“Conclusion”
I’m concerned that part of this story – a conversation – is actually being teased as a one-shot coming out of this issue. Explaining Emma and Scott’s motives and methods that have gotten them (and the team) to the place where they find themselves, a book called The Confession is in the pipeline, after the current story has wrapped up. This means readers will be “treated” to a story about and behind the current story they’re reading even though the outcome will be known at the end of this book and we more or less know that Scott and Emma have been playing a long game for some time now.
Irritating quirks and asides in the storytelling notwithstanding, this is actually a pretty decent wrap up to the Dark X-Men/Dark Avengers storyline. While I’m still not convinced Cyclops is as clever as Matt Fraction has tried to write him, there remains some fairly interesting payoff to the “Dark Reign” tie-in.
Having retreated to their artificial island off the West Coast, the X-Men make their stand against Osborne’s Avengers. While I could have done without another month of brawling between the two groups, Fraction has written some nonetheless interesting matchups and counters orchestrated by Cyclops. Powerhouses are disarmed and the X-Men are able to reframe the message and their mandate for the world after dealing with the local favorites.
The book loses marks primarily for the somewhat odd characterization of Norman Osborne. We’re often told that he’s a master strategist by many of the modern Marvel writers, but in practice over the last few months he’s been characterized erratically – more often than not leaning on the side of a brawler prone to fits of rage. There’s very little finesse to Fraction’s version of the character, who has to be informed by one of his subordinates about how the current engagement with the mutant population of Utopia could inform public perception. It’s a problem for me because it feels like the conflict was kind of one-sided up to this point and to a certain extent gets to the root of why I don’t feel like the moves Scott makes are all that clever.
The book is pretty – although I’m not sure why the decision was made to have Dodson and Deodato alternate every few pages. They have very distinct and attractive styles that don’t quite fit with one another when placed side-by-side. I would have much preferred one artist or the other taking the reins on the art to give readers a more unified presentation.
A solid effort although I hope this means the X-Men franchise will be able to get along for a while without an overarching crossover.
