Uncanny X-Men #479
I'll admit, I haven't read the last several issues of this title...once they got into space, I got bored. However, I've read people's reviews where they said that each issue in this arc could be taken as a story unto itself, and I've wanted to read a good X-Men comic for some time, so I read this issue. And it is good. VERY GOOD, in fact. And even beyond the merits of the story told in this issue is one huge point to Brubaker's credit: he actually manages to make sense out of Claremont's whole Shiar Deathwatch Phoenix Rachel Grey Family Murderers Squad with Awful Names story. According to his explanation, the entire Grey clan was murdered because there was a possibilty that each of them contained the genetic potential to host the Phoenix entity. Thus, they were massacred. And the brand applied to Rachel's back allows the Shiar to know whenever she's around, so that they can dispatch someone to finish her off. Which is what they do here. They dispatch someone whose ancestor also once played host to the Phoenix entity, and upon his death was able to save a small portion of the Phoenix force inside his huge honkin' sword - which could thereafter only be wielded by his genetic descendants. Sure, it's a bit convoluted, but Brubaker has to make sense of years worth of sloppy storytelling, and, to his credit, he does it very well. Anyways, when the Phoenix descendant dispatched to kill Rachel finally encounters her, she mind melds with him, and they discover that their lives have been Uncannily similar. His whole family was wiped out by the Shiar, as was hers; he was conscripted to serve evil masters against his will, as was she; and they share a moment. She also drains the sword of its Phoenix force. (Rachel needs some good lovin' - she and this Shiar dude should hook up.)
Meanwhile, the Professor is kidnapped by the Shiar who the X-Men had taken aboard their vessel, and Darwin follows by hanging on to the ship - from the outside!!!
A VERY GOOD issue, and I'm not burdened by the fact that I haven't read the last few. That's how a good comic should be.
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True story! I've been reading X-Men digitally (picking up where I left off in 1997!) and I've been reading reviews of a lot of them as I go- a lot of people complained that this issue moved too slow and didn't accomplish much. I, however, agree with you- I think this issue is fantastically executed and I love the character development going on. Rachel is so freaking awesomesauce. I also hope she taps that shi'ar.
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