“Am I Evil?”
Writer: Joseph Harris
Pencils: Tom Raney
Inks: Scott Hanna
Colors: JC
Letters: Jon Babcock
Assitant Editor: Pete Franco
Editor: Mark Powers
Chief: Joe Quesada
What Its About: All those who are searching out Cyclops and Apocalypse come together as they all find who they are searching for, but who will be the one to help Cyclops and Apocalypse find their way back to themselves?
Thoughts: It seems like all the players have made themselves known to one another with this issue. Even Caliban shows up to play the ever loyal servant and friend, Even as we get ready to go into the last part of this miniseries, I’m still waiting for something to hint at the big X-Men conclusion to this storyline. Cyclops and Apocalypse are alive. This we knew would be the case. Despite what’s going on in the core X-Men titles, big characters like these two you don’t kill. If Cyclops’s sacrifice of himself to save Nate Grey was the end of it all, then I would have been satified. But even reading that happen I knew we hadn’t seen the last of these two characters.
Harris is a great storyteller. Despite this issue being late, I still had the last two issue in my mind and knew exactly where this issue was picking up. Like I said, Harris is a great storyteller, and you have to be one if you can keep a reader interested after a month or so of being late on an issue. Harris is making me very curious about why we have to be taken back to Apocalypse’s birth place in this issue. All will be revleaed in the last issue of this miniseries, but I’m still curious on how things are going to turn out.
Let’s look at one of the biggest highlights of this miniseries – Tom Raney. Raney is one of those artist that needs an ongoing series of his own. His work on Stormwatch was incredible and his work on Mutant X and the core X-Men titles could put him at the top of the list of great X-Men artists. Raney needs to have a chance to show the fans what he can do, and if its placed as part of the rotating artists on Uncanny and X-Men then that will have to do for now. But, I do hope to see him back on a quality ongoing series in the near future.
The Verdict: This miniseries is the final part of a very long storyline of the Twelve, Apocalypse, Cable and the entire Summers family. If you’re a completist you should be checking this series out. If not for the story, then Raney’s art alone would get me to buy this miniseries.
Just About Comics 