Uncanny X-Men #10: X-Men Disassembled Part X

The final issue of Uncanny X-Men’s weekly run is at hand!  Will they be able to stop X-Man or will he ‘save’ the world?  The books I’ve picked up in this series have been really good(issue 2 and issue 4), and I’ve been curious to see how this sage with X-Man ends.  Brisson, Rosenberg, and Thompson have done a great job bringing the X-men back into the forefront with this run.

The Cover

If the cover of this book is any indication, things will not go well for the X-Men.  It features the X-Men strewn about the ground, very much defeated.  In the distant background the sun is setting over the water, and the background is the orange of a fading day.  X-Man is in the mid-ground, slowly walking towards the sunset.

The Art

Pere Perez and Rachelle Rosenberg handle the pencils and colours respectively to finish this run.  Every character is well rendered, excellently detailed, and coloured impeccably.  The large battle scene at the beginning of the book is a great example.  For such a large spread it would be easy to let detail get lost in the shuffle, allowing a few characters to come to the fore and let everything else blend into the background.  This isn’t the case here.  Character details are fantastic, and the colouring in some of the energy based powers is beautiful!

The Story

The writing team for this Uncanny X-Men re-launch have done a great job on this series.  10 issues in 10 weeks is impressive.  The re-introduction of X-Man into the forefront of an X-Men story line was very well done, and I enjoyed that he has become similar to Apocalypse in his implementation of a new world order and use of Horsemen.

This issue begins with X-Man and his Horsemen facing off with the X-Men.  Jean Grey directs traffic and after sending Psylocke to break X-Man’s hold on Storm, leads all the telepaths to take on Nate.  At that point much of the issue takes place inside X-Man’s mind, as Jean tries to convince him to alter his path.  The conversation between the two is actually really heartfelt, as Jean(his genetic mother) does feel for the upbringing he was faced with, and does acknowledge that he wants to do good, but also is trying to force him to see the hurt he is causing.

The issue ends on quite the cliff-hanger.  The X-Men are gone.  However, with a new team starting in Issue #11, led by Cyclops and Wolverine, and with the Age of X-Man event about to start, Disassembled has set the stage for the X-Men for roller-coaster over the next couple months!

All said and done, this was a great book, and the issues I have read from this series have been a lot of fun.  Check it out and enjoy!