AMAZING-X-MEN - General Discussion

{Spoiler warning - click me to read!}The story starts with Northstar in an impact crater, holding a small child, as Wendigos close in. He thinks dying that way is beneath him.

Jump back twenty minutes and the X-Men are in the thick of a fight with the Wendigos. Rockslide is revealed to have been hiding in the bathroom during the two previous issues and joins in. Nightcrawler teleports Wolverine-turned-Wendigo away to avoid fighting him. Storm orders Nightcrawler to rescue a child but Northstar decides he's the better choice to save her. The Avengers are shown trying to hold the U.S./Canadian border from the horde of advancing Wendigos. Dr. Strange is shown to be mystically occupied and unavailable to help.

Northstar makes the same mistake Heather Hudson made in the first issue of inexplicably flying through trees full of Wendigos rather than just take to the skies. He gets trounced by Wendigos but saves the child he was carrying. They both get saved by the arriving Alpha Flight. Wolverine-turned-Wendigo catches back up to the rest of the X-Men, only to get tossed away by a 'fastball special'.

Firestar has to be convinced to use her powers to cauterize Talisman's wounds to keep her from bleeding to death. The Wendigo outbreak is explained by human flesh getting into a meat packing plant. Canada is expected to fall in less than a month, the only thing saving the rest of the planet is the nature of the Wendigo curse, confining it to Canadian soil.

The X-Men are instructed by Talisman to fight the curse at the source, so they set out to a cave in a mountain. As the get closer, Sasquatch can feel the call of the Wendigo start to effect him. The find the gate to the spirit realm torn open and Snowbird senses a power greater than the Wendigo. Part of the two teams provides a distraction while Guardian, Rockslide, Iceman, Firestar, Snowbird and Storm enter the spirit realm...where evil waits.

My take:

The characters all act like themselves for the most part. Nobody is ripping on anyone, everyone is acting like longtime friends and teammates. Firestar is still acting too thrown by everything. She could practically be going "Air?! You expect me to breath air?! And walk on the ground?! Madness, I have never done such a thing!" and it wouldn't be that much of a stretch. Rockslide plays the fool for the issue so Iceman gets to be funny and competent. Is there some prerequisite that somebody has to be acting foolish for comedy relief that I didn't hear about?

Northstar doesn't feel exactly right, K/Y's take on him is close but not quite there. There's also a glaring editorial goof with his sister apparently forgetting she was at his wedding. And having him duplicate Heather's mistake of flying low through the trees while protecting the child instead of staying high enough a Wendigo couldn't reach is frankly insulting the reader's intelligence. Once was bad enough, twice is ludicrous.

Other than Firestar inexplicably acting like everything is new and overwhelming, Northstar ignoring orders and doing something stupid that almost got him and a child killed, and a glaring editorial goof(seriously, if your E.I.C. goes on national TV to hype a landmark issue, someone should remember the main character's sister was in attendance, or at least make sure she wasn't before saying she wasn't. Uggh, what the hell do the editors at Marvel actually do, because is sure isn't edit.), it was an enjoyable read. I'm on the bubble with continuing reading this book. There's good stuff there, but there is crap getting in the way of enjoying it.