Uncanny X-Men #3 SPOILERS!

[SchismOfMadroces]

As usual, we start with the preview. Bets and Mags are there to pick up Triage when Barrage, Hurricane, and Harddrive show up.
Hurricane attempts to flush Triage out, but Magneto intercepts, drawing their attention long enough for Betsy to bypass their psychic defenses and find out where they're based. Triage continues healing the sick the whole time, which was nice to see. Once she has what she needs, Mags lets loose on Harddrive, who teleports the Riders out but not before he leaves behind a little spybot. Triage is convinced to go with the X-Men after Magneto affords him a few minutes to heal whomever he can.

In Tibet, Monet meets with Shen Xorn (who I think hasn't been seen since the whole Michael Pointer incident in Avengers), who refuses to leave his sanctuary until he has completed his meditations. If the mists or Riders find him first, so be it.

We find out that the X-Men are based on Genosha and that the Mists hit there early on, killing 60 mutants. Sabretooth gives them the news about Xorn, and they immediately start preparing to hit the Dark Riders at their home. The Riders' spybot has followed them back to Genosha, however, so they also know where the X-Men are based.

In the last scene, Fantomex is leading several Hellfire grunts into the bowels of a Someday facility. They find several mutants locked in stasis before guards arrive and gun Fanto down. JK, lol! It was a grunt the whole time, and Fantomex has escaped in EVA with his intelligence. He asks Mystique to set up a meeting with their "masters."

My thoughts: We're likely to see the Dark Riders and X-Men simultaneously raiding each others' home bases in the near future. If Triage is staying behind on Genosha, I imagine the mystery member of the team will be revealed as his sole defender when the Riders come calling.

The scene with Shen Xorn was pretty interesting, and sets him up as a players down the road when his "meditations are done." I'm actually looking forward to seeing him and Magneto meet up again.

I'm really hoping that the "masters" that Mystique and Fantomex are serving are a newly reformed Inner Circle. Hopefully Mama Frost is back in her White Queen role!

[Hariel0079]

it was a solid issue. Magneto seems like he's given up all hope going off his use of "foolishness"

[Anduinel]

Glory be! For once, the solits did not lie! That is indeed one member of the X-Men I never thought I'd see again. Or particularly wanted to.

I liked the first issue quite a bit, but I don't think this title is gonna work for me in singles. Only two characters I care about anymore have showed up, and one of them was handed the idiot ball and seemingly killed off for shock value. I do agree with the consensus that Land's doing the best work we've seen in a while here, but it's still got all of Land's shortcomings and that's not worth $4 per month to me. So I think I'll wait and read it on Marvel Unlimited.

[Phoenix Raptor]

I imagine the mystery member of the team will be revealed as his sole defender when the Riders come calling.

You realise that the "mystery" X-Man that the solicits mentioned actually was Shen Xorn, right...?

[AcesX1X]

this book was really really good. even fantomax was written well, and i hate him with a passion.

dark riders feel like a real and relevant threat (nice change for the x-men!) and christopher had more personality in this ONE issue of x-men than he did in the past two years under bendis.

also lol @ the return of xorn.

[SchismOfMadroces]

You realise that the "mystery" X-Man that the solicits mentioned actually was Shen Xorn, right...?

I thought of that as I was typing up the review. I know Bunn mentioned unrevealed members of the team in previous interviews, and for some reason, I thought that there was still one more mystery member out there.

[xhx23x]

This was freaking awesome. I am very much interest in where everything is going and just who Mystique and Fantomex are working for. Yes, a Fanto plot has my interest. That's new for me.

[Hariel0079]

For some reason I was expecting a bait and switch with Mystique and Fanto but those last few pages were excellent.

[MetalPsyc]

Another solid issue. Not much action but the story moves along quite nicely. There are few things happened that explain things in previous issues.

In this issue, we learned that Magneto actually tried a Save Haven for the mutants but failed. Hence explaining his pessimist attitude of having a safe haven anymore.

It appears that Elixir is dead. But I think other writers can always resurrect him (he's self-resurrect right?). Thankfully Triage is safe and willing to work with the team. The Fantomex segment was entertaining. He's forever going to be a douchebag. I also like his interaction with Mystique. Can't wait to learn who's the "masters" in the new Hellfire Club. I really hope that Fantomex and Mystique remain in the separate team as Mag's. Or maybe even as opponents, especially once the new HFC is unfolded.

The biggest surprise for me in this issue is seeing Shen Xorn. Too bad he turned down Monet's offer. But I think we're going to see him in the future, especially when his meditation is "finished"

Overall, I think Bunn is very good with characterization and interactions. Magneto and Psylocke's was great as in Fantomex-Mystique's. Sabertooh is sounding more and more like Wolverine (and that's not a bad thing). I'm glad things got explained in this issue, and the plot is moving forward.

Land's art is a bit stiff especially during the fights, but I don't see any substantial amount of funny faces that doesn't match the story and that's good (except one Psylocke's pose when she's scanning Dark Riders mind).

[motherofpearl1]

Is Sabretooth still a 'bad guy' or has he been exchanged with AoA's Sabretooth or something?

[xhx23x]

Is Sabretooth still a 'bad guy' or has he been exchanged with AoA's Sabretooth or something?

Sabertooth was inverted during AXIS so now he's trying to hero up.

[Hariel0079]

Is Sabretooth still a 'bad guy' or has he been exchanged with AoA's Sabretooth or something?

he's inverted. So he's good while under a spell.

[AcesX1X]

best to not think too hard about it.

[Ambaryerno]

It appears that Elixir is dead. But I think other writers can always resurrect him (he's self-resurrect right?).

I don't think it's ever been clearly established whether he is self-resurrect or not. The one incident where I thought they showed him doing it he wasn't actually dead YET, just dying after Wolfsbane accidentally gutted him, and he had to be shocked into consciousness to do it. However he also hadn't developed his game-breaker healing powers yet. The Logan Legacy and him turning up in Utopians afterwards seems to imply he may be able to, but it was never made clear what happened (partly because Marvel no longer cares about things like "continuity"). And this is BEFORE he was shown mass-resurrecting people without even having to touch him.

However Bunn was notably evasive when questioned on the death (the same way Soule and Nguyen were about the Logan Legacy), so I think they're intentionally leaving the door open. And as I've said before, if ANYONE could randomly pop up alive again without explanation after a death, you'd think it would be him. Although if he DOES come back he probably needs a nerf...

[Ragdoll]

I really liked this issue. But does anyone else still get bitter when Xorn gets brought out. I hate being reminded of how Marvel retconned the Morrison era climax with keeping Xorn as a separate character from Magneto. So this is Shen Xorn, brother of the original Xorn? Except no one knows who the original Xorn truly was, and Shen Xorn doesn't even know what his own personal identity is. So how does he know he is even brothers with the first Xorn? I hope Bunn uses this run to un-clusterfudge the whole Xorn mythos. It sounded like Shen Xorn was almost finished with those meditations. I can;t wait to hear what conclusions he reaches at the end of them.

Sabertooth was inverted during AXIS so now he's trying to hero up.

And yet Tony Stark was invested and went evil, and now Marvel acts like it never happened and hopes we just forget. Where is the Superior Iron Man? At least give us some random explanation about how Tony reverted.