X-Men by Gerry Duggan vol. 5

Last time was all the setup for the latest “Hellfire Gala” and “Fall of X,” and I mentioned that it didn’t exactly get me excited for the idea of Marvel’s Merry Mutants losing to a secret science organization that hates them.  Again.  So I guess it’s appropriate that the five issues collected here are… perfectly fine?  Kate Pryde is the throughline here as she features in all the issues and has a significant role to play in most of them.  Whether it’s the hardened survivor falling back into old (bad) habits in the first to the confident ninja assassin capable of infiltrating Orchis and Latveria, you could say that vol. 5 is her show.  Firestar’s too, in one specific issue, which is going to make their inevitable meet-up reeeeeeeeeally awkward given that she’s been inserted so deep with Orchis that the only person who knows the truth is dead.

The reason I say all this is “perfectly fine” is because it shows this motley assemblage of X-Men gaining back some of the ground they lost last time in the way you’d expect them to.  It’s just that there’s not really a story being told here, it’s just a lot of stuff happening to put them in a better place for when the tide turns and they can take the fight to Orchis.  Five issues of marking time before Duggan’s “Fall of the House of X” can kick off, in other words.

As time-killing collections go, it could’ve been a lot worse.  Some of the developments in individual issues are genuinely interesting, such as the follow-up on Reed Richards and the knowledge that was stolen from him by Xavier and Magneto.  The trip to Lateveria was also fun, and it addresses an issue – the country’s mutants under Doom – you’d think would’ve been brought up before in the Marvel Universe before now.  This is all balanced by details that feel more silly than clever (i.e. Firestar’s morse code skills) and Orchis coming off like a bunch of generic baddies, even with Dr. Stasis’ grandstanding.

The art is at least solid throughout, with Stefano Caselli kicking things off in fine fashion as he illustrates the fallout of the “Gala” and goes to town on showing Kate do all the really nightmarish stuff you always thought she could do with her powers.  He’s followed by Jim Towe and Javier Pina splitting an issue, with the reliable Phil Noto following up.  Semi-regular artist Joshua Cassara returns for the final two issues and gives Doom and his Latverian Mutants some inspired looks.

So yeah, “perfectly fine”  Which means that I’ll keep reading this through the end of its next (and final) volume because it still feels important to the story being told in the X-Line.  Does that mean it has next to nothing to recommend to people who aren’t interested in that?  Yeah, it does.