Minor blips aside, it's the first strong, important issue of Uncanny X-Men in quite some time. "Utopia" is showing a lot of promise for this title, and it's made me excited to read this series again. Read Full Review

What this issue does well is position both Cyclops and the White Queen as power-players, with Emma playing a long game and Cyclops uncharacteristically getting his hands dirty with some field work. A virtual army of mutants appears, in various permutations that we are not expecting (including the presence of Sunspot, who I thought was now with the New Mutants) and overall, there's a lot of familiar faces and "Hey, it's that guy" going on. The plot doesn't really advance the "Mutant vs. Human" conundrum, but it does give us some new takes on it, as well as some big picture thinking that doesn't usually show it's face in comic book punchemups. The Dark X-Men lineup is an interesting one but I don't think that it's nearly the focus that the advertising for this arc made it seem. Either way, though, it's an intriguing start to what Marvel swears will be a change in the status quo, and Matt Fraction's script is sharp as a tack. Terry Dodson's art is excellent here, seemingly added Read Full Review

So far, "Utopia," while carrying the torch of Big Crossover status, still feels like a personal but large scale classic X-Men adventure. We'll see how it all shakes out, but as of now it still feels like the kind of exploration of ideas that the best X-Men stories have been and not just an excuse to have two teams punch at each other. Fraction has spent over a year laying the groundwork of a very significant rift between Cyclops and the White Queen. Now that there are actual teams to personify this conflict of approaches, things could potentially get very interesting. Read Full Review

Emma's new "team" is an intriguing array of misfits, and Scott's resistance is surely something she's been counting on as well. She's far too compliant to Osborn's demands to believe. I can't believe it's just a case of her becoming an automaton, as has happened to other characters in previous events. Unlike the Civil War, however, Fraction makes it clear that the mutants can't sit this one out. Read Full Review

The second chapter of Utopia feels a lot like the oneshot that introduced the crossover. So much so, that it gets the same grade, but for different reasons. Read Full Review

. If you read last week's Utopia oneshot, there isn't much of a need to read this issue. You can look at the cover and see who the members of the Dark XMen are, which will fill you in on the only info of relevance that hasn't already been covered. If you didn't read the oneshot, then you will probably enjoy this issue a bit more. Fraction's character writing is solid, but his storytelling is a bit iffy, which is about how things go for the art by the Dodsons as well. Read Full Review