A review by crookedtreehouse
Reign of X Vol. 2 by Benjamin Percy, Vita Ayala, Tini Howard, Jonathan Hickman, Gerry Duggan
4.0
A mixed bag of mutant hijinks.
I appreciate the art in New Mutants, it's definitely reminiscent of [a:Bill Sienkiewicz|2719|Bill Sienkiewicz|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1272556630p2/2719.jpg]'s art without being completely derivative. I would love to see more of this art. The story I could do without. I haven't yet connected with a [a:Vita Ayala|16130337|Vita Ayala|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1598534913p2/16130337.jpg] story. Even though I like the characters she uses, and I find the conceit interesting, the dialog and the minor plot points just don't connect with me. Also, it's weird to see the younger genertion of mutants, who've been around for fifteen years or so appear to be de-aged. Did I miss that somewhere during Dawn Of X or X of Swords? X-23 seems about half a decade younger than she's been in any other title I've seen her in.
Marauders was great. I loved every character's motivations and actions, and can't wait to see where this book is headed. It's the highlight of the volume for me.
Excalibur was also a nice surprise. Through no fault of the creative team, I've not been into this book, simply because I don't care about the Avalon/Captain Britain corps portion of the Marvel Universe. But [a:Tini Howard|14205385|Tini Howard|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1573146594p2/14205385.jpg] has some great character beats in this issue.
X-Force has been one of the standout titles since it started up in Dawn Of X, and it shows no signs of slowing down. I like that every time it looks like the story is going to pause and have the characters mull over the current storyline, there's a completely new and unexpected development that they wrap up in an issue or two before they can go back and get their bearings again. I also loved the art on this.
The X-Men issue was the biggest disappointment. I liked the message, and I enjoyed that the X-Men were in throwback uniforms but I just don't care about Sh'iar politics. This all seemed to setup some future Storm story, which I hope will be more exciting than this issue.
I appreciate the art in New Mutants, it's definitely reminiscent of [a:Bill Sienkiewicz|2719|Bill Sienkiewicz|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1272556630p2/2719.jpg]'s art without being completely derivative. I would love to see more of this art. The story I could do without. I haven't yet connected with a [a:Vita Ayala|16130337|Vita Ayala|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1598534913p2/16130337.jpg] story. Even though I like the characters she uses, and I find the conceit interesting, the dialog and the minor plot points just don't connect with me. Also, it's weird to see the younger genertion of mutants, who've been around for fifteen years or so appear to be de-aged. Did I miss that somewhere during Dawn Of X or X of Swords? X-23 seems about half a decade younger than she's been in any other title I've seen her in.
Marauders was great. I loved every character's motivations and actions, and can't wait to see where this book is headed. It's the highlight of the volume for me.
Excalibur was also a nice surprise. Through no fault of the creative team, I've not been into this book, simply because I don't care about the Avalon/Captain Britain corps portion of the Marvel Universe. But [a:Tini Howard|14205385|Tini Howard|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1573146594p2/14205385.jpg] has some great character beats in this issue.
X-Force has been one of the standout titles since it started up in Dawn Of X, and it shows no signs of slowing down. I like that every time it looks like the story is going to pause and have the characters mull over the current storyline, there's a completely new and unexpected development that they wrap up in an issue or two before they can go back and get their bearings again. I also loved the art on this.
The X-Men issue was the biggest disappointment. I liked the message, and I enjoyed that the X-Men were in throwback uniforms but I just don't care about Sh'iar politics. This all seemed to setup some future Storm story, which I hope will be more exciting than this issue.