X-Men Blue #3: Rage Against the Machine

[Leirus]

X-men Blue #3 is an absolute joy to read. In a perfect world, Bunn would be writing a book with the Uncanny moniker, featuring the main x-men team hand picked by him,
and deciding the overall direction of the franchise, like Claremont or Morrison. He is that good a writer. Let us see why.

The issue starts in Barcelona, and it is a classic x-men set up: a new mutant, the dark haired girl from the preview, called Belén, has suddenly manifested her powers
unleashing the chaos in the city, and attracting the attention of several sentinels.

The first twist is clear, these sentinels are quite polite machines and are trying to help the girl. However they can also turn mutant powers down at whim,
which Jean correctly identifies as a new weapon.

The X-men and the new mutant are captured by the sentinels, although the robots use the much nicer word “subdued”, and carried away to their base.
Along the way Jean has the chance to educate Belén about what exactly the sentinels are: machines born of fear and hate, with the only function
of exterminate mutants. This is very welcome, after having that stupid Cerebra running around. No mutant on earth would give an AI to a Sentinel when he could
use any other kind of robot. The very idea is ludicrous, and Bunn explains here why.

In a cute subplot, the Blackbird detects that the young x-men are exiting its control area and updates its protocols, stealthy following them.
The first idea that comes to mind is that Magneto has wired the plane to babysit them.

When they arrive to the lair of the monster of the week, we have another nice surprise.
I will not spoil it, but it is an old enemy of the x-men, with a new mission in life, to help mutants become once again a thriving population.

The reason why, and the consequences of it show that Bunn knows his sci-fi, and makes for a great panel, when the sudden menace of the enemy is made known.
It is also has a nice heroic message, about fighting for the future.

The unavoidable fight ends when the enemy teleports away, as the confrontation does not serve his intentions.
And well, because this is long term storytelling, lad.

The blackbird arrives on time to take them home, something that rightfully weirds out the mutants a bit.

THE PROS

Jean is a smart, funny and capable leader. ¿Does this mean that she barks orders to everyone around her? No, but she correctly deduces which sentinel is blocking her powers,
collects all the available information from their enemy and uses her better informed teammates (Beast) to decide a course of action. It is a great issue for her.

Bobby is actually funny!

The connection with the Claremontian Era. This is something that shines through Bunn X-men career. If reading his Uncanny brought to mind the alliance between
the Hellfire Club and The X-men that Tessa and Storm brooked under the rain in Central Park so long ago, this will remind you to that one time Rogue punched a killer robot through a mystic portal.

The little details: The villain takes in stride the temporal paradox the young x-men are, because of course he would. Jean being intuitive.
The new Mutant having a nice little moment. The resonating question about who can you trust. Cyclops fears.

THE CONS

Very little. Angel has next to nothing to do except stand around looking pretty. Maybe he should have been given the Sentinel speech, as any red blooded spanish young girl would be trying to hit that.
But it works very well coming from Jean, and maybe it is not necessary that everyone does something in every issue.

The new mutant being dropped of at the school at the end of the issue. This is not actually on Bunn, but I miss the days when she would have been one of the new members of Gen-X, someone
relevant and not some face you know you will not see again. (Also, in my fantasies she is Belén Chantel, sister of the only woman Sebastian Shawn ever loved, but that is because I am an old nerd).

So. Buy this. X-men done right. This is how you homage the glory days of the franchise: not retreading but… evolving.

[DDM]

This was boring as hell. Like I said in the Polaris thread, the most compelling cast member was quite literally the Blackbird.

The first two issues were so good too, I dunno. This one went over like a wet fart.

[Leirus]

Re-read it after a coffee, would be my advice.

[Calaigah]

I really enjoyed it!

Jean also does some self reflecting about some of the shady things she'd done, like reading other's minds. She and Tyke have a nice little conversation too. He even jokes and calls her Dark Phoenix when she admits she shouldn't probe other's minds.

[Soulsword323]

This issue was a little heavy on exposition, but I didn't mind that. Bunn continues to nail the characterization of the original five, and they all sound like they should. As a Jean fan, I really appreciated the dialogue between her and Cyclops at the end. It's nice to see Jean own up to the questionable things shes done, and that she is trying to atone for them as she goes along. Its great to see how her character grown from the one we originally met in BMB's run. Overall, I continue to really love this series and I'm eager to see how these Sentinels and spoilers:

Bastion

end of spoilers will play into the story later (I also loved this little twist on classic X-Men villains).

[DDM]

Re-read it after a coffee, would be my advice.

I've already had 6!

[Ambaryerno]

This issue was a little heavy on exposition, but I didn't mind that. Bunn continues to nail the characterization of the original five, and they all sound like they should. As a Jean fan, I really appreciated the dialogue between her and Cyclops at the end. It's nice to see Jean own up to questionable things shes done, and that she is trying to atone for them as she goes along. Its great to see how her character grown from one we originally met in BMB's run. Overall, I continue to really love this series and I'm eager to see how these Sentinels and spoilers:

Bastion

end of spoilers will play into the story later (I also loved this little twist on classic X-Men villains).

spoilers:

Any explanation on how he got better after being destroyed during Second Coming?

end of spoilers

[Calaigah]

spoilers:

Any explanation on how he got better after being destroyed during Second Coming?

end of spoilers

spoilers:

Before being totally destroyed he used time travel and sent himself to the future. This left him completely defenseless and weak for a while.

end of spoilers

[ariwl1]

Admittedly, this fell a little flat for me. It's pretty much an exposition dump setting up spoilers:

Bastion

end of spoilers as a potential big bad. That's not bad, but given the premise it did go from A to Z pretty quickly. The characterization for the 05 is still on-point though, and the conversation between Scott and Jean at the end was much appreciated. So I'll still be getting this.

[TheRealWashout]

I liked this. It was fun, and I wasn't expecting the reveal. I'm excited to see what Bunn does with these character, and that's saying a lot because the O5 are my second least favorite collection of characters in the X-men World.

[Leirus]

Admittedly, this fell a little flat for me. It's pretty much an exposition dump setting up spoilers:

Bastion

end of spoilers as a potential big bad. That's not bad, but given the premise it did go from A to Z pretty quickly. The characterization for the 05 is still on-point though, and the conversation between Scott and Jean at the end was much appreciated. So I'll still be getting this.

Yeah, it was obviously a set up issue... but done in one! He is not the big bad but one of them. This makes me excited for the things to come.

[Havok83]

God, this book is so good. Bunn is hitting it on all cylinders. Good to see an old villian return and one I hadnt expected

[Soulsword323]

spoilers:

Any explanation on how he got better after being destroyed during Second Coming?

end of spoilers

spoilers:

Before being totally destroyed he used time travel and sent himself to the future. This left him completely defenseless and weak for a while.

end of spoilers

What Calaigah said.

[DurararaFTW]

God, the contrast between these lame uniforms and one panel of Hope makes me actually wish the comic was following her instead.

[Wiccan]

I was worried they were setting up this random girl to be the new member of the team, so I'm glad she just went to the school. The issue was nice, but nothing special compared to the previous two. Jean and Scott at the end is the highlight of it. The art though... I really don't like that other artist that came at the middle of it, and I feel like Molina was better on the other ones two. I didn't liked how Jean's hair looked by either of them here...