SF X-Men Makes Me Happy.

So, as anyone who has said "comic books" or "X-Men" or potentially "San Francisco" to me has found out, I am really happy with the main x-books right now.

For starters, Matt Fraction on Uncanny is brilliant! His work on The Order had me rolling on the floor with laughter "I'm fightin' a bear, y'all!" Is still one of my favorite close ups in comic book history. And now he ads his comic hilarity with human drama to the oldest X-title.

What does this give us? He's actually tackling character relations between Cyc, Beast and Angel since Bobby's MIA in Manifest Destiny limbo. Wait, a writer that's pointing out the fact that these people have a history together since the 60s? What a novel approach.

Then we also get a nice smattering of mutant media celebrity. The mutant kitsch exhibit at the MOMA was such a great touch and gave a sense of reality to the mutant world. Makes me wish Stan Lee had been into pop art so we could have seen more uses of Andy Warhol when the crew hung out at Coffee-A-Go-Go. Alas, hindsight is 20/20.

We're also seeing something happen with M-Day. Looks like they might actually be close to maybe finding a lead to a cure.

BIG SPOILER:

A quibble yet fangasm: Magneto goes to the High Evolutionary, they splice and examine Celestial DNA (the one in Golden Gate, I presume), and now he's got his powers back. Great job, Hank. Way to totally overlook that idea. I coulda told you that one.
Best part about the cliffhanger: we still have no idea what Magneto's powers ARE! HE HAS CELESTIAL INFUSED DNA GIVEN BY THE HIGH EVOLUTIONARY! He's got, like, the powers of the Beyonder's toenail! He's like Onslaught! Or at least an Eternal.

SPOILER OVER.

And my favorite part about this run, Colossus taking on the Russian mafia in the Richmond. Nuff Said.

Meanwhile, over at X-Men Legacy, we're getting an arc focusing on Rogue. Gambit and Xavier hunt for her in Australia while she is trying to quiet Mystiques voice inside her head. Really great story from her perspective and something I always wanted to see more of. Sadly, there's this whole deal with a Shi'ar smuggler/pirate and his crew and Danger who I have been waiting to pay off for some time, yet always just kinda sits there. It feels to much like a set of action scenes to sell a book than a device to move the plot along. We shall see.

Once again, for those not reading X-Men Legacy (and you should), it's basically Mike Carey going through the muddled history of X-Men continuity and trying to streamline it and have it make sense while dealing with the effect of Xavier's very existence. This has been my favorite book because it covers every era of X-Men history in every issue. It makes the universe gel, and gives it that tack sharp Mike Carey focus.

Lastly: Ellis. Parallel dimensions. Artificial X-Genes. Steam Punk X-Men. Tien Ming. Nuff Said.