Review # 172: "X-Men - 'Muertas' and 'Bloodline'"

Sometimes ideas that shouldn't miss end up doing just that. Brian Wood's all-female X-Men team is one of these examples. Maybe in a different world where Wood wrote more than just 17 issues, things would have turned out better. The work is good, only it's disappointing. "X-Men" comes off as a truncated, wasted opportunity.

Review # 168: "X-Men - Inferno Prologue"

Interesting technique being employed by Marvel with this omnibus, as "X-Men: Inferno Prologue" collects all material from "Uncanny X-Men," "New Mutants" and "X-Factor" between the crossovers "Fall of the Mutants" and "Inferno." If this is their model going forward - collecting the "big three" of the 80s in single collections - then I am all for it. Better to keep all of the setpieces in one place, even if it does create some unevenness in terms of quality.

Review # 66: "Uncanny X-Men - Sisterhood"

Despite the crapfest known as "X-Infernus" being billed as the sequel to "Inferno," one could argue that the pages of "Uncanny X-Men" at practically the same time were making a much stronger claim. "Sisterhood" is a novel concept as the spectre of Madelyne Pryor hatches a plan to claim the body of Jean Grey as a vessel. So she forms a team that includes Spiral, Deathstrike, Lady Mastermind, Martinique and Chimera to do her dirty work. Their first task: finding Betsy Braddock's original body. Pryor, you see, found Psylocke hopping around realities, trapped her, and - in the process of transplanting her consciousness - brainwashed her.