Writer: Matthew Rosenberg
Artist: Pere Perez
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: April 24, 2019

I mentioned my review of the last issue of Mathew Rosenberg’s Uncanny X-Men that I was done with the X-Men until Hickman shows up this Summer. Well, I am back, but it’s only because this is a War of the Realms three issue tie-in. Did I regret having another peek or did this issue get me back on the trolley ahead of schedule? Let’s find out…

The issue opens with some inner monologue with Scott as the X-Men are out doing X-Men things…like fighting Nanny and Orphan Maker. It’s a cold open that gets us going but by the end, it’s all about getting us to New York and the War of the Realms.

My biggest problem from the get-go is that this feels too much like the regular Uncanny book. It makes sense with Mathew Rosenberg writing it and while it may seem like a strange complaint at first, I just kept thinking, “Why do we need a separate mini-series for this?” By the end of this first issue, I was still asking that question.

When we get to New York City, the team gets to fight Frost Giants and Dark Elves, but the main storyline looks to involve making sure all the team stays together even as they fall apart at the seams. Again, if you’ve been reading the regular run, you’ll be used to the inner strife going on…maybe too used to it. There are some interesting things going on, but I don’t know if they are cool enough to make me buy three issues.

If you haven’t been reading the current run of Uncanny, I would tell you to stay clear of this. Not enough is explained for newer readers to just jump in here and the War of the Realms bits are not the main focus. I would tell those that have given up on Rosenberg’s run to pass as well, but if you are enjoying Uncanny, you will probably be happy to get an extra issue of it a month.

Final Thoughts:

Whether you decide to pick this up should be determined by how you feel about the regular run of Uncanny X-Men going on right now. This is more of a side story to that book than a tie-in to the War of the Realms in my opinion. It looks really good, but I just wonder why we needed an extra tie-in when this could have been dealt with in the main title.

5.0/10