Uncanny X-Men begins the "Dominant Species" storyline, at least according to the cover - nobody seems to have included a title or credits in the issue itself. 

The template should be familiar by now.  Austen's approach to this series is the team book soap opera, of the sort which dominated the team book subgenre throughout the eighties and nineties.  It's well trodden ground and it does mean that the book feels a little unadventurous, but even so, Austen does it well for the most part.  This is probably the strongest issue he's written so far, neatly interlocking the subplots for all his various cast members

The primary focus this month is on Warren, who's finally got around to being upset about Psylocke dying.  That was about a year and a half ago, but Austen's deliberately running with it as a delayed reaction, so fair enough.  Meanwhile, Austen also picks up on another thread, the status of Warren's inherited fortune.  Since Warren inherited that company many years ago, it's played virtually no part in his stories.  This begs the question of what on earth he's been doing with it.  Austen's answer is "pretty much nothing" - Warren's been ignoring it and letting it get on with running itself.

Not only is this a nice irresponsibility angle for Warren, it's also something that both Husk and Northstar have perfect reasons to complain about - Northstar because he invested in the company, and Husk because she doesn't approve of corporate maladministration, as we saw in the Brian Wood run on Generation X.  Which of course also ties into the subplot that Husk has a crush on Warren.  See what I mean about it all interlocking nicely?  Alright, so Austen overplays it a bit by inviting us to believe that Warren's never even heard of a company which amounts to 10% of his net assets (we saw in the Casey run that he pays a bit more attention to his affairs than that), but the idea is good, not just for Warren but for the rest of the supporting cast.  That's part of the knack of soap operas - the plots don't have to be all that complex in themselves, as long as they start tying themselves together in interesting ways.

Meanwhile, over in the other main subplot, Stacy X is continuing to cause problems for herself, as Iceman now refuses to go on any missions with her at all, while she's busy making a completely unsuccessful pass at Nightcrawler.  The general idea here is sound as well, although I'm a little doubtful about Austen's abilities with female characters.  Stacy has taken to seducing unexpected men by stripping and literally throwing herself at them, which may happen to Chuck Austen on a regular basis, but I'm pretty sure is otherwise largely confined to the letters pages of specialist publications.  For a woman with the power to sense pheromones, she's alarmingly poor at reading the signs.  And Annie Ghazikhanian's main storyline involves her being unaccountably obsessed with a man she's only ever seen in a coma.

Then again, Husk and Charlotte Jones seem relatively stable.  And the problems here stem from overplaying the ideas, rather than from anything fundamentally wrong with the concepts themselves. 

Oh yes, the plot.  There's a group of pro-mutant killers based in one of Warren's subsidiary companies, and the X-Men are called in to help by Charlotte Jones.  Pretty standard stuff, raised largely by providing a vehicle for the subplot about Warren's apathetic conduct of his affairs.  There's an opening scene with the villains interrupting an anti-mutant beating on a back street, which is a huge cliche.  Having said that, it's quite well written, and Asamiya does a wonderful job with the black wolf-creature he's asked to draw.  It's somewhat reminiscent of Bill Sienkiewicz's giant bear from New Mutants, in fact.

On balance I'm quite enjoying Asamiya's art.  He's fitting in quite happily with the 22 page monthly format, and he's got a good handle on most of the male characters (though that Northstar costume is still ugly as sin).  On the downside, his female characters are alarmingly indistinguishable, or at least would be if it wasn't for the colouring.  For example, look at the double-page spread with Charlotte Jones briefing the X-Men.  Top left, a picture of Husk.  Top right, a picture of Charlotte Jones.  And they're awfully similar, aside from the fact that they're different colours.  Stacy comes equipped with a similarly standard-issue face.

The good outweighs the bad, though, and the soap opera angle seems to be working out for the moment.

Rating: B+

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