I know not everybody was crazy about the gimmick of superheroes vs. superheroes (and where are all the villains in the midst of this?) but having followed the X-books for the better part of two years, I can say that so far, the execution of this storyline has been great. Not perfect, but great, and certainly worth reading.

-This is really more of a problem I have with the series as a whole so far, but where the hell are the students? Every week, it's the same group of Broo, Kid Gladiator, Quentin Quire (who has really grown on me), Genesis, Angel, and Idie (who I can't STAND), and three of these characters were created for this series. I know a chunk of them were palling around with Avengers Academy for a couple issues, but part of the reason I want to support this issue is because we're SUPPOSED to see the younger X-Men interact and grow up with each other. Where are my Rockslide/Anole team-ups? Where's Mercury, Hellion, Armor, and Blindfold? Uncanny X-Men has the same problem with its younger recruits, like Prodigy, Dust, and Pixie, amongst others. They were all once touted as the New X-Men, yet we're lucky if we can catch a glimpse of any of them in an X-book. I consider this a problem, and one that I hope is rectified when Marvel NOW! kicks in.

The sloppiness that has plagued the past few issues aren't helped by the inconsistent art. There's been six different artists over the past six issues. I had heard the series was risking delays and they were frantically trying to make everything ready for print, and clearly the series has suffered for it. The art's crisp enough this issue, but the portrayal of the Hulk's stature"seven feet tall, really buff"makes him seem less-than-Hulky. It's a perfect capper for a mediocre issue.