Editor's Note: Uncanny X-Men #507 arrives in stores tomorrow, March 18.

Paul Brian McCoy:

Geoff Collins:

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Paul Brian McCoy:

This issue brings three separate storylines to their conclusions and gets the playing field ready for the next big threats Fraction has been preparing. Emma and Peter kick some Russian Mob ass, Emma also gets some closure with an old "ally," and (in my personal favorite storyline) Hank finally gets the X-Club together.

Honestly, Peter's story hasn't really held my attention much over the past few issues, and the wrap-up is a bit anti-climactic, as he and Emma essentially just, as Pete puts it, "[h]it them all until they stop hitting back." I guess the threat of the tattooed fellow was more psychological than physical, and we see Pete come to terms with what's really been bugging him.

It's a nice little denouement as he finally gets his own tattoo, once he learns to control how he deals with his pain. Nice, but, for me, kind of uninspiring.

The same can be said for Emma's final confrontation with a caged and power-dampened Sebastian Shaw, who was captured in the recent Annual. It's an interesting moment between the two characters, and Emma gets to put the screws to him in a very unpleasant way, but, as with Peter's story, it didn't really do much for me.

I just don't have the emotional connection with these characters I had years ago, so I can appreciate what's going on intellectually, but that's about it. Your mileage may vary.

My favorite part of this title for the past few months, that I've been emotionally and intellectually engaged with, has been the gathering of fringe mutant scientists that Hank has dubbed, after a similar gathering of minds (Darwin's dinner club), The X-Club. The characters are fresh and interesting, and I'm really enjoying the way they interact (I'm particularly fond of the condescending snark of Dr. Nemesis, who also has the most kick-ass uniform). I was looking forward to seeing how they react as a team when confronted with the giant lizard at the end of last issue.

Well, it is also a bit anti-climactic, as they don't really do much of anything. Angel's secret, however, is out. You know, the secret that was established over in X-Force or whatever the title is where characters go around killing people and the comics get "bloody variant covers." Anyway, now Hank knows that Warren's been hiding his light under a bushel, if you will.

The issue closes with the revelation of Scott's goals and the return of a classic villain who, by the looks of things, is back with a vengeance. Or is that for vengeance? Regardless, he's back, and while he's not on the cover of the next issue - or even associated with the next big X-threat - I expect some very exciting things on the horizon.

While the stories themselves didn't actually impress me much, the structure and storytelling is actually pretty well-handled. Fraction seamlessly weaves The X-Club's and Pete and Emma's stories together with mirrored dialogue and action that demonstrates just how comfortable he's getting telling these big, multi-threaded stories. I know this isn't the first time Fraction's told complexly structured stories, but this is probably the biggest cast of characters he's worked with, and he's doing a very good job at keeping it all moving.

I also like the fact that we don't get chapter numbers with this story; it's just an ongoing narrative, and as threads wind down, others are beginning to ramp up. Fraction's pacing is deliberate and controlled. It's good work.

The Dodson's art is full of clean lines and big action. There's a very effective visual trick used to keep the two main storylines visually distinct as we jump back and forth between them: Pete and Emma's story is told in wide panels that run from edge to edge across the page, while the X-Club story is kept within the borders of the pages. It's a subtle, but dynamic, visual element that I really enjoyed. Once the two stories wrap, though, they move back to more varied page layouts.

All in all, this is another solid issue of Uncanny X-Men and Fraction is becoming more and more accomplished at spinning multiple plates while consistently upping the dramatic impact of stories. Technically, this is the most engaging and well-written this title has been in a long time (not to disparage Brubaker, but I never really got into his run - the one dud in my Brubaker reading), and while I'm not as emotionally connected to this title as I once was, many, many moons ago, Fraction does keep me coming back for more.

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Geoff Collins

Fraction, the Dodsons, and Ponsor beautifully orchestrate the opening fight scenes in this book. Hank McCoy and Warren Worthington with their new scientist buddies battle a leviathan while Emma Frost and Piotr Rasputin rough up Russian mobsters.

The scenes are spliced together with the actions from one coinciding with actions from the other. For instance, Angel flies through the air, slicing the leviathan in the face as he glances by him while in the next panel Rasputin without his metal skin is cut by a bullet glancing off his face.

One thing interesting about the scenes is the use of color. The scientists defending themselves from an attacker are in a setting filled with blue, which is used to symbolize unity, trust, and even technology. Rasputin and Frost are the attackers in their scene as they punish the mobsters for what they did. Their scene is colored with red, which symbolizes anger, passion, and war. These color themes are carried on throughout the rest of the issue.

These scenes take up over half this issue. Most of the latter part of the issue deals with what happened in these scenes.

During his fight Rasputin stops using his metal skin. It causes him to be cut up and even blinded when a bottle is smashed in his face. He even makes the somewhat odd statement to the leader of the group they're attacking, "Look! Look at me. Look at me! I felt that. You see? I felt pain. I let myself feel it."

My first thought was that the reason for him getting cut up is that Fraction is trying to show the pain Rasputin feels inside, after Kitty Pryde was shot into space in a planet size bullet at the conclusion of Joss Whedon's run on Astonishing X-Men, by showing him in pain on the outside as well. But we learn that there's more to it than that in the next scene when he's getting a tattoo on his chest. This is the second time he's gone to get one in tribute to Pryde, but the first time he wasn't ready to take the pain. This time he is ready, and says so. By dropping his metal skin during the fight, he was allowing himself to face pain. Emotionally he had been keeping up a metal skin but has now dropped it to face the sorrow of losing his love. The tattoo scene is passionate, colored in red, continuing the issue's symbolic use of that color.

Meanwhile, Worthington is in pain himself after he busted out the Arch Angel gear in front of McCoy for the first time during their fight with the leviathan. Unlike Rasputin, Warren is not willing to truly face it yet as he flies away from Hank when Hank tries to talk about it with him. Blue continues to be used in the scene where he leaves behind Hank; in this case I believe it's used to highlight Worthington's sadness.

McCoy has more going on. He has brought his "X-Group" into this compound to research what caused M-Day. This is where the symbolism of unity and technology is carried beyond just the fight scene. But a depowered mutant not on the side of the X-Men is shown regaining his power.

Scott Summers appears in one scene in this issue, and he appears to be dealing with pain of another sort: anger. Scott here is much like Rasputin in the opening fight scene, except we don't see him move on to another stage of mourning. His scene presents him with the mayor of San Francisco. She says to him, "Scott, it looks like you're building a militia. People are getting scared," to which he replies, "…Not a militia. An army." With one line of dialogue, Fraction is able to escalate Summers' post-Decimation militant personality to the next level. By the end of the issue the X-Men are looking more and more like an extremist group that's isolating itself in a compound.

Fraction is a genius writer backed by a great art team. Pick this one up.

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