Pull List Review: Uncanny X-Men #13

I feel for Kieron Gillen in the midst of all this AvX nonsense, I really do. Not really that long after the reboot of Uncanny X-Men where Gillen established Cylops' "Extinction Team"---why aren't they the X-Tinction Team"?---as the main focus of the book, this major event stormed in and usurped the bulk of his cast. Left with only Storm, Magneto, Psylocke, and Danger to play with, plus the now-titleless Generation Hope kids, Gillen tries his damnedest to give us something interesting, but unfortunately his efforts fall short.

The Magneto-Psylocke-Storm conversation is tremendously dull, and honestly the details of it have already escaped my memory. Mostly they futilely wish that they could be part of the events of Avengers vs. X-Men #5, but never get there, leaving the reader with a flat, unfulfilled feeling. Why, exactly, did we need to see this dialogue? What has it shown us, taught us, or accomplished in terms of story? Even truer in the case of the Gen. Hope-Unit-Danger half of the issue, which, while arguably interesting at first, devolves into violence and then completely undoes itself at the end. Start to finish, Uncanny X-Men #13 felt disposable, and its conclusion would be utterly confusing if you weren't following the main event title.

Those moments of violence are the strongest examples of Billy Tan's artwork in this issue. He handles the disconnect between Danger's feelings and actions delicately, and it gives her attack the necessary weight. Beyond that, the art does little to dazzle, but I think that falls mostly on the lack of anything really going on, more than any shortcomings on Tan's part. His characters emote and interact naturally, and when drawing Unit's description of a Phoenix event from ages past he has some fun character designs. But they only get a handful of panels before being brushed aside for good, and nothing else in the issue has the same visual appeal.

I sympathize with creators who have to come up with tie-in stories for events that weren't their idea, but that sympathy didn't make Uncanny X-Men #13 any better a read.
3.0/10