Time (Inevitably) Runs Out: X-men Blue #35

The following is my review of X-men Blue #35, which was posted on PopMatters.com.

Certain time-displaced, alternate universe, or cloned characters never wear out their welcome. Time paradoxes aside, someone like Cable is here to stay. Josh Brolin's role in Deadpool 2 and Dafne Keen's role in Logan effectively cements that. Those are rare exceptions, though. For the most part, characters derived from others or a byproduct time travel have an expiration date. It's arguable when that date was for the original five X-men who first came to the future in All-New X-men, but most agree that date has long since passed.

Pretty much every circumstance that kept the time-displaced X-men in the future is moot at this point. Jean Grey is no longer dead. Cyclops never causes a mutant genocide. Iceman doesn't stay in the closet. Angel never loses his wings. At one point, there are legitimate barriers keeping them in the future, which play out in X-men: Battle of the Atom. However, most of those barriers crumble throughout Cullen Bunn's run on X-men Blue. They're now at a point where they not only have the ability to go back. They accept that they must go back.

While the logistics of that story play out in Extermination, there's room for reflections and reconciliations. X-men Blue #35 doesn't act as a prelude to Extermination as much as it does an epilogue to the journey that Brian Michael Bendis began in All-New X-men. These characters, despite the many myriad of complications incurred by time travel, are in a very different place than they were when they first arrived. Some improve their situations. Some see it become much worse. In any case, they're all painfully aware of the headaches generated by time travel.

No matter their status, these iconic characters are no longer the wide-eyed idealists that they were when Charles Xavier began training them. They've seen a future where ideals get tainted at every turn and spirits get broken almost as often. In doing so, these characters diverge considerably from the path they were on before. The structure of X-men Blue #35 is built around each member of the time-displaced X-men confronting their future selves, but affirming that they're not the same person.

The problem is they can't be the person they've become anymore. Beast makes clear that in order to avoid any further pitfalls relating to time travel, he and his fellow time-displaced X-men have to forget everything they've experienced during their time in the future. Going back with the knowledge they have, from who wins in every superhero civil war to who plays in every Super Bowl, has serious implications for the overall continuity of the Marvel universe. Given the many convolutions of that continuity, as it stands, the timeline just can't handle that.

This makes for a strange, but intriguing tension between the characters. In each conversation they have with their future selves, they try to affirm they're their own person. However, they also acknowledge that they can't separate themselves from who they're destined to become. If they do, they break reality and after the events of Secret Wars, the timeline just can't handle that.

Each member of the time-displaced X-men deals with their own existential crisis, of sorts. Jean comes off as having a full-blown identity crisis, lamenting at how she feels false in the presence of her older self. To some extent, she's right. She and her teammates aren't the "true" version of the original five X-men at this point in the timeline. They're anomalies that have to disappear completely in order to keep reality intact. To them, though, going back to their own time doesn't mean resolving a long-standing time travel plot. It means erasing themselves from existence.

It's actually Bobby who seems to understand this more than the others. For him, going back in time means going back to being closeted and that bothers him. It's one of those ideas that would bother anyone identifying as LGBT, having to go back to that isolated place and live a lie. Even though his older self is in a much better place in terms of accepting his identity, it doesn't make the underlying notion less distressing.

That's the overall sentiment of each time-displaced character in X-men Blue #35. They agonize over the idea that everything they've done in the present will only serve those in the present. They still have to go back and endure all the hardships, heartaches, and losses. Despite accepting that they must return to their own time, they establish that their preference is to stay. Existing is just inherently more appealing to oblivion.

While it's easy to sympathize with those feelings, Bunn belabors the consequences of following those feelings. Parallel to the interactions between the time-displaced X-men and their counterparts, there are brief flash-forwards that depict the future that unfolds if they don't go back. This side-story doesn't just link X-men Blue #35 with the events of Extermination. It reveals the extent of the existential crisis the X-men face.

Even if going back to their own time is overdue, there are still a lot of problems that these characters want to resolve. Angel is still going to lose his mind and become a horseman of Apocalypse. Cyclops is still going to end up dead and vilified for all the wrong reasons. Beast is still going to end up a blue, furry ape man who plays fast and loose with time machines. Despite the many harsh realizations they've endured, they still retain that youthful idealism that defines the original five X-men.

If that's the primary goal in X-men Blue #35, it definitely succeeds. In terms of furthering the various other plots that have been unfolding since X-men Blue began, it doesn't fail, but it comes up short. There's a lot of lamentation and frustration, but not much else. This being the penultimate issue of the series, there isn't time to tie up every loose end. However, that's the appeal/irony of time travel stories. If everything were resolved, then time travel wouldn't be necessary in the first place.

Final Score: 7 out of 10

Heroes, Criminals, and Heroes Operating As Criminals: Astonishing X-men #15

The following is my review of Astonishing X-men #15, which was posted on PopMatters.com.

In principle, being a superhero is simple. You find criminals, you fight them, and you defeat them. If you can cooperate with the authorities along the way, then that's a nice bonus. When heroes have to operate as criminals, though, things aren't as simple. That doesn't just apply to vigilantes like Batman and the Punisher, who overtly operate outside the law. Sometimes, a superhero has to function in an environment where they're branded a criminal for the wrong reasons.

That is Alex Summers' situation in Astonishing X-men. Now that he's not inverted anymore from the events of AXIS, he's attempting to rebuild his superhero credibility. His timing is actually really good, in some respects. With both his brother, Cyclops, and Captain America also having to salvage their reputations due to events like Secret Empire and Avengers vs. X-men, he's following ongoing trend among heroes. With the way things play out, however, he's going in the wrong direction and it's not entirely his fault.

Matthew Rosenberg and Greg Land give Havok plenty of opportunities to channel his brother's leadership skills. He manages to assemble a new team of X-men to carry out heroics on their own terms. It's not exactly a team of A-list heavy hitters, though. Between Warpath's attitude in Weapon X and Colossus still recovering from his failed wedding in X-men Gold #30, Havok needs more than just leadership to get them on the same page.

The underlying plot of Astonishing X-men #15 starts off simple. The Reavers are on the loose again and the X-men usually don't have many qualms about fighting Reavers. However, some major complications emerge that would hinder Captain America on his best day. These aren't the traditional, mutant-hunting Reavers the X-men are used to. They're now directly sponsored by the government and operating under the guise of law enforcement. Given the government's tenuous history with policing mutants, it's only shocking that they didn't resort to killer cyborgs sooner.

This immediately puts Havok and his new team are already behind the curve. Their confrontation with these state-sanctioned Reavers goes so badly that even Kitty Pryde has dissociated the X-men from Alex's team. Logistically speaking, they can't even call themselves X-men. In the eyes of both the law and their friends, they're not superheroes operating as criminals. They're just criminals.

This isn't just bad press like the kind Spider-Man deals with every other day. Officially, Havok's team fight and evade government agents. That's both frustrating and jarring because it subverts the X-men's traditional approach to battles. Like Sentinels or evil clones crafted by Sinister, the Reavers are the kinds of enemies that X-men usually battle without a second thought. It's almost like a reflex akin to Captain America saluting the flag or Deadpool making a dirty joke.

The difference this time is that the Reavers are sanctioned by the government. It's not entirely a mutual partnership. The Reavers, led by Donald Pierce, make it abundantly clear that this partnership was imposed. They didn't cooperate with the government out of civic duty. They were essentially drafted into serving and Havok doesn't find that out until it's too late.

This creates an unusual, but interesting backdrop to the conflict. There's no mind control or inverted personalities at work here. The only alteration to the X-men/Reaver clash is that the Reavers are now operating under the whim of the authorities. Even if they do it unwillingly, they're still technically government operatives and Havok's team fought them. From a legal perspective, they assaulted agents of law enforcement. That's not what heroes do. That's what criminals do.

It's less about the ethics of heroism and more about the bureaucracy surrounding it. Any team of heroes, be they X-men or Avengers, can take down all the cyborg assassins they want. Both the public and those in government will gladly cheer them on. However, as soon as those same cyborg assassins start operating with the government's seal of approval, those cheers turned to outrage.

It puts Havok in an unusual predicament. He wants to redeem himself. Instead, he and his new team find themselves on the wrong end of the law and public opinion. The media doesn't frame the story as the X-men heroically defeating the Reavers before they can harm innocent mutants. They report it as a group of rogue mutant terrorists battling government forces.

Technically, that's not some misleading headline on the front page of the Daily Bugle. That actually happens, forcing Havok and his new team to lay low. That doesn't work either, though. The Reavers still find them, which means they have to defend themselves. Doing so means fighting back, but that only compounds the problem because they're still fighting government officials.

It's a no-win situation for Havok. Unlike his older brother, he doesn't have a boy scout reputation to fall back on. People may question a news story that claims Captain America sucker-punched a police officer, but they're less inclined to doubt that Cyclops' less capable brother did something awful, especially after being inverted for so long. He even acknowledges how bad it gets, escaping to a bar frequented by other colorful criminals. It seems every conceivable force is working against Havok's efforts to redeem himself and for once, that's not just brooding.

It's not completely hopeless. Rosenberg never lets the tone of the story get too bleak. Havok still gets a chance to do his brother proud, hatching a plan towards the end that requires him to embrace his new criminal connotations to some extent. It's bold, but fitting approach. Given how the plot is almost framed, it feels necessary.

That also feels like a flaw, of sorts, because neither Havok nor his team really have much choice along the way. There's never a sense that they have any agency in how they impact the plot. The same goes for the Reavers, as well. Having that government label really limits their agenda to serving whoever has the right emblems on their uniform.

Even with those limits, Astonishing X-men #15 succeeds in presenting Havok with a daunting, yet novel challenge on his path to redemption. Just forming a new team of X-men and following his brother's example isn't enough. He has to operate as a criminal in order to become the hero he wants to be. His brother would be proud, but probably just as frustrated.

Final Score: 7 out of 10

Tenuous Temporal Deconstruction: Extermination #1

The following is my review of Extermination #1, which was posted on PopMatters.com.

There comes a point in every time travel story where the damage to the timeline become untenable. Sometimes, it takes too long to get to that point and when functional time machines are involved, that's saying something. It's debatable whether the original five X-men that, as ripped from the earliest issues of Uncanny X-men, have gotten to that point, but the circumstances surrounding Extermination #1 make a pretty convincing case that their time has come.

The details are unavoidable. The reasons why the time-displaced X-men came to the future and stayed there are obsolete. Cyclops never causes a mutant genocide. Jean Grey doesn't stay dead. Angel doesn't permanently lose his mind. Iceman doesn't stay in the closet. Everything that once horrified them about the future no longer applies. It makes their continued presence both superfluous and confusing. Ed Brisson and Pepe Larraz promise to resolve that with Extermination.

That necessarily requires more time travel and all the timeline-twisting machinations that come with it. As Back to the Future so eloquently demonstrates in 1985, the source of the temporal disruption must also be the solution to some extent. The events of Extermination #1 just add more urgency, as well as a new threat that promises to step up the time tables, literally and figuratively.

The nature of that threat is vague, but it involves familiar names. Things happen fast and suddenly. Big messy battles unfold, giving Larraz plenty of chances to create stunning visuals. There are also multiple casualties, each of which have weighty implications. However, since casualties in a time travel story are often tenuous at best, the drama is limited. Despite this temporal barrier, Brisson and Larraz find plenty of ways to inject it into the plot.

The stakes go beyond the integrity of the timeline. They get personal very quickly and hit the time-displaced X-men right in the proverbial heart. Some get hit harder than others and the emotions from characters like Cyclops and Jean Grey are palpable. For a time travel story, which often relies heavily on sub-plots laden with sci-fi technobabble, this kind of heartfelt anguish is refreshing. It makes Extermination #1 feel like something other than a time travel story, of which the X-men have many.

However, some of that melodrama comes off as forced. In between the destructive battles, the personal dimensions of the conflict emerge from outstanding side-plots that have been unfolding among the time-displaced X-men in recent years. The overall structure of Extermination #1 doesn't rely too heavily on it, but it doesn't complement it, either. There are even moments that don't entirely mesh with recent developments in the books that precede it.

The moments between Teen Cyclops and Bloodstorm don't really match with what has been going on with them in X-men Blue. There's an implied connection between them, but one that comes off as contrived for the sake of increasing the impact. The moments between Teen Jean, Rachel, and Cable also assume a lot about the relationship they have. While past issues of All-New X-men and X-men Gold establish that they are aware of one another, there's little indication that they've fleshed it out to any meaningful extent.

This doesn't make the events in Extermination #1 less coherent, but for anyone who has been following the journey of the time-displaced X-men, it feels disconnected from their over-arching story. To some extent, this keeps the story from getting bogged down by continuity. At the same time, it also overlooks the larger implications of the original five X-men's presence in the future. 

That's not a requirement to making the plot work, though. The time-displaced X-men don't need to have a deep, well-developed relationship with every character involved. Just knowing who Rachel and Cable are is enough to understand why the events that unfold are a big deal, both for original five X-men and the integrity timeline. It effectively shoves the cold, hard truth in their face in a way they can no longer ignore. Their presence in the future cannot continue. This is the end of the line for them and there's no scenario in which they can stay without incurring greater losses.

That's the underlying message of the story and Brisson effectively belabors that. Some characters, namely Teen Cyclops, openly acknowledge that they have to go back to their own time at some point. They even understand that has to happen soon, but there are a lot of factors keeping them in the future, including the unpleasant fact that one of their future selves is still dead. Like any approaching time paradox, though, they don't get much say in the matter.

When the past, present, and future finally catches up to the time-displaced X-men, it feels abrupt, yet necessary. There's a sense that there has to be consequences to them being in the future for as long as they have. Some characters suffer more than others and it weighs heavily on the time-displaced X-men. It also sets the stage for a much bigger, much more personal confrontation with two familiar characters who have a tendency to show up in dystopian futures.

Even with all these personal and temporal connections, there isn't a sense that what happens in Extermination #1 is a culmination of everything the time-displaced X-men have done. There's no critical mistake that puts them past the point of no return. Forces they neither control nor know about simply catch up to them and make them pay for daring to have personal attachments in the future. It's a common consequence of time travelers, but one that has just enough depth to work.

Extermination #1 certainly succeeds in firing the first shots in the conflict that will ultimately send the original five X-men back to the past. There's little mystery as to who is behind it. Brisson doesn't drag anything out and still leaves room for plenty of intrigue. The situation is dire, but it isn't hopeless and since the X-men are always one misstep away from creating another dystopian future, that counts for a lot.

Final Score: 6 out of 10

Poison and Perils Within Symbiotic Plots: Venomized #1

The following is my review of Venomized #1, which was posted on PopMatters.com.

Alien life has an uncanny ability to fascinate because it is, by definition, alien. Humans have amazing imaginations, but no matter how creative or elaborate it gets, it's still limited by the amount of gray matter within the human brain. Alien creatures like the symbiotes, whose function is both radically different and somewhat disturbing in the context of the non-comic book world, push those perceptions even further.

As a character, Venom checks all the right boxes for a menacing creature operating with an alien mindset. It's not just some monstrous glob with a biological imperative to hate Spider-Man. A part of that hatred comes directly from its alien persona. It's part of a race whose survival depends on more than just finding a host. It must also improve that host, something that puts it far beyond any tapeworm or tick.

Venom, and symbiotes in general, take on the best and worst of a host, turning the volume on their most defining traits up to the max and beyond. For someone like Eddie Brock, it takes almost any story to extremes. Whether it's trying to kill Spider-Man or a cosmic journey with time-displaced X-men, every element takes on an a more intense context. Whereas hating Spider-Man is a fairly common narrative that has played out any number of ways since the Reagan Administration, Cullen Bunn crafts a different story with Venom in Venomized.

Spinning right out of the events of X-men Blue, another series Bunn writes, Venomized builds directly on top of those events that brought Venom into conflict with the Poisons. That story establishes that, like all forms of life, there's competition for resources, as well as diseases. For symbiotes, Poisons are both. Bunn establishes that these creatures are to symbiotes what mosquitoes and malaria are to humans.

In Venomized #1, the Poisons grow even bolder. Whereas Poison X in X-men Blue focused primarily on the time-displaced X-men, this story expands that conflict to the wider Marvel universe. The X-men, the Avengers, SHIELD, Spider-Man, and even the villains who fight them get involved. The symbiotes don't discriminate. When it comes to hosts, they're more egalitarian than most humans can hope to be.

Much of the story revolves around corrupted symbiotes attacking and infecting other heroes. It makes for plenty of colorful sequences involving major characters like Thor, Hercules, Storm, and Iron Heart getting infected. It's not the kind of epic struggle that often plays out with Spider-Man every time he encounters a symbiote, nor does it try to be. Turning heroes into hosts is just part of a larger agenda that unfolds quickly and chaotically.

It's an agenda that's more ambitious than anything Venom has attempted before. With and without a host, be it Peter Parker or Eddie Brock, Venom is a highly individualistic character. Sometimes it's downright greedy, which is part of what leads it to clashing with Spider-Man so often. It makes for an unusual dichotomy, having that sense of individualism while still needing a host to survive. That's part of what gives Venom his character. It's also part of how it influences its hosts.

By contrast, the Poisons work to subvert the individualism in symbiotes like Venom. They're not content with simply improving a host, which is as far as any symbiote will go. They'll completely consume it and use the body of that host to empower a larger collective. It's like communism mixed with parasitism mixed with cannibalism. Even by symbiote standards, it's pretty gruesome.

The elements of a larger symbiote war are in place. However, Venom and the time-displaced X-men are behind the curve for most of the story in Venomized #1. They don't arrive on the scene until after the Poisons have landed and started attacking the heroes. Even when they do arrive, they aren't able to do much to slow the Poisons down. Their already several steps ahead of them. While this does add more urgency to the story, it also hinders it in some ways.

Things don't just happen quickly. There's a lot that apparently happens off-panel. Even if the agenda of the Poisons is fairly clear, the details are somewhat lost in the spectacle. That's to be expected, to some extent, for a story that covers so much ground with so many characters. However, those lack of details creates the impression that there's so much more going on behind the scenes and too little of it unfolds in the actual narrative.

While this helps create many symbiote-fueled battles throughout Venomized #1, there isn't much in terms of drama. Compared to the Poisons X arc that played out in X-men Blue, there aren't a whole lot of emotions to explore beyond Thor and Hercules drunkenly stumbling out of a bar. Even when Spider-Man gets involved, a character whose history with symbiotes is full of drama, the drama falls fairly flat.

The potential for drama is still there and hints of it even emerge towards the end once Carnage enters the picture. It's still somewhat limited in terms of impact. The story has plenty of structure to build around, going back to the Edge of the Venomverse. It's only lacking the dramatic weight that gives greater purpose to all the symbiote-fueled fighting.

Even without that weight though, Venomized #1 still has plenty to offer. It's very much in keeping with the spirit of symbiotes and extremes. It puts heroes and villains alike in a position where they have to take part in a war that spans the both the multiverse and Venom's own personal ego. In terms of scope, it's hard to get more extreme than that.

Final Score: 6 out of 10

Transcending Time-Tested Tropes: X-men Blue #20

The following is my review of X-men Blue #20, which was posted on PopMatters.com.

Time travel stories are kind of like those needlessly loud stereo systems that some people put in their cars. From a purely functional standpoint, there's not much to gain by having the ability to project music at volumes that make most peoples' ears bleed. However, the functionality of such a system is hardly reflective of its value. There are other, less tangible reasons why someone would want those systems in their cars. More than anything else, such elaborate systems create equally elaborate spectacles.

Time travel plots are similar in that they rarely function as a means to simplify or clarify a story. Most of the time, they create additional complications that only get more complicated when time paradoxes enter the picture. Such stories may not be simple, but they can work even in light of those paradoxes, as multiple Back to the Future movies have proven. The X-men also have a better track record than most when it comes to compelling time travel stories, going all the way back to Days of Future Past from the Chris Claremont era. Cullen Bunn and R.B. Silva are making a concerted effort to channel Claremont's skills with Cross Time Capers in X-men Blue.

In some respects, this is a story that had to happen sooner or later. Going all the way back to the early days of All-New X-men, when the original five X-men first ventured into the future, those inescapable complications that come with time travel continue plaguing the young X-men. They can't avoid the fact that their presence in the future and their absence in the past is bound to have serious ramifications. Some of those ramifications play out over the course of their story, particularly in events like X-men: Battle of the Atom.

With Cross Time Capers, though, Bunn puts the time-displaced X-men in a position to confront the consequences of their time-traveling shenanigans. It may have taken longer for them to feel those consequences, but they finally get a sense of perspective throughout the arc. It's only in the concluding conflicts in X-men Blue #20 that they gain a better understanding of how they're affecting the space-time continuum.

If there's any lesson the original five X-men should learn from this, it's that when there's a gaping hole in the timeline, someone or something will come along to exploit it. Biff Tannen did it in Back to the Future. The future Brotherhood of Mutants, led by Charles Xavier Jr. and his omega-level daddy issues, do the same. While they're not quite as ambitious as Biff Tannen, they are every bit as devious. What they do to exploit the time-displaced X-men's absence is neither subtle nor minor. It leaves an impact, one that goes beyond the usual lessons learned by messing with time travel.

Bunn closely follows the traditions of Chris Claremont in that respect in that the sci-fi elements associated with time travel are secondary to the dramatic elements. The story is less about the original five X-men traveling through time to fix the past than it is about them confronting the consequences of their actions. Their continued presence in the future has consequences and these are the kinds of consequences that literally fight back.

It's that element of drama that helps subvert the usual complications and confusion often associated with time travel. Classic stories like Days of Future Past show that this is an effective way to give time travel stories a genuine impact without making every other conversation an existential crisis on time paradoxes. Those conversations still happen in X-men Blue #20, but the assorted techno-babble is kept to a minimum.

Instead, Bunn relies on converging the various elements seeded throughout the journey that unfolds in Cross Time Capers, throwing a many of them as possible in the final battle. It's a battle that Silva effectively turns into a colorful, vibrant spectacle that feels epic in both size and scope. While it unfolds quickly, it hits on all the necessary dramatic elements, from confronting Xavier Jr. to the original five X-men reuniting with their mentor. Each moment carries weight and without incurring more time paradoxes.

That's not to say the time travel elements don't also carry weight in this story. Given the circumstances and context of the original five X-men's time displacement, those aspects of the conflict are unavoidable. The story clearly establishes that their decisions in the future have an impact on the past. It also provides some ominous, albeit not too surprising, foreboding about the decisions they'll have to make at some point.

Like Battle of the Atom before it, Cross Time Capers makes clear that what the original five X-men are doing still has an impact on the overall timeline. The choices they make, the battles they fight, and the impact they have on the past and future all matter. It also puts the team in an awkward position because to some extent, they already know what they'll end up having to do. It's like reading an unwanted spoiler in that they can't unread it.

This is where X-men #20 stumbles a bit into the inevitable complications of time travel stories. Even with the drama, there are some details that don't get fleshed. There are moments that have the potential to become very emotional and impactful, but some of that potential is lost for the sake of keeping the story going. Certain elements from the early parts of the story don't really play a role in the final battle, but they aren't rendered meaningless by the final conclusion.

In terms of the most critical elements, X-men Blue #20 handles those very well. There's reason and purpose behind every decision. The motivations and emotions of each character is clear. The events of previous issues influence the outcome of the final battle. Even with the complications of time travel and the erratic pacing of that final battle, the end result is a concise, cohesive story that satisfies as much as any time travel story can without getting too caught up in paradoxes.

That's not just an accomplishment that honors the standards set by Chris Claremont. It's a testament to the unique challenges of time travel stories. They have so many moving parts and so many potential complications that may or may not result in someone like Biff Tannen messing up the timeline. Being able to tell that story and not lose track of all the frustrating time travel tropes that derail so many stories is quite a feat. While Cross Time Capers may not be in the same league as Back to the Future, it certainly makes the case that those stories are still worth telling.

Final Score: 8 out of 10

Doubling (And Tripling) Down On Time Travel: X-men Blue #16

The following is my review of X-men Blue #16, which was posted on PopMatters.com.

There's a certain point in a narrative where a certain subplot either needs to be abandoned or shoved back into the spotlight. It's like that point in a poker game where pushing all the chips to the center of the table is the only sound tactic left. It's a major risk and one that potentially undermines the entire foundation of a story, but the payoff is significant. For the time-displaced X-men in X-men Blue, the time is right for that kind of gamble.

There's no getting around it. Since arriving from the past in the pages of All-New X-men, the mission of the original five X-men seems to change every other week. One week, they're trying to stop Cyclops from ushering in a full-blown mutant genocide. The next, they're joining Cyclops to become mutant revolutionaries. The week after that, they're working with Magneto, the same guy who tried to kill them on their first mission. While it's not uncommon for teenagers to have erratic priorities, time travel seems to exacerbate the situation for the time-displaced X-men.

Beyond these varying missions and allegiances, though, there remains one common, unresolved thread. These time-displaced X-men are, for reasons not yet explained, cannot go back to the future. The events of X-men: Battle of the Atom establish that there is something keeping these time traveling teenagers stuck in the future. The nature of that mechanism is vague and rarely hinted it. For the most part, it's like Spider-Man's marriage in that it's overtly ignored for the most part.

In X-men Blue #16, Cullen Bunn and Thony Silas finally revisit this issue in a way that requires them to push those proverbial chips to the center of the table. It all happens quickly and under the backdrop of some typical teenage melodrama that always seems to find its way into the pages of X-men Blue. The mixture and transitions aren't always seamless, but few things involving teenage melodrama are.

That melodrama is only a small part of a much more serious conflict that has roots that extent back to X-men: Battle of the Atom and beyond. Anyone who has seen Back To The Future more than once understands the erratic and chaotic nature of time travel. Mess with the timeline too much and eventually, it'll get impatient. Whatever patience kept the original five X-men intact in the future seems to have run out, albeit quite suddenly.

There's little build-up or foundation to the sudden fracturing of time. It just starts happening, forcing the time-displaced X-men to react on the spot. Part of that reaction involves them engaging in more time travel. On the surface, that seems like fighting fire with napalm. In this rare instance, though, it makes sense and it addresses an important issue that has remained vague since X-men: Battle of the Atom.

Even those who haven't seen Back To The Future understand on some levels that time travel, especially one that involves changing the past, tends to incur an unpredictable impact on the present. For the most part, the impact of the original five X-men being in the future hasn't been that significant. The final few issues of Dennis Hopeless' run on All-New X-men even imply that their presence may not affect the timeline at all, which undermines the entire premise of a time travel story to begin with.

Like the events of X-men: Battle of the Atom, the temporal details remain vague. However, X-men Blue #16 ditches much of those subtleties and makes one thing very clear. The original five X-men's presence is indeed having an impact on the timeline. They aren't just a bunch of clones or alternate versions of themselves from a dystopian future, of which the Marvel universe already has plenty. They are from the same timeline and what they do does effect the present. That reaction may have been delayed, but it's happening.

It's an important facet that Bunn and Silas belabor, which helps establish the premise and the stakes of the Cross Time Capers arc that begins in X-men Blue #16. It's an overdue dose of clarity for an issue that many recent stories involving the time-displaced X-men go out of their way to ignore. It's both refreshing and profound in that sense that it gives the story genuine stakes, but still doesn't forget that those involved are teenagers. That means that no matter how serious the story may be, there's going to be some entertaining awkwardness along the way.

There is some of that in X-men Blue #16, but not nearly enough. Much of the melodrama involves ongoing emotional entanglements between Cyclops and Jean Grey. While those kinds of entanglements are a major part of X-men drama, regardless of timeline, they seem somewhat forced. It's as though these two always have to have the same kind of drama thrown in, as though that's the only drama they know. Being teenagers, that's less believable than anyone shooting lasers from their eyes.

Even if the melodrama is forced and the pace is quick, the sheer intensity of X-men Blue #16 make it a solid beginning to what promises to be a chaotic arc involving time travel. Given how X-men Blue is coming off an event that involved Mojo, that's saying something. Bunn's concise storytelling and Silas' colorful lay a solid foundation that has the potential to incur more significant implications than anything the time-displaced X-men have experienced to date. Like Marty McFly though, they will likely have to learn about those implications the hard way.

Final Score 6 out of 10

Clawing For Relevancy: X-men Blue #4

The following is my review of X-men Blue #4, which was posted on PopMatters.com.

Contrary to popular belief, it is possible for certain comic book characters to be too awesome. It's rarely the fault of the characters themselves. The problem is that when one writer finds a winning formula, a hundred others work tirelessly to recreate it, which leads to some predictably spectacular failures. With all due respect to characters like Hyperion and Sentry, the sheer volume of characters that try to match Superman's winning formula proves that even great success can breed greater problems.

When it comes to the X-men, Wolverine is the spitting, swearing poster boy of this issue. In terms of the overall X-men mythos, he is the standard by which all others are measured. He's an amazing character with a convoluted, but compelling past. He has personality, charisma, and mass appeal that's easy to stick on a T-shirt or lunch box. Few characters can hope to match that standard. Some characters, such as X-23, come surprisingly close. Others, however, fail miserably and become afterthoughts at best.

Up until Secret Wars, Jimmy Hudson was a case study in such failure. In the now-defunct Ultimate Marvel, he attempts to replace Wolverine and falls woefully short at every turn. He does nothing to distinguish himself. He brings nothing new or compelling to the story. He's basically just a teenage Wolverine, minus the skills, the mysterious past, the personality, and the overall appeal. At a time when there are so many other characters, such as X-23 and Old Man Logan, who do a much better job following that formula, Jimmy Hudson enters X-men Blue with some significant headwinds.

In some respects, he's entering a favorable situation. Like him, the original five X-men are exiled from their own timeline. They're also teenagers with lofty legacies to live up to. However, the baggage of being a failed replacement character from a failed series is not easy to escape. Cullen Bunn and Julian Lopez try to make the case in X-men Blue #4 that Jimmy can overcome that baggage. The verdict, however, is incomplete. The jury is still out, but the evidence is not on Jimmy's side.

The structure of the story, itself, as concise and well-crafted. The original five X-men respond to news of a distressed mutant. That's what the X-men of all generations do, time displaced or otherwise. Bunn establishes in the first three issues that this is the core mission of the team. It's simple, familiar, and functional. It works in the sense that it brings out the best in the original five X-men. It continues to work in X-men Blue #4. However, when Jimmy Hudson enters the picture, this core mission clashes with his heaviest baggage.

If Jimmy didn't have claws, wasn't related to Logan, and hadn't been part of a defunct world that stopped being relevant years ago, then his appearance would have some intrigue. Instead, he enters the world of X-men Blue in a way that's so familiar, so predictable, and so devoid of drama that it's hard to get excited about his arrival. Nothing he does sets him apart as a new and intriguing character. If anything, everything he does will just make Wolverine fans miss Logan.

It's one of Jimmy Hudson's biggest problems, both as a character and as plot for X-men Blue #4. It's a problem that has lingered since his first appearance in Ultimate X. The fact that Jimmy Hudson is Logan's son isn't the issue. The problem is he does nothing to really set himself apart.

In every comic since his first appearance, he doesn't carry himself as Jimmy. He carries himself as teenage Logan. It would be far more intriguing if someone had just cast a magic spell and reverted Logan back to a teenager. Given the abundance of overpowered sorcerers and time machines in the Marvel universe, that really isn't much of a stretch.

That all-too familiar tradition continues in X-men Blue #4. All the familiar Logan tropes are there. Jimmy is alone in a hostile wilderness, stuck in a blood rage, and can't remember where he came from. These are all core themes of at least a dozen other Wolverine stories since 1975. There's nothing distinct or memorable here. Jimmy once again conducts himself as a teenage Logan and nothing more. Unlike the original five X-men, though, he can't use time displacement as an excuse.

It might be understandable for Jimmy to struggle to escape his Logan's shadow in the sense that he sets the bar pretty high. Wolverine is one of the most popular comic book characters of all time. He's the one who helped make Hugh Jackman famous. Expecting Jimmy to even come close to that bar seems unreasonable. However, that excuse fails too because there is a precedent, which further undermines Jimmy's case.

Other characters inspired or derived from Wolverine have succeeded. Both X-23 and Daken have established themselves as solid, compelling characters who can hold their own without being too similar to Logan. X-23 does such a good job of this that she went onto become one of the best parts of the last Wolverine movie. Jimmy Hudson, though, gives no impression that he deserves a role next to Hugh Jackman.

Unlike Daken and X-23, Jimmy does nothing to stand out whether he's in a fight or standing on a street corner. His only distinguishing feature is his blond hair. If Molina were to use the wrong color, then few would be able to discern Jimmy from an overly youthful Logan. Given all the other distinguishing traits of Daken and X-23, which include tattoos and different claw configurations, Jimmy feels less like a derivation and more of a rip-off.

At the very least, his presence doesn't derail the story in X-men Blue #4. Bunn never makes him the primary focal point and that keeps the narrative on-track and consistent with the themes of the series. Jimmy's presence even manages to incur a distinct twist to the story that couldn't be done with X-23 or Daken. He acts primarily as a catalyst for the original five X-men's next challenge. He succeeds in this, but fails be distinct or compelling at any point in the process.

He's still that character who failed miserably to fill the void left by Logan's death in Ultimate Marvel. Now, he's in a world where two other characters can claim some measure of success, one of which made Dafne Keen famous. Jimmy is a long way from that kind of success. That baggage is still as heavy as ever. He's still that character few mourned when Ultimate perished at the end of Secret Wars. Escaping that baggage isn't easy and with X-men Blue #4, he's off to a poor start.

Final Score: 6 out of 10

An Original Cast With Renewed Energy: X-men Blue #1

The following is my review of X-men Blue #1, which was posted on PopMatters.com.

Some concepts work well in any era, no matter the context. Those concepts are few and far between, but their universal appeal is what helps make them iconic. When it comes to the original five X-men, as created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby over 50 years ago, they check all the right boxes with respect to those concepts.

They're young, idealistic, vulnerable, determined, anxious, eager, and even a little arrogant at times. They believe in following a dream. They also haven't experienced the harshest realities of the real world, which tend to crush dreams like Juggernaut in a china shop. Since arriving in a future where they find out their future selves are dead, disfigured, or had lost their minds, they fight desperately to cling to those dreams. Despite the knowledge that those dreams shattered under the weight of cosmic forces, psychic manipulation, and evil clones, they still fight for that dream. It says a lot about both their youthful spirit, as well as their youthful arrogance.

They may not need that arrogance quite as much these days. After the events of Inhumans vs. X-men, the dream the original five X-men fight for isn't quite as shattered as before. Mutants are no longer being gassed to death by a giant green cloud and the Scarlet Witch hasn't had a mental breakdown lately. That means mutants have a future again and, despite being the product of an out-of-control time travel plot, they seek to forge part of that future in X-men Blue.

Cullen Bunn and Jorge Molina bring the original five X-men back together in X-men Blue #1, attempting to capture as much of those classic concepts as possible while fitting them into a new status quo. That includes everything from teenagers complaining about random things and fighting the Juggernaut. By all those lofty standards of the Kirby/Lee tradition, it still checks the right boxes boxes.

From the outset, the story is fairly basic. The Original Five X-men go up against an old enemy in Black Tom, but from their time-displaced perspective, he's a fresh face with a sinister mustache. There's not much to Black Tom's plot. He's just holding a lot of rich people hostage, twirling his sinister mustache, and generally doing all the things Lex Luthor used to do before he got into politics.

There may not be much complexity to that plot at first, but it still leads to some entertaining theatrics that allow the time-displaced X-men to stop lamenting about their future selves and just be heroes. Given that they're still teenagers, there is some lamenting, but Bunn makes sure it's doesn't devolve into the kind of teen angst that often plagued the characters after Secret Wars. That makes the effect of X-men Blue #1 all the more profound because it shifts the tone back to a sense of youthful idealism. After surviving a poison gas cloud, it's a shift that needed to happen.

As the story unfolds, new complexities emerge. The narrative doesn't just rely on a group of teenage mutants flying in and saving the day. The battle also illustrates some new dynamics within the team. Most notably, Jean Grey is now the leader. It may not be akin to making Doop the leader, but the change is notable in the way the X-men conduct themselves.

It's different in that Cyclops doesn't go barking out orders while everyone else jokes about how uptight he is. Jean Grey's style of leadership is different in that she'll spearhead the charge, but trusts her teammates to handle themselves, even against someone like Juggernaut. This style isn't without its faults though. They quickly get overwhelmed and end up having to wing it in order to save the day, so much that they end up having to cheat with magic.

This is where X-men Blue #1 ties itself into the larger narrative that has been unfolding with the time-displaced X-men since they arrived in the future back in All-New X-men. Bunn doesn't ignore the nuances have emerged with certain characters. In this case, Beast's newfound appreciation of magic proves pivotal, both in terms of resolving a conflict and establishing new levels of tension. It makes for different tactics, but it also leads to arguments and uncertainties about how the team operates. In a team made up of entirely of teenagers, that's always fertile ground for conflict.

It also establishes that while X-men Blue is relying on more traditional X-men dynamics, the team is still very much a work-in-progress. Jean Grey is still learning how to lead. Beast is still learning how to manage his new mystical abilities. All the while, Cyclops has to resist the urge to start barking out orders again. As a team, they're not a finished product. They're still rookies who have the potential to be all stars, but are a long way from that level.

That sense of growth is one of the greatest strengths in X-men Blue #1. Even though it uses a team line-up that was introduced during the Kennedy Administration, it still comes off as novel. It's very much a product of an evolving narrative, one that has taken many twists and come dangerously close to being derailed. Magic and tactics aside, Bunn seems to have the original five X-men back on track and Molina's artwork makes them look good while they do it.

That track even has some interesting turns towards the end. While the story starts off as fairly basic, it gains greater intrigue towards the end. There are hints and teases about the Original Five X-men's larger goals and how they intend to go about it. Coming on the heels of a classic clash that brings new energy to a team that underwent so much upheaval, X-men Blue #1 creates a new foundation for an old cast of characters. For characters are teenagers, time-displaced, and dabbling in magic, that's quite an accomplishment.

Final Score: 8 out of 10

Xtreme Satifaction From A Most Xtreme Era: X-men 92 #10

The following is my review of X-men 92 #10, which was posted on PopMatters.com.

Every era has distinct spirit and style that defines it. Just as the Beatles define the 1960s and disco music defined the late 1970s, the edgy grit of the X-men helped define the 1990s. Along with Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and the OJ Simpson trial, the X-men embody an era where differences and extremes shoved their way into the mainstream. Mutants, being an over-arching metaphor for minorities, set the tone for this era and ran with it full-speed.

That time now seems so long ago as a new era driven by movie rights and the rival companies that fight over them takes hold. While the X-men still have a place in this era, it is nowhere near the prominence they enjoyed in the 1990s where toys, trading cards, and Pizza Hut promotions embraced all things X-men. X-men 92 doesn't come with those same promotions and it's not just because Pizza Hut has scaled back their marketing efforts. Even without those promotions, X-men 92 still carries with it that same spirit and style.

X-men 92 is series that simply cannot fit into an era where a talking raccoon with a machine gun generates the same interest as Wolverine. In another decade, it could be the gold standard for an entire franchise. Instead, it can only manage a short 10-issue series that capitalizes on the nostalgia and style of a bygone era. This doesn't give Chad Bowers and Chris Sims much to work with, but that doesn't stopped them from making every issue of X-men 92 count.

With X-men 92 #10, the limited narrative they've crafted reaches its premature conclusion. In many respects, its too premature to generate the same impact, even to those passionate X-men fans that cling desperately to the glory days of the mid-1990s. Despite these limits, Bowers and Sims still find a way to make X-men 92 #10 conclude in a way that feels epic, compelling, and dramatic to an extent that works beautifully in any era.

What begins in the Secret Wars tie-in culminates in this issue. It's not an overly elaborate plot. It doesn't have the same twists, turns, clones, retcons, and superhero civil wars that every plot after 2004 seems to mimic. That's not to say it's an overly simple plot either. It's not just the X-men fighting a killer robot. It's not just Wolverine snarling every other panel. There's a certain level of depth and drama that help heighten the emotions. For a series that draws from the fond memories of a cartoon that ended in 1997, that's quite an accomplishment.

The primary conflict, which has been building since the series began, involves a threat so big that even Apocalypse dreads it. It's the kind of extreme, over-the-top threat that emerged every other week in the '90s X-men comics. It's not too contrived either, building off the X-men's history with the Celestials. These space god robots definitely qualify as extreme and over-the-top, making them the perfect threat for this brand of X-men to face.

Beyond the threat, Bowers and Sims do what they can to resolve the outstanding plots that unfolded throughout the series. Given the tragically limited breadth of this series, this isn't too difficult. They resolve the side-plot with Cyclops and Jean Grey. They build off what they established with Dead Girl during the first major arc of the series. They take the time and effort to incorporate every one of these elements into the final resolution. That kind of impact reflects a genuine effort that isn't always obvious in a comic, be it a limited mini-series or a full-blown crossover event.

X-men fans from both the '90s and every other era will appreciate such efforts. They make for beautiful moments, some of which could easily fit right into the famous '90s cartoon. Moments like Cyclops and Jean Grey confronting Cable or Gambit finally sharing a moment with Rogue will warm the hearts of anyone who made watching that cartoon part of their Saturday morning. It's presented in a way that even those who never watched that cartoon can appreciate.

As nice as these moments are, they still only deliver a fraction of the dramatic weight that X-men 92 #10 delivers. Bowers and Sims really swing for the fences in resolving the Celestial conflict, taking Charles Xavier's dream and raising the stakes to a level that can only ever work in the final issue of a series. It goes beyond merely fostering peace between humans and mutants. More than anything else, it reveals the most important tenant of this dream and why it sets the X-men apart from their enemies, human and mutant alike.

For men like Charles Xavier, peace and understanding cannot be forced. It cannot be coerced, imposed, or telepathically forged. It has to be chosen and embraced. This is something that the Magnetoes, the Apocalypses, and the Sinisters of the world refuse to acknowledge. They don't trust ordinary humans to choose such a path. Charles Xavier has faith in humanity that they will make this choice when given a chance. That faith is ultimately rewarded in X-men 92 #10.

This reward still comes at a price, but one that is both fitting and satisfying. Bowers and Sims set it up in a way that feels right. It gives the impression that this is how Charles Xavier's dream must be realized. This is how that dream takes form and substance in the context of the X-men's overall narrative. It doesn't need to be tragic, but it doesn't need to be as fanciful as a Disney movie either. At a time when it's easy to be extremely cynical about human nature, the culmination in X-men 92 #10 offers a wonderfully refreshing perspective.

Even with a series that had so little time to grow and ends so abruptly, X-men 92 #10 manages to accomplish so much in such a short span of time. Given the scope and scale of the narrative, it's impossible to resolve every element without making a triple-sized issue, complete with bonus pages. Chad Bowers and Chris Sims still succeed in completing the X-men's narrative. Whether it's a cartoon from the mid-90s or a limited comic book series from 2016, it's still extremely satisfying. For X-men fans of all eras, especially the extremes of the '90s, it's astonishingly fitting.

Final Score: 9 out of 10

X-men 92 #7: Nuff Said!

Think of your favorite combinations. Chocolate and peanut butter. Bacon and eggs. Internet and porn. What makes them so potent? What makes them so awesome? We can't always quantify it, but we know damn sure that it's there. I feel the same way about X-men in space.

I get that their primary goal is to fight for peace and understanding against a bunch of human asshats who like throwing killer robots at them, but there's just something uniquely appealing about the X-men in space fighting aliens like the Brood. Since that's exactly what X-men 92 #7 offers, on top of teaming up with interstellar pop stars no less, I'm giddier than a school girl in a puppy farm. So if I sound like I'm high on crystal meth, that's only partially true at best.

A few folks are going to need some crystal meth because Lila Cheney's concert is dangerously close to becoming another Woodstock 99. Kids, if you don't know what the fuck I'm talking about, Google it and then shoot me because now I feel old. Thanks to that asshat, Fabian Cortez, she and the X-men got teleported across the fucking universe, leaving a fuckton of angry concert-goers back in Westchester. In the grand scheme of things, that's almost as dangerous as a Sentinel attack.

Thankfully, the X-men have backup and those running this concert are slightly more competent than the dumb-asses who ran Woodstock 99. They manage to get X-Factor, a team that includes Havok, Polaris, and a whole lot of other characters who haven't been relevant for a decade, to show up and keep the peace. It's probably not as effective as killer robots, but definitely more preferable.

As for Lila and the X-men, they are cosmically fucked and for once it's not because of the Phoenix Force. They're stuck on a planet far, far away. There are no Gungans or Ewoks so that's something. Unfortunately, Lila is so burned out that she can't teleport them back to Earth and for once, it's not because her band ran out of cocaine. It's a bad situation, but at least they know who to be pissed at.

They all seem to recognize that Fabian Cortez is an omega-level asshole. Even Death's Head, the guy who tried to kill Lila in the last issue, isn't inclined to make this shit storm worse because that would just help Cortez. So all in all, they're pretty fucked, but they're X-men. They're used to it. At least they're not sterilized or cloned or some shit like that.

That still doesn't mean they can't get more fucked over. They're X-men. They always find a way. It's kind of their thing and at least this time, the way doesn't involve a team of racist, xenophobic slave-owners. It involves their old blood-thirsty buddies, the Brood. On top of that, they're a new breed of Brood that seems to have more ways of maiming their enemies. I guess when you're a race of alien bugs, you can never have too many. It's still a classic threat that forces the X-men to be awesome. Again, nobody gets sterilized or time-displaced. I feel that's an accomplishment worth emphasizing these days.

Back on Earth, more backup arrives for X-Factor. When you're dealing with a crowd of pissed off, restless, half-sober concert-goers, you can never have too much. This time, it's Professor Xavier and Jubilee, who were lucky enough to be sitting in the cheap seats when Cortez and Death's Head attacked. They don't just offer another way of dealing with pissed off concert-goers. They also inform them about the kind of asshat they're dealing with here.

Those of you who didn't see the X-men cartoon, and shame the fuck on you if you haven't, may recall that Cortez did show up for a couple episodes. Xavier even offers a brief reminder of the shit he pulled. It's pretty damn important and establishes a solid connection between this series and that iconic cartoon. At a time when the only connections the X-men can make involve time travelers, that's a big fucking deal. For this series, it's just an extra layer of icing on a series that already has plenty.

So they know Cortez is behind this. They also know that he's an omega-level asshole who will choke a puppy if he gets too bored. So where the fuck is he now? Well, he was working with a secret team of Hellfire Club wannabes, including Gamemaster and Trevor Fitzroy, to fuck with the X-men. They've even had some minor success with Alpha Red. So he returns thinking he may get a fresh batch of puppies to strangle.

Well, he's in for a big fucking disappointment, albeit in the best possible way. It turns out, someone found out about his little club and they're familiar figures. If you read the Secret Wars tie-in to X-men 92, and shame the fuck on you again if you haven't, you'll know who they are. They were kind of assholes in that series. Here, they completely redeem themselves by mortally wounding Fitzroy. Hell, that alone makes them more heroic than 99 percent of the characters in Civil War II.

We get connections with the old X-men cartoon. We get connections with the Secret War tie-in. With all these connections, my erection can only get so hard. Well, I may have to take a trip to the ER in 4 hours because Chad Bowers and Chris Sims still aren't done with the connections. They decide my erection can get harder and throw in a new complication into the mix. That complication's name is Adam X.

Who the fuck is Adam X? If you read X-men comics at all in the 90s, you know this name and celebrate it the same way you do every Nirvana song. He and a few familiar mutant buddies, none of which are as extreme as him, decide that government stooges aren't enough to deal with this shit. They need some 90s-era overkill. I can't remember the last time I agreed more outside of a strip club.

As this overtly extreme shit storm is unfolding, the rest of the X-men are keeping things basic with their clash against the Brood. Some forms of awesome just don't need to be extreme. Even in the 90s, the X-men comics understood that. The X-men fighting to Brood is just a nice change of pace from fighting killer robots, time travelers, or racist xenophobic slave-owners. It's fun. It's flashy. It captures all the right elements that are awesome in any era. At a time when heroes can't stop fighting each other for bullshit reasons, this is more refreshing than a cold beer at a baseball game in July. In that sense, I guess my erection can get harder.

It's all so basic, helping to balance out the extreme shit we're getting back on Earth. It could've easily just devolved into another case of the X-men kicking alien ass and getting horny as fuck in the process. Well, Chad Bowers and Chris Sims find a way to throw a little twist into the mix. It's a twist that may strain my erection even more, but at this point I can't say I mind.

It turns out, these Brood they've been fighting aren't the same Brood they're used to. They're actually mutant Brood. That's right. In this world, mutants extend to aliens as well whereas mutants in the mainline comics are being sterilized or retconned. It's the kind of twist that makes Disney's lawyer's cry and it feels so good. These mutant Brood just had the misfortune of meeting Wolverine on a shitty day. That's what triggered the fight. Honestly, it's as simple a misunderstanding as you can get in any X-men comic.

Now, instead of wanting to maim each other, they decide to team up. It turns out, mutant Brood inspire just as much hate as mutant humans. That means mutants and Brood are prepared to work together. That means the Avengers and Racist Xenophobic Slave-Owners have even fewer excuses.

So now the X-men have new friends in the form of mutant Brood. It sounds like a fucked up concept, but damn it if it doesn't work in an extreme sort of way, as the 90s often were. It's a concept that's going to have to work because guess who's hunting these mutant Brood in ways that would make a Sentinel jealous? It's another familiar face to the X-men and not in a good way. It's Gladiator of the Shi'ar. Rarely does he ever show up in a manner that doesn't warrant a firm punch in the jaw. The prospect of the X-men beating the shit out of Gladiator again is enough to make my dick an adamantium-laced weapon at this point. For that, I thank you Chad Bowers and Chris Sims.

So...is it awesome?

Space adventures, rock concerts, overly extreme characters from a decade that made extreme sports a thing? One of those alone is pretty fucking awesome by any objective measure. Put them all together, throw in a few twists, and you've got yourself an orgy of awesome with two strippers covered in bacon crease in the middle. It's as awesome as it sounds, even if it makes me damn hungry.

X-men 92 is only has three issues left before Marvel prematurely cancels it, as they tend to do with all things that are simply too awesome and/or don't promote the Racist Xenophobic Slave-Owners. X-men 92 #7 makes every goddamn moment count and it does so without sterilizing anyone. The bar for awesome with the X-men these days may be pretty low, but Chad Bowers and Chris Sims are exceeding it anyways by miles on end. They don't need to fuck up the X-men, kill major characters, or piss on established relationships. They just focus on making shit awesome in every possible way. For that, I owe these guys a few beers. We all do.

Final Score: 10 out of 10

X-men 92 #6: Nuff Said!

Being an X-men fan sucks these days. Being without the internet sucks even more. So those X-men fans from the 90s, also known as the golden era of X-men, are fucked either way. We just can't win. Thanks to shitty movie rights deals, we're stuck in a state where the best the X-men have to offer is being butt-fucked by an Inhuman-tipped dick and it'll stay that way until Fox's lawyers get too drunk or something.

In the meantime, we still have X-men 92 to remind us that it didn't always suck this bad. X-men 92 has characters that are alive. It has little to no time-displaced X-men. It also has lovable, less whiny versions of the characters we know and love. Chad Bowers and Chris Sims taught us to love Cyclops and Jean Grey again in X-men 92 #5. Now, they're here to help us love other awesome shit from the 90s in X-men 92 #6. On top of that, we don't have to enjoy it with a shitty 56k modem. It really is the best of both worlds.

No matter what world you're in, it can only be a bit safer and a bit more awesome with Abigail Brand watching over it with SWORD. Turns out, she exists in the X-men 92 world. She even dresses like an extra in an old Janet Jackson video for good measure. In any decade, that should make anyone feel safer and hornier.

It also turns out that regardless of the decade or era, Abigail Brand is still Abigail Brand. That means she's still a hardcore, ball-busting bitch who will shoot someone in the dick if it protects Earth against alien threats. As it just so happens, an alien ship comes flying through, thinking it's a good idea to visit Earth without getting Abigail Brand's permission first. Don't know if that alien has a dick, but he/she/it will probably not keep it intact for much longer.

The destination of that alien ship? Where the fuck else? It's heading to Westchester and as it just so happens, it's in the middle of a concert called Lilapalooza. It sounds so 90s that it couldn't be more 90s without a mullet and parachute pants. The concert, in this case, is intended to be a human/mutant peace concert. Given how Woodstock 99 turned out, the X-men are taking a chance. They're also the ones providing security so anyone who thinks it's a good idea to set fire to a stage has to deal with Wolverine and Bishop. You literally can't get better concert security than that without hiring the Hells Angels on crack.

It's a fun, festive scene. Lila Cheney is an intergalactic pop star who comes from an era where the name Cheney doesn't immediately conjure images of waterboarding, pre-emptive wars, or Sith Lord level evil. She's singing songs that aren't about breaking shit and ex-boyfriends. The X-men aren't just keeping peoples' asses in line. They're enjoying the show while busting up wannabe groupies from sneaking backstage. Storm is even friends with Lila, making for nice moments that don't involve her blaming Cyclops for all the terrible shit in the world. Beats the shit out of getting sterilized and shot at by killer robots.

These are good times at a fucking rock concert where people aren't busy tweeting about it 85 percent of the time. That begs the question. Where the fuck is Jubilee? This is the kind of stuff that gives teenage girl's orgasmic-induced seizures in the 90s. Well, she's still kind of grounded and this is an era where that didn't just mean taking away your cell phone for a few days.

It turns out Xavier didn't appreciate her breaking curfew to go on a date with Chamber and getting turned into a fucking vampire as a result. Also, she kind of tried to eat her fellow students so that's kind of hard to overlook. Considering she just gets grounded, I'd say that's as reasonable as Charles Xavier can be in an era where changing the wifi password is considered child abuse. It also ensures she misses the concert so she's understandably pissed, but has no one to blame but herself. This will teach her to go out and enjoy being a teenager in an era before dick pics and Tinder!

Everything seems to be going well at the concert. Nobody is starting any fires. Nobody is getting their skull crushed in a mosh pit. Wolverine and Bishop even find time to talk about the future somewhat. Then again, nobody is sterilized by giant fart clouds from racist xenophobic slave-owners in Bishop's future so how apocalyptic can it really be at this point? Either way, this present is far more hopeful and uplifting.

It only starts to go to shit when that alien ship from earlier arrives. Considering that Woodstock 99 ended with fires, riots, and overpriced burritos, I'd say this is still more successful. The concert-goers probably just think this is part of the show or are too damn high from that crack they smoked. Remember, this is the 90s. Everyone still believes weed is evil and crack is cheaper.

At first, Lily tries to convince the audience that it's part of the show and/or a side-effect of crack. She's actually scared shitless because it turns out that, despite being an intergalactic pop star, there are still a few bounty hunters who want to kill her. If this is what happens to pop stars with too much power, then I worry for Taylor Swift's safety.

The bounty hunter in question is Death's Head, a villain that has so many over-the-top 90s features that he might as well have come out of an over-budget Michael Jackson music video. Sure, he looks like Darth Vader fucked a Transformer, but he's here to attack a cute pop star trying to foster peace at a rock concert. Evil like that just cannot stand.

The X-men, acting as security, are immediately inclined to kick Death's Head's ass. They have Wolverine, Bishop, and Rogue to throw at this guy. Pretty sure the staff at Woodstock 99 had pepper spray, night sticks, and used condoms. This is a much fairer fight is what I'm saying and this time, nobody can blame the destruction on shitty Limp Bizkit songs.

Unfortunately, the fight that unfolds doesn't last very long. Rogue gets in a few shots. Wolverine and Bishop get pissed off while concert-goers flee in terror and not because water costs 10 bucks. That's about it though. The fighting gets cut off because Abigail Brand shows up. While it's usually disappointing when an awesome battle gets cut off, Abigail Brand showing up often gives a damn good excuse so I can't be too disappointed.

Brand's presence in this fight means it's probably going to be over in time for an encore. That's when we get an unexpected complications thrown into the mix. It turns out, the X-men didn't do quite as good a job at keeping wannabe groupies/roadies out. One manages to slip through and he happens to be Fabian Cortez. Why is this a big fucking deal? He's one of the assholes who made up the wannbe Inner Circle that unleashed Alpha Red on the X-men a few issues back. Now, he's there to fuck with the X-men in an entirely different way.

This involves him using his powers to overload Lila Cheney's teleportation powers, which causes her to transport the X-men far and away from the cheering crowds who probably paid way too much for their tickets. Why would he do something like that? He's an asshole who probably got kicked out of a Guns n' Roses concert. Then again, does he really need a reason? He already helped unleash a fucking vampire against the X-men. Now, he's fucking with them in a whole new way. As long as it doesn't involve vampires, it shows he's making a genuine effort.

Turns out Cortez actually does have more imagination than a Power Rangers villain. The X-men, Lila, Brand, and Death's Head end up teleporting way the fuck away from Earth. They're not on Earth anymore. Cortez put Lila's powers into overdrive and like a crack head in withdraw, she's in no condition to take them back. At the very least, they're away from innocent concert-goers. That means Abigail Brand can kick Death Head's ass so he can't fuck their day up any more than it already is. I'd say it's a battle that's overly rushed, but it's Abigail Brand versus an ugly ass alien. I'm shocked it lasted as long as it did.

That takes care of one alien asshole. There's just one much bigger problem. This planet that Cortez sent them too has something that's way worse than some alien bounty hunter who tries way too fucking hard to be more awesome than Boba Fett. It's actually a planet overrun by the Brood. That's right. The horrific, flesh-eating aliens from the 90s who aren't from Independence Day are back and they've got a fresh plate of X-men to devour. It's a really shitty situation, but I argue it still beats being stuck on a planet where mutants are sterilized and racist xenophobic slave-owners are considered superheroes.

So...is it awesome?

Abigail Brand shows up and kicks ass. The X-men go to a rock concert that doesn't involve 95 percent of the audience holding their phones up and recording shitty-quality video. Aliens show up and start blowing shit up. If you can't find entertainment value in at least one of those things, then adjust your meds or get to a fucking emergency room because you're half-way towards a coma.

It's fun. It's entertaining. It has awesome, endearing characters. It's actually fun to read like a comic book should be. These days, comics that don't have Squirrel Girl or Kamala Khan are just a round of bad makeup away from going all emo goth. X-men comics, especially, have become thinly veiled Prozac commercials so X-men 92 #6 is so refreshing in that it reminds us of a time when comics were actually fun. What a fucking concept, right?

Final Score: 8 out of 10

Updating An Iconic Romance: X-men 92 #5

The following is my review of X-men 92 #5, which was posted on PopMatters.com.

There's something to be said about the state of romance in the Marvel Universe when Deadpool's marriage to Shiklah, a shape-shifting succubus, is the most stable relationship. Gone are the iconic love stories of Reed/Sue, Spider-Man/Mary Jane, and Bruce Banner/Betty Ross. In its place are shallow to mid-level romances/flings involving Carlie Cooper, Emma Frost, Namor, and whoever Tony Stark is dating. That's not to say that these characters can't foster meaningful relationships. It's just that they're a long ways from being iconic.

One relationship that tends to get deconstructed more than most is that of Cyclops and Jean Grey. Even in a franchise where Wolverine and Deadpool draw the most attention and/or gratuitous violence, these two are still the X-men's premier romance. They go back to the earliest days of the Stan Lee/Jack Kirby era. Theirs is a romance that survived life, death, resurrection, and clones. Very few relationships not involving Peter Parker can make such a claim.

Despite the strength of this relationship, it is often the first iconic romance that Marvel attempts to undermine. If it's not Chris Claremont trying to hook Jean Grey up with Wolverine or Grant Morrison trying to hook Cyclops up with Emma Frost, there's some other conflict that is forced between these two to drive them apart. It may succeed in the short-term, but much like the Phoenix that solidified this couple's iconic status, Cyclops and Jean Grey find each other in the long-run. With a love story that spans over 50 years of comics, Deadpool and Shiklah have a lot of catching up to do.

It's for that reason that X-men 92 #5 offers such an important insight. Chad Bowers and Chris Sims, unburdened by the contrivances of Chris Claremont and Grant Morrison, have a chance to explore this iconic couple in ways that aren't possible due to cosmic forces, death, and time-displacement. Their efforts result in a concise, unique narrative that feels exceedingly modern for a romance that began in the pre-hippie portion of the 1960s.

The setup itself isn't exactly new for Cyclops and Jean Grey. The two are sharing a quiet, romantic moment in a secluded cabin. That moment includes some references to recent events in X-men 92, namely Cyclops' decision to leave the X-men and build a life that doesn't involve clashing with Wolverine every five minutes. He still misses his old life, as does Jean. Then, they decide to snuggle up for a little overly-subtle loving, only to wake up in the distant future.

It may sound like the kind of random shift usually reserved for Deadpool comics, but it's perfectly reflective of the era and context of X-men 92. During this era, Cyclops and Jean Grey do actually travel to the future just like this, which ends up being an instrumental story in the history of Cable. This story is similar, but has a few badly-needed updates that make it feel right at home in 2016.

Bowers and Sims actually do something in this story that feels appropriate now, but would've been a revolutionary concept back in the early '90s. They make the Cyclops/Jean relationship one of true equals. At no point in the story does Jean Grey need rescuing. At no point in the story does Cyclops rely on Jean for his character development. Nobody even faints in this story, which is a radical departure from the old X-men cartoon, where Jean seemed to faint at least once an episode.

This is a remarkable, if not overdue shift for this relationship. Unlike other superhero romances that involve one super-powered man and one ordinary woman, Cyclops and Jean Grey are equals on paper, but are rarely allowed to be equals in practice. They may each have powers, but there are too many stories where Jean Grey needs rescuing or Cyclops can only show depth if his lover is in trouble. X-men 92 #5 finally makes use of that equality. Overdue or not, it realizes the potential of the Cyclops/Jean relationship that has always been there, but is rarely explored.

They end up needing that potential. The story that takes them to the future requires that neither of them faint. They deal with Sinister, evil clones, robot Deadpools, and dinosaurs armed with optic blasts. It's as quirky and fun as it sounds. Every step of the way, Cyclops and Jean Grey support each other. They don't argue, berate, or complain. They make each other stronger and, at one point, cheer each other on. It's a case study in how a healthy relationship functions, with or without superpowers.

Beyond the functional relationship dynamics, Bowers and Sims also inject some emotion and sentiment into the story. Following the same mold of Cable's original origin story, Cyclops and Jean share a few moments with a young and un-grizzled Cable. They also learn that this conflict links into some of the other conflicts that have been unfolding in X-men 92 since Secret Wars so those larger connections are there as well.

The only issue that keeps all these connections and emotions from really having an impact is the limited length of the story. While this story is fairly concise, it comes off as one of those stories that needs to have multiple parts. It never feels overly rushed, but it never gets a chance to add more details to the story. Bowers and Sims still make the most of every moment and they do it without anybody fainting.

X-men 92 #5 isn't just a reminder that Cyclops and Jean Grey are one of Marvel's most storied romances. It highlights the traits of how a true superhero romance can function. It doesn't always have to involve someone rescuing someone. It doesn't have to involve the never-ending will-they-or-won't-they-hook-up dynamic that is the basis of one too many sitcoms. It doesn't have to involve overly contrived love triangles either, which Bryan Singer and Brett Ratner overdid to an egregious extent in the X-men movies. It is actually possible for two characters to be together, support each other, and be functional heroes.

It's one of those things that shouldn't be such a novel concept. However, when compared to the current state of romance in the Marvel universe, it's a breath of fresh air. It's strange that this kind of freshness comes from a series inspired by a '90s cartoon. Then again, at a time when half the X-men are time-displaced and Captain America is in league with Hydra, X-men 92 #5 is a badly needed reprieve.

Final Score: 8 out of 10