Of Deceipts, Engines, Love and Stealth
This issue just blowed my mind away and not because of big bang action scenes or big battle spaceships, but because of Brubaker´s ability in creating a solid arc story that in each issue evolves and shows a little bit of the whole. Also to see that Billy Tan´s art can survive outside the box, meaning, he doesn´t necessarily needs punches, kicks and blasts to show great and detailed art panels, on the opposite, he can make a dull scene like Warpath and Nightcrawler walking in a corridor interesting and filled with details, for example. Another great thing is that Brubaker answered a few questions that were driving me nuts about this plot: how did Korvus got to them so fast and how the X-Men were planning to get to Chandilar in time to stop Vulcan, and I got to say that the answers weren´t brilliant, but quite satisfatory and creative. As I pointed out earlier, this issue´s pace is slown down dramactally by Brubaker, who chooses to focus in Korvus and Rachel, as well as in the whole Stargater and jump portals question. Also Xavier is being held prisioner by the same Shiar people that are plotting against Empress Lilandra and his nearest hope is his newest student Darwin (who´s pictured by Brubaker as a corageous, brave, loyall, bold and angry mutant). This issue was one of the best of this arc so far, showing the skills of Billy Tan and how Brubaker can orchestrate a great plot using old themes from the X-Men universe.
4.5 out 5