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X-Men #106
Review by CharleyX:
Finally, the resolution to the Neo storyline. Frankly, while the story as a whole was good, with a lot of nice elements I'll get to soon, the ending was a little weak. On the good side, we got an explanation as to why the Neo were decimated when they lost their powers. Sort of. It's possible that many of the Neo's powers were keeping them alive longer than they ordinarily would live, and when they lost their abilities, they died. Maybe that's why all the Neo we've seen appear to be middle-aged or younger. Domina's simulation was brutal, but nicely executed. And what the heck was Ransome Sole doing there? We also get to see what happened to Char Jones and Cece. Doc Reyes really went off the deep end with the Rave, which is realistic and therefore a good thing. Sucks for her, though. And there's really no one on the team who has a similar experience that can help her through it. so she'll have to work hard to kick the habit. I just hope that when Xavier returns he doesn't just "adjust" her mind to minimize the addiction's impact. That would be cheap. Anyway, another interesting point was that not all the Neo seem to agree with Domina's quest for vengeance, like Rax. But then again, he's open to anything that will take Domina down a peg. His fight with Rogue was intriguing. He may have a few more brain cells than we give him credit for. Still, he is a big screw-up. I mean, Rogue got trashed, but she was really only taking his measure. I'm sure the next time they meet she'll kick the crap out of him. Note: Rax is supposed to be Jaeger's son, but it doesn't look like Domina's his mother. The interludes continue to be very interesting. Senator Kelly meets with Val Cooper and Sharon Carter. Not often that you see S.H.I.E.L.D. in this book. Nice how she was pretty against Kelly's platform. They came to warn him that Mystique's gunning for him. More important, however, was his reaction. Basically he's resigned himself to the fact that Raven could kill him at any time, and he's willing to risk that for the chance to spread his opinion and make a difference. He honestly believes what he's saying. You have to repsect him on both counts. Speaking of Mystique, she's got another team training for her Brotherhood of Mutants. Will they put the "Evil" back in? Doesn't seem so. 3 interesting things: First, Avalanche is back (with old costume) but Pyro's not. Is he dead yet? Next, there's a new speedster called Sabre on the team. Could he be Super Sabre's son? Why else choose that name? Last, Toad has gotten an upgrade. Thanks to the success of the X-Men movie, he now has a long sticky tongue too. Plus he looks more like he did in the movie, and isn't wearing the jester suit anymore. He's actually acting more like he did when he ran the third Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, which is good, because there was no reason to backtrack his character after that. I just thought it was interesting that the character's look has been upgraded to reflect the movie. The final fight was actually pretty cool, with Colossus doing acrobatics, and Wolverine taking Delgado out very decisively. Speaking of, that was a pretty greusome thing that happened to him and Char Jones. Glad she's out of it now, but it may have psychological repercussions later. It should. However, having Domina let them go was a little weak. Granted, she said in the intro that under different circumstances they could have been allies, but I can't see her having a change of heart like that. Perhaps deep down she was afraid of killing more people based on what might be a mistake, considering how many have died already. So Rogue convinced her that it was one person's mistake. But then why'd she go after Sinister if she didn't already know that it was his technology that enabled the High Evolutionary to strip their powers? As I said, weak. One last gripe: this issue, the Neo seemed to be holed up in the church, but in X-Men 100 it was pretty clear that they were in the apartment building near Cece's clinic. Bad editor! Oh yeah, anyone know why this ish was "Giant-Sized?" Was it because of the "New X-Men's" 25th Anniversary?

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