Writer Brian Michael Bendis

Art Kris Anka

Colors Rain Beredo

Lettering & Production VC’s Joe Caramagna & Chris Eliopoulos

This would be in my top five favorite issues of the year.  I love these character issues.  The premise is simple, Ladies Night Out.

Issue opens with Magik meditating in front of Dr. Strange.  This is part of her training.  Turns out, she isn’t being trained by present day Dr. Strange, but with a version of him from the past.  How does that work, I wonder?  How do they make appointments for their next session?  Meet back here next Tuesday, and then for her, it could just be the next five minutes for her.  Which could be pretty awesome, she could get a lifetime of training and only have to be gone for an hour in the present day, or seconds.

Their session is up, and Wong asks if she can reveal if he is alive in the future.  He doesn’t care if Strange is alive, just him.  A nice opening to an issue.  We get that the three of them are getting close and like Illyana, I have no idea what Strange is up to these days.  I know he is in New Avengers, but that’s it.

Back in her room, the Cuckoos and Tempus approach Magik.  Eva finally notices that she doesn’t have any clothes.  Then the Cuckoos noticed the same thing, they want to go to shopping.  It is a great two page spread.

I find it funny that either Celeste or Phoebe mention the eating situation.  They are using an operating theater as a kitchen table.  I really enjoy the implications of this.  The team haven’t taken any time to make the former Weapon Plus base into a home.  It literally is just a place to sleep and plan their next moves.

Jean Grey comes by and Eva invites her into the room.  Celeste rolls her eyes so hard.  Jean makes a joke to how she has been wearing the same thing since 1963.  Which is the year she debuted, so it is a clever reference.

Magik wants to just go get the supplies that they want, but the gals want to actually go shopping.  It isn’t just an excuse to look at clothes, it gets them away from the base, they get to spend time together.  They can be normal people.  Irma mentions books, Jean asks if they have books, and Eva wants to buy books too.  They really need to turn that base into a school or boarding house.

They came to Illyana instead of Emma first, as Illyana is the nice lady professor.  Illyana is taken by surprised that she could be the nice one, and the students are surprised as well.  They don’t know her, and they do know Emma.

We cut to Emma, sleeping on her knees with her butt in the air.  Who sleeps like that?  I can’t imagine she slept like that next to Scott.  Seems like a bad sight gag.

They wake her up, and she likes the idea of shopping.

She has a giant duffle bag full of cash.  Maybe she did rob that casino from the previous issue.  Though she did have her own money prior to joining the X-Men.  She references her Hellfire Club days, so she has money from that as well.

Emma shouts at (and calls her) Pryde.  We see that Cyclops and her were talking.  I wished we got a page of what those two were speaking about.  I love the idea of him leading Uncanny and her All New and that it makes sense that they have meetings together.  Also, he should add her to his inner circle.  Also, I want to see Young Scott talk to Emma, I am not sure we have had that yet, and I now they haven’t spoken to each other in great length.

Kitty doesn’t want to go shopping.  Emma mentions that Kitty has been wearing the same outfit since 1980, which is the year she debuted.  Jean wants to go, as she has to hang out with boys all the time.  Kitty is in after that.

They ended up going shopping in London.  I like the outfit Kitty is wearing, her color scheme is still present.  Yellow dress, black belt and dark blue jacket.

Jean, also a nice touch, is wearing a yellow shirt with green collar with a green dress with a Phoenix necklace.  Jean always looks good in yellow and green.  I even like the touch of Celeste and Phoebe wearing the same outfit, and Irma is wearing it as well, but she added a jacket.  She is really trying to stand on her own.   Illyana is still wearing those sticks in her hair but now they look fashionable, they are smaller.

Jean finally confronts Celeste about what her problem is.  Jean isn’t even the Jean of legend, she is the teenage version so why not treat her as a new entity instead of the legend that hurt Emma and is known to be all powerful.  It gets heated fast.

Kitty wonders if they should step in and Illyana wants them to work it out on their own.

Then we hear sirens and the ladies go outside to investigate.

This is when the Inhumanity story comes in and tries to get us interested in that smaller event.  Which I have no interest in, the X-Men are clearly not taking part in it, just like Infinity, so I’m skipping this one as well.  What is it about, for those skipping out and also for those who may not know.  At the end of Infinity, Black Bold – the king of the Inhumans, set off a bomb made of their Terrigen Mist (the material that activates their Inhuman power) and now everyone who has a latent Inhuman gene, is now being transformed into an Inhuman.  Hence, why the event is called Inhumanity, it is a very clever title.  The way these new Inhumans are being tranformed, they have a cocoon wrapped around them and then once the process is over, they hatch out with powers.

There is a giant crowd, so the X-Men can’t see what the problem is.  Emma tells the Cuckoos to gently disperse the crowd.  Jean offers to try it as she hasn’t done anything like that yet.  Kitty orders everyone to stand back.  Magik says, except for me.  Kitty says, of course.  I love that they have only been back together and they are already back to knowing how to approach a situation together.  They have complete trust in each other and they know what the other is fully capable of.

They approach the cocoon.  Jean has figured out what has happened by obtaining the information from someone in the crowd.

The cocoon hatches and you wouldn’t believe who we find.  Geldhoff, the first original Ultimate character of note.  He was a complete idiot in that universe.  His proper version doesn’t seem to be much different.  Also from Latveria, and also has that thick accent.  Also, he is an idiot.  In the Ultimate universe, his story, also by Bendis, took place in Ultimate Spider-Man and was the way Spider-Man get the X-Men, including Ultimate Kitty Pryde.  Such a great story, one of these days we will get around to reviewing it.

So Emma asks him questions, and one of the Cuckoos end up answering it.  This freaks Geldhoff out.  He hasn’t noticed that he has been transformed.  They tell him that he has changed.  He, just like his Ultimate version, doesn’t want to be a mutant.  This version finds them disgusted, whereas his Ultimate version just didn’t like the idea of being a product of an experiment.  Also, Ultimate was a teenager and this guy seems to be at least into his late twenties.

I have been meaning to mention this, that Anka has been killing it on art this entire issue.  Bendis dialogue is A+ as always.

They try to calm him down and he uses his power for the first time.  Kitty was phased, as she is a genius, but the rest of the team is knocked out.  She does eventually fall, but she was the last.  This haunts Geldhoff.

The New Madame Hydra, Doctor Rappaccini (who knows what happened to Viper?) and maybe she isn’t the new Madame Hydra, she just happens to be wearing a green dress but her necklace looks like a Hydra-inspired outfit, but I can’t make out the symbol on it.  Either way, she is working with A.I.M. and they still are wearing those bee keeper outfits that I wished got translated into the Captain America film.  Turns out, and I am sure the Inhumanity miniseries and the actual key issues get into this, that AIM is gathering as many of these new Inhuman cocoons as they can obtain.

Dr. Rappaccini, once asked what they should do with the X-Men, is quote a very smart man told her once.  The best way to defeat the mutants is to leave them be.  Let them do it themsevles.  Which is so very true.  Anyone who want to defeat the X-Men should know this, they will always win when the odds are largely against them,   So plan on the X-Men winning and have that work out for you, and beat them after that.

The ladies wake up.  The Cuckoos make the police turn away so that they can gather themselves.  Irma mentions that with the newly created Inhumans, maybe this will take some heat off of mutants.  Kitty asks how people will know the difference.  Emma is pretty sure their world just got more complicated.

I know there are some theories out there that people are thinking that Marvel is doing this so that they can push the mutants (who film rights belong with FOX) into a smaller corner and have the Inhumans become the new mutants.  It is an interesting theory but until Marvel cuts the X-Franchise down to maybe four or five series, I don’t believe it.  Looking at the December checklist, they have 16 issues coming out so clearly they are as popular as ever.  Plus, I am sure Disney doesn’t care if FOX puts up the money for the X-Men movies if Disney benefits from the comic sales.  Though I am sure they rather have the movie money and the comic money but you get what you can.  Plus, they should just work out a deal where they can phase the movies back into Disney’s hands.

Next issue has Magneto on the cover, who has been missing in a while.  He didn’t get much to do during Battle of the Atom.