Bento Review: Death Of X

Marvel has been trying to make the Inhumans a thing for a while now.  They just aren’t the X-Men, and they never will be.

Meanwhile, the X-Men are periodically decimated for one reason or another that may have nothing to do with the movie rights but somehow I doubt it.

When the Inhumans inadvertently cause what could be the mass extinction of mutants, some of the X-Men won’t take this lying down…

Just after the most recent Secret Wars, there was an eight month jump forward and the X-Men during that time have some problems.  The Terrigen Mist cloud the Inhuman king Black Bolt released to create more Inhumans has changed in some ways.  Now it’s highly toxic to mutants.  Some die instantly.  Others die slowly.  Some don’t seem to affected much at all.  The X-Men had already splintered into smaller groups by then, with a surprisingly militant Cyclops leading one faction while an equally surprisingly peace-minded Wolverine took over what was once Xavier’s school for younger mutants.

Upon discovering a number of dead mutants on Muir Island (many of whom were Jaime Madrox), Cyclops seems charged and rather vindictive, even for him, as he leads his faction of mutants against the Inhumans.  While Storm is trying and largely succeeding to negotiate a way with the Inhumans to deal with their sacred Terrigen cloud without killing more mutants, something the Inhumans are of course more than willing to do, Cyclops is broadcasting propaganda messages about the cloud and the Inhumans’ intentions to the world, demonizing the Inhumans while maybe trying to boost the profile of mutants.

If you read this and think Cyclops is acting out of character…there’s a really good reason for that that’s saved for the end of the book.  Beyond that, this was functional.  Co-written by Charles Soule and Jeff Lemire, the book mostly just accomplishes filling in some backstory for the post-Secret Wars status quo.  I’d say it’s a must for X-Men completists, but not too many others.  Seven and a half out of ten trips to Limbo.

NEXT BOOK:  We finish out the “Get Even” box with an Image book, the first volume of something called The Sword.  This could be interesting.  Stay tuned…