Well it looks like the All-New X-Men’s time traveling isn’t related to the ‘Battle of the Atom’ crossover event. What we have here is the first of 3 special issues that will tie in the ‘All-New X-Men’, ‘The Incredible Hulk’, and ‘The Superior Spider-Man’ in a time traveling crossover of epic proportions.
That’s right, just when you thought things couldn’t get any worse with ‘Hunger’ being the fallout from ‘Age of Ultron,’ the ‘Battle of the Atom’ raging on over all of the X-Men titles and Spider-Man 2099 popping up in the regular Spidey title, there is another apparent time traveling event shaping up. It’s also hard to tell where this one takes place. It’s clearly after ‘Age of Ultron’ and I believe it’s before ‘Battle of the Atom’ and ‘Infinity’.
So what happens here? Well the original X-Men are getting some long overdue leave to explore the world (I feel this has already been done in quite a few issues) and while on a local campus, we see them split up. Scott and Jean go off on their own while Bobby and Hank go do their own thing as well. While they are out Hank meets a girl and successfully hits on her (which is great since they never go into detail on he and Jean sharing a kiss) while also stopping a bugler. This ends up with more talking and her wanting to show her his work in a lab that is nearby.
While talking to an older professor, the lab gets broken into Dr. Octopus. Not Spider-Ock but the full on green clad wearing, metal arm wielding Dr. Ock. Fortunately everyone’s favorite fake wall crawler arrives. He insists that this can’t be the real Dr. Ock (mainly because he doesn’t have any memory of traveling to the future) and wants to know what is going on. In fact the art almost threw me on Ock because it almost out of place next to the more modernized look on everyone else that was here.
Still they are able to subdue him and do some tests. However there is gamma radiation on the younger Dr. Ock that is making them unable to test and see if he actually is who he looks to be. As an Avenger, Spidey has access to some great resources. One of them just happens to be the world’s premiere gamma radiation expert.
Next issue? Enter Bruce Banner.
I’m not sure how I feel about this crossover right now. The book itself read fantastically well and if it wasn’t this good I would be really panning it. The time travel events are so being overused right now. I understand it’s all supposed to be coming to ahead and there’s a plan, I just don’t know how I feel about another one being added to the mix. At least this one is only 3 issues long.
Again, a great story and great writing – I’m just a bit sick of the time travel right now. Offhand I’d love to toss out that the event is called ‘The Arms Of The Octopus’ which really makes it sounds like he just wants a hug!
‘ALL-NEW X-MEN’ SPECIAL #1
Writer: Mike Costa
Artist: Kristafer Anka
