Editor's Note: X-Men: Manifest Destiny #5 arrives in stores tomorrow, January 7.

At the very least, I have to applaud Marvel's dedication to the anthology book when, historically speaking, anthology books don't sell very well. It also must be nice, for those who are entrenched in all the X-books, to have a title that focuses on the sideline characters who might not get the screen time that others do in the main books. My problem with this book (and those like it) is that more often than not the stories come across as filler, trite stories where nothing much really happens.

"Kill or Cure" (Part 5)
Written by Mike Carey
Art by Michael Ryan, Victor Olazaba, and Chris Sotomayor (colors)

The finale of the main story of this series ends with a whimper. Iceman is fine. Mystique is on the run. It's basically the status quo. The art is nice enough and Iceman's lengthy speech isn't nearly as tedious as it would have been in the hands of a lesser writer, but overall this is the end of a story that doesn't seem entirely necessary, or at the very least could have been worked into a main book somehow.


"Nick's"
Written by Frank Tieri
Art by Ben Oliver and Frank D’Armata (colors)

Avalanche runs a bar in San Francisco.

It takes eight pages to make that single point, something that could have been done in one or two panels in a regular X-book. On the flipside, this is the best art I've seen from Ben Oliver, much fuller than anything I've seen from him before. I hope the new style sticks.


"Dazzler: Solo"
Written by Kieron Gillen
Art by Sara Pichelli and Christina Strain (colors)

Dazzler takes a job as house singer in San Francisco.

Unlike the Avalanche story, this one (the point of which, again, could have been told in one or two panels in a main title) features the highs and lows of an eight page story. The low is the rather ham fisted fight scene which actually screams "this is the point in the script that calls for a conflict." The high is the resolution, which features something I honestly never considered before: Dazzler can sing. I'd always thought of her as any other pop star, all style and no substance. It was a nice moment.


Anthologies are a mixed bag, and with so many X-titles already being published, it would probably be smarter to take the quality elements of these various stories and add them to the main books, rather than publish these watered down comics.

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