Editor's Note: Young X-Men #5 arrives in stores tomorrow, August 20.

Plot: The future comes to pass.

Comments: There are usually two narratological problems created by a character that can see into the future:

• You have to generate mystery even when the audience knows how things will end up.


• You have to get there in a way that makes sense to the story.

Obviously, there is some planning involved; "winging it" won't do. As the writer, you have to be in control of what you're doing - lay groundwork and clues and then build tension, playing off your audience's knowledge of future events, get 'em riled up in anticipation. The audience feels like it is in on a cool secret and thrill to see the pieces fall into place. Think about the first season of Heroes; among other things, we saw that explosion ripping apart New York in the beginning then we had to cling to our seats all season seeing the events tumble like dominoes. Clues, theories, and hints kept us coming back. Season one was a perfect example on how to execute a future shock.

Marc Guggenheim understands this well, and though the future shock set up in Young X-Men doesn't have quite the weight of Heroes, he plays his hand well. Blindfold's vision, and who gets iced, is just a small part of the big playful puzzle Guggenheim has laid out; we still have a lot more questions than answers taunting us. Among those questions are: What the hell are 'Berto and Sam doing running the Hellfire Club, or The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, or whatever they're up to? Who is this Graymalkin character and is he crazy or is he talking to someone we can't see? Is Cipher alive? Is this even the prime Marvel universe? How do I get tattoos like Ink has? And finally why doesn't Donald Pierce get himself a cool super villain name instead of what's on his subscription to Popular Mechanics?

Young X-Men #5 delivers on the set-up that's been building since issue #1, not only with revealing who is killed but with a knock down-drag out fight between the Young X-Men and Sunspot and Cannonball. Eventually, they all make nice when they find out Pierce has been screwing with them and set out to rescue Dani Moonstar and Blindfold, which leads to the death of a Young X-Men. We've seen how this was going to end up and the way the story got there made sense. The fact that Guggenheim and company also happened to make the story interesting and action packed while developing second string characters is just gravy. Shades of distinction are creeping in to each of the Young X-Men; it will be interesting to see this group gel as a team, especially with New Mutants added to the mix.

The new characters are still the most interesting in the line-up. Ink is, by far, the coolest - you find yourself wondering about the limits of his abilities, or even just the parameters. Graymalkin is intriguing for his sheer weirdness and the fact he talks to invisible characters. The rest of the Young X-Men are coming along (well, all but one of them as of this issue) but still need a boost to really rope you in. There has to be more than Santo's false bravado and self consciously lame jokes to keep us interested. I'm taking it on faith that Guggenheim is doing the slow build.

The art is solid. Yanick Paquette's pencils have a coherent detail that makes the world believable even with a comic-booky aesthetic. Also, the action scenes deliver a good punch and have a sense of fun to them. The colors still don't pop for me, but that is personal taste and can't be held against Rob Schwager. For his part he does enhance the action with bright shocking colors filling the background. Donald Pierce looks a lot more menacing with a blood red background (and his face peeled off).

Final Word: Clues, theories, and hints… The death of a Young X-Man is just a primer for what's to come. In fact, the last page of the book is a tease of what's to come in future issues, including some friends of Ink, Spiderman and Magik. I think this book gets better with each outing. And not just because it is delivering on the set-ups but because, when you stop and look back, you realize that you're a lot deeper inside the maze Guggenheim has built than you originally thought.

For a website with more questions than answers: "Who is Crazy Mary?"

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