That Dale Keown variant cover is great. Check out the logo-less and darker colored version below. Nice!
Post Civil War II and Marvel Now 2016 Spoilers for Death Of X #2 follow.
The teaser pages for this issue show Storm of the X-Men speaking with Medusa of the Inhumans and advised her that the Terrigen Mists that create Inhumans actually kill mutants. Despite X-Men being exposed to Terrigen Mist in the past with no impact, Beast hypothesized the composition of the Terrigen changes when it hits the atmosphere.
I always find the summary and dramatis personae pages of Marvel Comics both helpful most times with a small part of me at the same time believing them to be a waste of paper, but they’re useful for Death of X #2.
Now onto the issue.
The book opens with Cyclops taking a different position on the Inhumans than Storm. There is a civil war or schism coming not just with Inhumans vs. X-Men, but X-Men vs. X-Men too it seems.
Cyclops uses a team telepath to transmit a message to all of humanity, Inhumans and mutantkind warning of the Terrigen Mists for mutants, but also indicating that the Inhumans are liars and can’t be trusted. Its an eloquent address over severl pages.
The Inhumans frantically are trying to ensure that the Terrigen Mists don’t reach land or humanity.
And they get help from Storm of the X-Men.
We also see in stark terms and art the burial ground of mutants who succumbed to the Terrigen Mists on a Muir Island graveyard.
Emma Frost and Cyclops havd a plan; there will be action and a war coming with…
…Magneto on the side of Cyclops’ X-Men in conflict with Storm’s X-Men and the Inhumans!
We then get a look at Death of X #3.
So…
Jeff Lemire and Charles Soule write a compelling drama for Death of X #2.
I still feel Cyclops has been written for a decade as an uncharacteristic villain and this issue continues with that. This Cyclops does not ring true for me, but I guess this is Marvel’s elder Scott Summers. Younger time-displaced Scott Summers, who actually feels like Cyclops, is on on the Champions series and team Marvel is pushing so Marvel gets the best of both worlds with two starkly different Cyclops.
The civil war to come in mutantkind and within the X-Men, Cyclops vs Storm, is an interesting plotline as part of the broader Inhumans vs. X-Men journey Death of X sets us on. Next is the Inhumans vs. X-Men mini-series then RessurXion. Marvel’s plans into 2017 and beyond seem laid out and we’re on that journey now with Death of X.
Aaron Kuder’s art fits the darker tone of this series; DC’s loss is Marvel’s gain.
More dialogue than action this issue despite some compelling dramatic moments pepper in. 7 out of 10.
