What the hell - an issue of Battle of the Atom that's good? Oh wait, Jason Aaron wrote this one, that's why! This is Wolverine and the X-Men #36 (or Battle of the Atom #5) and it's definitely my favourite part of the mini-series so far, probably because I'm a big fan of Aaron's Wolverine and the X-Men series which still manages to peek out amongst the event story that's been shoehorned into the title. As the cover shows, this is an issue where X-Men (sigh) battle X-Men, yes again, and while these sequences are tired and done to death at this point, the story happening outside of the fighting is intriguing. Up until now the future X-Men have been mysterious but their story has been largely accepted and unexamined. In this issue, doubt is cast over their motives of returning the original X-Men to the past and Magik takes original Beast and Iceman into the future to see if it really as scary a place as the future X-Men have made it seem - surprises await! This being a Wolverine and the X-Men book, there are still some great jokes thrown in like Broo the babysitter, the running gag of Goldballs, and future Colossus' Hulk Hogan 'tache, all of which add to the enjoyment of the issue even if the entire Battle of the Atom storyline barely advances yet again. And that's still an annoyance with this series, that we're at the halfway point and very little has happened. The past X-Men finally acquiesce to doing the right thing by going back to their time, and questions are raised with the future X-Men - that's basically it for the last 5 issues! Despite the tedious mutant-on-mutant fighting, future Jean Grey/Xorn's psychic battle against past Jean Grey, the White Queen and her Cuckoos was really interestingly portrayed. We see them standing silent staring at one another from the perspective of the two Scotts and then later see what's really happening in an intense spirit battle between them up in the air. Giuseppe Camuncoli's art brings the sequence to life as he does the entire comic. Camuncoli is one of the best artists at Marvel right now and I really enjoyed his work on this issue as I did his work on Superior Spider-man.
Jason Aaron rejuvenates my interest in the mini-series with his contribution, throwing in some interesting ideas about the future X-Men and the direction of the story, while Giueseppe Camuncoli's final page in the comic raises all sorts of questions about what the hell is going on in the future and what it all means. That said, the weird future superheroes trope has been used before in Age of Ultron and it fell flat on its face - maybe it'll work this time though...? Battle of the Atom #5 is the best issue in a very average series and makes me wish Jason Aaron were writing all of them instead of just a couple. It's taken five issues and we're now at the halfway point(!) of the story, but the series has finally found its legs with Battle of the Atom #5.
Published by Marvel Comics, Wolverine and the X-Men #36/Battle of the Atom #5 by Jason Aaron and Giuseppe Camuncoli is out now