What an oddly-designed trade. It starts off with a pretty fascinating story about Bastion and his group of resurrected X-foes, specifically the Leper Queen. She’s injecting mutants with a version of the Legacy Virus that makes them blow up. She’s sending these living bombs into pro-humanity rallies to get public opinion turned against the few mutants still out there. (Fever Pitch and Beautiful Dreamer are the two who get popped at the start of the arc.)
This leads into a great cliff-hanger where Hellion and Surge (from the New X-Men) and Boom-Boom (from Next Wave and X-Force) are the current subjects of the Leper Queen’s plan. It’s worth nothing that Craig Yost and Christopher Kyle do a wonderful job with the LQ, making her angry at the actions Bastion is forcing her through; she’s much rather just stick to killing mutants! The trade sort of cuts in the middle when the LQ shoots Boomer in the head. Wow.
Then there’s a short prose piece describing some other comic (I think 2nd Coming?) then the action picks right back up with X-23 returning from a time-travel adventure to try and save the team. There are a few nice character moments for Domino, Warpath, Archangel and Wolverine as they rescue the bombs and take care of the LQ.
The rest of the book has X-23 wrapping up old plotlines from her past. I have no idea who any of the people involved in this story are, but it’s clear enough. I enjoyed seeing Hammer Agent Morales step up with such a big role too, we don’t often see SHIELD or HAMMER agents affecting the outcome of the story this greatly.
(There’s also a subplot with Wolfesbane hooking up then teaming up with her wolf-boyfriend from those old Asgardian annuals. Say what you will, but Kyle and Yost sure love their 80’s continuity!)
The art is a bit uneven, as Clayton Crain’s murky art opens the book, then Mike Choi’s beautiful pencils wrap it up. These guys do not have very similar styles, so it’s jarring seeing the shift.
Good
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