Good bye, Troublemakers. And some may curse me, because some of theses stories have been between decent and good. But for the most part, it lost my real attention span somewhere in that dark middle. I think that I ended up really feeling more for many of the sideline characters - or minor appearances - than ANY of the characters in the major thrust of the story. Even when Christine had the teenage stress... That ended up conveniently going away an issue or two later by revealing that it could never really happen anyway. So much of this issue goes through the grander story - getting back to the set-up - and following a massive narrative - attempting to clean-up multitudes of stories that were planned for upcoming tens of issues. Don't worry so much. Let us stew over some of them. Especially when the story is introducing so much to get to the final conclusion. And killing characters, too. OFF panel? Bleah. Instead. fast forward to the last four pages - and give us more time there. Then, I might have some connection.
Scream
This comic story started out mediocre last issue, but I really took a shine to it in this comic. The writing got stronger, and outside of a tragic misuse of the new members Havok and Polaris (Still bitter? YES!) the comic was pretty darned good. I liked the tragic ending - even as strangely unbelievable as him jumping off the edge might have been. I liked that the character saw his own tragic flaw, and instead of being overcome, he chose to end his own life - instead of continuing the farce. Some terrifyingly progressive choices in layout by Neal Adams. Particularly the panels of flashback done within the double page layout of his outstretched arms. I liked the cover, too - even though initially I didn't. The tiny placement of the X-Men below the wings - beauty.