So far X-Men: Battle of the Atom is quickly establishing itself as the best event of the year. Brian Bendis, Brian Wood, and Jason Aaron have done a great job establishing a story that involves X-Men teams from the past, present, and future interacting with one another. With the last issue having battle lines clearly crossed it’ll be interesting to see what happens to all of the X-Men at the end of the story. Let’s not waste any more time and check out part 8 of X-Men: Battle of the Atom with Uncanny X-Men #13.
Creative Team
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artist: Chris Bachalo
Inkers: Tim Townsend, Al Vey, Mark Irwin, Jaime Mendoza, and Victor Olazaba
Colorist: Marte Gracia
Story Rating: 9 Night Girls out of 10
Art Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10
Synopsis: Present Cyclops Cyclops and Future Jubilee have arrived outside the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning with their respective X-Men teams. Present Cyclops shows some slight hesitation about charging into the school given the fact that Xavier’s grandson is behind the current mutant versus mutant conflict. Future Jubilee says they should charge in but Present Cyclops tells the two X-Men teams that they must come up with a good plan first. Before they can come up Future Beast drops a building on the two X-Men teams. (Talk about a good ‘Welcome to our school’ gift.)
Xavier’s grandson, Ice-Hulk and Razer (Wolverine’s son) use this time to move Past Beast and Past Iceman inside with the other original X-Men.
Cyclops and Future Jubilee’s X-Men teams barely make it out of getting crushed by the sphere. As the two teams move closer to the school Ice-Hulk attacks the team. Phoenix (Future Quentin Quire) decides to take Ice-Hulk on while the other X-Men make a break for it.
Magik teleports herself and Future Colossus into the Jean Grey School underground tunnels. Before they can make it to the entrance of the school they are ambushed by Future Molly Hayes and Future Deadpool. Magik is able to teleport Future Deadpool outside while Future Colossus fights Future Molly. Future Molly is able to get the upper hand on Future Colossus but before she can kill him Magik stabs Future Molly from behind with her sword.
Meanwhile, Cyclops and Future Jubilee’s X-Men have made it to the entrance of the school where they are met by Xavier’s grandson. Before the two X-Men teams can do anything Xavier’s grandson uses his powers to control Krakoa to eat the X-Men. (The X-Men really need to feed Krakoa every once in a while.)
Xavier’s grandson tells Future Beast about what happened just as Raze hands Past Iceman and Past Beast over to Future Jean Grey. Future Beast tells Future Jean what happened and to get the process ready to send the originals back. Before activating the machine Future Jean wonders if they ever had a chance. Just as the machine activates Magik enters the room in order to destroy the time machine. Before Magik can destroy the machine Future Jean uses her powers to stop Magik. Magik wonders what caused Future Jean to be the way she is to which Future Jean responds by saying she saw the world for what it is. (Most of the X-Men really hate Magik. I understand where they are coming from.)
Before Future Jean can kill her Magik uses her powers to teleport away. At the same time, Cyclops and Future Jubilee’s X-Men escape from inside Krokoa. Xavier’s grandson begins to freak out which leaves him open to being stabbed from behind by Future Colossus.
Inside the school Future Jean wonders why the original X-Men aren’t teleporting back to their time period. Future Beast says that the machine can’t send them back. Raze volunteers to test the machine to see if it is still working.
A minute later Raze returns to the present and he tells Future Beast and Future Jean about what he saw in his time in the past, showing them that the machine is still working. Future Beast theorizes that the original X-Men spent so much time in the present that it has created a space/time paradox. Future Jean freaks out over this theory and yells at Future Beast. Just then Cyclops and Future Jubilee’s X-Men appear ready to fight Future Jean’s X-Men. End of issue
Commentary
The Good: With Uncanny X-Men #12 Brian Bendis continues to keep me invested in the Battle of the Atom crossover by properly executing the character development for all the X-Men involved in this story. Even when Bendis goes into the always confusion X-Men messing with the space and time continuum he explains it in a way that you understand why the original X-Men can’t go back. And with only two issues left in this crossover, Bendis properly sets the stage for an epic finale thanks to how he deals with all the character interaction in this issue.
For everything that Future Jean Grey’s X-Men were able to accomplish while in the present their only mistake was the biggest mistake, they could make which is simply arrived too late. That one mistake completely throws every villainous act these Future X-Men had to commit out the window. They’re failures in the most glorious way possible.
This failure by Future Jean’s X-Men now leaves the room open for the original X-Men to stay in the present without seriously affecting the current timeline since they aren’t a part of it anymore. They are what Bishop and Cable are now when they did their whole time travel thing. At the same time, there is also room for them to affect the future as they could be a continuing presence in the current X-Men’s lives. This possibility only elevates the story even more and makes it even more exciting to see what happens next.
Something I always go back to when reading a chapter of Battle of the Atom is how unpredictable it is. Just when it looks like Bendis and company are taking the story one way it goes the other. And once again it all goes back if the original X-Men should stay in the present or go back to their own time period. It’s a choice between the lesser of two evils and something we have to question since we don’t know everything about what happens in the future outside the President Dazzler assassination.
That said there is one thing is clear after this issue and that is that the Future X-Men don’t like Magik. There were signs of this with Future Jubilee’s X-Men showing some of hostility towards Magik in All-New X-Men #17, except for Future Colossus that is. Now we see that Future Jean seems to hold a bigger grudge against Magik as she does not hold back when using her powers and almost killed Magik, stopping Razer from doing it in the process because Future Jean wanted to do it herself. This raises the question as to if Magik is responsible for President Dazzler’s assassination given her power set and recent character developments.
Now my favorite part of this issue, and something that I’ve continued to enjoy throughout Battle of the Atom, is how this event has put Present Cyclops in a more heroic light. We see it once again in Uncanny X-Men #13 were Present Cyclops is the one that does not rush into the situations even if his X-Men and Future Jubilee’s X-Men want to. He knows that is not the way to handle things which in turn makes it much easier to cheer for his X-Men when they get out of everything that Xavier’s grandson throws at them. It also adds the possibility of a change in the dynamic between the two X-Men schools since they are technically fighting on the same side for this crossover.
When it comes to Chris Bachelo it always comes down to love or hate his art style. Sometimes his art style is appropriate for the story, while other times it is not. Fortunately, with all the crazy drama and action going on in Uncanny X-Men #13 his artwork was at home in this issue. Not only does his artwork elevate the story to be a fast-paced affair, but it also matches the type of energy we have seen out of the other artist working on this crossover.
The Bad: The one spot in which Uncanny X-Men #13 falters is that outside of Present Cyclops and Magik Bendis continues to make the rest of the Uncanny X-Men nothing more than background pieces. Even when you would think that characters such as Emma Frost and Magneto would have greater roles in this story, they don’t. They are just here to agree with Present Cyclops and be taken out by one of the Future X-Men to show off how powerful they are. It’s unfortunate because this issue could’ve played with the dynamic of Magneto and Xavier’s grandson.
Overall: The Battle of the Atom crossover continues to deliver on all the crazy drama and action that I expect from an X-Men story. It is done so well that by the time I finished reading Uncanny X-Men #13 all I wanted to do was read more. Brian Bendis delivers on all the moments that comic book fans want, with great action and character moments, while also raising more questions about what is going on in the story itself. There are still many unanswered questions about the past, present and future X-Men teams involved in this story. This adds to the unpredictability of the story, which in turn makes it even more engrossing because I do want to find out what happens next. If you’re an X-Men fan you owe it to yourself to read Battle of the Atom right now or when it comes out in trade. It is exactly what you are looking for from an X-Men story.