All be over soon.  X-Men #163 is Chuck Austen's penultimate issue.  Only three more issues until Peter Milligan turns up.  And while I'd be the first to admit Milligan's track record on mainstream superhero books is erratic, at least it's an interesting prospect.

In the meantime, Austen is clearing his decks, and we've got a big fight issue.  There's some odd subplot about Blind Gambit having visions, which doesn't entice me in the slightest, and I can only hope it quietly disappears in the very near future.  Who really wanted to see this plot, anyway?  He's a complicated enough character as it is, he really doesn't need vague mystical powers to muddy the waters even further.

Otherwise, it's a mixture of supporting characters resolving their affairs so that they can be ignored after Austen leaves, and a big fight with the Brotherhood of Mutants.  The fight is a mixed bag - Gambit being guided by one of Stepford Cuckoos works quite well, and there's a neat little sequence with Northstar and Sabretooth.  On the other hand, I really don't buy Nocturne being dumb enough to hang around with these clowns - and the explanation given here amounts to saying that she's criminally stupid.  And Exodus has been established from the word go as a character so powerful that he could beat anyone on this team without breaking a sweat, so why is he so ineffectual here?  Besides, what are the Brotherhood trying to achieve, other than "kill the heroes for the hell of it"?

Ah, but such questions aspire to the dizzy heights of competence.  With Austen, it's best not to get your expectations so high.  Best to stick to the two things you might plausibly hope for - some scenes that provide quality visuals for Salvador Larroca to play with (check), and nothing laughably abysmal in the plot (ehhh...  oh, check, I suppose).  It could, in short, be worse.  In the past, it frequently has been.

But the end is near.  Hopefully, our suffering will be rewarded...

Rating: C

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