It's probably no surprise at this point that Uncanny X-Men is the main comic book that I have been reading as of late. One glance at my posts here on Hive should tell enough of a story! And I guess today won't be much different as I write yet again about the series, now that I've finished volume five (there are more, I'm sorry but you'll have even more of these volume posts to not read coming). With the exception of one volume, I think almost all that I have read so far have been really engaging, telling interesting mini stories on its characters and showcasing various ways to tell us (and those characters) that they're basically old and washed up and probably should find a way to escape the lifestyle they have and live ordinary lives. And while a lot of the character reflections display an interest in doing so, it appears that the troubles just continuously follow them. There simply is no escape from this lifestyle. And this brings volume five's opening to a significantly more engaging turn of events, with Rogue getting completely messed up by the motherless creature we saw in the previous volume. It's a pretty brutal opening that shows some gory panels of Rogue just being treated like absolute shit. From totally mashed-up limbed to getting scalped. It was a powerful and rather uneasy thing to read through, but quickly jumped to another set of characters leaving us hanging wanting to know what's actually going on with her. I really didn't expect that level of brutality to its main characters, but I'm happy to see it.
Perhaps that's a relatively poor choice of words given the context. Not necessarily happy to witness such brutality, but it's great to see a superhero series taking itself to the heights of actually putting its heroes through utter Hell. Not just the odd challenge here and there against a foe they'll simply meet again elsewhere to which they'll perform the same usual song and dance before running off with yet another stalemate. This here felt real, and it felt much more important due to Rogue's story so far: a woman that tried to do the right thing by turning herself into someone good where before she was considered a villain. Now a woman that tries to see the good in people while also witnessing the horrors of reality and questioning why things have to be this way. A childless woman that has a partner but isn't really going beyond anything more. Clearly wanting out of the life she's lived, to have a family and start something much more routine and in the ordinary. She's a character that now sticks up for what she believes in, from wanting to help sick children, other mutants, to ensuring she throws herself into danger in attempt to save a friend. So, glancing over the panels in which her arm is mangled and her being scalped was, to say the least, quite haunting. Especially with claims later on in future panels that she is actually now dead. Though we don't know what dead really means here. Temporary dead or dead dead?
It was already revealed from Xavier's personal journal that was found in the initial panels of the other volumes that the motherless creature that had suffered the loss of her child in the past (which turned her into that monster as a result of a flood, now haunted by the theft of her child and wanting to convey suffering to everyone else) that she was actually Xavier's lover, a woman that saved him from his awkwardness and displayed a genuine love for him. The two having a child to which died during that aforementioned flood. The creature had been used as a tool to hunt down the remaining X-Men, another cruel fate found within the volumes. Most of the recent volumes focused on this aspect more than anything else, albeit for the one exposition volume which focused on the youths. To which they had been placed into a fight alongside Gambit and Logan while being hunted by others. Their presence wasn't all that evident in the volume, though they did show up handy with a little bit of a fight sequence, but not much else outside of proving their worth as fighters, while also showing that they had the courage and strength to protect each other when it mattered the most. Tiny bits of character development but nothing massive still. I have to say I didn't care much for the action, not that it wasn't engaging. I just found the actual stories of the characters much more interesting; primarily in the Rogue and creature side of things, half-expecting the creature to come to her senses and relax upon the realisation of her own defeat.
To some degree that defeat does come, but it wasn't anything major. The biggest reveal was that Rogue, while also killed and defeated, had been given the powers of a dying X-Man-child (not that type) This was her 'gotcha' moment that allowed her to return from the nothingness after meeting with the bald dead child and coming to her senses. I knew something was going to happen in that sense, it was all too much of a given that Rogue wouldn't actually be allowed to die, and the curtain closes on that character for good. After all, she is still one of the main characters and there's always future volumes and stories to be told. Despite that, it was nice seeing her roughed-up for the reasons mentioned earlier. The little twist was a nice thing to be added, which took us back a few volumes and back to the sympathy she felt for that child. More emotions to push the story forward which I like.
Thankfully this volume yet again revived my faith in things. It was a pretty strong one though I'm not sure what's to come next. Things wrapped up quite quickly and this little story over the past five volumes does feel like it has managed to conclude. I do hope some of the action slightly dies down with some character development to come. I'd like to see more of Gambit given his general presence has been thin beyond action sequences. There's a lot of characters now to be given attention, I just hope that each of them actually get some of that time. So far Rogue remains the dominant character in that sense. Either way, the action is still pretty fun to read through. Especially if the framework has been set up to give us something to care for, most certainly in the sense of its villains.