X-MEN #34. (Annotations here.) Another quiet week, then. Next week will be busier, with five books coming out. In the meantime, we have the final part of “Anomaly”, a three-parter which in one sense is all about Schwarzchild, but more as a plot point than a character. He’s unconscious for pretty much the entire thing. The real meat of this issue is Ben Liu having the chance to kill Schwarzchild and being kind-of sort-of talked out of it by Quire. As so often in this book, we’re getting appeals to pure pragmatism rather than moral principle, and that seems like it’s going to come back to bite us; it’s set up as a story where Ben gets to make the right choice, and then loops back to tell us that he really hasn’t. But MacKay also makes good use of Quentin Quire, who’s perhaps the last person you’d want to be giving pep talks about moral responsibility to anyone. Still, there’s a low-key appeal to seeing him stepping into that role in the absence of any authority figures to wind up. Visually, it’s not the most exciting issue – that’s kind of a consequence of the decision to make Schwarzchild’s mindscape a blank slate, I guess. The silent page of Ben’s decision intercut with flashbacks to his experiments stands out as an exception. At any rate, it’s good to see this arc limited to three issues – it feels tighter than the five issue arc that seem to be the standard, even if in this case it may be dictated by the scheduling need to get it finished before DNX starts.

INGLORIOUS X-FORCE #7. (Annotations here.) She’s not technically in the team, but once again this is really Domino’s issue, with Tim Seeley and Michael Sta Maria riffing entertainingly on the idea that, against sufficiently dimwitted opponents, her luck powers will take care of her without her even noticing. It’s all very satisfying and creatively done. The rest of the issue sees Cyclops and Kid Omega drop by at X-Force’s headquarters, in order to gently probe what the hell Cable is up to. It’s a nice enough idea, though Kid Omega feels out of character here to me – he’s a brat, but this more malicious take on the character feels a good few years out of date to me. As for the imprisoned Mutant Liberation Front members, most of them don’t get much to do in this story, but as a group they’re growing on me. They’re quite nicely pitched as a bunch of amateurs who are further out of their depth than they realise, but not so inept as to be a joke. It allows Resonant to be quietly established as the one who has a better grasp on what’s happening. Now, admittedly, I’m not sure about the wisdom of bringing in the wackier elements from Seeley’s Shatterstar mini. But then again, this is the least grimdark incarnation of X-Force in many a year, and while I doubt it’s getting past issue #10, I’m having fun.

UNCANNY X-MEN #31. (Annotations here.) Another nice quiet week, then – just two X-books, at least in the main Marvel Universe line. I’m not complaining about that. Uncanny X-Men is still in the “Mars Needs Mutants” arc, which looks like it’s going to be about a bunch of aliens we can’t communicate with showing up to exterminate a bunch of innocent Brood. I’m still puzzled by the fact that the Brood had the aliens’ guns in the previous issue and not in this one. That reads like some sort of error, but it’s one that confuses the plot, so it matters quite a bit. Still, I like the design for the new aliens, and the basic idea seems solid enough. The Vig is quietly establishing himself as a fun supporting character, and the bits with the Outliers’ school dance work well enough. Mutina’s storyline is working for me too, with the continuing mismatch between what she says and what she actually does. As for the Greymalkin B-plot, it feels a bit detached from everything else, and the whole turning mutants into weapons thing is nothing new, but at least it seems to be finally coming to a head.

WOLVERINE #23. (Annotations here.) Well, Julius Ohta’s art has some memorable moments. I do like his Taskmaster towering over Wolverine, and the way he’s using the sai as a kind of improvised claws. He sells the terrified scientist at the end rather well, too. Beyond that, I really don’t know what Saladin Ahmed is trying to do with the book at this point. I’m just about willing to look past the idea that Cecilia Reyes can knock up an anti-nanite serum in ten minutes, but what’s any of it meant to be about? Maybe it’s meant to be something about Wolverine’s anger being both his strength and his weakness, but that’s hardly new either. I certainly don’t know who was crying out for a new incarnation of Post, a character who was killed off more than 25 years ago and never had much going for him beyond his character design (and then only when drawn by Andy Kubert). There’s nothing especially bad about this on a page-to-page level, but when I stand back I just can’t see anything new here.