Chronological X-Men - X-Men and the Micronauts Review

X-Men and the Micronauts!

X-Men and the Micronauts #1 – First Encounter

X-Men and the Micronauts #2 – Into the Abyss

X-Men and the Micronauts #3 – Mine Eyes Have Seen The Glory!

X-Men and the Micronauts #4 – Doppelganger!

This was a particularly odd miniseries. It wasn’t anywhere nearly as strong of a miniseries as Magik but it didn’t have as slow of a build up as Wolverine did. Clearly this takes place after New Mutants 13 but before 14 because Amara is on the team yet Illyana isn’t and obviously this happens before the events of the next story arch. But what makes this even harder to place in the time line is that Rogue is a member of the team yet she’s nowhere to be seen and isn’t mentioned at all in this miniseries. Dani appears to have left her Psyche codename behind her and is now going by ‘Spellbinder’ – of course this is just a pit stop before Dani switches to her better known codename. I can’t comment too much on anything having to deal with the Micronauts because I never followed any of their exploits so I don’t know if anything was out of character or if it just doesn’t fit at all. One thing I didn’t really understand was how Kitty phasing through Karza would have caused the two of them to switch bodies. The thing I really did enjoy was the whole ‘Dark Xavier’ thing- it is an interesting concept that they should have touched on but at the same time it is a bit odd. Charles has a psychic bond with Lilandra, couldn’t she have sensed the shift in him? It’s understandable that Dani couldn’t sense the change because her powers aren’t anywhere nearly as fully developed and there really aren’t that many other telepaths around that are on the X-Men’s side. It might have been interesting to see The Inner Circle try to use this to their advantage but Mastermind is still in jail and after attacking Emma and putting her into a coma he’s not in good enough standing to try to manipulate Charles – and Emma is in a coma so she can’t do it. It just seemed like a missed opportunity. Another missed opportunity I think was not focusing more on Kitty trapped in Karza’s body while she’s trying to remain hidden and has to see the how Karza and his army rule and sees the inner workings of the Body Banks. It would have been nice to see a little more focus on the fact that it is very similar to the concentration camps the Nazi army had and drawing on what it would feel for Kitty to see something similar to that and deal with how she should react since she is Jewish.

The New Mutants #14 – Do You Believe In – Magik?

So this story sort of acts as an epilogue to the Magik miniseries. Not only does it start with where the miniseries ended – with Illyana standing in the snow watching the New Mutants play, but in the story Illyana is forced to use her stepping discs to bring the New Mutants to her aid when S’ym tries to kill her but in the process they end up in Limbo where they watch S’ym attack and try to kill a younger version of Illyana. There’s a bit of a mistake with this because in the original limited series Amara and Stevie weren’t around for that scene, yet suddenly they’re included now. Obviously in Amara’s case it’s because she didn’t exist within the series yet, but it’s easy to explain away as the two of them simply still being in the car at the moment. A few more odd things are: while there is no announcement with this issue Illyana joins the New Mutants. Also without explanation Charles suddenly can walk without any pain. It seems odd that they would give that story such a build up in the main book but then never explain how or why it got fixed. The issue ends with Doug telling Kitty that he has been accepted at the Massachusetts Academy – which plays into the next issue of The Uncanny X-Men.

The Uncanny X-Men #180 – Whose Life Is It, Anyway?

The issue ends up switching its focus on Ororo trying to come to terms with the changes that have happened to her recently and Kitty trying to figure out how to save Doug from the Inner Circle without letting him know that she’s doing it. I wouldn’t call the scene where Doug asks Kitty to go with him to check out the school as a retelling or even a retcon it could just be a recap, or given everything that was going on the night before – the party, the shock of Doug’s revelation, seeing Charles walk it’s possible that Kitty never gave him an answer and this is just Doug’s way of asking again. It does seem odd that Charles reveals to everyone that Doug is a mutant and that he’s been keeping tabs on him. Charles claims that he never invited Doug to the school because his mutant ability to understand all forms of languages isn’t really as productive or useful compared to some of the other X-Men. Now I find this odd considering Stevie isn’t a mutant, yet she’s involved in the school, up until like three seconds ago no one knew that Illyana was a mutant, sure you could argue that they keep her there because of her aging seven years over the course of a few minutes (she’s fifteen now, which theoretically should make Kitty 16, but Kitty was recently retconned into being 14 – even though she’s had 2 birthdays since joining the team when she was 13 ½) but it doesn’t explain why no one bothered to return her home when she was rescued from Murderworld when Arcade abducted her when she was only 7. The main thing is we kind of resolved the whole Kitty/Ororo fight. I don’t get why Kitty was so upset about the changes in Ororo’s look, but it does make sense considering her friendship was the only stable thing she had since joining the team and her parents divorcing – but it is odd that Kitty assumed that Ororo would automatically become Mom2.0. I like that they resolved the conflict but I wish they would just explain why Ororo changed already. The issue ends with Kitty and Doug being taken by Emma who is on the plane and has apparently woken from her coma and the X-Men vanishing into a mysterious void.

X-Men and the Micronauts #1 – First Encounter: C

X-Men and the Micronauts #2 – Into the Abyss: C

X-Men and the Micronauts #3 – Mine Eyes Have Seen The Glory!: B

X-Men and the Micronauts #4 – Doppelganger!: B

The New Mutants #14 – Do You Believe In – Magik?: A

The Uncanny X-Men #180 – Whose Life Is It, Anyway?: B