X-Men #9

The search through New York City's sewers for the army of Lizard Creatures continues as the X-Men and Spider-Man struggle to rescue the outcast teens that the monsters are targeting. The truth about the one behind it all is revealed, and instead of being Dr. Connors behind the curtain, it turns out to be one of the X-Men's former foes instead! The heroes soon find themselves surrounded by scaly nightmares under the streets of Manhattan, and in way over their head when they underestimate the power of the new Lizard creation process.

If there's one thing that sticks out to me about this new run of X-Men, it's the covers. They're awesome. I'd love to have the past few issues hung up on my wall as posters. I'm also a big fan of the new logo for the series. It has that retro and modern flair that says it's going to go back to the root of the stories as well as progress the characters.

But enough oozing over the look of the cover and series, lets get down to brass tacks.

Written by Victor Gischler, this installment continues the story arch from issue #7, where the Lizard creatures have been luring unsuspecting teens from internet chat sites to their lairs in the sewers, only to turn them into monsters themselves. The writing is fast paced and witty, especially in banter between Spider-Man and Wolverine. The villain is someone I'm not familiar with since I'm new to MARVEL after a long stint of only reading DC, but I'm sure a quick look on the wiki page will let me know who this fella is. I'm not going to say who it is, because it's sort of an important reveal in the issue.

The panel pacing is very well done, and the artwork is good too, though I liked the artwork of the first issue of this arc a little better. This issue and the one before it have an art style that's a little more over the top and expressive, much like some Japanese comics. It's not bad, I just wish it would have been constant through the arc. It definitely works for Wolverine when it comes to hacking and slashing through baddies.

Overall I'm enjoying this series very much, and paired with Uncanny X-Men, I feel like I'm getting my money's worth in a MARVEL subscription. This is definitely one of the publisher's best titles out there right now, and I suggest getting into it if you've been an X-Men fan looking for a series to follow.