Written by: Jeff Lemire
Artist: Victor Ibanez
Color Artist: Jay David Ramos
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna
Cover Artist: David Yardin
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: March 22, 2017
Review by: Ryan Douglas
***NON SPOILERS AT SCORE AT THE BOTTOM***
A majority of comic readers were let down tremendously with the event of Inhumans vs X-Men, including myself. Now with only two X-Men related issues remaining before we see was what the relaunch brings. How are the Extraordinary X-Men dealing with the lackluster plot hole driven ending? Can this restore a spark in me for the future of the X-Men titles? Let’s find out.
The issue opens at X-Haven and Storm coordinating the return for the mutant refugees back to Earth. Storm and Jean Gray decided to stay back to help organize the next trip. Jean brings up if the search for Emma Frost has turned up anything. Not much time is spent on this as there is no resolution yet and Storm herself doesn’t even want to think of that disappointing moment.
Moments as Forge, Storm and Jean Gray are standing around. Logan and No-Girl bring to their attention there is a distress call coming from South Dakota. With Storm deciding to stay behind to monitor the mutants, Logan takes Forge, Jean, Ernst, Glob and Anole to look into the distress call. The signal brings the team to a farm in South Dakota where they’re attacked by the bug like transformers with giant Sentinel heads. After the team has a brief scuffle and Glob blushing after Jean compliments him for saving her life, they find Cerebra’s head in a barn hooked up to a ton of machinery.
During Inhumans vs X-Men Cerebra’s body was destroyed while fighting Emma’s Sentinels. Before her body was destroyed she cast her A.I. out finding the nearest network she could connect with. When she did that her A.I. cast to the place where Emma, in fact, built the Inhuman killing Sentinels. She gives her apologies for not being able to warn the team ahead of time. But due to the state she was in, she’s was only capable of getting a signal to No-Girl. Unfortunately, though Emma is nowhere to be found. In order to give Cerebra a new body, No-Girl takes it upon herself to donate her body to Cerebra. Mentioning ever since they’ve traveled into the future No-Girl just hasn’t felt the same. Which I assume No-Girl plans to get an upgrade? Which isn’t flushed out more.
Once they return to X-Haven, all the refugees have returned to Earth leaving behind the core X-Men. Standing around wondering how to pass the time now. Iceman comes up with the idea to let loose and has a baseball game with some of the team to end the issue on a positive note.
I was hesitant going into the comic after being burned with Inhumans vs X-Men. But my curiosity left me wanting to see what the mutants were up to post-event. I don’t regret picking up this issue and overall enjoyed the story. Jeff Lemire brings back Cerebra in a not cliche way and puts some thought into it. The comedic moments throughout the book didn’t feel forced and were written well. We get more of a classic X-Men feel then we have since Inhumans vs X-Men started. Strong art style though I’ll never understand why some artist just can’t draw Storm right. A lot more misses lately when it comes to Ororo. Besides all that, my excitement for the future of X-Men cautiously is restored with this issue.
Bits and Pieces:
If you felt down on the X-Men after finishing the recent event, this may restore your excitement level. This epilogue shows the mindset of Storm post thinking she could trust Emma Frost. While sending other X-Men to fix some decisions made during this timeline. Overall, the issue cautiously restores my hope for the future of the X-Men. Go give it a read if you're an X-Men fan!
7.5/10
