Admittedly, I'm not a huge fan of Bendis. He's a fan of "shaking things up," but he sometimes shakes things up a bit too much, and it ends up fizzing all over the place. Luckily, this has not been the case with
All-New X-Men. Bendis has managed to take a jarring event like bringing the young X-Men to the present and weave it into a compelling and dynamic story that doesn't seem entirely over the top. Moreover, Bendis has paid much attention to the character development and interactions in this series, which is a vital component to its success.
Of all the books so far,
All-New X-Men #12 is an exemplar for the character-oriented approach that Bendis takes. The reunion of young Scott Summers and his brother Alex is authentically touching. The plot moves along nicely with the stark contrast that occurs with Jean's small peek into the Scarlet Witch's mind. More and more, Bendis has been developing an instability within Jean that I find extremely intriguing and think will become a major component of the story line later on. Perhaps I'm grasping at straws, but I foresee a parallel to the forever remembered Dark Phoenix Saga unfolding as the series progresses.
In the art department, Stuart Immonen shines brightly in this issue. This is perhaps some of the best work I have seen to date in
All-New X-Men. Such an emotionally charged issue requires great skill to portray, and Immonen's attention to facial detail and body language is rivaled, in my mind, only by a handful of pencilers.
All-New X-Men just goes to show that emotional action is just as good as all the physical action that we're all used to in a superhero comic. Bendis walks the line here very nicely and sows the seeds for some big events that will inevitably fall on the shoulders of these young time-traveling X-Men.
Score: 10/10
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