The X-Men on Utopia continue to struggle against a virus targeting their powers and slowly taking their lives. Emma, Kitty and Fantomex continue their secret journey to take care of Sebastian Shaw, as the remaining X-Men outside of Utopia continue their public relations work and come face-to-face with a team of self-made rich kid mutants.
The Pros
I haven't been very into this Quarantine arc up until this issue. Everything seems to finally be coming together, with the Sublime Corporation offering Cyclops a cure for the virus in exchange for signing away the rights to the X-Gene. Emma and Shaw end the issue with an action-packed cliffhanger, and everything is in place for the next issue of Uncanny X-Men to finally be the first great issue since the Second Coming crossover ended. The art is great, as usual. It's nice to see Marvel consistently hiring good artists for one of their most classic books. Although this arc has been coming together a bit slowly, the dialogue and writing are on point and will hopefully deliver an action-packed conclusion to Quarantine.
The Cons
Like I said, this Quarantine arc has been coming together rather slowly. There's a lot of dialogue, a lot of good ideas floating around, and a lot
going on without anything actually
happening. If this all culminates into one hell of a finale to this arc (and it very well could), this may prove to be a great entry into the X-Men continuity. However, if the finale falls flat, this will probably go down as one of the most forgettable X-Men stories of all time.
The Verdict - 3.5/5
This story could very well end with a fantastic finale. However, it all depends on how all of the current events play out and come to a resolution. Even with the relatively small number of mutants left on Earth, there are still a lot of characters to deal with in this title, and it can be a lot for a writer to handle. So far, Fraction has done a fantastic job of setting the groundwork for our most loved heroes and a good number of lesser-known ones to play a big part in the X-Men world. Only time (and the next issue or two ) will tell, but this story definitely has potential.