Villa delivers some awesome art on every page of this issue. The art is vibrant, fun and gorgeously detailed. Read Full Review

"X-Men" #9 may be light on, well, X-Men but it's heavy on fun. Read Full Review

This issue is a refreshing change of pace that sets the stage for what's to come for the flagship X-Men title in the "Destiny of X" era. Read Full Review

At its worst,X-Men#9 is a little slow at times, but at its best, it's a total blast. Read Full Review

The writing, art and character work of this X-Men comic remain top notch and make it a truly enjoyable read, but this issue seems to throw a lot of random, arbitrary, disconnected plot elements into the mix for some reason. Read Full Review

X-Men #9 is another example of the multitude of problems this book has. Duggan just isnt the right fit for this comic at all; he can come up with some good ideas, but his execution of them is frequently bad. As always, the art saves this book from being downright abysmal, with Villa especially shining in the action scenes. Its hard to be disappointed in this comic anymore; its so mediocre that reading just sort of renders one numb. Read Full Review

What a cover!!. This was at times a fun issue, i really enjoyed the Archy and Meathead thing Destiny had going on with Remy. Nimrod was a highlight for me with his brutality. Although i LOVE pepe on interiors, Villa held their own. The arrako bits where a little clunky for my tastes but all and all, a solid issue of x-men.

Love the cover, and the story has been fun as well.

The plot with Storm here wasn't my favorite, which is a shame since she's probably my favorite X-Man. However, I did enjoy the middle of the book with Rogue, Gambit, and Destiny. It was pretty fun and made good use of their relationships with each other. Although, this does continue my issue with this series, in that there are teases of an overarching story here without much follow-up on them.

The character interactions between Gambit, Destiny, and Rogue saved this comic for me.

A lot is moving ahead and it was a bit stuffed by Duggan to move things forward before Destiny of X blows up and explore them all in the different books. Villa was a good filling artist and had great setup up for the characters to showcase action and humor well.

I do love big plot developments, but this issue offers only the ILLUSION of big developments.

What actually happens is, Orchis gets 2 new recruits (one shocking, one not), 2 councils meet with little immediate effect, and an in-law spat is folded into a bar fight to meet the issue's action quota.

The storytelling is good, particularly on the visual front, but I find it annoyingly imitative. C.F. Villa's impersonation of Pepe Larraz is genuinely impressive. Gerry Duggan's store-brand Hickman script, less so.

In this case, 7.5/10 = "a good comic that I don't much like."

(I know that the "this is only the illusion of change" criticism also applies to some Hickman comics that I love. What can I say? You get a Michelin chef to make a hotdog, it's probably gonna come out better than one from a convenience store.) more

So many different plot threads. I wish it hadn’t been so disjointed.

Duggan was trying to really thread the needle with multiple plot points this issue and I'm not sure he quite managed, but I still had a lot of fun with it nonetheless. The Destiny/Gambit bits were really funny and showcased some of Duggan's trademark humor and I will always welcome any more insight into the various Councils.

I'm wondering if we'll see some of these plots settled in other X books going forward because just this issue we had: Rogue and Gambit looking for Gameworld, Shiro and Storm on Mars dealing with Redroot, Orchis' machinations and MODOK's involvement in them, as well as the various Councils edging toward war. It's a lot for one title to resolve, especially when considering the multiple plot threads currently running around Scott, Synch, and Wolverine that weren't featured in this issue.
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SKIP.

I'll be honest. I really didn't like a lot in this one. It did have some good parts toward the beginning but, I just felt almost bored towards the end.