"Here Comes Tomorrow" continues in New X-Men #152, and I reluctantly concede that it's just not drawing me in.

As I said when I reviewed the last issue, I'm not particularly keen on sci-fi dystopia storylines to start with.  I think they've been done to death, particularly in the X-Men.  Of course, playing with the established repertoire of X-Men ideas has been a conscious part of Morrison's approach to the book, but he doesn't seem to have succeeded in refreshing this one in the same way that he did with some of the others.

There seems to be a bit of a mismatch in tone between the writing and art, as well.  Quite possible on orders, Silvestri and his colourists render the future world as a dreary, grey place where the rain is heavy and everything is rather dismal.  Against this, Morrison throws in future characters such as a man in a magic car, seemingly on loan from the British weekly comics.  It ought to be amusing, but any lightness of touch gets sucked down into the overwhelming murk.

In terms of the wider plot, most of the interest lies in the question of the Beast's identity.  He now seems to be claiming to be John Sublime, which suggests that we might finally be getting an explanation of why Sublime returned from his earlier death in this series only to turn up as a figure in Weapon Plus.  There's clearly more to that character than meets the eye, and I'm interested to see where Morrison is heading with him.  Since he also claims to have been around since the dawn of life, presumably he's going to have something to do with evolution.  I have a sneaking suspicion we're heading for something along the lines of John Byrne's villains That Which Endures.

There's enough in the wider plot to hold my interest, but I'm really not all that entertained by the dark future stuff.  I've seen it many times before, and unfortunately, Morrison and Silvestri haven't managed to reinvigorate it.

Rating: B-

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