I love the new X-Men status quo. I love the idea of so many mutants, major and minor, stuck together and working in unison. I love the glimpses in their everyday lives. I’ve also been loving the recent batch of anthology minis, especially Nation X, which has made a number of characters I feel absolutely apathetic towards interesting and compelling. But issue #3, aside from another great cover, was kind of crappy.

Unresolved Issues – The second Damage rejoined the X-Men in Legacy, I wondered “What, Armor is just all right with that?” No, she isn’t, and she shouldn’t be. But I figured the issue of Damage killing her best friend would get lost in the shuffle. I was pleasantly surprised that Nation X would address this – it was something I really wanted to see resolved. The story isn’t bad – the dialogue is pretty decent – but it disappointed me nonetheless. Probably because of the length, both the setup and the resolution were too abrupt and awkward. Armor’s acceptance feels unbelievably pat. (“Wow, she feels guilty? That means it’s all A-OK!”) On the other hand, the art is quite nice, a bit reminiscent of Sienkiewicz. 

Big Boy Pants – Like with Damage and Armor, the situation between Magik and Anole was something I wanted to see addressed. He showed quite a bit of resentment towards her in New Mutants #1 (which Magik’s teammates totally blew off, of course), and I liked that grudge. I hoped Illyana would maybe face some sort of comeuppance. Instead she continued to act like a raging bitch and nobody called her out on it. (There is a brief hint of something that might be guilt, but I’m not sure if I’m willing to give the story so much credit.) So ultimately, it seems the story had no point whatsoever except making Anole into the mutant equivalent of a dog with its tail between its legs. Yay. The art is… tolerable.

Boxes – I’ve never read Alpha Flight. As such, I felt more than a little detached from this story. I hadn’t even heard of Madison Jeffries until he appeared in Uncanny, but I was open to finding out more about him. The issue offers an exploration of his relationship with his lover Lillian Crawley, who appeared so randomly that I actually mistakenly thought he was hallucinating her at first. This is all handled well enough, but I can’t say I especially cared. The art is decent, though some pages have some really weird proportions, making the characters look like midgets.

Cannonball – Horrible. It looks like it was drawn by a twelve-year old manga fanboy with no skill. How did this make it into a professional mainstream comic? There’s some kind of plot here too, something about an accidental conflict with the Air Force, but I didn’t have much time to pay attention to it between rinsing my eyes with bleach. (By the way, what the hell is a fighter plane doing in the airspace of Utopia and why are the X-Men all right with this?)

So to conclude, the story I described as disappointing was the best of the bunch. I guess I should be thankful this issue didn’t completely sap my enthusiasm for the series and the concluding issue.