A Quick Look at Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men: Exodus

Writer: Matt Fraction. Art: Mike Deodato, Terry Dodson and Rachel Dodson.

What Happened: Norman(Marvel)Osborn brings the combined forces of the Dark X-Men and Avengers to Cyclops' Utopia island and attacks the X-Men present there. Unfortunately for Osborn(and me), Cyclops has all the bases covered. He eliminates Ares from the battle by having him face Hela, and he gets rid of Sentry by having Emma Frost enter his mind(although it seems she may have let the Void out as well). In the end, it comes down to Norman and Moonstone against an army of mutants. Instead of killing the lot of them and looking bad in the eyes of the world, Norman orders a hasty retreat from the island. Cyclops is pleased that he stole a portion of the US to live on off the coast of California and Osborn spins it to the media that with the X-Men no longer living on US soil, San Fransisco is safe from the mutant menace that Cyclops and his X-Men represented.

What I thought: At least this x-over started off well enough... The last few chapters of Utopia were just terrible. I can't believe that Cyclops was allowed to steal a piece of the United States of America and get away with it!!! I don't care how Osborn spins it, you can't lose a chunk of California and claim victory! Ugh, there really wasn't anything I liked about this issue. Daken being defeated by X-23, Armor and Pixie??? Are you serious? What the hell was Matt on when he wrote that?!? Weapon Omega wasn't able to defeat Wolverine one-on-one? That's also a hard one to swallow. Basically, the Dark Avengers/X-Men looked like complete chumps in this series, while the Uncanny X-Men came out smelling like roses... Care to guess which series Matt Fraction writes? This was definitely a huge letdown for me.

Score: 3 out of 10.If only they would have killed them all... Why? Why has Marvel decided to ruin the X-titles? Why? What have I done to deserve this?

Dark Avengers #8

Writer: Matt Fraction, Pencils: Luke Ross.

What Happened: This issue begins with Moonstar trying to make a deal with Hela. From there we watch as the Dark X-Men easily defeat Simon Trask(it was so easy it wasn't even shown!). From there they spend the next several days building up goodwill with the people of San Fransisco by dealing with all sorts of threats. All the while, Cyclops and his X-Men sit back and do nothing, as Scott seems to be waiting for Beast's science team to accomplish something under the waters of San Fran before making his move. Dark Beast and Osborn finally show the members of the Dark X-Men exactly what the Omega Machine does. Cloak and Dagger both seem very unnerved by the machine, but they realize they're stuck on the Dark X-Men for the time being. X-Force break into to the secret facility of the Dark X-Men and free all of the mutants Dark Beast had been experimenting on. Dark Beast sounds the alarm and Weapon Omega responds, however, the two are easily defeated by X-Force. The rest of the Dark X-Men respond to the scene and Emma and Namor betray the rest of the team, rejoining the X-Men in the process. Cyclops then raises his base in San Fran out of the water and cedes from the United States...... Yes, really. This issue ends with Osborn FINALLY having had enough of Cyclops, sending the combined forces of the Dark X-Men and Avengers after Cyclops and his X-Men.

What I thought: What did I think??? You don't want to know! Wait, you've read this far, so I guess you do. Well, OK, here goes, but be warned, it's not going to be pretty. I absolutely HATED this issue!!! Where do I begin... First off, let's start with Emma. I hate her. Always have, always will. I hated her in the Hellfire Club, I hated her as the headmistress of Generation X, I hated her when she was cheating with Scott behind Jean Grey's back, and I hate her now. I was really hoping this x-over was going to finally break up the unholy combination that is Scott and Emma, but alas, Emma is right back at Scott's side by the end of this issue. Dammit! Then there's Scott Summers, possibly the most unlikable character in comic books today. What the hell happened to the Scott Summers I grew up a huge fan of? I guess Matt Fraction is deliberately trying to make Scott as unlikable as possible... I don't know why, but just read any X-comic over the past 2-3 years and you'll understand what I'm talking about. And then the coup de grace, Scott lifting the entire island the X-Men were living on into the air and announcing that since he was no longer wanted in the United States he would leave... OK, I'm fine with that, but if you're going to leave, you can't take a part of San Fransisco with you!!! I've never been a big fan of Norman Osborn, but I know I'll be hoping that he marches his forces right onto X-Island(are you kidding me???)and kicks Scott's ass back to the 1990's.

Score: 4 1/2 out of 10.Go Norman go!!!

A Quick Look at Uncanny X-Men #514

This is the forth part of the Uncanny X-Men/Dark Avengers x-over, Utopia. This issue is written by Matt Fraction and pencilled by Terry Dotson. Before I get started on the review, let me just say that the cover price on my copy of this comic is $4.99! Since I get my copy of Uncanny through Marvel's subscription service, the cover price doesn't hurt me, but $5 for a regular sized comic book seems a bit excessive, no? Well, anyway, on with the review.

-Simon Trask and his Biosentinels are running amok in San Fransisco and Emma Frost and her Dark X-Men(under the direction of Norman "Marvel" Osborn)take the battle to them.

-While Emma's squad battles the Biosentinels, Cyclops begins to put his plans into motion. He sends Moonstar to Las Vegas to meet with someone, Domino(along with the rest of X-Force)is to rendezvous with Wolverine, Mindee of the Stepford Cuckoo's is told to get herself arrested and Psylocke and the X-Club are told to do something underneath the waters of San Fran. As for Cyclops and the rest of the X-Men, they head to the scene of the Dark X-Men/Biosentinel brouhaha to watch the Dark X-Men in battle.

-The Dark X-Men manage to destroy the rampaging Biosentinels and after contacting Osborn, Emma decides to take the battle directly to Trask, who is said to be operating out of a hospital in San Fran.

-Cyclops, who watched the battle from afar, seems impressed by the way the Dark X-Men handled the fight, but smugly predicts that his team would trounce Emma's team if the two groups ever battled.

And that's pretty much that. How's that for a quick review! This issue was pretty action-packed, with the battle between the Dark X-Men and the Biosentinels taking centerstage. I actually thought this was a pretty good comic book, although there were a few things that bugged me. First of all, I felt like I missed an issue somewhere along the line! I could swear in part three of this x-over Trask was still plotting his attack, however, I open this comic and the Biosentinels are already running wild through the streets of San Fran! I'll chalk that up to my own faulty memory I guess.

Besides that, Cyclops was pissing me off something fierce this issue! I really can't stand him anymore! There was a time Scott was among my favorite comic characters, but now he's such an arrogant pain in the ass! I know it's not going to happen, but I wish the Dark X-Men would beat the hell out of Scott and his band of X-Men. Really humble them. Of course I doubt that's going to happen, but still, Scott getting humbled would be sweet. For a score I'll give this issue a respectable 7 1/2 out of 10. After reading this issue I have to say, I actually like the Dark X-Men! Matt has done an eXtremely good job at giving each character their own voice. I'll definitely be looking forward to the next part of this x-over.If only Daken would have killed that damn fake Hawkeye... I hate that Bullseye is sullying the Hawkeye mantle!

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.