All-New X-Men #9
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by Stuart Immonen, Wade Von Grawbadger, and Marte Gracia and Rain Beredo
The short of it:
Class is in session as Professor K takes her All-New X-Men for a training session in a Danger Room beyond their wildest dreams. Everyone has their lessons to learn, from Scott’s ineffective leadership, to Bobby’s inability to prioritize things in a crisis, to Jean’s lack of respect for anybody elses privacy. Best way to try and get them all going through? Bring in the Sentinels! Kitty watches her new pupils as they try and show off what they’ve got, but there is not a lot of impressing to be done. The kids are outmatched, outclassed, and come across like the rookies they totally are. So that means that they all get to receive performance reviews, which go about as well as expected. Up until Jean keeps prying through minds without permission and pulls out a name from a few issues ago that has been a nicely kept secret.
Mystique. Jean plucks the name from Scott’s brain and all of the sudden things are serious. After all, Kitty actually knows who Raven is, and the danger to be found…while Scott only really sees that he’s being yelled at because Jean won’t stop reading his mind. Bitch.
Anyway, Mystique! She’s gathering up her own little Brotherhood, from the looks of it, and she needs new recruits. Starting with one of my favorite underutilized X-villains, the first stop on the recruitment tour? Picking up Lady Mastermind from the Raft.
To wrap up, however, Angel goes to question the modern Beast about a mutant genocide, since that’s what they came to the future to stop, and he goes on the long lecture about just where things are now outside of the bubble the kids have been shown. Thing is…the bubble is about to be popped.
To me, my X-Men. Finally a crossover.
What I liked:
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REGAN! I have no idea why, but I’m a big Lady Mastermind fan, and seeing her active here? Returning to her bitchy ways? Yup, I’m happy. Especially since she gave us MARVEL ZOMBIES in this issue!
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Jean getting schooled by Kitty was great. If she’s not going to respect peoples privacy, at least she can do so knowing that any experience mutant on the team knows what the itch in their brain means.
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Stuart Immonen is back! Now, David Marquez did a phenomenal job too, and I really just want to say how pretty this book is. Bendis gets the best artists. Love the face work (pouty Jean is great), love the Sentinels, and, oh hey, that Marvel Zombie splash page I mentioned is so freaking great.
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The dialog is top notch as always. Loved the brief talk between Raven and Regan about the sexist nature of “Lady Mastermind”. I’ve had that conversation before, about Regan. Also pretty much everything involving Jean and Kitty being pissy about her trying to peek into everyones minds.
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Man, I thought Bachalo was kicking ass in Uncanny, but then I saw Immonen’s takes on those costumes? Sick.
What I didn’t like:
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Hank’s whole ‘mutant genocide’ premise for what Cyclops is going to cause has bothered me from day one. Now, sure, mutant genocide is always the big hot button X-Men topic, but they’re no closer to it now than they were before M-Day, and just by nature of new mutants existing, they are worlds away from how close they were before AVX.
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I figure it’s a lot harder to fake Maria Hill to a bunch of SHIELD agents than it seemed in this issue. Wouldn’t she need all sorts of clearances to get to the Raft? Not just face and voice?
Final thoughts:
Mystique’s team so far has Sabretooth and Lady Mastermind. People I want to see on it? Sauron, Blob, Exodus.
I figure Scott or Warren goes along with Cyclops and his team. There’s no chance one of the five doesn’t make the trip, and they’re the two odd men out.
We were promised new costumes for this issue, I thought. Disappointment. Especially since I’m not a fan of the classic looks.
Kitty isn’t in charge of the school because her training the original X-Men is such a high priority, so Storm needs to be in charge. Storm who is training a group of students in the Danger Room after Kitty and her kids. Why did Storm need to be in charge?
I am never going to get accustomed to gushing about a Brian Bendis book every week.
Kitty is a great teacher for combat situations, and there’s no reason why she shouldn’t be. Remember who trained her? Wolverine. Hers is the perfect voice of authority in this book.
Still loving the weekly nature of the X franchise!
Overall: 9/10
