I was looking forward to this book, but my level of enjoyment still took me by surprise. Writer Simon Spurrier did some great X-Men work recently on the Smoke and Blood one-shot during the Curse of the Mutants vampire event. That issue featured the X-Men’s science team (the X-Club) and as I really enjoy those characters I was predisposed to enjoying the story. It’s great to see Spurrier in this case taking more recognizable characters from the Marvel Universe that I’m not nearly as invested in and making me care about their plight. Seeing the Avengers as government sanctioned mutant hunter/killers is provocative on its own, but the twisted nature of the Age of X helps. It isn’t as simple as the characters we know being given a gruesome mission, in this case the characters entire histories are gruesome tales. The creative freedom to make these changes that Spurrier mentions in his comments at the end of the issue makes for a great read. I’ve actually grown to really enjoy those commentaries as they give a nice insight into both the creators and the book they’re working on.

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This issue of X-Men: Second Coming was simply amazing. There’s no question about it, it’s a 5 out of 5 on a distraction scale from 1 to 5. It’s difficult to even try to consider the book as a single entity given that it’s Chapter 13 of 14, but I can’t imagine someone reading it and not wanting to know more. On that note, I’m going to spoil everything.

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X-Men: Second Coming Chapter ø9 is available at comics shops everywhere this week. The book featured some great action and moved the crossover into the final act. More details will follow, among them will be what some would consider spoilers.

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