X-Men: Legacy — Collision

This volume isn’t an essential read by any means, but it’s still a fun story — assuming you can get past one glaring flaw in logic.  It kicks off in the wake of “Second Coming” as Rogue finds herself chaperoning Paras, Loa, and Anole to Mumbai after Paras receives a letter from his powerful lawyer father that his brother is ill and he needs to come home.  Accompanying them is Magneto, who is out to investigate some strange electromagnetic activity in the area.  Naturally, this turns out to be indicative of a much more serious threat once they meet up with Luz, a young girl with the power to manipulate light and the Sentinels chasing after her.  This leads to a return encounter with the Children of the Vault, the antagonists from Mike Carey’s very first “X-Men” arc and the results are satisfying like comfort food.  The moral dilemmas between Paras’ obligations to his family, and Luz’s concern only for herself are handled well, we get to see some nice uses for Rogue and Magneto’s powers, and the story gets a nice sense of urgency by the end.  Predictable, but still well done.

However, the problem here is Magneto’s very presence in this story.  While I’ve thought that his assimilation into the Utopia community was handled very well, it’s somewhat jarring to see him used like this here.  If you had told me when I first started reading “X-Men” back in the 90’s that in 15 years Magneto would be acting as a chaperone like this, I’d have called you a liar.  But that’s just me, and the bigger issue is how his presence in Mumbai runs counter to the “the world at large doesn’t know he’s part of the X-Men” thread that’s been running in “Uncanny.”  Considering that Kieron Gillen’s first issue is supposed to be dealing with this specific issue, this seems to be a clear case of the right hand not knowing what the left is doing.  Maybe there’ll be some clever explanation in that issue, but for now it sticks out like a sore thumb in an otherwise enjoyable story.