1529 ( )

2021 Summer (July);
Reread of Baby!Jean Arc

Still deeply agreeing with earlier reviews.

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I continue on in my perseverance to read all the things that have (new) Jean Grey in them, and that makes this title a blast. Jean keeps me in this, hands tight on the reins and Bendis keeps bringing out the bing punches of awesome. I'm loving seeing the children having to go through old things (like the training sessions) as much as new things (the fighting, the massive groups of infighting, and having to deal with their alter selves and people who treat them as though they've known them for decades and not days).

Bobby-Bobby and Hank-Hank continue to be utterly amazing in completely different ways. Seeing Angel and Warren meet was high on my happy list. I am loving bitty!Scott versus his older self, but we are still working Scott up to whether he even can be the person to step in and show some clarity and points to his older, wounded self.

Everything that has to do with Jean -- withbitty!Scott, Logan, Ororo and Kitty -- continues to play out with such interest to me. The way her untrained powers are out of check, yes. The way people keep telling her "I don't let people in my head, but it's you and just this once" while at the same time telling her seconds later "don't do that!" It's a lot of mixed messages, and the slipping in and out is gorgeous.

I can't wait to see where all five of our children and all of the X-Men as Jean Grey's School will keep going from here. ( )

Continued development and plot twists focusing on the original X-Men team (Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Ice Man, Beast, and Angel). Each character feels developed and involved in the story. It is interesting to see each character encounter either their flesh and blood counterpart, or their future "ghosts". Also a little thread of intrigue from some famous villains. ( )

Hoping to catch up on my comics rating backlog this week...

On first blush I didn't really like this but rereading it I'm really enjoying it. There's the typical Bendis humor (Kitty and Bobby having Cap and Beast's conversation while we can't hear the actual conversation is genius), but a real darker edge to this that really feels like everything is one step away from disaster. Stuart Immonen continues to be a perfect match for Bendis - I sometimes feel like his style is a little cartoony, but it works really well for the more startling material, too (like Jean's nightmare). This continues to be a lot of fun. ( )

In this X-Men's series, Scarlet Witch took away the powers of 99% of all mutants on earth. The Phoenix decided to get involved and possessed and corrupted Cyclops, the leader of the X-Men who then struck down Professor Xavier. It took all of the Avengers and the X-Men to bring him down. The Phoenix Force was dispersed across earth creating new mutants. Cyclops, with Emma Frost and Magneto, have joined forces to start recruiting mutants for the new Charles Xavier School for Mutants. At the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning, Kitty Pryde, Beast, Iceman, and Storm are concerned about this as no one has ever trusted Magneto and now they aren't sure about Scott after what happened to the Professor. They would, of course, rather have these mutants under their roof learning.

It goes without saying that in this world the law and others like them want to lock up mutants. Beast, however, has another plan to try to change things. He finds a way to go back in time to when he and Scott were just starting out as X-Men in order to bring back the past Scott to see his future self in order to prevent him from becoming that. Like a Christmas Carol in a weird, yet cool way. Only it all goes awry when all of the X-Men insists on coming too. Back then Jean didn't have her telepathic abilities yet and more importantly, she's still alive. Neither side knows what to make of the other when they arrive back in the present. Jean's psychic powers become suddenly activated and she has to figure out how to use them herself on the fly.

Kitty Pryde helps Jean begin to learn how to use her powers and boy does she. Some would say she might be abusing her powers. Kitty also gets the old X-Men and begins to train them in combat. Warren Worthington III meets up with Angel, his adult counterpart and goes on a mission with him which leaves him shell-shocked.

Meanwhile, Scott has left the mansion with Wolverine in pursuit. He comes across Mystique who tells him half-truths and sows dissent into his head in order to try to keep the X-Men busy battling themselves so she, Sabertooth, and Lady Mastermind can do what they need to do in peace. When Scott gets back to the mansion he feels as though he is not the leader of the team, just like Mystique predicted.

This stunning book ends on a real cliffhanger that will have you asking "who?" Bendis really comes through with the writing as always and Marquez's art is incredible especially with the hallucination sequences. Garcia does an amazing job with the color bringing in dark reds for the X-Men and Mystique fight scenes but keeping it light and airy for the scenes with Angel. I really loved this comic even better than the previous one and with that ending, I can't wait to read the next one. ( )