An Awesome Overlooked X-Men Story Arc
Sabretooth seeks sanctuary at the Xavier Institute due to a group who call themselves Children Of The Vault who are chasing him. This mysterious group brainwashes Northstar and Aurora and uses them to attack the X-Men. Cable arrives at the mansion and helps the X-Men. He later joins Rogues new team that consists of Cannonball, Iceman, Mystique, Omega Sentinel, Sabretooth and Lady Mastermind. The X-Men once again fight the Children Of The Vault and this time come out victorious in every aspect. The X-Men find a way to heal Northstar and Aurora. Exodus and his Acolytes attack the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier while the X-Men were onboard and turned it into a Cerebro replica to use as a way of hoping to find mutant births since M-Day. The X-Men explain there are no new births and Exodus becomes furious and retreats with his Acolytes. Exodus goes to Mr. Sinister for help on how to save the mutant race. Rogue gets captured by Pandemic. The X-Men track them down and complete their rescue mission but Rogue appears to be dying. They bring her to Providence where they face a new threat.
My Thoughts:
Mike Carey scripts this thirteen issue story arc of pure X-Men insanity. Carey wastes absolutely no time at all making an impact on the series. He set in motion events that will lead to huge repercussions for not only the X-Men, but the entire mutant race. What I liked about this was that it follows up on the events of House Of M and Decimation while also setting up for the Messiah Complex. This filled in some of the gaps for me now that I found out Exodus went to Mr. Sinister and how and why he got involved in the Messiah Complex.
While I had never previously heard of Children Of The Vault, I liked them a lot. They seemed like formidable foes for the X-Men and would love to read them again if they return. What I mostly enjoyed reading in this book was Rogue's team of X-Men. The unusual bunch of characters made an excellent story. I liked how the focus was on Rogue a lot. It gave her character a chance to grow and develop more. One thing I didn't like was the way Cable was written in the beginning. He almost seemed insignificant at first when we all know he is no rookie on the battlefield at all. I know it was Rogue's team but Cable should had a more dominant presence on the battlefield. However, later on when back on Providence we do see the Cable were used to seeing in his series.
The art in this book is ridiculous! The first six issues are by Chris Bachalo & Clayton Henry. X-Men Annual #1 is by Mark Brooks and I really enjoyed his style. The next three issues were by Humberto Ramos who is one of my personal favorite artists. I loved his style for this series. The coloring on his art was real vibrant. The last three issues are by Chris Bachalo alone. All these artists bring their own perspective and talent culminating in an unbelievable artistic presentation of Carey's writing capturing everything perfectly.
Any X-Men fan out there should be reading this if they haven't yet. While this may not be one of the X-Men story arcs everyone throws out when they talk about their favorite X-Men arcs, it is definitely worth reading and in my opinion doesn't get the recognition it should.
Rating: 5/5