All-New X-Men #35 Review

First of all I really enjoyed the fact that a comic about a group of characters in the wrong time and in the wrong universe played around with its own narrative timing and continuity. I thought it was great that Bendis chose to open the issue with the battle at Latveria between all of the X-Men and Dr. Doom’s Doom Bots and then go back in time to let the audience know how we got to that moment.

This was particularly strong in setting up the issue’s cliff-hanger, we’d already seen the moment when Miles Morales makes a play at Doctor Doom and it seemingly backfired right at the start, but to see it again at the end with the wider context of the comic and the added panel of the Castle Doom explosion really helped to re-establish the scene as a shocking dramatic moment worthy of serving as a cliff-hanger for a comic.

The battle scenes at the start and end of the comic are also fantastically drawn and coloured Asrar and Gracia who both do sterling jobs of bringing the dynamic action of the battle to life. There’s a lot going on in that opening two-page spread with all of the X-Men and Spider-Man fighting Doombots but they pull it off superbly.

It’s also important that I note that in a comic where there are two versions of almost every character Asrar gets the visual characterisation spot-on adding in subtle but easily noticeable differences, easily allowing the reader to differentiate between one X-Men character and their dimensional counterpart. The last thing you want in a comic book is to be confused about who you’re actually seeing and that is masterfully avoided here!

The change of pace from the last issue is also a very welcome thing. We’d had four issues of the X-Men leading their separate adventures and it was dragging on a bit, so Bendis’ decision to not only open with a full-on action-packed battle scene but to fast-track the coming together of the separated All-New X-Men really helped to propel this issue along and raise the dramatic stakes for our characters as evidenced by Mile’s heroic gambit.

Whilst I’m almost certain that Miles will emerge unscathed in the next issue, I felt that the cliff-hanger did it’s job admirably! Mainly because it helped to continue the potential love interest angle between Miles and Jean Grey as she watches on in horror as he’s apparently zapped. Asrar captures her facial expression splendidly and you really get the impression she cares about Miles. Of all of Miles’ potential love interests (Katie Bishop, Diamondback) I think that this developing one with Jean has the most storyline potential and I hope that Bendis gets to continue with it going into Marvel’s Secret Wars.

Speaking of character development, I recently read a couple of issues of Fantastic Four because Spider-Man appeared in them, and as a result I really like where Doctor Doom is going. In Fantastic Four #12 Doctor Doom is revealed to be up to some master-plan involving ‘different worlds’ and low-and-behold that’s exactly what he’s doing in the Ultimate Universe too. I like the idea that all of the alternate Doctor Dooms in Marvel continuity are attempting to do the same thing and it’s something I really hope plays a big part in the Marvel universe going forward!

But getting back to this comic, I have to say that Bendis really is one of my favourite writers. Miles Morales is probably my favourite Spider-Man because I am emotionally invested to him as a character more than I am with Peter Parker or Miguel O’Hara and that really comes through with the X-Men as well. The tender moments surrounding Angel and the Ultimate X-Men whose Angel died are brilliant, ranging from a shocked Rogue, an emotionally mourning Storm and a brilliantly written awkward conversation with Kitty Pryde, Bendis nails every beat from all of these characters.

All-New X-Men #35 is a great comic that helps to propel an already really good miniseries into something quite frankly brilliant. As you can see in this review I’m already looking into the future for more of the same. And anything that leaves you eagerly anticipating what’s going to happen next is doing something right. In fact I might even like this crossover event more than I do the Spider-Verse…

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