Psychic Battle
WARNING: THIS REVIEW WILL SPOIL THE EVENTS OF BATTLE OF THE ATOM SO FAR!
I have really been enjoying Battle of the Atom so far, as although it has dropped slightly over the last few issues it has still been a very good story, being both exciting and interesting. This series has also been good as of late as although it has been very inconsistent over the thirty five issues prior to this, it is certainly starting to get better again.
Plot
As the future Jean Grey psychically battles her younger self, Emma Frost and the Stepford Cuckoos the other X-Men battle between each other over whether the younger X-Men should stay or go back to their own time.
Review
This was a very good issue, and although it isn't one of the better issues in this storyline so far it was still a brilliant issue, being slightly better than the last instalment. Jason Aaron does a good job of continuing the story in this issue, but for the most of the issue it felt slightly laggy as although it was very exciting and dramatic it didn't seem like a lot was going to happen for most of this issue. I also didn't really feel the Wolverine and the X-Men vibe in this issue as all the other issues managed to both follow the story whilst keep the same feel, and although we got to see Broo in this issue, it still didn't feel much like an WATX issue. It did however have brilliant suspense and a bit of mystery, and overall it was a very good issue.
The art in this issue was overall very good and Giuseppe Camuncoli did an amazing job. I was actually slightly dreading how his artwork would be, as although I've enjoyed it on Spider-Man and Batman stories in the past I've never been the biggest fan of his X-Men artwork. The detail in his artwork was simply brilliant, with it being very consistent throughout. I also really enjoyed the layout of Camuncoli's artwork, though I did feel that the backgrounds were a bit plain at times. The other thing that bugged me about the art (which is something that usually annoys me about Camuncoli's art) was the facial expressions which looked a bit awkward at times, as although it suited Wolverine, it didn't suit the other characters.
One of the big things that I was looking forward to during this issue was seeing the future Jean square off against Emma in a psychic battle. Now the battle itself was very exciting and dramatic, but following the dramatic way that it was set-up at the end of the last instalment it didn't quite live to my expectations. I did however really enjoy the interaction throughout this battle, and felt that it added a lot of depth and drama to the sequence. I also liked how both Emma's group and future Jean were split by psychic colour, as although I didn't quite know why they needed to be different, it added some vibrancy to the fight, as well as helped to separate the two sides.
Whilst this was happening the rest of the X-Men would be fighting amongst themselves to a certain extent as to whether the younger X-Men should return to the past or not. Now most of this was rather dull and tedious, feeling like the same old argument that has been going on throughout the story so far. I did however find a couple of moments to be rather interesting, and enjoyed the interaction between Wolverine and the two Cyclops'. I was also happy to see the younger Beast and Iceman during this issue, and was happy to see Shogo with them.
WARNING: SPOILER AHEAD!
Now I don't like giving away spoilers for comics, and still won't give too much away in this spoiler, but this was something that I wanted to talk about as it was the most interesting part of the issue. Now near the end of this issue it would be revealed the future X-Men haven't been totally honest with what they said. Now I won't go into any more details, but I found this extremely interesting and it was the perfect development point to keep this story going as I was starting to worry that it would drag along till the end of the storyline.
Final Verdict
This was a very good issue and the second half of this story has been set-up perfectly. The issue itself was however slightly laggy, as until the end it felt like there wasn't going to be much progression in this issue. It was however still exciting at times, also having some mystery to it. Due to this I'd recommend this issue as although it wasn't the best in the story so far it has set-up the next part perfectly.
Rating: 7/10
This review was originally posted on my website Imagination Centre (here).
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