In Uncanny X-Men #6, we left off with the team stuck in Limbo, Magik was unable to use her powers properly to save them, and Dormammu was pretty much screwing with everyone. In this issue, we start off with the first page having Magik telling a narrative to someone over what happened. As we turn to the second page, we see she’s consulting with Doctor Strange for help which is extremely fitting as Doramammu is one of his big adversaries. I’m sure it helps that Doctor Strange will be entering the Marvel Movie Universe in a couple years and they need to make a solid push with his character as he’s been rather absent as of late. While Strange is shown prominently on the second page the focus isn’t really with him at all – the focus is with what happened to Magik and the X-Men after last issue.

The book is split between half of it looking to be live action and half of the events being explained as a narrative to the Sorcerer Supreme. It’s a good mix and a great way to tell the story. When we last left Doramammu, he has locked the Uncanny X-Men and was trying to take them all out all at once. The first potion of the this fight involved the students attempting to make a difference which was working… Okay, until the Cuckoos were attacked. They were no longer helping the students mentally feel like warriors and they quickly fell apart. While a few continued the fight, we also saw others just give up on the battlefield. The thing is, though, is that they are kids with no training and have no right to even be on this battlefield in the first place.

Next up? The heavy hitters,  Cyclops, Emma, and Magneto, all step into the action with their broken powers. While they attempted to use them at full force, they were able to slightly push back Doramammu’s creations, though were unable to make any real difference. The creatures kept coming and that is when Magik had an epiphany. In his egotistical rant, Doramammu had told Magik how she could win even though it would come at a cost. Every time she used her powers another piece of Limbo entered her. So she used her powers. She used them until all of Limbo was held inside of her robbing Doramammu from his strength over her domain and destroying everything within it. She cast the X-Men back out of the world and then turned her attention on the would be usurper.

While this was a win for Magik, it helped setup some of the upcoming dynamic for this title. The students were able to see first hand just how out of touch with their powers that their teachers truly were. While some questioning them (and even one wanting to leave),  I think we’re going to hopefully get a focus on the team actually getting their abilities back in order soon. Or at least trying to. I’m hoping this was a setup for that to happen in a way that doesn’t waste ten issues to get things fixed.

The best part of this arc being over is that I’m getting sick of looking at Limbo and this issue didn’t do it justice. While Frazer does a great job at Limbo. I felt this issue was a bit rushed.  There is only so much of looking at Limbo I can take in an X title.

The very end of the book finds a way that will potentially draw this into the ongoing events in the greater Marvel Universe. Right now, the end of Age of Ultron and the upcoming X-Men: Battle of the Atom have shown us that there are a lot of problems time traveling has brought up. In fact, one of the issues with time travel is that Magik is talking to Doctor Strange who has apparently never heard of her. Of course he hasn’t joined the Avengers yet either so there’s a good chance that could be the cause of it. That’s right. She traveled back in time to get help from Strange in the past. What’s another piece of time travel, right?

There’s been a limited focus on all of the classic x-Men characters on Cyclops’ roster now so I’m hoping next issue we get either a better focus on the students or some forward moving plot. Don’t get me wrong, I love the series I’m just ready for it to truly get going.

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Inker: Frazer Irving Limited