Summary
A year ago- Stryker saves a man from imminent death winning him his first new acolyte.
At the school Surge gets new Gauntlets from Forge as the O.N.E Sentinels have been placed around the school, now a camp for the remaining mutants on earth. The remaining students gather around the TV as the gravity of the power loss makes the rounds on the various stations. Tag and Prodigy wonder what to do now that they are human. William Stryker flanked by his acolytes says the mutants’ losing their powers is a sign from god. The students then get into an argument before Wolverine introduces them to X-23. Prodigy leads his friends to the danger cave which he was secretly creating, the Hellions follow them.
Ten days from now-In the infirmary Beast and Emma try to help Jay when Elixir realizes his injuries, Jay wakes from his coma screaming.
The Good
Cover- The fight fans of the series have been clamouring for since it began Hellion vs Surge. Dynamic colors, strong lines and bold pen strokes make this another beautiful cover!
Drama- It’s nice to see the tension from the original New X-men Academy X series carry over into this one. Hellion is still a class one dick. Prodigy and Surge still have relationship tension and hate hellion.
Mystery– What the hell happened to Jay is still up in the air and compelling enough to keep reading.
Logic vs Survival– Emma and Scott have a fight about x-23 and her place on the team. Scott thinks she’s a mutant so her place should be on the team. Emma meanwhile knows that she is still heavily conditioned from her time as an assassin and would kill everyone present at the drop of a hair if “Trigger” scent was present.
Art- Mark Brooks continues to hit the right notes in every panel.
Story- William Stryker and his crusade against mutants is not a new thing but with the school in disarray he will no doubt be a very bad foe for our New X-men.
The Bad
Action-Still no action in this issue 🙁
User– This story is not new user friendly, to understand what’s going on and what’s to come you would need a considerable backlog of knowledge of x-men tales past. The danger cave especially some jokes are just for long time fans new readers won’t get it.
The Ugly
3/5