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REVIEW: X-Men Second Coming ø2

Posted by under *like, Comics |

The second installment of the epic X-Men: Second Coming crossover hit stores yesterday and I’m dying to talk about it.  I can’t tell you how I appreciate the weekly schedule for this series, but I can tell you I may spoil things here.

The chase continues, but we get to see some deeper moments with Hope wishing the present was everything she’d dreamed of (as we see her longing for a hair beauty set during a raid of a convenience store), and Cable balancing his role as her protector and adoptive father.  The tension emerging from Nightcrawler’s discovery of X-Force and the inevitable confrontation with Cyclops is great although it’s tabled in until the mission is complete. The New Mutants team has a prominent tactical role and should lead nicely into their first issue of the crossover next week. It’s great to see that things are progressing quickly with the X-Men locating Cable and Hope after my worry that four issues would be spent trying to reach them.

After the incredible look of David Finch’s art in Chapter ø1, I was afraid the art through the rest of the crossover was going to be a disappointment for me.  This isn’t to say that any of the artists on the books aren’t talented, just that Finch’s work looked amazing to me and it’s going to be tough to compete. The Dodson’s work on Chapter ø2 was solid and I enjoyed it more than most of their work to date on Uncanny X-Men. The opening pages with Cable and Hope are truly great, and I really liked the scene where Cable learned of the X-Men’s move to the West Coast. However, the large image of Bastion on page 11 and some of the group scenes of the X-Men’s strike team were just too cartoonish for my tastes. I can’t quite put my finger on what it is that I’m not crazy about with their work, but it’s not my thing.

The cover art from both Finch and Adi Granov is once again great, with the Granov cover again being my preference of the two. Maybe I’d feel differently if I had seen an actual print copy of the Finch cover, but Marvel’s incentive cover scheme is making that less and less of a possibility as the crossover goes along.

All in all, the issue is solid, but a bit of a let down from last week. This was in many ways unavoidable given the action and my anticipation of Chapter ø1. I’d still put Chapter ø2 between a three and four on the Distractometer. Things are really progressing nicely and X-Men: Second Coming Chapter ø3 (New Mutants #12) will be here in six short days.

It’s also worth noting that Marvel released a teaser image for X-Men: Second Coming Chapter ø5 (X-Force #26) this week with the words “To Save The World, One Of These X-Men Will Die” and images of Colossus, Hope, Elixir, Angel, Emma Frost, Nightcrawler, and Cable. Not sure that I like knowing anything about what’s coming, but it certainly seems like things are going to get worse before they get better.


More on X-Men: Second Coming
Chapter ø1 / Chapter ø3

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  • Kevin MLD said,

    I just wish the threat of the villains was established within this series. Running a major crossover like this attracts attention beyond their core audience and just refering to villains by there last name doesn’t do enough to explain who they are and what they’re interested in.

  • ptb said,

    I agree with you about the importance of establishing the villains (and all the characters for that matter) for readers who have just come in for the crossover, but I think they’ve done that. They’re clearly a threat, and it’s all right there in the book: they’re organized, they have a tremendous numbers advantage, they have advanced technology, and they were able to beat the X-Men to their objective twice (in both Chapter 1 and 2). Their motivation is clear: destroy all mutants, starting with Hope.

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  1. REVIEW: X-Men Second Coming ø4 » My Latest Distraction
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