Editor's Note: Uncanny X-Men #513 arrives in stores tomorrow, July 1.

"Utopia, Part 2"

Plot: Consummate spin doctor Norman Osborn takes on San Francisco's so-recently welcomed mutants, employing his Cabal colleague Emma Frost to ensure a successful campaign.

Comments: This is a return to things we've seen before (mutant oppression intensifying since M-Day), yet it's not quite the same. Osborn isn't making Tony Stark's mistake by trying to do what's "right." He just wants to be in control, and he'll do anything to stay in charge. He needs Marvel's heroes and villains to be under his thumb. Regardless of what HAMMER stands for, its symbolism is clear.

Emma certainly looks great in black (and there's no nostalgic tomfoolery about White Queen, Black King, or any of that Hellfire Club nonsense). This is public relations, not internecine hijinks, and Emma just looks a better Dark Avengers collaborator in black leather. Make no mistake, though, Osborn's aims are fascist in nature, as one angry mutant underlines by calling this Avengers/X-Men alliance all "brownshirts."

In hiding, Scott and most of his students (Emma and an ersatz group of conscripted mutants have taken over their complex, and Beast and Professor X have been captured) ask the questions the readers are having: Is Emma really a turncoat? Scott seems to think she's playing a complex game, and adding Namor to her "team" (even she can't take them quite seriously when handing out her orders) definitely complicates matters.

We know from the recent Annual that she and Namor have a long history and an alliance within the Cabal that goes deeper than Norman or the others suspect. And really, if it were anybody other than Emma, we wouldn't doubt that she's just putting on an act to keep her operatives in play until tables can be turned. The writers are teasing a return to villainy because of her history, but a lot of work has been done to accomplish her transformation to the white hats' side, and I don't think she can really be turned back now. My rating actually hinges on how that turns out.

In the meantime, laden with the upcoming summer crossover, Fraction jumps into the deep end, fully committing to exploring what it means when the Initiative mutates into a fascist police force under control of a tyrant smart enough to pretend to use diplomacy to get his way. We've already had several character-defining moments for Marvel's major and minor players in this topsy-turvy world; if anybody can make a case for the mutants in this new regime, it's Fraction (as his clever character blurbs, used to introduce most of the numerous players with a humorous slant, hint).

Emma's new "team" is an intriguing array of misfits, and Scott's resistance is surely something she's been counting on as well. She's far too compliant to Osborn's demands to believe. I can't believe it's just a case of her becoming an automaton, as has happened to other characters in previous events. Unlike the Civil War, however, Fraction makes it clear that the mutants can't sit this one out.

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