Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
Uncanny X-Men #600
Marvel Comics
Bendis, Pichelli, Asrar, Immonen, Anka, Bachalo, Marquez, Irving, Gracia & Keith
"Uncanny X-Men" provides a thirty-plus page story to cap off the Bendis X-Men run with issue number 600. The comic also contains a black and white story about Iceman by Mary Jo Duffy and George Perez to round out the read. I can't recommend this comic book at six bucks. The comic doesn't provide much of anything except a few interesting moments here and there. For the most part, nothing happens. I'm not sure what kind of "ending" I was expecting, but for the amount of delays this book saw I think I was expecting something bigger than what is in here. Perhaps fans of the Bendis run will enjoy this comic book, but I would save your six dollars anyway.
The biggest development in this issue is the confrontation of the X-Men and The Beast. The Beast from the current time period. The X-Men list out their problems with everything Beast has done over the past year or so. The comic struggles to provide anything other than a list of complaints and those are mostly moral ones rather than instances of tangible grievances.
At first, Beast is struggling to figure out how to label the confrontation. At first he calls it an intervention then settles on a trial. He then continues to bring up other character's actions while the X-Men call the attention back to him. Here's the thing, though, nothing happens. There is no ultimatum. There is no list of demands. There is no resolution. It just ends because Beast walks away.
Compounding this bad storytelling are the sub plots. There is a moment with the two Ice-Men and a moment where we learn what Scott is up to. Magneto gets a little panel time as well. Again, nothing really happens. We don't really get any inkling about how any of this stuff "ends." Under the assumption that this in some way tied to Secret Wars you would be doubly confused about the issue's contents. In short, it doesn't appear Bendis has an ending in mind to his saga.
The comic has an army of artists. Surprisingly, the book has a consistent and an even flow to the entire book. It's barely noticeable the change in art teams every few pages. The comic doesn't have much action but the pages certainly help to squeeze drama out of the read.
The finale of the Bendis run on the X-Men concludes in this over-sized issue of "Uncanny X-Men" with no resolution to any sort of story as far as I can tell. This comic doesn't read as an ending or an epilogue. It reads like an incomplete series of dramatic conversations. I'm not sure what the hype was all about for this comic or why the issue was so badly delayed, presumably, for Secret Wars, but this is a poor comic book. At six dollars you get a black and white comic in the back by Mary Jo Duffy and George Perez that might have some minor appeal but this overall comic book is a dud. I can't recommend this comic book at all.
1 out of 5 Geek Goggles
