Mystique reaches its penultimate issue.  On the one hand, I'm honestly going to miss this book.  On the other hand, at least it's one fewer title in a painfully bloated line.  There's always a positive angle if you look hard enough.

If you're wondering what Wolverine's doing on the cover, when he's previously had nothing at all to do with the story... well, yes, that's a good point.  This is the penultimate chapter of "Quiet", as after over a year of slow burn, Mystique finally gets around to trying to kill Professor X.  I'd been semi-expecting a story where Mystique tried to outwit both of her opponents, and came up with some smart plan to escape both factions - but no, it seems she's just going with the best deal and trying to murder Professor X.  Fair enough.

Of course, she can't murder Professor X, because he's needed for Excalibur.  So instead she botches it and ends up on the run.  That leads her to return home and try and pick up her belongings, where Rogue and Wolverine are waiting for her.

Now... Rogue, yes.  Rogue is Mystique's foster daughter; she's got a perfectly good rationale to turn up in this book.  And the scene would work about as well with Rogue on her own.  Wolverine, on the other hand, has a less obvious reason to be here.  A belated attempt to boost sales, coming too late in the day?  We'll never know.  Actually, McKeever writes quite a nice Wolverine, and gives him just enough to do to justify his presence in plot terms.  He still feels like he's been shoehorned in, though.  Guest stars don't boost sales any more, guys.  This isn't the mid-nineties, much as Marvel might wish it otherwise.

Anyhow.  I'm enjoying the overall storyline, and it feels like we're building to a good climax for the final issue, as everything is tying together at last.  This arc would have been a major shake-up for the title even had it continued, so it's going to serve well enough as an end point, providing closure to everything that was underway.

On the other hand, there are some irritating niggles that drag this issue down a little bit.  Some of the visual storytelling is a bit dodgy.  For example, on page 6, Mystique escapes through a hole in the wall.  Presumably the hole was created by that ray gun blast from a page earlier, but that page doesn't show a hole, and if anything it looks like the plaster just got cracked a bit.  Later on, there's a bit with Mystique escaping through a window and blowing up a flat behind her - nice enough in theory, but what exactly is that lighter setting light to?  When did the room get filled with gas?

Trivial points which don't undermine the plot, but they knock me out of the story a bit.  Nonetheless, the story is holding my attention as we come in for the big finish.  Overall, still a good issue.

Rating: B+

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