Guggenheim's semi-successful series has been waiting for an issue like X-MEN GOLD #23. The birth of a new team, the addition of a complex antagonist, and the beginning of a new arc combine to make a surprisingly successful installment. Read Full Review

As prison stories go this is looking to be an interesting one and Im sure Storm will be taking her familiar fighting stance very soon. Put em up Cal, you could be in for a rough ride! Read Full Review

Some surprisingly good art helps perk up a messy, aimless script in X-Men: Gold #23. The new story arc is not off to a strong start, surrendering too many pages to unwelcome foreshadowing and unproductive rehashing of dangling plot threads. This is both literally and metaphorically a rebuilding issue, but it makes such a thorough survey of the work that needs to be done that it doesn't get around to fixing anything up. Read Full Review

It may be comfort food for X-Men fans, but it's good comfort food. Read Full Review

It's nice to see the X-Men stay on Earth for more than a couple issues, but X-Men Gold #23 is plagued by a generic plot and forced teases for incoming threats that disrupt the already dull story. Read Full Review

The X-Men go to prison. Whole acres of potential (world-building, social commentary, etc) are ignored in favor of sketching the most superficial yard fight nonsense for them to contend with. Two big villains are foreshadowed in a "meh" way, and Iceman and Rogue start up a backup team at the Xavier Institute. The art style is inherently distasteful - I don't like Thony Silas's character designs. But he does do excellent work on dynamic action poses, visual storytelling, and finish. While the art isn't up to the highest standards, it's a bit above average. I wish I could say the same of the script.

It just lacks spark. And I can't help but think that the existence of a densely-populated "mutants-only" prison has better story potential for an X-Men comic than a generic "good guys in prison" retread. It's like the writer wanted to do a generic prison story and never considered the implications of such a prison for human/mutant relations, Kitty's reaction to learning about it, etc. Magneto for one would see certain parallels in a prison for people of a particular race...