Uncanny X-Men #8 - Marvel Comics

UNCANNY X-MEN No. 8, March 2025

Outrageously announcing this particular twenty-page periodical as being “an all-out action issue” of “Uncanny X-Men” in its solicitation synopsis, Gail Simone’s actual narrative for “Finale” must have resultantly fallen very flat with its readers due to the comic essentially consisting of numerous word-heavy, conversational pieces and nose-to-nose discussions. Indeed, apart from Doctor Corina Ellis shamefully slapping her minion Scurvy squarely across the chops during the book’s opening, a proper physical blow in anger isn’t thrown amongst any of this publication’s numerous combatants until Professor Xavier’s mental image finally wallops Phillip’s psychological projection straight up into the stratosphere towards the end.

Up until this point, the vast majority of the sedentary storytelling is heavily reliant upon the considerable cast of characters disagreeably bickering with one another, and then supposedly ridding themselves of some malignant influence which has caused them all to be irrationally ireful. Just how the mutants manage to do this isn’t really explained, except through Rogue’s insinuation that the founder of the X-Men is somehow keeping ‘skinny boy’ too distracted to keep up this emotional assault upon her fellow team-mates.

Perhaps even more infuriating though, has to be this four-part storyline’s ending, which rather than show the likes of Cyclops, Jubilee, Wolverine and Gambit absolutely batter the over-confident military might of Graymalkin Prison, simply has the super-heroes impotently walk out of the correctional facility and leave their fellow incarcerated mutants behind. Such a conclusion is arguably far from satisfactory, and genuinely raises some important questions as to just how formidable these two teams supposedly top-tier rosters are when both completely fail to achieve so important a goal; “To Hell with your promises! You’re leaving him to rot. And worse!”

Possibly just as confused by so much talk and so little dynamism is Javier Garron, who undoubtedly does his best to provide this comic’s layouts with some semblance of pace. However, even the most proficient of pencillers can only repeatedly sketch Magik, Juggernaut, Nightcrawler and the Outliers inexplicably floating about in thin air for so long, before eventually resorting to a carousel of largely lack-lustre side-on shots of the two squads just waxing lyrical to one another about how they’d each do things entirely differently.

The regular cover art to "UNCANNY X-MEN" #8 by David Marquez & Matthew Wilson

Uncanny X-Men #7 - Marvel Comics

UNCANNY X-MEN No. 7, February 2025

Despite the first instalment to this comic’s “Raid On Graymalkin” storyline actually featuring in another “Marvel Worldwide” title entirely, Issue Seven of “Uncanny X-Men” still packs a surprising amount of punch. Admittedly, much of the twenty-page periodical’s opening third is understandably focused upon bringing anyone omitting to purchase Jed Mackay’s book bang up to speed with the mini-event’s overall plot. But the tense atmosphere between Rogue and Cyclops is so palpably penned by Gail Simone, that there is still plenty of entertainment to be found from the two former team-mates arguing over the phone.

Of course, the biggest hook to this publication occurs once Anna Marie LeBeau and Scott Summers have decided to attack Professor Xavier’s former home independently of one another, and some of the two squads' biggest hitters plough into the prison with an unbridled passion. These subsequent action sequences are absolutely chock full of pulse-pounding pugilism, such as when Rogue takes out the Blob within an instant of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutant-turned-Trustee making a startling appearance, or a brutally battered Beast finding the physical strength to renew the fight with his overconfident jailers, and should resultantly take any long-term fans back to the glory days of Chris Claremont, when his co-creations took few prisoners and arguably asked even fewer questions.

Another intriguing aspect to the American author’s script though is undoubtedly the short-lived tussle between Rogue and Cyclop’s ‘opposing’ squads. Misunderstandings between some of the New York City-based publisher’s top tier super-teams and the X-Men were always occurring during the Bronze Age of Comics. Yet it’s rare (and thoroughly enthralling) to see the veteran comrades-in-arms slugging it out amongst themselves, even if the kerfuffle is sadly rather short-lived; “This ain’t done, Scott. We both know it. You laid hands on mine.”

Disappointingly, what does probably let this comic down is the decision to intermittently utilise the artistic skills of both David Marquez and Edgar Salazar in the same book, as the two proficient pencillers arguably have disconcertingly different drawing styles. These differences debatably jar the reader from out of the adventure whenever a swap occurs, with Fred Dukes’ tubby alter-ego most notably suffering one of the more overt changes in appearance.

The regular cover art to "UNCANNY X-MEN" #7 by David Marquez & Matthew Wilson