It’s possible that it’s been years since there were two great X books on the shelves. It seems every time there’s a Whedon Astonishing run, there’s a Carey run which is merely good. Morrison’s game changing run on New X-Men was at the same time as Joe Casey and Chuck Austen. So the fact that there are two near flawless X books coming out: Jason’s Wolverine & The X-Men, and this, Remender’s Uncanny X-Force fills me with much joy.

While there is some chopping and battling in this issue, a lot of the story is the Claremont “while they were in the mansion” character development issue, minus the mansion or the characters crashing through the walls and announcing their powers.

Through his interaction with Nightcrawler 2, we get to see some Wolverine “Sure I’m the best at what I do, but why do I do it?” of a quality I haven’t seen since Rucka’s Wolverine run. It’s just the right amount of self-evaluation before the claws come out and he starts Wolverining.

We also get some Jean Grey School For Wayward Mutant time (and it looks to be a lot of that tonight, what with 427 X books coming out this week) to check in on Warren, Genesis, Headmaster Kitty, et al.

We also get a look at some brand new villains. Though, in typical Marvel Universe style, they’re really just reimaginings and reanimations of old villains. But they’re still pretty bad-ass.

Mckone’s art is a nice cartoonyish take on the look of Uncanny X-Force.