The X-Men come face-to-face with the newly assembled Lords Cardinal of the sinister Hellfire Club! The Lords have just crowned a new Black King...and you'll never guess who it is!
Andy Park turns in a pretty solid issue, as the action has a nice sense of energy to it, with Wolverine's battle with Pierce being the visual highlight, as the art manages to nicely raise the level of tension, as Logan is subjected to a series of highly effective attacks. The art also does some nice work capturing the raw power that Rachel is able to bring to the table as she's able to turn the tables on a seemingly victorious Selene with a explosion of energy. In fact my only real quibble with the action is that the shock troops that the X-Men battle in this issue feature a rather generic design, and it becomes a little difficult to view them as threats when the art does little to reinforce the writing's continued insistence that they are. Still, the art does some nice work on the big scene where Shaw defeats Pierce, and if nothing else Sage's expression in that final panel does an effective job of selling her new pro-Shaw attitude. Read Full Review