The X-Men #18

This issue features "The World's Greatest Lettering by: Artie Simek". In my last review, I stated that apparently Magneto was being held back by the BoEM...and on page 2 of this issue, he says it himself. Damn, I'm good.

So, Magneto blames his previous failure on his BoEM teammates and now it seems as if he has the ability to mentally command other to do his bidding. Weird. I hate this strangeness. Magneto shouldn't have mental powers, he is the "Master of Magnetism", not the "Master of Magnetism plus some other stuff".

Back to the balloon, Professor X is struggling to get free. They use some craptastic explanation for him to use his power even though he has a power inhibitor on his head, turn the page and...everyone is awake and alive? Wait...did I miss a page or something? Turns out, I did. After getting the missing pages..it still didn't make sense. I'm still not sure how Prof X used his powers to break the thing that was supposed to be preventing him from using his powers. Lame.

Back to Magneto at the School, he is attempting to construct a machine that can scan Angel's parents' DNA so he can make new mutants...or something. To me it just looks like he is creepily staring at two people sleeping. Which brings me to a strange conversation, why was it always depicted in classic TV and, apparently, comics, that people that were married, slept in separate beds? If everyone knows about sex, most having had sex, and such...why would they do this? It's like they were trying to censor a part of human life that EVERYONE already knew about. Weird.

We then flashback to see how Magneto escaped "the Stranger" from issue #11 and Magneto is a dick. He left Toad stranded on another world. He sucks as a boss. I'm not sure why they had Toad continue to follow such a rude leader for so many years. Although, I now see why, when the sides were flipped in Marvel's Earth X, Toad treated Magneto like the piece of crap he is.

The X-Men are drifting back to earth and Iceman has made it back to the mansion. Magneto is creating his army of evil mutants, incredibly fast for someone who has no real background in biology or genetic manipulation. They all fight...blah.

What part of Iceman's physique is made of metal? I wonder. When he is in ice form even the doctors couldn't figure out his physiology. I guess Magneto is using the iron in the water? I'm not really sure, but they should be more clear of how he is levitating people and restraining others.

Then the Stranger returns...great. This character was ridiculous and stupid the first time around. So he chases Magneto away. Lame ending.

Final Thoughts: Magneto sure uses his powers in ways that Magentism shouldn't work. I really wish that Stan would have read up on magnetism so he would stop bombarding us with this ridiculous crap.

TLDR: Magneto is a creeper, the X-Men are defeated by a metal ball attached to a balloon and Iceman saves the day? That can't be right, must be a typo.