Emma Frost - Volume 3: Bloom

I loved this Emma Frost series, which showed us her teen years as she was beginning to learn about her powers, up through her college years, as she begins to learn how to control her abilities. A must read for any Emma Frost fan!

First off I have not read the first 2 volumes in the series and I am by no means a comic expert. However, I liked this book quite a bit. It was not hard to follow even though I did not even read the first two volumes. Anyway, as you probably know Emma Frost is a bad guy that turned good in the marvel universe. The Emma Frost series explores her backstory and attempts to explain why Emma (initially at least) became a villian. The last entry (vol 3) in the series explores Emma as a freshman in college. The story flows naturally and the twists do not feel forced even if a few are a bit predictable. This is a very human story. Emma struggles to come to terms with her powers and her "mutantness." She struggles in her love life and in her relationships, but at the same time she begins to find her inner strength. The last 20 or so pages find Emma wondering where the ethics line is in using her powers and when it is justifiable to control others with them. At the end of the book, Emma is not a villian, but after everything that has happened, the reader understands why she would head in that direction. Summary: The good: focus on character development nice artwork easy-flowing plot explores moral questions without getting bogged down by them The bad: some of the side characters (like Christie) seem flat gets slightly soap-opera-y a couple of times some "twists" are a bit predictable overall: The good outweighs the bad. The writers could have done more with this title, but they have a long way to fall before they would be into bad writing territory. This is not a typical comic and I believe that it is appropriate for many readers, not just fans of the x-men.