The Extremists

After a year in outerspace, Ed Brubaker brings the Uncanny X-Men back to Earth. Warpath, Nightcrawler, Xavier, and Storm don't get to spend much time on the surface, however, as Morlock extremists draw their attention to the tunnels beneath New York City. The change of scenery benefits Brubaker, who hits one out of the park here in a story that echoes some of the classic Claremont stories of the 1980s.

Set after the rise and fall of the shi'ar empire, the x-men are back on earth and dealing with the death of Corsiar. The morlocks re appear, and have seperated into splinter groups based around a mutant religion (well almost), anyway you get the idea. It has obvious real world parrallels, which is something the x-men comics have always done well. The Morlock extremists start making terrorist attacks against normal folk in ways only mutants can. Also Professor X begins the search for magneto, something the extremists are also doing. The Art is excellent, possibly Sal Larrocca's best ever, and Brubaker as always is an excellent writer, the relationships between characters are well handles. Perhaps the Hepzibah/warpath thing is a little heavy handed at times but this is a smill gripe. That and the complete no show of Darwin who was so prominant in the previous story, it seems odd he doesn't show up at all.

In response to previous reviews, I thought this was an excellent story. Yes, it might just be a short story for the build up to "Messiah Complex", however it does two things for me that just blow me away. The first would be the return of Storm actually working with the X-Men, rather than her current escapades with the Fantastic Four and the Black Panther. I have always thought that Storm was one of the coolest characters ever amongst the ranks of X-Men, and it's awesome to get her back where she belongs, even if it's only for a little while (let's hope not). The second would have to be the reemergence of the Morlocks after M-Day. I love the Morlocks, always have, and always will. Maybe it's due to the attachment I made with them a long time ago during the mutant massacre. I love Caliban and Leech, but when did Masque become evil? It's strange how one earth shattering event like M-Day can change anyone's philosophies. The one major thing that this story made me ponder was how and when Skids became an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.? Oh well. A great story all around. Bring on the "Messiah Complex". Peace and Love, Jake