Some spoiler filled reviews.....
Uncanny X-Men 503 - Yeah, I'm liking Land's art less and less with each issue. I think I like him on stuff that isn't established, but on something like X-Men, I'm not digging it. The story's alright. Not bad, but not the best of the batch. I still hate Emma in this issue and Scott's not high on my list either. Empath is going nuts through San Fran and all the X-Men are trying to capture him... and Emma tempts Scott into having more Mental Sex. Now in the end we get the idea it wasn't Emma at all but... and the big reveal here is... Madelyne Pryor. Predictable if it does turn out her, but we'll see.
I liked the scene with Sam, Karma, and Dani... and I like Pixie... but that's about it. So far, Brubaker and Fraction's new run on this title is falling flat for me. I'll stay on board for a while and let them build it, but if it stays this way I may eventually drop this title for the first time in 15 years. I'm getting tired of buying books I don't care for.
Young X-Men 7 - Oddly, one of my favorate books this week. After a very disappointing 1st arc, this second one is really drawing my interest. I believe that the artist is the same from last issue, which I liked, and the book is written well. There's some realistic dialogue (better than Bendis 'realistic' dialogue anyway) and it's just a decent read. Once again, not heavy with action as much as building plot and character relationships. The big question here is, Rockslide figures out that one of them isn't a mutant (and I like that it was Rockslide. Shows he isn't as stupid as he's been portrayed). So as the Young X-Men travel to an island to save some missing construction workers along with Dani and Sunspot, Dust goes to see Donald Pierce again to question him about it. Now along with that story, I didn't care about Pierce in the first arc, but I, for some reason, enjoy him here as the prisoner. I like him in that role. Kinda reminds me of Sabretooth back in the 90's. Some good storylines could be done with that.
Anyhow, so people are talking about who mutants are on the island, and Dust is talking to Pierce about it and we learn she hopes it's her. The big reveal in that is that it isn't about her being an X-Man or a mutant, but rather something having to do with the fact that she's dying. Yeah, we don't know why or how, but Sooraya is dying. More death that, though irritates everyone else, I don't mind with this book... just feels like it's part of its charm by now. I like how no one is safe.
And on the island we learn, as everyone pretty much already knew, that the human is ink. Yeah, he's 100% human. Not a hybrid or some other form of mutation. Just a human. So where did he get powers and how do they work? The answer's pretty obvious and I didn't even see it coming. His tatoo artist is the mutant... with the ability to make tatoos and grant powers with them. I'm not sure if the artist knows this yet, but it definately explains those Y-Men or whatever they're called that's due to show up soon.
I liked that reveal, and overall I liked the issue. It was simple, but a good read. Oh, and the island turns out to be a Krakoa like in Giant Sized X-Men from long ago. Nice little nod to history.
My only nitpick with the issue... Rockslide is saying "One of you isn't a mutant! And I know who it is!" on the cover. Shouldn't he be saying "Ain't" instead of "Isn't"? Not very Rockslide.
Captain Britain & MI: 13 6 - Good issue. Last issue's cliffhanger ending is kinda brushed over and all is well after Faiza heal's Jac. But the Blade/Jac fight shortly later is really pretty good. Never been a big Blade fan, so seeing Jac take him on and do well makes me happy. It ends with her posing to bight his neck, and we'll see what comes of that next issue.
They're in a building where some evil magic thing that was released is trapping people in it by giving them their greatest desire, in exchange for their souls. It traps Captain Britain and tempts him with the return of his deceased wife, Meggan. I like this as it feels like Cap has just gone and fortgotten her, and now they're addressing it. Eager to see what comes of that.
And we also have Captain MappleLeaf. I know nothing about him but I kinda like his oldschool niave ways. Kinda cute.
All in all, okay issue. In my opinion probably the weakest of the batch thus far, but the rest have been phenominal, so that's definately not saying it's bad in the slightest.
Guardians Of The Galaxy 6 - I hate to say it but... I felt a little underwhelmed with this issue. It was good, still one of the better ones of the week, but I was really hoping to see some Cosmo kick butt action... but we're only teased. Drax tempararilly kills everyone for about 90 seconds in order to find the Skrulls. Thus, we don't see the Cosmo/Warlock fight. They both wake up and Cosmo reveals that, as I said last week, the Skrulls were not bad and were escaping the Earthly attack and helping others do the same. Then as Drax and Quasar show up to fight Cosmo and Warlock, he does the same thing to them and again, all is well. Then some of the others form Knowhere show up and a fight breaks out. A Skrull sacrefices (though lives) himself for Cosmo... and Cosmo is TICKED. And the next page all is well and we're told he took knocked everyone on their butts, and it's brushed over. A 2-page spread of him mindscrewing everyone would have been sweat! But we're given nothing. Then the story moves on and we see that Drax has informed everyone about Mantis and Starlord's messing with thier minds to make them join and the team disbands, leaving only Starlord and Mantis... who is mumbling something about everything going wrong and them approaching the wrong future.
All in all.... not that great.... at least not in comparison to the rest of the series, and Nova. However, I still find myself curious what will come and still consider this title one of my favorates each month. It was bound to have a 'bleh' issue eventually. This was it.
Mighty Avengers 19 - Yeah, it was alright. We get into Captain Marvel's head a bit more through the duration of his role in Secret Invasion. Not much is added that is really important. He basically just fights some skrulls...debating with himself... then crashes (as he did in SI 6) proud of the name that was given him. He's found by Marvel Boy and you get the idea that his passing his name to Marvel Boy is some great honor and forshadowing... but I don't care much.
All in all I just don't think this added anything that SI hadn't already implied... and even that wasn't very good. My opinion. Bendis should have scrapped this Marvel inclusion into SI and just focused on something else. He flops this sideplot bad and this single issue devoted to it falls flat.
Probably my 2nd least favorate tie-in issue, after the Multiple Hank Pyms issue.
Iron Man/War Machine 34 - Issue was okay. Nothing great. More hero vs Skrulls. We dig into Rhodey's syke a bit more but nothing much happens that we haven't already seen a hundred times. The highlight is his going to help the Winter Guard and being rejected by them because he's american and his helping them anyway. In the end he's captured and is about to be put into Skrull surgery. Not great. Definatley not making me want to go out and pick up his upcoming ongoing... that's for sure.
I also bought the first 2 issues of Secret Six on my endeveavers to become a DC fan. Haven't read them yet though.
