THE CREATORS: The tail end of Chris Claremont and Chris Bachalo's run (with Tony Bedard helping to tie up the loose ends after Claremont's illness); and then Ed Brubaker and Billy Tan come aboard.

WHAT HAPPENED IN 2006: More insane slaughter with the family of Rachel Grey and the modestly named Shi'ar Death Commandos; the throwaway "First Foursaken" storyline; and the first half of the year-long "Rise and Fall of the Shi'ar Empire."

At the start of the year, Uncanny X-Men seemed to be lacking in direction at the start of the year.  Under Chris Claremont, it was caught up in a wholly unsuccessful storyline about the Shi'ar killing Marvel Girl's family, which fell into much the same god-who-cares overkill trap as New X-Men. 

After that, the wheels pretty much came off, as (repeat after me) Chris Claremont fell ill.  His final arc on this title, "First Foursaken", had to be completed by Tony Bedard.  It's a strange story, which serves as the pay-off for months of subplots featuring Jamie Braddock, but comes across as totally throwaway.  It's hard to shake the feeling that Claremont must have had something bigger in mind, which somehow fell by the wayside.

Although Claremont is now back at work, he's not going to be writing any of the X-Men titles.  It's entirely possible that this year saw his final issues of the X-Men, and to be honest, it's a bit of a shame if his last work on a regular title was a story like that.  Perhaps it's fitting that X-Men: The End, Book Three #6 came out afterwards, since even though it's not very good, it feels like a better way to end his long association with the team.

Starting with issue #475, Ed Brubaker and Billy Tan have taken over, with their epic "Rise and Fall of the Shi'ar Empire" storyline, a sequel to X-Men: Deadly Genesis.  I've never been a big fan of the space stories, which usually seem like a distraction from what the X-Men are really about.  But Brubaker has generally done well with this arc, and he's to be commended for pacing the book properly for the serial format.  It's a skill more people ought to practice.

There have been some shaky elements recently - a "breather" issue which seemed altogether unnecessary, and a supporting character who insists on carrying around a sword the size of a small house.  The sword sounds like a small thing, but it's a real problem, because we're meant to take this character seriously, and the reality is that he just looks absurd.  It's totally at odds with everything else about the title's look and feel, and I can't for the life of me imagine what the artist (or his editors) were thinking.

More fundamentally, Brubaker is on a slow build, setting up Vulcan as a major villain.  I'm still not wholly persuaded that Vulcan is a strong enough character to overcome his tangled roots, and if I'm still thinking that halfway through the story, that's a bad sign.

But despite all these reservations, it's still a pleasure to see the X-Men being written by a solid craftsman like Brubaker, who's been able to go his own way and tell his own story.  I look forward to seeing what he can do with his book once this arc is complete.

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