X-Men #31 did what tie-in comic needs to do in expanding particular character arcs from the main event. The placement of this story happening before Fall of the House of X and Rise of the Powers of X both helped and hurt the overall ending of this two-part story. It'll be interesting to see what stories this X-Men will amplify from the crossover and if it can be more than filler content. Read Full Review

X-Men #31 sets up a beautiful yet tragic conclusion to Synch and Talon's relationship that makes me grieve for the characters. Read Full Review

Artistically speaking, characters and colors were simple. To make things worse, the panel layout really made this drag. Simple blocks on every page, with wavy lines to represent moments in Synch's mind. The whole thing felt rushed and nothing more than filler for the larger conclusion to come. Synch was definitely the star of this book and really established him as a cornerstone for what's to come. Read Full Review

Phil Noto's soft artwork helps the tragic end of Talon and Synch's time together go down smoothly but is less well suited to life-threatening throwdown with a killer robot, though some of that lack of menace can be placed on the issue's awkward timing in relationship to Fall of the House of X #1. Read Full Review

When so much of the X-Line is firing on all cylinders, X-Men #31 doesn't quite hit the mark. The end of a romance that was more told than shown, and a fight with Nimrod that leaves us wanting more are brightened with the elimination of Orchis' most concrete threat to all the people of Earth. Despite this being a minor disappointment, next month's Shadowkat and Magik team-up issue still seems quite promising. Read Full Review

Personally I am happy one Laura was removed from the board. I hate the proliferation of duplicate and/or derivative characters.

It seems that Synch's Vault story has gone awry though. Synch's story was heartbreaking-- an ancient man stuck in a young man's body without the love of his life. Instead of exploring that theme, Duggan just gave him the love interest. Steps have been skipped in tight storytelling at all points.

I think this is better than a lot of recent issues, although I still can't imagine how Shadowkat with a K passed editorial.

I think I may have liked this more had Noto not done the art. I know that sounds crazy without context, but Kalaoui really nailed it in their review. Noto's art works fantastically for stories that more less action-heavy and more character-driven. While we did get some nice character moments for Synch and Talon, there was a good chunk of this that was heroes fighting Nimrod. One example of Noto's art not fitting is when Nimrod is hit by the truck. It just looks a little off in his style. Either way, the story from Duggan was solid, but nothing spectacular.

This series just can't end in a good way. Sandwiched between the real 2 event main books, it really doesn't add much. Duggan has some nice moments for Talon's exit and synch struggle but it just doesn't work together like how Hickman delivered back then. It's a bit hollow. Between that and a really bad Nimrod section, it's not looking good bruv. Noto's art works well for the soft quiet moment between characters but the action looks very bad, static and just brings it to a halt for me. Oh well, so close to the end, I just ride it and then I'm off the train.

This bums me out.

Despite featuring the end of Synch and Talon's romance, as well as the X-Men battling Nimrod, this issue still fell flat. The writing and art were just not up to par.

I've found Gerry Duggan's X-Men run very inconsistent, and unfortunately this was one of his weaker issues.

It’s starting to feel like Gerry Duggan is so ready to be done with X-Men with the way these scripts feel like they’re being mailed in to get to the end of Krakoa. I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt after the last issue in the hopes he wasn’t actually fridging Talon, but it confirmed here and done so in a way that somehow made it even more offensive to the character. Talon calling Synch darling? Really? Is that how Duggan thinks any female character would respond to their male love interest? It sounds like how he writes Emma in Invincible Iron Man. Sorry Gerry, but these are two VERY different women.

Why was any of this necessary if the end result was going to be the X-Men turning off the Orchis kill switch anyway? Synch didn’t even do anything special with his post-fridge emotions. And what the heck was with the random Kingpin/Typhoid Mary scene? They were shown back together (with no explanation on where Mary had been) in a recent Spider-Man issue, so it was strange to seemingly go back in time to this reunion with little explanation. This all just feels very messy and a haphazard attempt to tie up loose ends.

Phil Noto’s art isn’t for everyone but I enjoyed it again here. There’s a distinct subtlety to his art that limits the impact of action sequences and other panels which require motion to be conveyed, but I thought it was used effectively. I can’t blame Noto for the script, but he perfectly captured the kind of humor that Duggan was going for (even if I disagreed with the humor to begin with). Look no further than any panel involving Spider-Man and you’ll see how Noto can capture humor with his unique style. Noto’a style also shown brightest during the emotional scenes between Talon and Sync.

Overall, I didn’t enjoy how this issue played out and I’m starting to really worry how much Duggan is going to mail in his remaining X-MEN issues before this ends. He seems to only be enjoying writing non-mutant characters at this point (i.e. Tony Stark and Spider-Man) and forcing his brand of humor into each book. I don’t think Duggan is a bad writer per se, but these books don’t fit his style.
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