X-Men Legacy #266

Written by Christos Gage

Art by Rafa Sandoval, Jordi Tarragona, and Rachelle Rosenberg

The short of it:

The Avengers/X-Men war is coming to the Jean Grey school, and that means that Rogue has to keep the teachers and students in line! Some staff bail to go help Scott, others aren’t sure what to do, and most of the students want to go beat up on the Avengers. Wolverine? No where to be found. Hey look, Avengers at the door, but they didn’t call ahead! She Hulk, Falcon, and Moon Knight come looking to lock the place down, because anything X is guilty until proven not as guilty! Kitty and Rogue talk them into staying at a distance, but they aren’t too pleased with it…and neither is Frenzy. It’s not hard for her to start a fight, but it’s even easier for She Hulk to take the situation and make it go completely FUBAR by taking out three students because she thought she saw a ‘monster’. Lesson one, X-rookies, never tell an X-Man you thought a mutant was a monster. Why? Because now it’s Rogue versus the Avengers…and their secret weapon!

What I liked:

• At no point does Gage let us forget that not only has Rogue fought the Avengers before, but that she took them down single handedly. That might be the most respect any X-Man has gotten out of AVX so far.
• Frenzy vs. Moon Knight
• I like that Rachel leaving along with Bobby was better clarified here. After reading Wolverine and the X-Men I knew that Iceman was leaving, but I didn’t pick up on Rachel at all until reading this issue.
• Man, that is one hell of a secret weapon.

What I didn’t like:

• The Avengers are, like in virtually every other AVX book, completley unlikable. Moon Knight all but recommends they turn the school into an internment camp, Falcon is covering for Captain America throwing Wolverine out of a jet, and She Hulk is attacking anything that moves at a school filled with mutant kids. Yes, Glob was on fire, but he was also yelling “MUTANT POWER” which..would indicate that it’s more than likely a mutant.
• Not enough Mimic. I loved his addition to the cast last issue
• I don’t like that Broo is the cute character that winds up popping up everywhere. I mean, I get the novelty of having a supersmart Brood, but he’s been way more miss than hit for me thus far.

Final Thoughts:

The guy in the White Hood really did say “you people”.

This is one of those cases where I feel Krakoa should be used, because, I mean, if he’ll attack Cyclops in one book, you think he’d try and kill the Avengers here for actually attacking.

Still hate Moon Knight.

So does Falcon know he’s covering for Captain America having Wolverine booted out of a jet, or is he just making up bogus excuses because he didn’t bother to ask?

Hellion jobs too much. This dude was the bad ass kid of his day, Quentin who? But now he’s just dude with floating metal hands that occasionally says something douchey.

Come to think of it, Pixie is the only member of Academy X that seems to get any degree of love from anyone. Sofia is gone, Laurie and Jay are dead, David shows up here and there to say something smart, Nori shows up here and there to be a bitch, and Josh has been gone since Kyle and Yost exited X-Force. Sooraya, Ceslie, Santo, Victor…I hate that the cast is bunch of background fodder. I loved that run.

Did Frenzy start the fight? Sure, she instigated the hell out of it, but I’d like to think that an intelligent general wouldn’t send a bi-polar schitzophrenic with anger issues to a school. That was just begging for him to go loose cannon.

Overall: 8/10

Tags: Avengers vs. X-Men, AvX, Christos Gage, Moon Knight, Reviews, Rogue, She-Hulk, X-Men, X-Men: Legacy