Torture and Disaster
The X-Men are very things: family, heroes, villains, hated by humanity, persecuted by the USA Government, adored by multitudes, this love/hate situation is a constant by whoever wears the "X" gene or enrolls himself in the X-Men franchise. Few writers really knew how to work properly with these elements and Bendis is proving that this new X series is definitely something fresh, interesting and new readers friendly, this new ongoing series is everything that DC attempted with it's New 52 and now, one year and a half later, has proved to have failed (in my opinion at least). This All New X-Men brings together all the pain, all the fears, all the bravery and all the companionship that were the mark of this franchise, and Bendis - at least with this "conclusion" fifth issue - really showed his skill to arrive into a different book and put several ideas together that have been effective (sure there were some bumps in the road, some unnecessary developments, some wasted dialogues so on, but if you read the first five issues you will see that Bendis has revamped the X-Men with this Now! Revolution! initiative without altering a single fact from the X-Men's past, quite differently, he's cherishing the characters' past). Down the memory lane, we see scenes between Beast (old dying Hank) in Jean's head (past living Jean) with such memorable dialogues and Stuart's art captured everything Bendis was putting into words: Beast is so happy to be with her again and yet is grieving with the knowledge he's passing to Jean. Another great thing is how Beast's future (again dying Hank) lies in the hands (and feet) of young genious 12 years old McCoy: several great scenes with memorable dialogues. Even Scott Summers (evil present Cyclops) was very well in his mission to replace Xavier, enlisting to his cause the mutant Benjamim (ok, Cyclops trying to explain to Benjamim his powers was confusing and there was no explanation of all other than "you're a shapeshifter" period This was the low of the issue). Immonen saved the best for the last and though there aren't any action in this issue, it's full packed of dynamics and the pace is awesome. I think the best scenes were Jean Grey seeing her most important moments from the past and Logan's little talk with young Scott. This issue was great and completely worth it of the last weak issues. Bendis is to be congratulated for the great new adventure with old characters, proving that sometimes in order do do great stories you just need some creativity, not just hype and big reboots! Now we only have to wait if the future reserves torture and disaster or, for a change, a brighter one, with hope and achievments.
