X-Men Legacy #226

This here issue of Legacy is a Utopia x-over. This comic isn't integral to the main Utopia story, it's just here to enhance the overall Utopia experience. Is it a good read? Does it suck? Does anybody care? I'll answer two of those three questions here in my review. This issue is written by Mike Carey(who hates me).

-This issue picks up during the nighttime riots that occurred during the first chapter of Utopia. Gambit, Rogue and Danger fly into San Fran airspace and are immediately teleported to Cyclops. Scott bitches at Rogue for a while(that's what he does best!), before Gambit informs him that they're all there to help. How sad is it when Gambit is the voice of reason?!? Cyclops then sends the three heroes(?)out to locate some missing mutants.

-Danger saves a little boy(who thinks he was saved by a transformer... HA!), while Gambit runs into some HAMMER agents beating up Trance. Remy KO's the HAMMER goons and Ariel teleports Trance away.

-While trying to find a lost student, Rogue runs into Moonstone(who's dressed like Ms. Marvel). Rogue realizes this Ms. Marvel isn't Carol Danvers(they have a LONG history), and after a brief battle, Rogue manages to escape.

-Gambit runs into Avalanche and some other angry muties who want to attack the HAMMER agents who are trying to restore a modicum of order to the lawless streets. Gambit warns them against their current actions, and before the muties decide to either attack or disperse, Ares attacks them. After tearing through Avalanche and his allies, Ares turns his sights to Gambit. Gambit realizes this is a battle he can't possibly win, so he detonates a wall, which falls on the angry God of War.

-The falling wall doesn't even knock Ares down, and Ares grabs a hold of the Cajun and sends him hurtling towards a wall. Before Gambit hits the wall, Danger rushes over and makes the save. Rogue also arrives on the scene and grabs Ares, which causes her to begin to absorb his powers. However, Rogue is a mortal and Ares is a god, so Rogue's body can't contain all the energy it is absorbing. Before Rogue explodes, Danger knocks Ares away from her, and the three heroes steal a HAMMER tank and drive it away, continuing their search for missing mutants in the riot ravaged city.

Hey, you know what? This was one of the best issues of this series in recent memory. Everything was just so smooth here. Rogue and Gambit still work well together and Danger is a strange, but welcome addition to this comic. It all just really worked for me this month. The story was fast-paced and simple, the fight scenes were well done and Gambit told Cyclops off(which earned Gambit a ton of respect from me). It was all good!

I really can't think of any complaints, which is rare for me when reading this series. For a score I'll go with a 9 out of 10. Hopefully Mike can keep up the great work.