Uncanny X-Men Issue 495 - Divided We Stand

By: Merin
Date: Thursday, February 07, 2008

Uncanny X-Men – Issue 495
Writer: Ed Brubaker ; Artist: Mike Choi
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Roll Call: Scott Summers (Cyclops), Emma Frost, Piotr Rasputin (Colossus), Kurt Wagner (Nightcrawler), Logan (Wolverine), Warren Worthington III (Angel), and guest appearances from Ka-Zar, Shanna and the Iron Fascist (Tony “Gimme Power” Stark) <--- yes, that's editorializing for you

One Sentence Synopsis: Xavier is “dead” (or gone, whatever) and the X-Men are “disbanded” - now what's Scott got in mind?
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The Meat: Scott has a dream. No, not a MLK Jr. or Professor Charles Xavier “I have a dream” dream – a “hallucination of the mind while sleeping” dream. He is talking to his dead father, Corsair (Christopher Summers, killed off negligently in that Fall of the Shi'ar story by Brubaker, the weakest of the current crop of X-Stories), and his dead wife, Jean dressed as Dark Phoenix (whom Morrison casually killed because he's a wank-a-thon hack who likes to dress people in black leather) when Emma invades his dreams and snaps him awake. Apparently the two are taking a hiatus in the Savage Land – vacation spot for mutants. And they like to get busy.

Previously Tony Stark appeared with demands for the X-Men. You have to love how the Head of S.H.I.E.L.D. himself goes off and delivers messages in person all the time. He finds the ruins of the mansion and only Cyclops waiting for him. Scott tells off Tony (thank you, Scott – and thank you, Ed, for writing Scott with a level of respect I've not seen outside of Whedon for a long time) and says “no” to the Initiative and that Stark can just go spin. “And as of right now there is no X-Men . . . we're all just mutants now, Tony, and we don't have secret identities.”

So Scott and Emma have bonding time where they talk about the future – apparently Scott lied to Iron Fascist and they will be moving forward as a team somehow. But before we get details Ka-Zar and Shanna arrive on an elephant for dinner.

Piotr, Kurt and Logan are in Germany. Logan played a joke on Kurt, and Kurt swear he will get his revenge. After picking up Logan from a bar fight, the three catch a train to Russia.

Back to the Savage Land, the dinner party has moved on to an arena fight. Two dinosaurs, triceratops-ish, are dueling while being prodded on by a bunch of primates. While watching, Emma is telepathically informing Shanna how Scott isn't really watching the fight but studying it, figuring out how he'd fight the beasts. Then she reveals to Shanna that, since she can turn to diamond, Emma can see Scott's eyes whenever she wants.

We get Scott and Emma in bed. Again. Emma wants to stay. Scott says they need to go back, and that things will change. Because he's going to change them.

Finally we get Warren, flying around San Francisco while we get the captions as an email he sent to Scott. Something is changing everything to look like the hippies 70's. Warren is under its spell.
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Favorite Line: Scott to Tony - “When did you stop blaming the bad guys?”

Favorite Moment: A peak inside Scott's tactical mind.

Favorite Image: Oddly enough, Logan leaving the bar.
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Overall Grade: B-
- .Ok, I both really like and really dislike this book. I can't come to a concluding decisive opinion.

I really like seeing the team small, with no huge school of students. I like them being away from that whole reservation crap. I like Scott the strong leader, written with respect, and the characters of Piotr, Logan and Kurt back to what they were like in the Claremont days. Scott taking the team in a new direction, this is something I wanted since Seagel and Casey tried to do this years back and got dropped from writing the X-Books.

What I dislike is the art. Its not horrible, but it doesn't work for me. The fact that its almost all exposition and no action at all (not even story points that could be action – like the bar fight and the dinosaur fight.) Brubaker's writing doesn't feel like it suits the X-Men to me. He's got the characters and the plot right, better than most outside of Claremont I'd agree, but his storytelling style fits better for a mystery/thriller or espionage story. It's plodding, slow – I don't know if I'd go so far as to say “decompressed” here, but it's damn close.

So I'm divided. I like the direction the team is going and how the characters are being portrayed. I dislike the style of the story, the storytelling, the art . . . and the Marvel U in general.