REVIEW: All-New X-Men, #7

[CBR News]

Brian Michael Bendis and David Marquez's "All-New X-Men" #7 finds Mystique seizing the opportunity to make the X-Men more confused than ever by playing games with a naïve Scott Summers, while Scott digs up the past of his future.


Full review here.

[Kaiolino]

The idea behind the tender moment for young Scott and Jean Grey -- him retrieving a copy of their future/past wedding invitation and giving it to her -- is a good one, but it didn't land emotionally.

I think you missed the point of the scene (again).

[semicyon]

Personally, I liked the lack of transitions for Mystique's shapeshifting and BECAUSE it was confusing was what made it effective. We, the readers, are so used to Mystique that we've taken for granted how unsettling and distracting she would be if you were just meeting her. It was good storytelling to get us in a similar mindset as Scott Summers meeting with this tricky mutant.

[Nyadnar17]

I think you missed the point of the scene (again).

I have never seen anyone miss the point so hard before. Are they just skimming the books?

[EXCELSIOR 2.0]

Get it together Kelly. It's called pulling the pity card (literally in this case, how fun!).

[MarvelMaster616]

I disagree with this review strongly. Three stars out of five? For a comic that had so much high drama and came together so beautifully in the end? What logic is the reviewer using to say that it didn't resonate or it felt rushed? This issue epitomized Bendis's strengths when it comes to writing comics about teenage drama. He's done it for over a decade in Ultimate Spider-Man and he's made it work. He did the same with this issue, playing up the emotions surrounding O5 Cyclops in all the right ways. A 3 out of 5 is just wrong for a comic like this. I gave it a 4.5 out of 5 on my blog. It deserves at least that for what it has done with the characters.

[kingderella]

i thought this was another good issue, on par with the previous issues.
the pacing is still very slow, but the series just about gets away wth it, thanks to the accelerated schedule.
the art is lovely, especially considering how often this book comes out.

kitty vs young bobby was badass. (her shoulder thingies were a little ridiculous in that scene, tho)

i loved the scenes with mystique and young scott. she mixes just the right amount of lies into her truth to do the most amount of damage. its such a mystique thing to do. however, this issue would have been even better if mystiques motives were explained just a little more. she wants to create chaos amongst the x-men to further her own plans, but what are those plans? im a little worried because mystique has a history of being written as crazy and illogical, and i hate that. if shes written well, shes my all-time favourite x-villain. i hope bendis has a good plan for her, and i wish this issue would have given me a little more reassurance in that matter.

somewhat OT: wouldnt mystique be the perfect candidate to join old scotts team? and perhaps marrow? cyclops, magneto, emma frost, magik, mystique, marrow: how cool would that be. but alas, thats not where were going.

[sureshot]

While I don't agree with the reviewer. I do feel that sometimes Bendis takes too long with a story. developing it is one thing. Dragging it out is another. The last thing I want to see is the next four issues of the rest of the 05 being played by Mystique. I can see one two maybe three members of the 05 being fooled. All of them is really unrealistic imo.

i loved the scenes with mystique and young scott. she mixes just the right amount of lies into her truth to do the most amount of damage. its such a mystique thing to do. however, this issue would have been even better if mystiques motives were explained just a little more. she wants to create chaos amongst the x-men to further her own plans, but what are those plans? im a little worried because mystique has a history of being written as crazy and illogical, and i hate that. if shes written well, shes my all-time favourite x-villain. i hope bendis has a good plan for her, and i wish this issue would have given me a little more reassurance in that matter.

I'm also another fan of theMystique and young Scott scene. While it as a interesting read at the same time it's like none of the older X-men warn the 05 of any threats. If it was me I would be "stay away from this list of mutants. Top of the list Mystique.". So the present x-men letting the 05 blunder around in the present. Not a fan of that. My other worry and I share it with kingderella is Mystique written without a purpose. In that she has no pl;ans beyond sowing chaos amongst the X-men. Which fits the character yet if it's done with the usual aspect of the character being a insane psycho nut job I hate that also. The whole crazy and illogical aspect of the character is old stale, predictable and quite frankly with Mystique done to death imo. When the hand brought her back it I doubt it was with any sort of insanity attached. It does worry because of the ""the esteemed Dr. Henry McCoy dropped a bomb on the mutant race. I just lit the fuse. Screw them all." statement. The character has always been written as defending the mutant race. While I can see the character being involved with something that cause chaos and possible destruction with the X-men. Something that involves the possible harming and destruction of the mutant race no way. Insane or no it's totally out of character. Not to mention the character is a mutant. Why would she want to harm herself to get back at the X-men. So yes I also agree with Kingderella that we would have good to see some reassurance that it's not the writers using Mystique again with no rhyme or reason.

somewhat OT: wouldnt mystique be the perfect candidate to join old scotts team? and perhaps marrow? cyclops, magneto, emma frost, magik, mystique, marrow: how cool would that be. but alas, thats not where were going.

I agree that she would be a perfect fit with old Scotts team. I mean with OS being a lot more like Magneto and having him in the same team would be like a big FU to the rest of the X-men the writers at least for the moment have decided not to go there. Mind you knowing the character she would not be content to be in anyone shadow for long. So at least it makes sense from that angle

[Joecooler2u]

Bendis does take awhile to develop his storylines as decompression can sometimes slow his work to a crawl but it's a smart thing as with Miles Morales and his All-New X-Men work you get character development that makes the later action have meaning. Besides pulling the pity card the Young Cyclops is hurt and confused. He loves Jean and he sees that all this has seriously jeopardized any chance he had with her. Remember this is all hitting him for the first time as well and maybe not all at once like Jean but the kid is hurting and has nobody to really talk to as everyone sees him as the evil jerk who killed Professor X. He can't even begin to understand his future self and his motivations that led to him being allies alongside Magneto who was at his most evil days when Scott first met him in his early X-Men days. There's a lot of depth here. Obviously young Scott aims to strike out on his own by getting that money probably aims to go after his future self in hopes of answers to why he ended up like he did. And yeah a lot more went into Scott giving Jean that wedding invite announcement. He's basically saying "This is what could have been, as bad as this future is we ended up together and happy for awhile. Now it's all ruined." There's a lot of depth to that scene that didn't need to be said if you think about it from Cyclops's point of view... By the way the entire series thus far has been a 4 star or above. It does the job of any great comic by marrying the perfect blend of good writing and good art. It keeps you dying for the next issue even though the title comes out twice a month (wait til it cuts back to once a month when Uncanny comes along it will seem like forever between issues).

[Pixie_Solanas]

Enough with the Marrow nonsense.

As for the review, two major points missed: 1) Scott giving the card to Jean was not meant to be tender. 2) Mystique's shapeshifting wasn't confusing at all. Jarring? Yes. That was the point. I'm glad Marquez didn't put a "hey, she's shapeshifting" mid-conversion panel in there. We know what's going on. The impact is heightened when in the next panel she's completely someone else. Excellent portrayal of her powerset.

[lefthighkick]

Issue #3 was the weakest so far in this run, not this one. Digging the series overall.

[Eric Chang]

I have never seen anyone miss the point so hard before. Are they just skimming the books?

hmm

Perhaps it had less potency because it felt rushed, or it's been diluted by what we know Jean has already seen and experienced via Beast's memories. Regardless, it's a moment I wanted to really feel, but didn't.

it doesn't really work and instead just had me re-reading the page to make sure I didn't miss something.

I THINK SO LOL

not sure why cbr has been assigning reviewers on random titles... i don't want to say this reviewer is bad, but definitely NOT THE RIGHT PERSON for this book