All New X-Men #10

by Tori B. on April 03, 2013

The crossover that changes the lineup of the X-Teams has arrived. The Uncanny X-Men have arrived at the Jean Grey School and made their proposition. For some it reinforces why they’re at the Jean Grey School and for others, they’re about to defect to the New Xavier School.
 
 
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis | Artists: Stuart Immonen, Wade von Grawbadger, & Marte Gracia
Cover: Immonen, Grawbadger, & Gracia | Publisher: Marvel
 
 
Now is as big of a time as ever for X-Men fans. Bendis has truly been putting his all into the series and it’s paying off. It shows particularly in All New X-Men, which has picked up a bit in pacing and with the appearance of foes Sabretooth, Mystique, and Lady Mastermind the action is being amped up, certainly. Like the previous issue that started with a strong action-oriented scene, same goes for this issue. And it’s just as much of a mid-boggler; only this time it’s not a Danger Room sequence. There’s a lot of talking that happens throughout, which is to be expected seeing as they’re all about to get a little preachy as everyone tries to justify just exactly why they’re right on certain matters, but it’s balanced out, first with the opening action bit and there’s a mini jump to SHIELD and Maria Hill, and of course Krakoa gets a shining moment.
 
For those who are tired of the same old X-Men and are fonder of the new kids from the Wolverine and the X-Men generation, All New 10 will satisfy. With small cameos of Wolverine’s students, humour and light-heartedness is thrown into the issue as well. (Okay, Quentin Quire is a little smarm, but everything he says is gold, and if he were in every single series that Marvel put out, I’d be okay with that.).
 
What was really refreshing about this issue in particular, is due to the crossover between All New and Uncanny, we get to witness the Uncanny team penciled by Immonen, which is breathtakingly gorgeous. As an honest fan of Bachalo’s work (and having him on an X-Book makes my day that much brighter), it’s still a sight to behold Immonen taking Bachalo’s designs and putting them to his own style. Immonen’s style is quite different and there’s so much detail put into it, it’s wildly impressive.
 
Pretty art aside, I love what Bendis is putting into it as well. Not to insinuate that he was a poor writer before and All New and Uncanny are his only notable works, but just looking at AVX (which is relevant because its events lead us to this very moment in Marvel presently) and comparing it to dialogue in his X-Men books, it’s noticeably different. AVX seemed to make Captain America come off as a jerk who refused to even try and understand (this coming from a writer with an incredibly long run on Avengers) and now everyone looks like a jerk. And that’s great. Both sides show to have valid points but they’re so intent on being the right one they come off as arrogant and it fits perfectly given the circumstances. Cyclops does end up recruiting but then again many are proven in the idea that they think he’s crazy.
 
It’s well done, it’s balanced nicely, and nothing is black and white this time. All we can see is how events progress and how each team handles it.
 

Our Score:

9/10

A Look Inside