All-New X-Men #34 Review

I’m kind of thankful that I’ve reviewing this comic late because I think that it needs to be slightly taken in context of the upcoming Secret Wars storyline. It is after-all a coming together of the 616 and Ultimate universes and can therefore be treated as a warm-up of sorts for the event. However, that doesn’t mean it’s derivative or reduce it’s impact as a standalone miniseries as I thoroughly think that Bendis has done a great job.

Miles Morales continues to shine, even though he takes more of a back-seat in this issue. I had previously thought that the spotlight Miles was receiving in this comic was hampering the page-time that the X-Men were receiving. Because of this I wasn’t too gutted to see Miles reduced to brief moments of comic relief, such as his babbling at the start, or that hilarious silent panel at the end.

However the slow-build love interest angle that seems to be building up between Miles Morales and Jean Grey is actually really interesting. Not only does it add a small element of character-building to this small miniseries but it could have wider implications during the Secret Wars when presumably these two characters will be reunited in someway again! With Miles being geared up to be a big part of Secret Wars a growing relationship with Jean Grey would really help to cement him as a major player in Marvel’s new continuity status quo!

Especially as it’s revealed that Beast also has feelings for Jean it what must be considered one of the weakest moments for the character in comic books having been so easily duped into taking a truth serum from Doctor Doom. It’s clear that Doom is up to something, despite the readers not being told what yet, but I imagine he’s being shaped-up to become the major villain of the piece. Again his interest in different universes and times is something that seems to be a Marvel-wide thing at the moment with the Spider-Verse etc so I imagine it all adds up to Secret Wars.

Two characters really stood out in this issue for me. Bobby Drake’s Iceman is splendidly captured here as he battles the Mole Monster before taking out some racist cops. He really comes across well as he twice uses his brains to get himself out of the situation he’s in. The other character is of-course Jean Grey who has some great character moments with her Ultimate universe counterpart. A special shout-out needs to go to artist Asrar for that double-page spread of the two Jeans, it’s great.

I thought Bendis did a good job of pulling the bait-and-switch at the start of the issue setting up the tension between the Ultimate X-Men and Spider-Man and Jean Grey before showing us them dealing with it in a calm adult manner. The rug-pulling really worked and allowed me as a reader to get behind all of the characters. Asrar does a great job of subtly differentiating between the 616 and Ultimate X-Men making them easily identifiable.

I believe this is going to be the last issue of ‘set-up’ with it ending with Jean Grey in Cerebro trying to locate the whereabouts of her friends. I think we’re now moving towards the resolution with the displaced X-Men finding a way home after getting reunited one-by-one with the Ultimate X-Men’s help. And with two issues left I’d say that the pacing has been pretty spot on!

So to conclude Bendis has done a really good job setting up the final acts of this crossover event and has showed an excellent grasp of his characters (with the exception of Angel and X-23, who as yet haven’t done much at all). I’m definitely invested and I want to see how the X-Men manage to get home!

Check out Whatever a Spider Can’s other recaps and reviews of X-Men and Spider-Man comic book crossovers
Amazing X-Men #7 recap, and review
All-New X-Men #31 recap, and review
All-New X-Men #32 recap and review
All-New X-Men #33 recap, and review
Spider-Man and the X-Men #1 recap, and review

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