Astonishing X-Men #7

A MAN CALLED X pt I

Written by Charles Soule
Penciled by Phil Noto
Cover by Mike Deodato, Jr
Published Jan 3, 2018

   Charles Xavier stands on a rooftop in London in front of Psylocke, Rogue, and Mystique. But before he can answer questions, there’s business to attend to. As the British authorities plan to bomb the city, Archangel shears the wing off one of the bombers, forcing the others to drop their payload with urgency. Suddenly Warren hears Xavier’s voice and in an instant, he’s free of the blind rage in his blue form but still in control of the strength. He takes off to grab the falling bomb and hurls it upwards, later sending razor sharp spines to detonate it.

Scary Blue Archangel is feeling fly again.

   Back at the Ministy of Defence, the commander is dismayed. He declares mutants the winners when X appears in the control room and explains the X-Men weren’t responsible for the mind control. As a gift to the people of England, he removes the sickness from their brains and expels it into a weird, green ball form. Next he renders the authorities completely unaware of any of the interaction and the zombie epidemic comes to an end. 

NAPTIME!

   As the green balls begin to accumulate, he’s able to address his team. Fantomex agreed to stay in the Astral Plane and he invites Psylocke to see for herself. She does so and find him very happy there. He invites her back from time to time to check on him and she agrees. Meanwhile Logan and Gambit watch the green ball rising when they’re surprised by the very scary Archangel. They plan to fight the vacant angel of death when he reveals he’s very much in control. He tells them an odd, younger but familiar Xavier changed him and Logan shares his notes from the Shadow King incident.

Look at these cold, dead eyes.

   Elsewhere Bishop watches the green sun rise and accesses his X-database. As the still skeptical X-Men watch Warren return with Gambit and Logan, Bishop gets his answer and it isn’t good. Just as soon as the energy ball is completed, it explodes. And although nobody can be for sure what it is, they’ve felt it before. Proteus walks the streets and the battle the X-Men have been waiting for is about to break out. Unfortunately though it’ll have to wait as this issue is left to be continued.

Doesn't look all that scary.

   So the moment we’ve all been waiting for has come. Xavier is back... kind of. It was really cool seeing him in the Astral Plane but now that he walks the earth, the possibilities are endless. I guess only time will tell whether this is the true Xavier or some hijacked, scary version of him but until then, I can pretend it’s the real deal. The writing in this book is still as good as ever but the artwork looks to have taken a bit of a back seat. As there’s literally no stability in the penciling, it’s not like they’ll be a shot at redemption the very next issue. I can’t wait to see what happens. I give this one a 10/10..

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