X-Men #11 & New Mutants #25(!).

Last two reviews for today. The first one is the last issue of X-Men I'll be picking up for the foreseeable future since my least favorite writer(that would be Christopher Yost) will be taking up the writing duties beginning with the next issue. The second comic I'm reviewing? All I have to say about it is this... X-Man returns!!!!!


X-Men #11:

Summary: This issue begins with a few of the Crazy Muties throwing a birthday party for Vampire Jubilee to make her feel normal. The fact that the Crazy Muties(What? They live on Crazy Mutie Island, want am I supposed to call them?) are trying to make Jubilee feel “normal” actually has the opposite effect, causing her to feel like even more of an outsider. After yelling at the poor, confused Crazy Muties, Jubes storms off to brood on a rooftop. Prof. Xavier follows her and rather then try to convince her that she was normal and everything would be all right, Prof. X tells Jubes that she was different now and that she'd have to learn how to cope with these differences. From there Prof. X relates the story of his first encounter with a vampire in Africa back in the 1950's. It seems the young Prof. X saw a photo of an elephant strung up in an issue of National Geographic, and thought it may have been the work of a fellow mutant. After a search and a run-in with some mercenaries who were also trying to figure out who strung up the elephant, Prof. X is saved by a member of a peaceful tribe of vampires. It seems these vampires didn't want to victimize humans anymore and had begun drinking animal blood(hence the strung up, bleeding elephant). After telling Prof. X this story, the vampire vanishes, never to be seen by Prof. X again. In other words, Jubilee didn't have to live the way the vampires she'd met lived(Dracula and Xarus), she could live her life her own way. Now feeling better, Jubes decides to head back inside with the Prof so he could have a piece of cake.

Thoughts: I've always been a big fan of Prof. X, so it should go without saying that I really enjoyed this one. He's always had a great relationship with Jubes(there was an issue of Uncanny right after the X-Cutioner's Song that really hammered that home), so it was great to see these two characters who kind of fell off the map in the 2000's having a nice little heart to heart. If you're not a fan of Xavier, you probably wouldn't care to read about his youthful adventures. But for me? This was a breath of fresh air.

Score: 8 out of 10.How is calling somebody abnormal supposed to make them feel better?!


New Mutants #25:

Summary: This issue begins with the remnants of the New Mutants(minus Cannonball, Karma, and Illyana) along with Wolverine, Shadowcat and Colossus attacking a Nimrod-possessed automotive assembly plant. The team battles robots for a while before Doug Ramsay(who's not dead for some inconceivable reason) figures out that everybody Lord Summers sent on the mission had a personal connection to Illyana... It seems that Illyana had recently killed some Elder Gods and manipulated the X-Men in the process. Because of this, Lord Summers has decided to imprison Illyana permanently on Crazy Mutie Island, which Illyana understands completely. After the New Mutants(and company) take care of the robots, they return to Crazy Mutie Island, where Colossus immediately makes a beeline for Lord Summers' throne room. While Colossus is bitching Lord Summers out over his actions towards Illyana(his sister), Moonstar visits with Cannonball, who was recuperating due to Limbo and/or Legion(I didn't read the past several issues, what do you want from me?!). After the Illyana business and with Cannonball hurt, Moonstar figures that Lord Summers would be breaking up the New Mutants. Cannonball comforts her and they share a kiss(??!) before Moonstar heads in to see Lord Summers. It seems that Lord Summers wasn't breaking up the New Mutants, but instead wanted them to begin tracking down any loose ends the X-Men had dangling out there. The first loose end Lord Summers wanted tied up? X-Man, Nate Grey. Back when Norman Osborn controlled HAMMER, Osborn and his Dark X-Men managed to defeat and capture Nate(back in the Dark X-Men mini-series). Since Osborn's fall from power, Nate hasn't been seen, which is something Lord Summers was disturbed about, since he seems to have suddenly remembered that Nate was his alternate dimensional son... Better late than never, right? And what of young Nate? It seems he's been imprisoned and was strapped to a machine that was forcing him to believe he was being hunted by the Avengers. The man controlling the machine? None other than Nate's Age of Apocalypse enemy, Sugar Man(!!!!!)!

Thoughts: Before I get to what I thought about this one, I have something I want to say first. I have not now, nor have I ever claimed to be impartial. I'm not one of those delusional bloggers who thinks that they are real journalists, and as such holds some warped notion of journalistic integrity. I know better. I'm not a journalist, I'm just a guy who loves reading and talking about comics. So yes, I'm a VERY biased reviewer... So there. Why did I just go on that spiel? Because Nate Grey is my favorite comic book character ever, hands down. There's nobody else that's even in the same league as Nate in my mind. Sure, I like other characters(Bart Allen, Jason Todd, Hawkeye, Steve Rogers, Mr. Sinister, etc), but my feelings for Nate are on a whole other level. That's why I decided to start picking up this series again. Well, that and the fact that Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning were taking over the writing chores, although to be totally honest, I'd have picked up this comic regardless of WHO was writing it... It was just a HUGE bonus for me that DnA happened to be the guys writing this one. Was the story perfect? I don't know... All I know is that my all-time favorite comic book character was in this one, battling against Thor(in his mind), being tortured by one of his old villains, and I couldn't be happier! So I'm going to smile, I'm going to be happy, and yes, I'm going to give this comic a score way higher than it probably should get... But hey, at least I'm honest about it!

Score: 9 1/2 out of 10.Nate vs Thor?!? Yes please!!!!!!