Uncanny X-Men #513

Much to my surprise, I really enjoyed the first issue of the Utopia x-over. I wasn't expecting much, but that first issue really delivered. Will the second part follow suit? Let's find out! Uncanny is once again written by Matt Fraction.

-Cyclops runs from the police and makes like Spider-Man(REALLY!?!)flipping over a car and climbing a building to get away(WTF was that?!?). The various X-Men who were attacked by the Dark Avengers also manage to escape.

-From there we find out the impostor Prof. X seen with Osborn during part 1 was Mystique, and Emma meets her motley crew of Dark X-Men. For the record, the Dark X-Men consist of Daken, Weapon Omega, Cloak and Dagger, Mimic and Namor.

-Osborn introduces Emma's X-Men at a press conference and Emma gives the "We all have to work together, blah, blah, blah" speech, closing her statements by stating from now until further notice, San Fran is under a curfew, and any mutants who break the curfew have to answer to her and her X-Men.

-Cyclops and the mutants who have taken refuge under his leadership watch the press conference on TV and many of the mutants want to attack Emma and her X-Men, however, Scott convinces them not to act too rashly.

-Unfortunately for Scott, not all the mutants agree with his decree, and several of them blatantly break curfew and begin marching through the streets of San Fran, acting disorderly. Emma sends her team out and engages the unruly mutants. This issue ends with Cyclops, who was watching events play out live on the TV, deciding to pay Osborn a visit in order to find out what his relationship with Emma is.

-Other Developments: Dark Beast(who is working for Osborn)has created something called the Omega Project, which(according to Prof. X)seems to be taking away mutant powers. During this issue, Dark Beast prepares to send Beast through the device... Simon Trask wakes up in the hospital and transforms into a Sentinel, transforming other humans into Sentinels as he made his way through the hospital...

I've got to say that this issue didn't impress me as much as the first part of this x-over did. This issue was the proverbial set-up issue, Matt was moving the characters where they need to be before the major conflicts begin to take place. Now we have Cyclops preparing to go after Osborn and his Dark Avengers, Emma's Dark X-Men attacking any troublesome mutants they find, and Trask activating a mess of Sentinels against all of mutantkind.

I have to admit that I was VERY underwhelmed by the roster of the Dark X-Men. Cloak and Dagger? They haven't been relevant for like 20 years! Mimic?!?! He's always sucked! I did like the alternate version of Mimic from the early issues of the Exiles though. Weapon Omega?!?! No thank you!

The thing that has me the most interested is Dark Beast and the mysterious Omega Project. Whenever I see Dark Beast, I naturally begin to think back to the awesome "Age of Apocalypse" x-over, and once I start thinking about the AOA, Nate Grey(my all time favorite character)comes to mind... To this day, I'm still holding out hope that Marvel will bring Nate back to life. Remember, during the build-up to the Messiah CompleX x-over Dark Beast told Beast that he believed that Nate could be resurrected due to the strange way he died off. So, is this Omega Project somehow linked to Dark Beast's earlier comments about resurrecting Nate? Probably not, but a guy can hope, no? For a score, I'll give this issue a 7 out of 10. This issue was slower than the exciting first part of Utopia, but it did set the stage for the events yet to come.