Avengers vs X-men 2

The avengers and X-men battle each other to protect Hope the vessel for Phoenix entity. A lot of match up from Colossus against Red Hulk to Namor against the Thing and Cage. The Utopia island turns into a battle fest as Emma Frost bundled Hope into safety inside the X-men hq. Emma Frost usage of her telekinesis power to shutdown the avengers is thwarted by Ironman's technology and Frost turned into diamond shaped form which packed a punch into Ironman's suit. Magneto joined the fray and it seems that Ironman can hold himself against the master of magnetism for a while. Before long Quicksilver the son of Magneto joined in and gave Magneto a jaw punch he won't forget.

Meanwhile Wolverine and Spiderman sneak their way into X-men's hq through a sewer to locate Hope. But Hope is almost totally possessed by the Phoenix and gave Wolverine a roasting as he tried to approach her. When the avengers and X-men found them, both Wolverine and Spiderman are toasted literally as Hope makes an escape by running through water. Hope seems to gain much more power as time goes by. Meanwhile in outer space, Thor together with another team of avengers prepare to confront the Phoenix but it looks like their effort will be in vain. The frantic search for Hope continues in the next issue.

Avengers vs X-men 1

The first issue of the event of the year starts of as the Phoenix entity destroys a planet and is en-route to Earth. The first sign of warning comes in the form of a foreign object hurtling to New York and struck a plane passing through. The avengers was at scene and saves the day with Thor saving the plane by conjuring a hurricane to bring the plane safely down. The avengers got a shock when the foreign object is none other than Nova who is one of the intergalactic Nova Corps . All Nova could utter is the it is coming and obviously it is known who he is referring to.


Before long the avengers makes out who is coming and they are a concerned bunch. Wolverine was consulted and he knows who the Phoenix is going to posses when it arrives. The avengers have non other choice which leads directly to the confrontation with the X-men. Hope was already showing signs of the Phoenix's power and Cyclops has decided that this Phoenix will be a catalyst for the rebirth of mutants. Captain America arrived at Utopia island where all the current X-men are and a heated argument ensues between Cap and Cyclops. Before long in preventing the avengers from taking Hope, Cyclops struck the first blow at Cap. Cap has no choice but to declare war on the X-men. All hell breaks loose as the avengers on the heli-carrier descended upon Utopia in what proves to be an epic battle, albeit over a girl.

Wolverine and the x-men 2

All is not well at school as Wolverine and the x-men are being attacked left and right. The hands behind them are the new underaged hellfire club. First there's is an earthquake causing part of the school to collapse. Then the people from the education department turned into wendigo and sauron. Whats next is more bizarre as frankenstein soldiers appears by the busload to terrorize the school. Wolverine as his usual self starts to slice and dice with the help of other x-men, iceman, husk and Kitty.


Just as the zombie soldiers are beginning to overwhelm the x-men, iceman saves the day by conjuring multiple of his own iceman self and turned the tide against the invaders. So iceman is hero of the day which is rare and he discovered a new found ability. Even gets to romancing Kitty in the middle of it. The chaos is not over yet as the hellfire club unleash the thing that caused the massive earthquake and it is a thing called krakoa. It is big, angry and have a long history with the x-men. Another cliffhanger which still didn't end where the book started, more killing and maiming in the next book.

Uncanny X-men 1

This is the relaunch of the uncanny x-men series. The introduction of main villain Mr Sinister should be interesting enough to any fans out there. The return of Mr Sinister is very much anticipated with his new look victorian style fashion. The new X-men is now headed by Cyclops and mostly his role is explained as he makes strategy and plans for the x-men. There are scenes of X-men in roundtable meeting and some boring conversation only for the action to pick towards the end.

Mr Sinister having already gained control of a sentinel in San Francisco attacks the x-men using the sentinel. Before that Mr Sinister takes a ride in the head of the sentinel flying around in it and shooting at the x-men. The x-men deploy namor to crush the sentinel head controlled by Sinister. Sinister unleashes more attacks through the sentinel and the X-men are overwhelmed and need to regroup. Magneto finally used his magnetic powers to control the sentinel attacks while Sinister quietly slips away and what he does is turn the palace of fine arts and its surroundings into everything Sinister. You got to see the final page to get a better description on this.

X-men Schism 5

The final part of X-men schism story line has Cyclops and Wolverine slug it out while the Sentinel is closing down on them. The sentinel threat is like secondary to them as they are too preoccupied trying to kill each other. There is a lot of blood and gore as Wolverine has his face burnt and Cyclops gets pulverized by the Sentinel. As the sentinel reach for the final kill, both of then are saved by the young x-men who returned just in time together to fight the sentinel. The stakes are high, Cyclops and Wolverine decide to put their animosity aside and join in the fight and managed to defeat the sentinel.

In the aftermath, Cyclops and Wolverine decided to part ways over their differences of putting young inexperienced X-men in the battlefield with Wolverine strictly against it. Wolverine decides to leave Utopia and all the young X-men decides to go with him. They boarded the blackbird and arrived at the place of their origin, the Xavier school for gifted children. Now that Wolverine has become the leader of another faction of X-men, things are getting interesting in the development of the Wolverine character. A good ending to a much anticipated story line with a new spin off X-men issue of Wolverine and the X-men in the coming months.

Uncanny X-men 543

The X-men had a final showdown with Juggernaut. The main event in this issue is the fight between Colossus and Juggernaut. The patron god Juggernaut Cyttorak has revoked the powers bestowed upon Juggernaut just as Colossus makes a grand entrance teleporting in and tackling Juggernaut. Colossus infused with new power  by Cyttorak matched  Juggernaut blow by blow. Colossus tired of handling the Jugernaut's powerful blow dragged Juggernaut and run up to speed that is unimaginable. Finally the Serpent sick of this extracted Juggernaut from the battle and all threat to San Francisco is over.

Meanwhile back in Utopia, Emma Frost under a spell tried to kill Hope. The intervention of Namor prevented this and the romance between them heats up a few degrees in this scene. On the other side, Cyclops makes a point to the hot mayor about trying to bomb out the mutant sanctuary, Utopia which she never will forget.

Once again the work by Greg Land is top notch especially the battle scene and the ladies. Even without a story line it will make this issue worth buying. A lot of lightning and blast scene that is richly colored making this one hell of an ending of Juggernaut's fear threat to humanity and X-men.

X-men Schism 4

The threat to mutant kind is not over as a new breed of mutant killing sentinel emerged. As the sentinel is assembling itself from metal scraps, Wolverine is busy trying to dismantle it with claws but does nothing to slow it down. The sentinel shows Wolverine who's the boss by blasting him to sea. The sentinel moves towards utopia the mutant island sanctuary. A crisis erupted as there are no more x-men to defend utopia as the rests are rendered disabled by the Hellfire club in the previous encounter.

Cyclop's blast alone are unable to stop the sentinel and he starts to rally the remaining x-men who are still kids to defend their sanctuary. Wolverine shows up from the sea and an argument with Cyclops ensues as Wolverine disagree in using kids to fight. Wolverine took a drastic action an strap the place with explosives which he will detonates when the sentinel gets close. The young x-men are thus ordered to evacuate by Wolverine. More argument between the two as the sentinel moves ever more closely to utopia. Finally the schism between the two iconic x-men are unleashed where the two thrash it out. At least five pages are dedicated to this incredible tussle as the sentinel closes in. The fight between Cyclops and Wolverine are the best in years and their fury is indescribable towards each other which explains why they are killing each other instead of killing the sentinel. Will they kill each other or save the island.

X-men Schism 3

A notably difference in this issue is it is penciled by another artist than from previous two issues and with very different style. The X-men representatives of Emma Frost, iceman, Colossus, Namor and Magneto attends the opening of the mutant museum. Unknown to them the new Hellfire Club led a bunch of kids are in the process of springing a surprise attack.




Mostly the crux of the story centers on the attack at the museum. The X-men underestimated their opponents because they are kids. But the Hellfire Club kids comes prepared with all the tools made to disable each X-men.

One by one the X-men are defeated and subdued by devices implanted on the face. The most interesting method are the one used to subdue Magneto by using his own magnetic power against himself. Cyclops and Wolverine on hearing what happens rushed to the scene. One of the mutants, Idie managed to hide undetected as she made frantic calls to Cyclops about the situation. In the end she saves the day by blasting the remaining minions of the Hellfire Club that is left but not before setting the place ablaze while the few leaders of the Hellfire club escaped.  A bomb expleded shortly after and it was no ordinary bomb as it ignites a magnetic force that assembles something resembling a Sentinel robot.

Uncanny X-men 542

Juggernaut advance to San Francisco is still unstoppable and basically this issue has lined up a whole lot of strategies that the X-men deploy in trying to halt Juggernaut. The first strategy is calling an old foe of X-men now turned bartender Avalanche to create chasm to stop Juggernaut. Its good to see some old mutant bad guy character trying to help out to stop another threat to mutants. But nothing stops Juggernaut as he walks through air.


In Utopia, Emma Stone and Hope are in the ward incapacitated due to the psychic battle with Juggernaut previously. Emma's mind is corrupted as she gets vision the phoenix, Cyclops previous lover is incarnated as Hope. Emma knows what needs be done and tries to murder Hope. The scene stops at the murder attempt though. Meanwhile the X-men is throwing everything at Juggernaut and there's detailed description of each attempt here from Pixie trying to teleport it, Rogue's trying to absorb its power and boiling its blood all end up failed. At last count there are 42 plans to stop Juggernaut and nothing is stopping him.

As the X-men runs out of approach, Cyclops enlists the help of Colossus's sister, Magik to stop Juggernaut who also derives his power magically. Colosus sister's weaves her magic and transport them into the Crimson Cosmo where the magical being Cyttorak resides. Here the artist's artwork of rendering the Cyttorak demon is topnotch and menacing with horns and fangs. There are that many shades of red imaginable in these crimson cosmos panels. Cyttorak is the creator of the avatar Juggernaut. Magik persuades Cyttorak to disown Juggernaut as Juggernaut now serves the Serpent god. Cyttorak agrees and Magik declares another avatar is needed and volunteered herself. But there's a twist ending as Colosus forbade her and puts himself as avatar. Colosus gets transformed into another Juggernaut. A battle between Juggernauts are definite in the next issue and expect more mayhem. Colonaut go.

Uncanny X-men 541

The rampaging Juggernaut continues in this issue. The Juggernaut in this issue is the most beautifully rendered ever as there are many close shots of juggernaut and the color is richly textured. There are a lot of nice close up shots of the X-men taking on Juggernaut. The story kicks off with Cyclops and the mayor planning on action to stop Juggernaut as he moves towards San Francisco.



The X-men plan is to remove Juggernaut's helmet so that Emma can penetrate and attack his mind. Cyclop's optic blast has no effect on Juggernaut and Colossus's tackle proves futile as Juggernaut whacks him into oblivion. Next is Magneto's turn and Juggernaut hurls his hammer at him. Magneto's magnetic power unable to stop the hammer and only the timely intervention by Kitty Pryde helped Magneto to phase through the hammer without hitting him.

Cyclops as a last resort decided to use Hope's power to harness all the mutant's powers at her disposal to take off Juggernaut's helmet. Hope succeeds in melting the helmet and taking it off, but Emma Frost is stunned that instead of her entering the mind of Juggernaut, it was hers that gets penetrated. Juggernaut's message of chaos and destruction is passed through one of his followers to both Cyclops and the mayor. Looks like there is no stopping Juggernaut from flattening the city of San Francisco.

X-men Schism 2

The sentinels starts going berserk as the governments of the whole world activates the sentinels. Sentinels starts to attack everything in their path. So all the superheroes including the X-men, avengers and Thunderbolts scrambles to bring down the sentinels. Mostly there's a lot of conversation takes place at the mutant island Utopia as Cyclops and Emma Frost tried to coordinate attacks and strategies to stop the renegade sentinels.

Later on it is revealed that the young kid Kade Kilgore the new leader of the Hellfire Club is behind all the malfunctioning sentinels. It is part of a larger plan that is yet to be known. Kade also has plan to make transaction with some intergalactic aliens to purchase some sort of alien slug. Also its part of a bigger plan. Kade's acquaintance also little kids also share the same deadly psychotic tendencies as the delay of providing the money in the transaction with the intergalactic aliens ends up in bloodbath as the aliens are slaughtered by the kids. The kids must have had really good training in killing and maiming.

Meanwhile the  mutant Quentin Quire that caused all the world to hate mutants again and caused all the sentinels to be reactivated shows up at the X-men headquarters. Wolverine grabs him and tried to deliver him to Captain America but Cyclops intervenes and states that Quentin needs to be tried among mutants and not the outside world. In the midst of all this the mayor decides to move the opening of the new mutant museum forward to help calm the anti mutant campaign. The X-men makes an appearance at the grand opening with all the main characters being there including Magneto, Colossus, Iceman and Emma Frost herself. Kade is busy preparing a surprise for the X-men as he and his goons makes a barnstorming appearance. This is part of his plan again which will be known in the next issue.

Uncanny X-men 540

The starting issueof storyline tie in to the fear itself event. Great to see Greg Land's art work on x-men characters again. Brillaiant and awesome. Been a fan since he did the artwork for crossgen's Sojourn. The new look Juggernaut on the cover page is excellently depicted and you marvel at it all day long . Really worth money getting this. As for the storyline Juggernaut finally arrives in San Francisco the base of the x-men. Apparenly Juggernaut's power is not merely destruction but also converting humans to his cause and purpose. Here he uses his hammer to brand a tattoo to a human and he is a fellow converted before he knows it.

Meanwhile Cyclops, leader of the x-men meets up with the mayor to discuss about the chaos caused by the fear god and why it hasn't happened to San Francisco yet. Even the mayor is hotly depicted here in this issue. The other side story in this issue is Colossus tried to meets up with his sister that is locked because of the crimes she committed in the previous issues. But she is unrepentant and corrupted and seems there's nothing Colossus can do to ease the situation.

Interestingly Emma Frost also gets a visit from Namor. Namor is has seek the allies to help in his battle to regain Atlantis that is devastated by one of the minions of the fear god. He wants to see Emma for one last time and gets her to bed before departing for battle. Now it is known that Namor and Emma Frost has a relationship long before. But Emma rejects and Namor departs without batting and eyelid. On the other end Cyclops and the mayor receives news of the ongoing carnage Juggernaut is unleashing as he is nearing to the city. There is a two page spread of the terrifying Juggernaut on his way which is definitely a gem to look at. Next issue should be on how are the x-men going to match up against the new unstoppable Juggernaut. More action is expected.