X-Men Blue #28 Review (Spoilers)

[jmc247]

Lorna is sulking as her plan to save Inverted Havok by appealing to his humanity didn’t work out. Meanwhile, Emma is having a very heavy handed talk with Ms. Sinister about her issues with what she is doing leading to the invariable turn. Emma uses the New Marauders who are killed soon thereafter as weapons. Xorn sacrifices himself for a few arcs until he will be back.

Lorna and Emma come face to face.

Since the end of the Austen era when they first started interacting I felt this relationship had a chance to go somewhere with Emma a bit more the Machiavellian schemer and Lorna a bit more the blood and guts warrior for mutants and both with a level of moral flexibility outside the norm for Xavier’s school. The idea was pretty simple with two characters that started on the other side of the X-Men as queen of sorts of militant mutants and later joined the X-Men and satellite teams, but come with their own unique persona and philosophy they bring to the table though we didn't get to see it happen last decade though perhaps this is a beginning.

The art for this issue wasn’t quite as amazing as last issue, but it was still very good.

I felt Emma brought a fair bit to the table in their interaction in Blue #28 at least, though Lorna I felt hasn’t quite shaken all of the generic feel to her as yet. Lorna is a stoic character and don’t get me wrong nothing she did or said was out of character in this issue. But, let us just say there is a more ruthless side to her character we have seen only the most tiny of glimpses of in Blue to date that would very much serve any future Emma/Lorna interaction should it occur be it if it is friendly or unfriendly.

Emma un-inverts Havok using Lorna’s memories of him meanwhile Magneto gets help from Exodus and Elixir to stop Mothervine and save the world. Lorna has Elixir fix Havok’s face and I don’t have anything else to say in that regard other then I hope the character figures out something to do and finds happiness away from Lorna.

Emma asks Magneto in the end if it’s all good, but Magneto makes clear he will be hunting for her. The strength of this issue really was in Emma and Magneto. They carried it and Bunn is really strong at writing and accentuating characters he feels have moral ambiguity to them.

[Fokken]

Thank you for the summary/review. I'm very excited for this now, with such emphasis being put on Emma and Mags.

[Tycon]

I sort of always knew the Marauders weren't gonna make it past this arc, but Xorn too???? This issue's a straight up bloodbath.

But I'm glad we got Elixir and Exodus saving the day! We need more stories of that fantastical duo. Maybe on a team with Bloodstorm, Skids, and some other of Magneto's most loyal.

[JasonEsta]

Just read it..wonderful action packed issue that gives Alex a free pass sadly and has Emma begging to keep Magneto off her back but we all know thats not how he deals with things(Zaladane, Zealot, Cortez). She's gonna have to pay the price at some point.

I figured Magneto would put Exodus to use to make this right as well...

Is Xorn finished or what?

Where is Sinister as well?

How do we go from here to the focus not being on Princess Lorna in the coming story? Odd.

[Magneto]

Wow, this was good. Thank you M. Bunn!

Elixir, Exodus, Xorn, Emma, Polaris, Magneto, etc. Everyone had a good moment! I'm hype for what's next for Elixir and Exodus + Emma vs Magneto.

Can't wait for the next issue, best X-Books at the moment.

[DDM]

This issue was great. I wish Emma, Polaris, Havok, Daken, Bloodstorm and Wolvie Jr. were continuing as a team.

RIP Xorn. ;___;

[Maestroneto]

I'm glad Emma's good again.

[akiresu_]

A very good finale, though I must confess it felt somewhat like "box-checking", trying to rapidly resolve everything Bunn had set in motion. This story could have gone on for another issue or two in my personal opinion.

But very enjoyable stuff. Sad to see Xorn go, but a total badass (if thematically shallow) finish. Emma feels to have continued quite nicely, people seem to love pointing out how different she is from the Tian storyline, and I agree, but it works. Particularly, this isn't full redemption Emma- her help of the X-Men is in her total self-interest and she even seems quite begrudged that she had to do the team-up. You can see how it's the same character though, even though I still think the Tian story needed a similar length to MotherVine in order to capture everything that was going on. So, she's developed from her IvX status quo, but isn't quite at the level she was before Secret Wars yet.

Havok's recovery felt slightly too easy, but it works- and definitely makes me more excited for his role in Astonishing.

And the Things to Come throwback at the end. Love it. Can someone put a comparison between the one from the first issue and this one? Think it'd be really neat. Hope to get some more Danger/Polaris in the few issues to come before Magneto pops off to the future, but I understand that'll be unlikely with the remnants of the new team, hunting Emma and the return of the O5.

I think this was definitively the best story of Blue, though. Between this, the three-issue opener and Cross-Time Capers, I think Blue has been more than worthwhile. Hopefully it continues this quality trend. Fingers crossed for more Elixir and Exodus.

[Havok83]

This issue was great. I wish Emma, Polaris, Havok, Daken, Bloodstorm and Wolvie Jr. were continuing as a team.

RIP Xorn. ;___;

LOLL...wasnt someone on here convinced he would be revealed to be Cyclops?


Anyways, that preview:

[spirit2011]

Good finish for the arc. Havok will have a lot to work on the astonishing book.

poor Xorn, I hope he isn't really dead,

Really seem like good things gonna happen on blue.

[AcesX1X]

welcome back exodus and elixir!!

[Havok83]

So all it took was a telepath to invert Alex....wth? I expected more. Why didnt anyone do this much earlier like when he had joined Scott in Uncanny?

[akiresu_]

LOLL...wasnt someone on here convinced he would be revealed to be Cyclops?


Anyways, that preview:

Just noticing Bloodstorm still has her new uniform! May be an artist quirk, just for this issue, but that's interesting. At the very least, I hope Daken keeps his costume for his fight against Jimmy. Heck, I hope there's a lot of dealing with the remnants of this team. This issue was definitely a good finale to the MotherVine story, but doesn't work as a send-off for anyone in the team except Xorn. So we need them staying as somewhat recurring.

[DDM]

So all it took was a telepath to invert Alex....wth? I expected more. Why didnt anyone do this much earlier like when he had joined Scott in Uncanny?

Emma also needed Lorna’s love & hate to rebuild Alex. Doesn’t seem like it was a complete re-inversion either, Emma just layered a “fixed” persona over the inverted one.

How was Tony uninverted?

[Maestroneto]

Emma also needed Lorna’s love & hate to rebuild Alex. Doesn’t seem like it was a complete re-inversion either, Emma just layered a “fixed” persona over the inverted one.

How was Tony uninverted?

They left it ambiguous if he was inverted in Time Runs Out and then ignored it entirely for the relaunch.