Remember “it’s magic, we don’t need to explain it?” Remember how asinine and half-assed that non-explanation felt? Well, it turns out that some things are better off left unexplained. This series started off making a clear break from Claremont’s Exiles series, which made the cardinal sin of trying to give what should be a fun concept too much meaning. This issue probably doesn’t go that far, and I’m not saying that the few fans of this don’t deserve some kind of who and what analysis, but it certainly does take the fun away. That much is especially true when you cram all of the explanations into one over-sized issue. The result ends up very wordy and dense, and gives one a frantic sense of pace as the characters flit rapidly about to cover all the bases. While we do have some fun moments along the way in Lady Kang, big gay Beast and the like, it can’t help but feel forced. Just the same, it’s nice that Marvel even allowed this. As a business, I suppose they’re under no obligation to give the creative team more pages to iron things out, but they did. It’s also nice that it doesn’t make them immune from being poked at on this issue’s recap page. It’s not as in-your-face with anti-editorial sentiment as, say, the Ambush Bug series that cast Dan Didio as one of the major villains, but it’s still nice when creative dissent can be highlighted in proper context. And it’s too bad it has to be that way, but so long to a fun series.