Astonishing X-Men has recently been dealing with Warbird’s changing nature just prior to that the focus was on Northstar and Kyle’s marriage and what that meant for them. In Issue #59 we return to the marital issues that are plaguing the two but we also are introduced to a story arc that is going to keep me glued to this branch of X-Men comics while it’s running!

We open with a guest appearance of She-Hulk who Northstar has contacted to deal with a legal problem that he’s run into. That problem is that he is a Canadian citizen and while he’s now married to a US resident in the eyes of the state he isn’t in the eyes of the federal government. Super hero or not there are laws that have to be followed and a possible deportation is looming ever closer. She-Hulk explains the law very eloquently and once again we are shown that even super heroes are not above the law.

Even though it’s clearly going to be a speed bump of a side plot I really enjoy how they’ve come up with inserting it. It’s a legitimate issue that could easily be overlooked in a superhero comic but is something many people have to actually deal with.

The next story arc though is what is going to keep me glued to the pages.

The entire opening into the upcoming story line is that Wolverine is tracking down Nightcrawler. For those who don’t follow all of the X titles the Nightcrawler we know is dead. So while this isn’t the one we’ve known for years. It’s the one from the Age of Apocalypse timeline who recently crossed over into our world from the X-Force series. He’s trying to deal with being in a universe that isn’t his own. After betraying Wolverine to try to get his own brand of revenge we’re going to see the events that started in X-Force finally come to a head. (The Wolverine X-Force. Not the Cable X-Force or the newly formed X-Force that are both ongoing series.)

Nightcrawler wants to get back to his timeline and is willing to do anything he can to do it. This is going to lead into a crossover entitled ‘X-Termination’ that will bring in the ‘X-Treme X-Men’ and ‘Age of Apocalypse’ titles.

While I have gotten a little sick of Marvel’s need to buy multiple titles for a crossover that isn’t making it so ‘things will never be the same’ these days I will say I’m kind of glad on this one. Why? Mainly because of the art on this particular title. The style just has me feeling dreary reading it. That’d be great in an alternate timeline comic with Marvels or the Age of Apocalypse but this one? The look just isn’t selling me.

While I didn’t need a reason to keep reading the two of them I can guarantee I will be picking up each issue – at least until this crossover comes to an end.

Writer: Marjorie Liu
Cover Artist: Phil Noto