Back at the more mainstream titles, Chuck Austen is continuing his soap opera direction on Uncanny X-Men.  It makes for a rather unusual companion title for New X-Men, but then if you're going to have two X-Men titles, they may as well do something different.

This issue really just continues along the lines previously established - it's perfectly competent, it does have its own identity within the X-books line, but ultimately it seems to lack the spark of inspiration to make it stand out from the pack.

The A-plot this month involves Josette and Robert, mutant refugees from Genosha who've turned up at the mansion for, well, no particularly clear reason.  Josette has the mutant power to seduce men and goes around seducing men.  Robert isn't very happy about it.  Since the story never gives the remotest clue as to why Josette is trying to have sex with every male in sight, it falls rather flat - she's a non-character, a plot device on legs, and characters like that don't belong in a prominent position in the story.  It just exposes their shortcomings.  The upshot is that we have a rather cliched relationship between a slutty wife and jealous husband, neither of whom display any personality traits beyond that summary.

So why is the plot there?  Well, it seems to be there because Chuck Austen has decided to do an unrequited love story with Northstar falling for Iceman.  Josette appears to be here to demonstrate that Iceman is indeed straight, as Northstar claims.  This would be fair enough if her plot worked in its own right.

Having said that, this is the second straight issue where Northstar's arc has revolved around the fact that he's gay.  On one level I'm pleased that Marvel now seem to live in the nice grown-up world where the existence of homosexuals can be acknowledged.  On the other hand, there is a happy middle ground where Northstar's every plot does not have to involve being gay.  Most writers using the character over the last decade or so have swung back and forth alarmingly between the two extremes and Austen seems to be continuing this trend.

I'm not saying this is necessarily a bad plot idea.  It isn't, if soap is the direction that you're going for.  But Northstar's sexuality shouldn't be the focal point of his character.  He was a much more rounded character in the days before he became a political football for people to prove their PC credentials with.

The story also suffers from a couple of obvious plot problems.  If Bobby is desperately trying to conceal the fact that his body is turning permanently to ice, why on earth is he talking about inviting Josette up to his room?  If the idea is that her powers overcome his determination to conceal this - which was the focus of the first half of the book, for him - then it's not very well conveyed.  And why is Bobby expressing surprise that Warren's arm has healed quickly?  Does Xorn not exist for purposes of this book?  If you're going to be bring powerful healers into the mansion in the sister title, you can't suddenly pretend that they don't exist here, simply to generate work for Austen's nurse character.

Sean Phillips is on guest art this month, which is the last time before "International Star" Kia Asamiya takes over.  (There's something amusingly desperate about plugging him as an "international star."  "Look, you may never have heard of him, but dammit, he's a household name in Budapest.")  Phillips' storytelling is strong as ever, but for some reason he's working here with Asamiya's costume designs.  It's not a great stylistic fit on Warren, and honestly, the less said about the Northstar design the better.  ("Excuse me, monsieur, can you direct me to the nearest velodrome?")  Maybe they'll look better in Asamiya's own style.

There are some decent ideas here, but the execution is just too cumbersome.

Rating: C+

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