“X-Men #16 is the first part of Victor Gischler “Betrayal in the Bermuda Triangle” story arc. The Future Foundation arrives on Utopia to share with the X-Men a distress message they found in the Bermuda Triangle. The message is from Lee Forrester who is trapped in another dimension. She leaves the dimension’s entry point coordinates in a buoy recovered by the FF and with their help the X-Men head out to find Lee.

If I had to sum up this issue in one word it would simply be “fun”. It’s not the most original story. I mean we’ve seen heroes travel to alternate dimensions to save friends or battle villains. But Gischler throws the FF and X-Men together which provides some really good character moments. It starts out on a great note with Spider-Man in the Bermuda Triangle with the FF kids attempting to to debunk it’s mystery. Dr. Doom, a current FF member, has several funny lines and Wolverine and the Thing are a lot of fun. There are plenty of entertaining interactions and X-style action that work together to make a well rounded issue.

The hardest thing to categorize is Jorge Molina’s art. At times his work looks incredible. It’s polished and vibrant and well laid out. His action sequences are fluid and crisp and his environments show a nice attention to detail. I particularly enjoyed his two page spread in the middle of the book. But where he sometimes falls short is with his characters especially their faces. There are several inconsistencies with the characters, some of which look fantastic on one panel but terribly off in another. The differences can be jarring which is unfortunate considering how great the rest of the book looks.

This issue won’t win any points for originality but it does get points for entertaining me. I saw a lot here I liked, nothing more than the fun that comes from mixing The Future Foundation with the X-Men. There are some pretty good laughs, some classic styled action, and an ending that sells me on the next issue. The book’s visual upside outweighs the few problems it has and overall this is a nice looking issue. I’m definitely onboard.