Teased with a typically beautiful yet ominous Leinil Francis Yu cover, X-Men #7 set expectations high for raising the bar on internal Krakoan tensions—and the story delivered, along with many burning questions that mostly still haven’t been answered. We start with a literally iconoclastic image of a stained-glass version of the most famous Catholic mutant—Nightcrawler—shattered by Apocalypse wielding a sword (which seemed to both echo what we’d seen recently in flashbacks, of Apocalypse’s last stand on ancient Okkara, and call forward to the impending X of Swords event).
What’s most clear by issue’s end is that Kurt’s doubts and questions, even his spiritual vision of renewal, just don’t carry the day, at all. They certainly fueled readers’ hopes for more Kurt content, but it’s Apocalypse and the less humane elements on the Quiet Council—meaning, most of it, then—who win out here, thus allowing the Krakoan project to grow at a more rapid pace, driving up reader enthusiasm, as well. So, yeah, cynicism wins, as usual. At least Hickman’s being honest! 😉
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is that it is a ruin. It’s a six issue miniseries stretched out into nine issues, and it shows. There are several points in the narrative where it’s clear that the wheels are spinning, everyone’s just waiting to get to the bit where Wally West confesses everything. I’m tempted to argue that the series would have been better suited for a more Columbo-esque structure where the reader is aware of who did it and the rest of the series is spent finding out why, rather than having that why provided over the course of an issue long monologue.
by Mathew Rosenberg, the Joker ongoing, a Joker/Suicide Squad Story, and the Joker showing up in Tom King’s Batman/Catwoman. I wondered when I started reading the book if I would feel the same Joker burnout here as well.
isn’t a traditional Joker story told from the Joker’s point of view, but rather a James Gordon story about his relationship with the Joker — about the trauma and grief that the former Commissioner has endured over the years and the way they make him question his morality.