In ‘All-New X-Men’ #29 we ended with the Future Brotherhood defeated, for the time being. The latest issue marks an entirely different direction for the comic as we have two members of the X-Men going up against one another in one way, and a different two X-Men going up against each other in another. This is moving forward some great character development and putting the ‘All-New X-Men’ and the ‘Uncanny X-Men’ into actually getting to know one another now that they are sharing living space.

Their lack of interaction has been a sticking point in the back of my mind and I’m glad to see it is being further addressed at last.

On the art end of things, Stuart Immonen’s final run for the artwork on the ‘All-New X-Men’ in the last issue was some of his best work to date. An absolutely beautiful spread and he’s now being replaced by Sara Pichelli. Of course, one has to make comparisons. So how did she do? Nailed it. A subtle shift in style but I love the look of the entire book.

For Bendis’ end of things? There is some solid character development and humor. We have an unexpected pairing of Angel and X-23 which turned to quite an interesting connection between the two. Obviously the cover gives away the route their relationship is heading and for once the cover is not a misdirection! I wonder what Psylocke will think about this if she finds out.

On the other end of the Spectrum, Emma is in charge of taking over Jean’s training. The young Grey wants nothing to do with it so Emma uses a little persuasion by means of mentally showing off her and Scott’s love to the young girl. You’d never guess what was going to happen next while quite a few of the students are watching!

We also see a bit of Pryde’s relationship growing with Quill. This has been something pretty absent from ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ and if this was going to actually go somewhere, you’d think they would add more of it there as well.

Oh yes, and the book closes with the ‘Original Sin’ crossover where Scott Summers is requested to the opening of Charles Xavier’s will, so even though this is for all intents a filler issue, they touch on quite a few of the students. However, not everyone has a moment to shine. Young Iceman gets some great one liners while spending time with the Stepford Cuckoos who are still showing their diverging nature, but Beast is quite a background character here.

This latest issue of the ‘All-New X-Men’ really is mainly filler that takes place between two sets of events. That being said, it is a Bendis filler issue which means it’s one that has some great character development. I’m looking forward to seeing how the ‘All-New X-Men’ are going to end up being involved in the ‘Original Sin’ tie-in. For a filler issue, it was highly enjoyable and completely worth picking up.

atoms_4.5

ALL-NEW X-MEN #30
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artist: Sara Pichelli