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A review by crookedtreehouse
X-Men: Battle of the Atom by Brian Michael Bendis
4.0
Usually, when I give a four or five star review to a book that's part of a multi-decade spanning franchise, it's because the book stands on its own, or is a great starting point, or ending point for a series. That is not the case here.
This is very much the end of the first act of the Original X-Men Hanging Out In The Current Timeline saga that began in All New X-Men. It has a ton of characters (some we've never seen before), a lot of time travel shaningans, a bit too much repetitive dialog, and one of the lamest psychic battles in the history of X-Men comics, but overall I liked it. It's an X-fan's book. It has some great character moments, top notch art, and instead of providing the resolution readers were expecting it throws in the idea that the resolution can't happen, and it doesn't even tell us why.
But I really liked it.
For a crossover, I felt it was directed really well. At no point did I feel one issue was too heavy with one plotline, while ignoring other points. It felt like one cohesive X-story containing three titles' worth of characters. Given how awful Avengers vs. X-Men was (which also featured co-writing between Bendis and Aaron...but that one also included Hickman, Brubaker, Remender, and possibly a Chris Claremont fanfic writer), I expected this to be much more scattered.
I don't recommend this for anyone who isn't either very immersed in X-Men lore, or who hasn't read All New X-Men. But if you fall into at least one of those categories, you might very well enjoy this madness. I recommend it for fans of X-Men time travel, people who like X-Men mashup characters from the future, and anyone enjoying Bendis's All New X-Men run.
This is very much the end of the first act of the Original X-Men Hanging Out In The Current Timeline saga that began in All New X-Men. It has a ton of characters (some we've never seen before), a lot of time travel shaningans, a bit too much repetitive dialog, and one of the lamest psychic battles in the history of X-Men comics, but overall I liked it. It's an X-fan's book. It has some great character moments, top notch art, and instead of providing the resolution readers were expecting it throws in the idea that the resolution can't happen, and it doesn't even tell us why.
But I really liked it.
For a crossover, I felt it was directed really well. At no point did I feel one issue was too heavy with one plotline, while ignoring other points. It felt like one cohesive X-story containing three titles' worth of characters. Given how awful Avengers vs. X-Men was (which also featured co-writing between Bendis and Aaron...but that one also included Hickman, Brubaker, Remender, and possibly a Chris Claremont fanfic writer), I expected this to be much more scattered.
I don't recommend this for anyone who isn't either very immersed in X-Men lore, or who hasn't read All New X-Men. But if you fall into at least one of those categories, you might very well enjoy this madness. I recommend it for fans of X-Men time travel, people who like X-Men mashup characters from the future, and anyone enjoying Bendis's All New X-Men run.