Battle of the Atom #1 started off this crossover event well, no doubt about it. This issue was a continuation of the story started in Battle of the Atom and is an essential part of the arc. Tie-ins are almost never as good as the core series in a crossover. However, this particular tie-in is written by the same person as the core series which could spell success. It certainly has potential, is it good?
All-New X-Men #16 (Marvel Comics)
At the end of Chapter 1 we left our X-Buddies in an uncomfortable position. Three generations of X-Men just met for the first time and everyone is confused. In two cases there are three incarnations of the same people standing within spitting distance of each other. Right when everyone is finally coming to grips with the fact that future versions of themselves are indeed standing right in front of them, Wolverine pops his claws. A fight ensues.
After everyone settles down, Wolverine says that he didn’t mean to pop his claws. It seems Jean Grey took control of his mind in order to create a distraction so she could escape with Scott. My favorite scene in the whole book is when we read a conversation that just happened over again but this time we see what Jean Grey was saying to Scott and Hank telepathically. It seems she doesn’t trust these future X-Men.
Jean proposes that she and Henry steal the Blackbird and get the hell away from all these X-Men. Henry refuses the offer but Scott agrees and Jean triggers the distraction. Jean has a meltdown on the Blackbird and claims that everyone is just a filthy liar. It seems like this part of the storyline will be an interesting one: Jean and Scott on the run, just trying to avoid having to go back to the past.
Going back a second in the story, I thought that the future X-Men were awesome. They all have different personalities as their present counterparts but you can recognize them all easily. The only person I wasn’t so familiar with was Molly Hayes, but she seems interesting enough. I thought that the old Deadpool in particular was a great character. His costume and appearance are noticeably changed but he still hasn’t lost that ‘Pooly magic!
9.5
- Keeps the story moving well
- Awesome telepathy scene
- Surprising bombshell at the end
- Not enough of the Uncanny X-Men
The bombshell dropped at the end of the issue is one that was totally unpredictable yet not totally far-fetched. Although I’m not going to spoil it I will say that one of the future X-Men isn’t who they say they appear to be.
I love Immonen’s art and some of the panels in this issue just dripped with epicity.
Is It Good?
Yes, very good. A great second chapter to a seemingly great crossover.
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