The ‘All-New X-Men’ have just hit a new milestone with 25 issues of the young X-Men from the past now stuck in the present. This is probably a good jumping in point if you’ve been missing out on the series (and if you didn’t have the last 5 part story line with a cross over with ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ you missed out on a truly fun read!). In the last issue we found out that Jean Grey has found a new way to use her powers and Cyclops has decided to go hang out with his dad in space.

These two things were not meant to happen quite this way. That is going to be problamatic with fixing the timeline. If Beast is able to figure it out the fix, he’ll have young Scott Summers elsewhere in the galaxy and now Jean is going to have a new ability unless the Professor wipes her mind the second she goes back in time.

Not good.

Speaking of Beast though, this issue tells quite a few tales and catches things up but all through Beast’s point of view. From the shadows a shrouded bald man is telling Beast throughout the entire issue how he has screwed things up. Is this his inner fears being told to him in the voice of Professor X? Is someone else taunting him? Well, we’ll get to that. First though what exactly is he telling Hank?

The bald guy is showing Hank all of the outcomes that can come from his tempering with time. To begin, he is showing him the bad outcomes that could happen from his actions. The death or persecution of mutants in various forms because of what he’s done. It’s very much like the Ghost of Mutant Future here telling him possible futures. Not everything is negative though as we have a few positive outcomes as well as some humor mixed in. Kitty and Colossus’s ongoing love story pokes fun at how the two can never get together which was entertaining.

Seriously, though, overall it shows that Beast has messed up and when he asks if it is too late to fix things, we see the mystery of the character revealed. If you are keeping up on what is about to happen in the Marvel Universe, a bald man who can show alternate futures should be pretty clear on who was actually present in the room with Hank.

I know this is setting up the tie-in for that story but even on its own this was a solid issue. I was a bit iffy on it while reading through it but once it had time to settle in, I really have to say that overall this was a quite enjoyable set of short ‘What If’ stories. Bendis really nailed the story telling in retrospect and for the most part I felt that the different use of artists through the tales fit what was being told. I’d say while this could be taken as a filler issue it was quite an enjoyable one and worth checking out!

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ALL-NEW X-MEN #25
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artist: Stuart Immonen, Rafael Grampa, Art Adams, Bruce Timm, Jeff Scott Campbell