that I feel has any of it.  Recommended.

Comic Review -- Avengers X-Sanction #3: Noon / Jeph Loeb, Ed McGuinness, Dexter Vines, and Morry Hollowell

Alright, so I've got the all-red variant cover for this one, which doesn't look too bad, given the content of the issue, but I do have some issues here.  First of all, the all red feels like a lazy cop-out.  I can understand altering some of the tones to give the cover a different look, but really?  One-tone red, for 99% of the shot?  Give me a break.

I'll save my commentary for how he's fighting Red Hulk for my analysis below.

Cable has taken down Falcon, Captain America, and Iron Man, all because he's convinced the Avengers are directly responsible for the inability of his adopted daughter Hope Summers to save the world at the dramatically appropriate time it needs saving.  This has had a serious effect on his timeline and future, so he travels back in time, with tech from his time, to take on Earth's greatest heroes.  He's dying as the techno-virus overtakes and destroys his body, and he's fought alongside the Avengers innumerable times, but neither of these things will stop him from destroying them so that his daughter may live.

But things have hit a serious snag.  Red Hulk has shown up, and he's no pushover.  With the help of Blaquesmith, whose version of the future is what brought him back to assassinate the Avengers, a final psi-blast, and one seriously weird power stunt to take him down.  Cyclops and Hope show up, brought by Blaquesmith, but before they can contain the situation, two more Avengers show up, who will presumably feature in next month's final fight: Spider-Man and Wolverine.

To say I'm feeling let down by this story at this point is something of an understatement.  First of all, there's very little action going on in this chapter--which actually makes sense, as any kind of sustained fight with Red Hulk would surely end in Cable's destruction or death.  Instead, we see more flashbacks of what led us here, and how Cable got some of the tech that's allowed him to beat and capture some of the most premier heroes of the day.  When Red Hulk finally gets Cable in position to grapple and crush him into submission, readers get the most surprising and ridiculous display of power yet...!

Cable PORCUPINES a bunch of metallic spines out of himself and THROUGH Red Hulk's steel-like hide and body, apparently infecting him with the techno-virus!

Now, I'll admit, I've not read many of Cable's recent exploits.  It's perfectly possible that he's developed this power over time, even if it doesn't seem like something that would match his power set by anything I have read.  But the idea that this situation--you know, the one in which he's on his last legs, and being consumed by his own illness--and his love for Hope alone is what triggers this "unthinkable" turnabout in the tussle, just comes off as contrived and downright ridiculous.  I also think the paucity of action scenes between Cable and Red Hulk was a major cop-out.  At this point I really would have preferred to watch Red Hulk just pound on Cable until he shattered, bent, or broke.

I can't find much more to comment about with the art that I haven't already said.  Cable and Red Hulk look big and impressive enough in the few action scenes where they're actually fighting each other, but I was underwhelmed by the appearances of Scott and Hope, visually.  I don't know why exactly, but Hope in particular looked a little too wide-eyed and cartoony in her appearances.  Maybe that's simply emphasizing her youth, but it just didn't work for me.  And Scott just looked wooden and flat.  Oh, wait, never mind, McGuinness nailed him perfectly!  Even Spidey and Wolverine seemed a bit off in their one appearance.  Not a great setup for your final smackdown.

Overall, I'm really starting to get pissed at this story.  Unless something fan-frickin'-tastic turns things around in the last issue, I'm going to see this as simply a puerile, pointless piece of fluff fiction that's not even passable as a setup for the next story arc.  I don't want to have to say that about Jeph Loeb's story, and I'm willing to acknowledge again that this might not all be his fault, but this entire experience has been nothing short of disappointing, thus far.  NOT recommended.

GN Review -- X-Men: Deadly Genesis / Ed Brubaker, Trevor Hairsine, & Scott Hanna

What happens when you find out that a significant moment in your history is nothing like you actually remember it, and that you've been lied to, or even flat-out manipulated to protect someone else?  What if that someone is a mentor, a friend, and benefactor whose integrity has been, until this moment, unimpeachable?


X-Men: Deadly Genesis explores this question by reintroducing and adding to a critical period in the X-Men's history: the period during which the original team was kidnapped by Krakoa the Living Island, which led directly to the formation of the new team that everyone knows and loves to this day.

When a shuttle mysteriously crashes in upstate New York, the X-Men scramble to investigate.  Cyclops, Wolverine, and Rachel Summers are quickly overpowered and rendered unconscious by the shuttle's occupant, who leaves Wolverine for dead and takes the other two prisoner.  Meanwhile, Banshee has been investigating Muir Island for Charle Xavier's whereabouts, and comes across a disturbing recording about him left by the facility's caretaker, Dr. Moira MacTaggert.  He is killed along with the occupants of his flight by the X-Men's jet, the Blackbird, crashing into his plane just as it is about to land in New York, prompting Wolverine and Nightcrawler to sneak around the wreckage to retrieve the tape.

As the X-Men begin to piece together the remnants of Moira's recording, Scott and Rachel learn through the more aggressive methods of their captor that he knew Charles Xavier, and hated him intensely.  What's more, he had known Scott, who has no recollection of this powerful, unstable mutant captor of theirs named Vulcan.  Rachel manages to escape, and leads the other X-Men to Muir Island, where he's taken Scott and to where Xavier suddenly shows up.  Vulcan demands Professor X tell him what really happened on Krakoa, and he does so, revealing that he'd sent a previous team of X-Men--consisting of Vulcan and several other mutants--to retrieve the original team.  They had been children Moira had taken off the streets, and they were viciously killed by Krakoa.  Furthermore, Xavier had altered their recollections of the island so that it had appeared sentient to the X-Men, when in fact it had been no more intelligent than an animal.  Finally, he had erased some of Scott's memories of the events.

The X-Men, shocked at this revelation about their founder, nevertheless fight Vulcan to rescue him.  An enraged Vulcan flies off into space, proclaiming his hatred for the X-Men is renewed.  Meanwhile, the X-Men discover one of Vulcan's teammates, Darwin--a mutant with a continually evolving body--has survived, and is growing a body from pure energy in front of them.  A funeral is held for Petra and Sway, the two X-Men who died on Krakoa, and Scott tells Xavier that after his crimes, and because he isn't a mutant any longer, he no longer has a place at the Institute.

While I suppose Charles Xavier's character is far from unimpeachable by the time this story was originally told, I was nevertheless bowled over at the depths to which his character sank by the end of this story.  He took Moira's mutant students, used an experimental training procedure to "ready" them for their mission, then sent them to a powerful, living island that had made easy work of the original X-Men, who by that point had been veterans of combat against numerous powerful foes.  That Moira should think him a complete and total bastard is pretty understandable.

I think the writing here is amazing.  Ed Brubaker is known for writing strong noir and crime themed scripts, but this is a major retcon about a milestone moment in the X-Men's past, and he really knocks it out of the park, as far as I'm concerned.  Using erased memories, a desperate man's willingness to compromise his moral code, and the long, fading fingers of the past, he shows that this could have plausibly been pulled off--and kept hidden--by Xavier, but for Vulcan's reemergence.  Even that reemergence is given an explanation, albeit a comparatively flimsy one, having to do with the energy released by the Scarlet Witch's infamous "No more mutants," proclamation.

I also like that this story was dark enough and high-stakes enough that a member of the X-Men got killed in the course of its telling.  Sean Cassidy was never one of my favorite X-Men, but I know he was a favorite to many, and that Banshee had been a fairly constant presence on the team over the years.  To my knowledge, he hasn't been revived by the powers that be yet, and that shows me that, at least at the time, this was not an easy or idle decision on the part of the writers and editors.

The mini-backstories of the "lost X-Men," as I prefer to think of them, are also a nice touch.  They make for an appropriate addendum to each tale, and set up the denouement to the main story very nicely.  I actually found myself quickly becoming attached to Darwin, Petra, and Sway, and horrified at their demise on Krakoa when it was finally revealed.

The art in this story is really good, particularly the covers by Marc Silvestri, the first of which depicted a grotesque skeletal homage to the original Giant-Size X-Men cover and basically guaranteed that I would be reading this story.  Everything is modern X-Men with a hint of homage to the vintage looks of the late 70s and early 80s.  Hairsine knows these characters and draws them well, from appropriate expressions and body language to harrowing action shots like the destruction of the Blackbird crashing into Sean's flight.

Overall, this is a must-read story, and an unsettling insight into the formation of the "new" X-Men team that was made so famous.  It's also a good read for anyone who likes a decent crime thriller or mystery, as Vulcan's claims throughout the story are pretty hard to believe until the end.  Highly recommended.

GN Review -- X-Men: Days of Future Past / Chris Claremont & John Byrne

I've read about this story all my life, or at least all of my life that I've been acquainted with the X-Men.  Any fan can't have gone long without hearing about this iconic narrative about an apocalyptic future in which our favorite mutants--and the rest of the world, it seems--are either dead or enslaved by Sentinels.  There have been stories spun off from this story.  The cartoons have tackled it in various interpretations.  So I'm very familiar with this story, and have been for years, but I had never had a chance to read the original, source material.

Until now.

X-Men: Days of Future Past is actually a collection of the run of Uncanny X-Men #138-143 from the early 1980s, so it encompasses more plots than just the two-issue "Days of Future Past" storyline.  But let's be honest: it's that particular story that's going to make comics readers buy, rent, check out or otherwise act to read this volume.  Still, there are other noteworthy events happening during this phase, from Kitty Pryde's recent arrival to the X-Men fold to Jean Grey's recent death, necessitating Cyclops's presumably brief departure from the team and Storm's replacement as team leader.  We also see appearances by Alpha Flight, Doctor Strange, and a vicious foe from Wolverine's past, the Wendigo.

Reading the stories from this era, it's easy to imagine reading comic books as an exercise for the brain that's very nearly as demanding as reading a prose novel.  Seriously, these stories are packed with text, to an extent that I virtually never see in today's comics.  The first story, in which Cyclops basically narrates the team's history up until Jean Grey's most recent death up to this point, is so text-heavy that it took me the better part of an hour to read (compared with Millar's The Ultimates, where I read the majority of six issues in about an hour).  In addition to viewing and analyzing the accompanying illustrations, it's arguable that reading these comics is a comparable--if not greater--exercise in reading comprehension than purely prose pieces of comparable length and subject matter.

Chris Claremont is a legendary name when it comes to the X-Men, and his stories are always memorable and remarkable.  With that said, "Days of Future Past" itself seemed a bit of a let-down when I finally got around to reading it.  I attribute this to no fault of Claremont, but to any possible number of factors, from the passage of time, the building up of expectations for this story over the years, and the fact that many interpretations and re-tellings of it have taken some of the most iconic moments and images and amplified them to a degree that the genesis story in its initial form simply wouldn't be designed to match.

It seemed tamer in tone and content than I'd been expecting, possibly due to the manner in which the narrative was conveyed over the two issues.  I mean, I understand that the future is dark, and that heroes have been killed, and that Kitty is going back to the X-Men on a desperate mission to change the future.  But then the narrative jumps to focus on the X-Men versus the Brotherhood, and it's hard to see it as much more than another superhuman slugfest, with presumably higher stakes.  Of course, I've also only read it once, and plan to read it again at a more leisurely pace, so I can soak in more of the overall story.

The artwork, of course, is amazing.  John Byrne is nearly as legendary as Claremont, and his pencils show you why during this run of issues.  The man's eye for detail, expression, and characterization shines in his line work, and he handles dramatic poses and pulse-pounding action scenes with equal aplomb.  In particular, his action shots of Colossus and Wolverine stand out as remarkably iconic representations of these men during a crucial time in the X-Men's history.

Overall, this was a delightful treat to the X-Men's sterling past.  If you're wanting to see some of the X-Men's classic storylines by a masterful dream team of creators, you should definitely check this volume out.  Highly recommended.