The Good

This issue opens up with a a surprising look at the future world for the X-Men. We see some familiar faces and it's great that not all futures are horrific. Or are they?

If you've been keeping up, you know in the last chapter, we discovered that the X-Men from the future may not fully be exactly who they said they were. They are, but they're not. Sort of. And because time travel isn't messy enough, we see what happens when Magik takes young Beast and Iceman into the future. There's so much time traveling going on!

This trip into the future allows us to see more of the potential world. That's one of the fascinating parts of this story, seeing the possibilities plus how everything can go wrong. And once again, we Brian Michael Bendis gives us a final page that leaves us hanging a little with a hunger for the next part.

Stuart Immonen's art is so good in this series. You'd imagine he must be having a ball drawing all these different versions of the X-Men. It's great seeing the tiny bits of humorous expression, especially on young Iceman.

The Bad

This felt like a quick issue, despite the different scenes and time periods. Even though we get to see the future and more characters, it felt like this was almost just a filler for the next chapter. We can assume we'll get a nice big clash between all the various X-Men from the different periods. It's just a little strange that we're over half way through the story and we're still being introduced to new players in that big clash.

The Verdict

I've said it before and I'll say it again, Battle of the Atom has become one of my favorite crossover events. There's so much craziness and twists that you're never quite sure what Brian Michael Bendis is going to throw at us next. Just when you think the story would begin to wind down to some big epic conclusion, we're still seeing the story being set up. Stuart Immonen has become one of my favorite X-Men artists with his work on ALL-NEW X-MEN. The little details he gives in the characters' expressions fits perfectly with Bendis' script and the subtle humor sprinkled in. I can't wait for the next chapter and thankfully we won't have to wait long.

@g_man: I felt the same way when I read this issue. I felt it introduced the characters too quickly and there's not a lot we got to know about them. It's strange how we learn so much about the other future x-men and not so much about these. I kind of wanted to know more about how Quire got his phoenix powers, who is that Iron Man Sentinel (Is it Juston?) and what is up with Jubilee? I couldn't even tell who was that Cloak or Storm looking character. I hope we get to learn more about them in the next chapter. I would give this issue a 4 as well.

Dazzler president? Jubilee renaming herself Wolverine? The pacing is still terribly slow? Way to go Bendis, this is probably the worst X-Men event i've read in a long time.

This event should be call Dialogue of the Atom.

I'm definitely anxious to see who are all the future X-Men are that we still don't know (Iron Sentinel guy, guy who looks like a Sorcerer Supreme's apprentice) and what the other X-Men are really doing back in the past

I like the event but, yeah, MAN was this a quick issue. Immonen usual seems to be able to stretch out those normally quick Bendis reads, but not here. Damn.

Was a cool number, but too quick

Still can't find this issue : P

I enjoyed it, but yeah it went by to quick...... I thought it was just me, but everyone else thinks so too..........

yep. and the fact that we still havent gotten any clarification on what is going on is really starting to annoy me. throwing even more x-men teams at me isnt helping either.

Bendis gets carried away with time travel.

This felt way too short, but I have to say, this one's the first I've truly enjoyed on this crossover.

@iceslick:

I don't think they need to show us how Quentin got that power. It's been pretty established by now that he'll end up being Phoenix (Morrison show us that he'll be Phoenix on the last arc of his New X-Men and then he appeared again like that on Wolverine and The X-Men). Give them time, someone will tell us how eventually.

From the start of ANXM the pace is terribly slow!
Okay the time travel theme is starting to get a bit old but i am still entertained and i wait for the next issue.

Who is the ice guy and the purple robot?

@scarlet_spider_forever: Ice guy is Bobby in the future. The purple sentinel robot guy still hasn't been identified yet

me too

I agree with this review 100%. I'm loving this crossover so far even if they use time travel to fix time travel because time travel broke time travel.
I know there are enough xmen books out there to be it's own publisher, but I'd kinda love to see a book following these future xmen. Or at least have some more threads start up in the present day books to lead to that future team.

Felt the same way. Read this too quickly. It was a great issue nonetheless.

Is that cloak?

Read too quickly and not much happened in the issue. Definitely felt like filler until X-Men next week. Best two points on the review. Still enjoyed it though, kinda...

I wish they made the issues longer! We are paying 4$ per pop for like 15 pages!! Its ridiculous!

I wish they made the issues longer! We are paying 4$ per pop for like 15 pages!! Its ridiculous!

And that's why every other issue of this or any other crossover event feels like filler or a placeholder. Marvel (and DC and everyone else) already establish how many issues and what titles a crossover will entail months before the event actually begins. So if the writer realizes he (or she) could tell the story in 4 or 5 issues, he (or she) has to sssstttttrrrreeeeeetttttccccchhhhh it out to follow the agreed-upon time frame. And many of us pay for it because we want to have the complete run of things like this.

I'm noticing this in the Infinity crossover as well. Avengers #20 was almost all talky-talk and a repetition of things that were already going on in other tie-ins. Not a whole lot of action going on.

I'm really curious about Iceman's "new power" to make an ice giant. Definitely too short and didn't focus on the main characters much.

MarvelDCForum.com

I agree the issue felt short and pretty filler.

there sure is a lot more dialogue then action for a cross-over here, but I'm loving it anyway. It's also raising more questions then ever. Why do I have a feeling that one of the original X-Men is going to die screwing up them even going back to the past. That would be crazy ending tho.

too many characters

I was loving All New X-Men until this Battle of Atom event, now its just too all over the place, too many characters and i don't know why this event is evening happening.

It doesn't help that at the same time there is Uncanny Avengers doing the exact same thing, too many characters and time travel

I liked the designs for these other future X-Men. You can see a lot of Avengers/X-Men influence there. But the time travel story is getting ridiculous. It reminds me of a Simpsons Treehouse of Horror episode where future Homer comes to the present (future?) to warn them about some terrible fate and Moe blows him away with a shotgun before he can finish. If time travel is so dangerous, why does every era have one? You're going to need to outlaw it, like in "Looper"