Uncanny X-Men #4

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Penciler/Colorist: Chris Bachalo
Inkers: Tim Townsend, Jaime Mendoza, Al Vey & Victor Olazaba
Lettering: Joe Caramagna
Publisher: Marvel Comics (Dan Buckley)
Price: $3.99
Release Date: April 10th, 2013

This fourth issue of Uncanny X-Men ties directly into All-New X-Men #10. It opens with Scott and his team on the doorstep of the Jean Grey school trying to recruit members. Only in this book we get the events through the eyes of Scott's team. I liked the interaction between the girls (Celeste, Mindee and Phoebe) and Emma Frost. It is hard to realize how much they are individuals when they are normally functioning as one. I think this helped build more with them and who how much they were actually hurt when Emma "abandoned" them.

I am liking how Bendis is slowly giving us more of the four new mutants that Scott has already picked up. We have Benjamin Deeds (chameleon like abilities), Fabio Medina (shoots gold balls out of his body), Eva Bell (code name Tempus, can create time bubbles) and Christopher Muse (code name Triage, he is a healer). These four are still incredibly new to the world of being mutants and it is fun to watch. There is a nice moment where they stumble into the Danger Room and have no idea what is going on and show their incredibly limited control over their powers. I think it is going to be fun to watch them grow as characters.

There are two other main aspects to this issue that were nicely done. Firstly, we are starting to see what the interaction with the Phoenix Force did to Magik. She is handling it about as well as can be expected from someone like her. Secondly, we see which member of the original X-Men joined Scott. I won't spoil it here but it isn't too surprising all things considering.

I am really liking what Bendis is doing with the X-Men. His two X-books are flowing together so well that it is hard to ever argue that he wasn't the right choice for bringing the X-Men into the Marvel NOW universe. I will say that if you aren't reading one of the two books you should probably start grabbing the one you aren't. I am not sure how much more that they are going to overlap but it has been really enjoyable to see things unfold from both perspectives.