Uncanny X-Men: Lovelorn TPB

Colossus has always been my favorite X-Man. I love the simple power set, his costume, and his personality. What I like best is that he's a character who can be pushed into killing someone, but he always regrets it. I figured Matt Fraction was headed in that direction in this trade that featured Colossus quite prominently. Instead, Fraction used his focus on Colossus to set up a neat little undercover raid that had Colossus go under cover and then destroy a Russian slaving ring. I dug the spotlight, but the neatest part of that storyline was that Emma Frost was the teammate who accompanied Colossus on the final bust. Colossus spends most of his storyline moping about Shadowcat's MIA status, so he isn't as fun as he normally is, but I did like seeing more of his Russian background come into play.

The rest of the trade is setting up future problems for the X-Men. As anti-mutant hysteria starts to sweep the nation once again, Cyclops makes the decision to make the X-Men HQ into an army HQ rather than a refugee camp. Cyclops is taking all this for serious!

The best part of the trade is the introduction of the X-Club, the group of science-based heroes that the Beast forms. He wants to gather Doctor Nemesis, Angel, Madison Jeffries (Box), and Yuriko Takiguchi (of Godzilla-hunting fame) to find a way to reverse the whole "No More Mutants" thing. Fortunately, they spend this trade battling mutant crab men, cloned Nazis, and a giant radioactive lizard that coincidentally looks like a creature that Marvel no longer holds the copyright on. Nemesis is smug and abrasive, Jeffries has a great powerset, and Angel and Beast are clashing over the return of Angel's "Archangel" abilities. More of this please!

Terry Dodson's art is stunning, as always. His ladies look gorgeous and his guys look heroic. I don't see how folks couldn't dig his work. Just change the Beast back into an ape-man and the X-Men will be all set.

Good