All New X-Men #5

Beast is pretty much on the verge of death, and when he’s stuck in his own subconscious with his younger self and considering they’re both geniuses, his chances of coming out on top have slightly increased. As for all the other X-Men trying to deal with their future selves, they might not be so lucky.

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis | Artist: Stuart Immonen

Cover: Stuart Immonen| Publisher: Marvel

Note: this reviewer is ridiculously biased when concerning the X-Men.

Judging by the cover you’d think that this issue was totally Jean-centric, which made me cringe initially (yes, Jean-Grey is Marvel’s golden girl, we get it), but thankfully it wasn’t. Though to accompany the cover there’s a ridiculous two page spread dead center in the issue that flashes through Jean Grey’s entire life. I get it. Many readers are using All New X-Men at their starting point if they’ve never picked up an x-book before (though personally I think out of all the Marvel NOW! series, this one is the most complicated without having some prior background reading), so yes Jean Grey wants to know how she died (and as Beast so aptly responds, “Which time?”), so we’re given kind of her entire x-career in two pages of images, which is gorgeously done by the way, Immonen creates it beautifully, and that’s the most focus we have on Jean (thank goodness). 

Sure, she’s in nearly every panel, but when she’s the only one who can get both Beast’s together into present Beast’s subconscious to let them figure a solution to his current predicament, it kind of makes sense. Beast does most of the talking anyways. I loved the fancy frames that Immonen used to differentiate between Beast’s subconscious and reality. It’s also really entertaining to see both Henry McCoy’s figuring out how to save himself. They’re both mostly so collected about the situation and are aware of their genius, and it’s cute to see them interacting in such a way, complimenting their intelligence.

Yes, Beast ends up saving himself and ups his mutation just another step further, giving him a new look. His Wolverine-esque locks are gone and he stands a little straighter. I haven’t fully decided how I feel about the new look; it’s mostly an adjustment thing I think. It’s certainly not bad; my appreciation for Immonen’s work may have a little to do with this. But I certainly think it lends for a lot of potential for Beast.

So in fact a big portion of this is Beast-centric, which pleases me greatly, though after his big reveal, I personally think Bobby steals the show when Jean calls for a vote on whether they stay or go back to their own time, only because everything that he says I find hilarious and it was nice to almost end the issue with some chuckles.

We almost made it through the issue without Jean Grey drama. It just had to finish with Scott and Jean tensions, which I find unexplainable as to why she’s so pissed. Here’s hoping following issues follow what this issue did, and focus minutely on Jean and then go to everyone else. I’m dying for some attention on Warren; they’ve been keeping mum on him for too long. Some of us have had years of Scott/Jean tensions, it’s time to move on guys.

As a side note, there was a brief couple pages of present-time Scott recruiting to his new Xavier school, which I’m pretty psyched for, not going to lie.