To me, this was a slight improvement over last issue. Claremont's ongoing subplot about the shadowy "Consortium" has always been intriguing to me, so this issue earns points with me because of the pages devoted to Nick Fury and Sabretooth's investigation of that group's infiltration into SHIELD and the X-Men. Graham Nolan's art is also better than it was last issue. The inker is the same, but this time around Nolan seems to have gone for a slightly sketchier style, and I think this slight change makes the art significantly better. The character renderings just looked awkward last issue, in my opinion.

All in all, this was a pretty average issue. On the one hand, the major action of the issue is quite humdrum: Nightcrawler and Rogue save people from an apartment building fire, and then they remark about how mysterious Mystique is. On the other hand, Claremont can make a relatively quiet issue like this seem better than it should be. The brief scenes marking Jean, Hank, and Xavier's current status quos really add to the issue, reminding the reader that we're dealing with a relatively large cast of characters, all of whom have complicated, ever-evolving personalities. Still, this issue seemed a bit lacking in some respects. It's good enough--but it's hard to see how much of this matters much to the ongoing story. It's a bit neat to see Rogue and Nightcrawler "reverse" themselves--but how will that play into anything else that's going on in a meaningful way?

I believe the next issue is a solo story featuring Cyclops and Tom Grummet pencils, though, so I think a return to clear meaningfulness and very good artwork is in the cards.