Following San Diego, we now know who's taking over from Chuck Austen on X-Men - Peter Milligan.

Well, that's going to be interesting, isn't it?  To be honest, I'm not counting my chickens just yet - Milligan's quality control tends to be a little more erratic on more mainstream titles, and he does his best work on weird books like X-Statix and Shade.  Still, at the very least it's an intriguing proposition, and it's got to mark a step up.  With Ed Brubaker on Captain America and Warren Ellis on Iron Man, I'm almost starting to wonder whether Marvel have finally found that long-lost clue that disappeared down the back of the sofa when Bill Jemas left.

(And then I remember that there are ten X-books due for one week in October, and wise up.)

Anyway, there's still six issues of Chuck Austen to go, but somehow it all seems blissfully academic now that the light is visible at the end of the tunnel.  And to be fair to Austen, this particular arc isn't conceptually horrible.

Unfortunately, Austen has a nasty habit of writing okay first acts and then completely losing control of the plot as things progress.  And the plotting here is decidedly ropey.  Iceman and the Juggernaut decide to have a fight with one another, oblivious to the fact that Xorn's about to destroy the world and Gambit's just been blinded.  It's a ludicrously stupid scene.  Show some tension between the two by all means, but neither character is moronic enough to start fighting for no reason in this situation.  At the very least, have a token misunderstanding to spark it off.

The Chinese immortals show up again, this time to reveal that there's another containment helmet at a nearby military facility.  (And how do they know that, then?)  Despite the fact that Xorn is going to cause enormous damage without it, they seem to feel it's a better idea to give the X-Men directions, rather than just going to get the damn thing themselves.  For that matter, if they're going to be significant characters in the arc, it would help to give these guys a proper introduction and explain who they actually are.  Naming them all would be a good start.

Still, it could be worse (and has been).  At least the concept of the story isn't hopeless, and it does have some very attractive art from Salvador Larroca.

And best of all, the end is finally in sight.

Rating: B

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