Too bad there's no Beast as the cover implies, but I'm assuming Scott, Emma and Hank have roles left to play in this darkening, intensifying and openly savage arc. Morrison's achievement, more than perhaps anyone else who has taken on Marvel's mutants, is to show our heroes as victims. Not whiners, mind you, but sufferers on an epic scale. Not just from each other, and not just from prejudiced humans, but of their own powers, of the implications inherent in their own particular gifts and burdens. This issue, more than even the horrors in "Ambient Magnetic Fields" or in Cassandra Nova's ruthless first arc, builds to the level of compelling tragedy. Read Full Review

This story is certainly Grant Morrison's most ambitious effort since his opening story arc, though unlike the opening arc which seemed to be all about taking the book in a bold new direction, this latest arc seems to be about embracing some decidedly old school trappings, like the raving, super-powerful villain with his plan to take over the world, and I'm sure I'm not the only reader who took note of the similarity between the first time the Phoenix force emerged in the Marvel Universe, and Jean's equally harrowing death scene in this issue, which looks like it more than meets the demands on the reborn from the ashes rule of the Phoenix birth. In any event, this is a fairly exciting issue, as Grant Morrison has an interesting take on Magneto and the scenes that play out on the doomed satellite are pretty solid in that they touch all the key elements of the relationship these two characters have shared. There's also a couple fairly impressive shocks in this sequence, as Wolverine takes Read Full Review

Art: 4/5
Story: 4.5/5
Total: 8.5/10