I keep trying to figure out why I don't like this title more. I mean, the art's fantastic, there's a good amount of urgency to the plot, and it has a few characters I like. But I think it all comes down to everything revolving around Glob Herman. The AoXM books I'm really enjoying - Nightcrawler, Prisoner X, The X-Tremists - are all character dives, whereas the only character who really matters here is Glob. Everyone else is kind of interchangeable (save plot devices like Brisson's creepy twins). Like, give Santo's lines to Meggan and vice versa. Or make Vic the initial skeptic and Armor the rebel. It wouldn't make a huge amount of difference or read as "wrong" because none of their 616 characterization is given enough attention to reverberate here. The central facet to this book is Glob's relationship to characters he barely interacted with previously, so it just doesn't have the impact that some of the other books have. I'm still liking it OK, for all the factors mentioned above, but there just aren't a lot of emotional stakes here for me.

All that said, there were some good moments in this issue. Skids and Jeffries messing with Rockslide's head was very well done. Shiro's creepy, heavy-handed "Just-Say-No-To-Unveil" presentation was right out of 80's-era drug PSAs, and I don't think for a second that was an accident. (I wonder if Nightcrawler's studio provided the child actress for that bit.) Pixie freaking out about Armor being on drugs, then deciding that no, Armor's actually dealing drugs while being in an illegal relationship with Anole and she has to save them from themselves was both hilarious and sad. Not so keen on Anole seemingly being an idiot with regard to his vandalism, though, especially after Disassembled, but we'll see how that plays out.

On balance, I'd say still worth picking up, especially for To's artwork.