New X-Men #43 was originally supposed to include the penultimate chapter of "Endangered Species."  But it's running late, so rather than delay the entire crossover, the back-up strip was shifted over to last week's X-Men instead. 

In theory, that makes this issue returnable by retailers - and that could be significant, because "Endangered Species" had a big impact on the sales for this book and X-Factor.  Personally, I think it was the right call, because there's no point holding up the entire winter schedule just because Skottie Young is running a couple of weeks late - especially considering that a different artist is drawing the crossover issues, so there's no knock-on effect.  Still, I'm surprised Marvel chose to handle things this way.  They don't normally seem to take the schedule quite so seriously.

Anyway, that leaves this issue with its lead strip - the concluding half of "Children of X-Men."  This is a two-part downtime story, filling in time before the crossover by taking stock of where the series has got to.  In many ways it's one of the most successful stories that Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost have written since taking over the series a couple of years ago.  This book's key strength is its characters, and it works best when they're allowed space to breathe and to act like people.

Instead, the book has spent most of the last few years shoving them from one histrionic crisis to another, racking up a ridiculously large body count in the process.  This wasn't an especially interesting approach to the series, and it's had the effect of limiting what the book can do with a story like this.  Faced with some free time, the cast of New X-Men look traumatised, shellshocked, and generally miserable. 

And so they should, given the stories they've been appearing in for the last couple of years, but that doesn't alter the fact that it's all a bit miserable.  Only the clueless and tactless Rockslide gets to provide comic relief, and rather than lighten the mood, he just annoys his co-stars with his blundering insensitivity.  Things don't have to be this oppressively miserable.  When Chris Claremont was writing the X-Men, the heroes lost time and again for the better part of a decade and were reminded at every turn that all future timelines led to disaster - but they still had fun.  There was a balance.  That's been missing here.

Despite that, Kyle and Yost manage to get something out of this story.  There's a sense here of the characters starting to emerge from their shells again.  Perhaps most importantly, there's at least a hint of them starting to take the initiative in dealing with their situation, instead of being battered from villain to villain.  It feels like Kyle and Yost have a story to tell about these characters.  And the misery is lifting, just a little bit. It needs to go further, but it's a step in the right direction.

With this storyline, artist Skottie Young has abandoned his old clean style and switched to a much looser, more sketchy approach.  It's a definite improvement for this book, as it feels much more organic and human while keeping the advantages of his cartoony exaggerations.  More conservative fans might not find it to their tastes, and there are some moments near the end which look decidedly rushed.  The colouring is also unnecessarily gloomy - is there some reason why none of these people can find a light switch?  But on the whole, it's a good-looking issue, and Young has hit on a style that works for him on a superhero book.

A good issue given the corner that the book has backed itself into.  If they could only cheer up a bit, the potential is still there for New X-Men to be a great title.

Rating: B+

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