X-Men

• Title: Magneto #2
• Comic Vine: link
• Writer: Cullen Bunn
• Artist: Gabriel Hernandez Walta

Following the clues left behind from the Omega Prime Sentinel who someone designed and left as a trap for those like him, Magneto travels to a tent city of the disenfranchised living in constant fear of some unknown agency which occasionally will kidnapping members of the group for their experiments.

The fear, hopelessness, and poverty of the tent city brings back memories of Magneto’s own childhood and the lessons he learned from the Nazis which the mutant puts to good use to get the answers he needs from the shadowy group that shows up one night seeking new laboratory rats for their anti-mutant experiments.

Writer Cullen Bunn and artist Gabriel Hernandez Walta weave a strong story balancing Magneto’s own past with his current circumstances reminding us where Magneto came from while demonstrating that the former super-villain may not have changed as much as Cyclops and the X-Men had hoped. Worth a look.

[Marvel, $3.99]

• Title: Amazing X-Men #5
• Comic Vine: link
• Writer: Jason Aaron
• Artist: Ed McGuinness

Amazing X-Men‘s first arc comes to a close with a battle between Nightcrawler and his father Azazel. Needing to save both his friends and heavenly realms from his father’s madness, Nightcrawler makes good on his deal with the BAMFs and returns with the X-Men and Azazel to Earth where he traps his father using Azazel’s own blood magic. The cost, however, is higher than Kurt is willing to admit to any of his friends.

Writer Jason Aaron and artist Ed McGuinness make good on their promise to return Kurt back to the land of the living but only at the cost of his own soul. We’ll have to wait and see how this will effect the X-Man physical, emotionally, and spiritually going forward.

Kurt’s return should also force Logan to admit his own failures including the split in the X-Men. How Nightcrawler is going to fit into that schism should be interesting to watch. Worth a look.

[Marvel, $3.99]