Continuing another less-than-stellar week for the X-books, Uncanny X-Men gives us the first half of "Rules of Engagement", although it's really more of a transition issue between stories.

What that means in practice is Chuck Austen pursuing his melodramatic soap opera plots.  To an extent that has provided some of the stronger moments of his run to date, but I find it very hard to get worked up about.  Aside from a degree of roster reshuffling, the main focus of this issue is the continued romantic triangle centred around Alex, and the rather odd romantic subplot for Warren and Paige.

Both of these plots require a bit of psychological suspension of disbelief from the reader.  Alex's storyline involves him being pursued by two women both of whom are defined primarily by their mental health problems.  Austen seems to be trying to sell us on the idea of Annie and Alex as joined by destiny, but the sheer bizarreness of Annie falling in love with a comatose patient gives the plot an inherent creepiness that he never really manages to get away from.  And Lorna, of course, has been reinvented as an one-dimensional bitch for purposes of plot convenience.

Ron Garney turns up on art, just to remind us that he's supposed to be one of the regular artists on this title.  We haven't actually seen him since issue #412, last September.  This is pretty bland stuff, and very far from his best work.  He's really more of an action artist, and soap opera doesn't play to his strengths.

Uninspired.

Rating: C+

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