COMIC REVIEW: FTN reviews All New X-Men #6

Written by Brian Michael Bendis

Art by David Marquez

Now that we are past the whole Beast is dying story line I was excited to see where Bendis would take us going forward. There were some very interesting elements at play here, first with Jean starting to develop her telepathic powers. Being able to read minds is a scary proposition at first; a thousand voices all going off in your head at once. Bendis delivers this moment perfectly with panels that display the chaos going on Jean’s head expertly, while using the situation to help Jean and Kitty form a bond as Kitty helps Jean sort out the mess.

My heart goes out to poor Cyclops who now must deal with weight his present self has created. No one wants to sit with him at lunch, citizens are afraid of him and there’s no where he can escape to, though not for lack of trying as he steals away on Wolverine’s motorcycle to try to get away from it all. Of course this only makes matters worse for him as Cyclops and Wolverine get in a tangle. It seems that no matter what era he is from, Cyclops will never get along with Wolverine. I do wish this had gone the opposite way though, I think it would be more interesting to see Wolverine take a young Cyclops under his wing, who knows, maybe that simple gesture could’ve avoided the mess that played out in AvX in that young Cyclops would go back to his time and think differently about every moment that led up to AvX. That scenario maybe would’ve kept the X-Men together in the present nullifying Schism.
It was also nice to see one of the other young X-Men who is not Jean or Scott get some shine as Angel meets his younger self. I liked seeing them bond together and made me a little sad for young Angel as his present self couldn’t answer why his wings were now metal. Angel has gone through so much as an X-Man, as much as Jean and Scott have gone through, and I’m not sure young Angel could fathom all the evil he will bring into the world himself. Then Bendis brings our villain into play on the last page further upping the ante for the All New X-Men going forward. There wasn’t a lot to it, but I am excited to see how this plays out.

Marquez delivers the goods in the art department, especially in the panels with Jean coping with her newfound telepathic powers. I’m sure doing those panels had to be quite a chore, but he handles it with perfection. One thing I noticed was how awesome his facial work was. Every look and expression sells every word of the script, and that’s when comic magic happens. As much as I do like Immonen’s work, I am sort of hoping that Marquez stays on a bit longer.

Overall this was a great issue and I really liked the fact the pace was picked up a bit more over previous issues, the introduction finally of a villain should really help to get the ball rolling.

4 out 5 nerds
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