Gerry Duggan and Javier Pina’s X-Men has struggled to find its footing in the past, going back and forth between dishing out issues that just feel like unnecessary filler and other issues that actually progress some major plots of the Krakoa era forward. X-Men #10 becomes a standout issue in this series for a few reasons, the biggest of which being that it actually feels like a team book.
One thing X-Men has had a shaky track record with is actually using its cast consistently. Most issues thus far have only focused heavily on one character, with others falling to the wayside or worse, not being in the issue at all. X-Men #10 begins to rectify this and we finally get to see the team interact as a unit outside of just one or two battles. Every character on the team gets a speaking line in this issue, and that’s one of the best parts of the book by far.
Seeing how this team interacts and reacts to more events moving forward will be one of the more exciting parts of this book. After all, with X-Men teams especially, team dynamic is a huge pull to books. That’s how the New Mutants became so beloved as a package deal, X-Factor, and so on and so forth. Hopefully, the book only continues to develop the team itself rather than focus on one character’s story at a time.
This issue does give Laura Kinney the biggest spotlight, but it feels earned since her place in the book has been quiet thus far. And what’s more, Laura’s spotlight doesn’t mean the rest of the team isn’t in the book nor that they aren’t involved in this story — and that’s the formula X-Men should keep up. The mission is viewed through Wolverine’s lens and it’s great to see an artist like Pina use his skill to portray her fight scenes.
Image: Marvel Comics
Laura’s best moment, however, just might be when Scott recalls what she said to him at the Gala. Laura’s primary motivation just being to help other people regardless of who they are is a really nice beat, and her interactions with Deathstrike are actually really nice. That’s been another highlight of this book, finding out what motivated each character to want to be on the X-Men.
Rogue finally gets a role in this title as well, arguably being the second character with the most spotlight. Though I’ll always lament that we never got Rogue’s initial reaction to seeing Irene again or Rogue being involved in Inferno, it’s nice that Duggan has been playing with the Darkholme-Adler family dynamic lately and it’s hopefully something the title keeps up.
The Gameworld plot begins to kick off this issue, which might be the most exciting thing about it plotwise. Hopefully, though, the next issues can keep up this trend of utilizing the cast more fully because the X-women on Gameworld just sounds like a blast.
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