Uncanny X-Men #510

This story ends with some disappointment. As you can remember, I only just recently picked up Uncanny X-Men because of Pyslocke’s return. Imagine my surprise to find that her return was just a cover for another Jean Grey resurrection.

I don't know which I hate more. On the one hand, Pyslocke has always been a fan favorite of X-Men fans. Her return was supposed to generate excitement but it didn't produce anything. First of all, it's not really her return. From what I can tell, a demon or some other person is just inhabiting her body. Lame. Second of all, I thought the whole point of the attack on the mansion was to find something to resurrect Pyslocke. But she's there during the invasion fighting Wolverine. I still have no idea how she even got back. What's going on?

On the other hand, Jean's resurrection has been tried probably a hundred times. That might not even be hyperbole. I think I can speak for every one when I say, I am tired of Jean Grey. We've read the Dark Phoenix Saga already and seen her come back probably once a year since. Cyclops is a wuss and even he's moved on. Don't be lamer than Cyclops, writers. For goodness sake! There's already another Phoenix Force out there in space. Jean Grey is not needed in the Marvel Universe anymore.

When not infuriated by those two travesties, I actually enjoyed pieces of the issue. There was a grand battle. Emma Frost showed her power and probably deterred anyone from trying to mess with her again. That girl is bad. Speaking of girl-power, Pixie stepped up and rescued some hurt X-Men. Her powers must increase along with her blood-alcohol level, because she was wasted when the invasion began. On the opposite side of the spectrum: Cyclops sat there and cried. I'm not even joking. I don't like the guy, so I rather enjoyed that. In all seriousness, though, the entire fight was quite enjoyable.

Another thing I enjoy is Greg Land's art. Lots of reviewers don't like it, but I respectfully disagree. Some say his art is under detailed, but every Wolverine image has tons of body hair, every woman has flowing hair, and every fight is easy to follow. In fact, a few of his panels in the fight are downright awesome. Some also say Land doesn't convey emotion effectively. A few times characters are caught with smiles on their faces at the wrong time, but usually Wolverine shows pain, Emma shows anger, and Cyclops shows panic (that's three Cyclops disses already). One thing I can criticize Land on is his obvious interest in drawing erotica one day. Emma is in bondage for a third of the issue. That's not necessarily a bad thing though.

The last issue introduced a lot of potential plot threads for the future of the series. Obviously, this one had to focus on the battle with the Sisterhood so they couldn't be explored. While I was mostly disappointed, I will still pick up the next issue because I want to see where those potential plot threads might lead.