Caselli offers some fantastic art throughout the issue. The visuals are thrilling and the characters look fantastic. A great looking issue from start to finish. Read Full Review

X-Men #25 is all about Shadowkat. Kitty is off her rocker and its spectacular. Duggan perfectly incorporates why and how Shadowkat is back in a way that hinges on something he personally created for the character back in Marauders. Readers, thats just solid, creative storytelling showcasing just why Duggan is one of the best writers in comics right now. Are we going to get an X-Men team with Juggernaut? Sadly, it doesnt look that way. However, you will get a pretty wicked issue with tons of action and emotion. If youre coming off your high that was Hellfire Gala 2023 #1, this X-Men #25 isnt a bad issue to fall back on. Read Full Review

After a middling year two, Gerry Duggan looks like hes hit his stride again. Giving a deeper look into the darker side of Kitty Pryde. It really excited seeing her in this capacity again, after the last four years seeing her as a pirate captain, shes showing the X-Men shes not a little girl anymore. As a Kitty fan, Im ready for this next chapter for the girl next door. Read Full Review

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I'm not going to say this was perfect. But it is one of the strongest issues of this volume to date, and an exciting launch into what's next in the X-Men line. Read Full Review

This issue does a lot to help me cope with the gruesomeness of last week's Hellfire Gala. This issue gives us a really good look at what Fall of X might be about, and I'm on board. Read Full Review

X-Men #25 is an exciting check-in on critical elements after the fallout of the Hellfire Gala with a major focus on Kate Pryde. It excels at showing Kate as the most dangerous mutant alive while setting up the impossible odds she faces. Anyone who likes a good hero's journey will attest we're in for a ride with Kate's new role as vigilante X-Man. Read Full Review

X-Men #25 has unpacked a lot of emotions and doesnt seem to let up. A broken X-Men is better than no X-Men at all. While this may be another issue of X-Men, this comic book sets up future interactions coming soon. Before that happens be sure to pick this one up at your local comic book shop or purchase it online wherever copies are sold. A reckoning is coming and its going to be good. Read Full Review

The issue raises some questions about what exactly happened during the Hellfire Gala (If Professor X marched practically all mutants through the gates, then who is it Orchis is deporting to Mars?), but is a stellar enough start to mutantkind's dark days. Read Full Review

This issue devastated me, but it was amazing

Daaaaaaaaaaaang. I like this Shadowcat.

** Apologies abound for the late review! Sometimes Life gets in the way, but I am here with one now, for what it's worth.. **

*** SPOILER-FREE ***

WOW!! Just WOW! I know it is cliched and overused, but I can't think of another word to describe the emotional ending that was this issue! Let me be frank here: I was expecting to have major issues with this, as I loved the grown up character of Kate Pryde! However, those expectations I had were quickly thrown to the wind once the backstory as to how she took on the new moniker of Shadowkat!

I have followed her character since her first appearance back in X-MEN #129 (yes, I am old enough to have been there for when that issue first came out originally!). Kate has had ups and downs as she was a focus of good, and bad, writing! The writing here was very good! Again, so good, in fact, that, again, I had a hard time with believing that it was Gerry Duggan! Color me impressed, Mr. Duggan!

This issue was full of so much Win and so, so much Feels! The only thing that made it a 9.5 instead of a 10 was the stuff in the book before we get Kate's back story! It wasn't terrible, mind you, I just would have like the whole issue to have been Kate-centric, especially considering she was on the cover and all! Jus' sayin'.. more

This is an fantastic follow up to the Gala

I was underwhelmed by the Hellfire Gala issue. Turns out, all of my subjective whelming was waiting for this follow-up that establishes the new status quo.

Maybe I should average my ratings for the two together? Nah, I'm a "take each issue on its own merits" guy.

This issue has some formidable damn merits. The writing's pretty good, the art is spectacular, and it's positively stuffed with intriguing plot and character developments. It does right by Ms. Marvel (except for her bangs situation) and successfully establishes Shadowkat as a force to be reckoned with.

Gerry Duggan and his artist partners have a real talent for dialing up the quality exactly when my enthusiasm for the title is flagging.

the start point of this event is great!

If this was solely the content with Shadowkat, I would have scored this somewhere from a 9/10 to a 10/10. However, there are things here that drag this down a tad for me. I'm not a big fan of Ms. Marvel becoming a mutant, and the story she gets here isn't really interesting enough to justify her being changed to be such. I do plan on reading her upcoming miniseries, so hopefully that sells me. Moving on, the few pages with Stasis and Cyclops had a couple good moments, but nothing extraordinary. The Shadowkat parts of this book were the strongest by a mile, and I really hope we continue to get a larger focus on her as this series progresses.

There was a lot of anticipation for the first issue of X-MEN in a post-Hellfire world and Gerry Duggan showed that the X-writers’ room wasn’t going to hold any punches during the Fall of X. X-MEN #25 continued to show how bleak the mutants’ current reality is and offered little hope for an immediate fix.

The main story of the issue primarily focuses on Kate Pryde’s new role in the mutant rebellion several weeks after the events of the Gala. She’s now adopted the Shadowkat persona — a more ruthless version of the Shadowcat persona she had during the 1980s. Through flashbacks, Duggan also reveals what happened to her immediately after Gala and how she ended up going down this darker sinister path.

To start the issue, Duggan also writes a touching conversation between Krakoan era Kate Pryde & a rabbi that acts as an anchor to remind readers that deep down inside Shadowkat, she’s still a good person at her core. I’m really excited to see the development of Shadowkat as part of the larger mutant rebellion and I hope that Duggan can withstand the urge to turn this new persona into a caricature similar to what’s happened with Moira.

While he has other characters mention it directly, Duggan does a great job writing the character to remind readers just how powerful and important Shadowkat is to the survival of mutants. The artwork by Stefano Caselli also goes a long way in reminding readers just how dangerous Shadowkat can be in hand-to-hand combat with some of the more disturbing visual depictions of her powers in use that I can remember.

While it was great to see more of Shadowkat, we also got an initial glimpse of how the mutants who escaped the Gala with Emma Frost are building a network of resistance. It all felt very reminiscent of the original Star Wars trilogy and I can’t wait to see how Duggan handles telling this part of the story arc where the X-Men are the underdogs.

Rating: 8.5/10 more

Hellfire Gala Part 2!
Enjoyed the hell out of it and I wanted the next issue immediately after finishing this!
Excited!

Ms. Marvel as one of the X-Men feels forced/contrived/MCUwashed.

The Kitty vs. ORCHIS scene was badass though.

I can’t with the nonsensical spelling of Shadowkat but on the whole this was good. Her scenes and development were the highlight. Not sold on the composition of this team though, especially Ms. Marvel and Rasputin IV. I want my banner X-Men 😢