Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
X-Men #207
Marvel Comics
Carey & Bachalo
This comic concludes the thirteen issue crossover of the Messiah Complex. While it's impossible to write this review without a) talking about the story as a whole or b) spoiling elements within this issue, I will attempt to do so.
This issue has action, but more than that it has characters interacting in ways that we've either been building towards or in ways that throw you for loop. This issue doesn’t "resolve" everything or even most things. Instead, it circles around the fundamental story elements we've seen from the beginning and the main ones we gained throughout: the baby, Rogue, Cable and Bishop. Oh sure, there were pieces that were important, such as, Predator X, Cyclops or even Sinister, but the four I mentioned above have proved to the be the foundation for the whole story. This issue tackles all four well.
We begin the issue with Cable against Bishop against Predator X. Predator X plows through these two and is then pitted against X-Force. This is important because it effectively takes Wolverine out of the picture. The New X-Men are enlisted to help with the battle against the Marauders. While this is going on two important plots are getting dealt with extensively.
First of all, Rogue wakes up. She is given the lowdown from Gambit and Mystique as to what has happened. Rogue is not thrilled to learn a baby was getting used (sacrificed) to wake her up. She argues with Mystique, while Gambit watches, and leaves both to go it alone. One of the two left is "dead" but with a strange twist involving Rogue's powers. The question to be asked is what happens to Rogue now? It is left wide open, but she isn’t the same Rogue as she was before.
The second confrontation is between Xavier, Cyclops and Cable. Cyclops wants the baby. Cable wont give her up. Xavier sides with Cyclops thereby betraying Cable's trust (in a way). When the dust clears Cyclops gets the baby, but quickly realizes the baby is not safe in this time period whoever is her guardian. So take a guess who gets her?
The battles are not too in depth. Wolverine has a unique way of dealing with Predator X and a couple of other combatants take a hit, but for the most part the above two scenarios play out for the bulk of this issue and not the battles. It's effective and it's excellent.
The ending has a twist and leaves a key element unaccounted for. Someone big "dies" and Bishop is the culprit (by accident?) and he escapes. It sets things up for some of the future arcs in the various X titles, including the Wolverine title. A lot is left to sift through after this issue.
There. I tried not to give it all away. As you can tell this issue is right on par with the other twelve. It's excellent all the way through. Thirteen weeks, thirteen issues with no delays and no setbacks. Imagine that? A crossover that anyone could come in cold and be very entertained reading. A crossover that may intrigue a reader into wanting to follow more X titles after it was done. I would say this thing couldn’t have been a bigger success. Oh sure, they could "undo" everything, but still, this story, on its own, was very, very good and was well worth the time reading.
The art was, again, not my cup of tea, but I didn’t find it as confusing as I did last issue. It helps that this issue was more dialog driven than battle driven. I will say that the different styles across the titles will make the trade for this story very interesting to leaf through.
If you didn’t like this story or missed it and aren't even a little interesting in reading one of these issues I question what you are looking for in a super hero comic. This should not be missed.
5 out of 5 geek goggles.
