Pause the Action. Survey the World
X-Men: Complete Onslaught Epic # 2 – Volume 2
For the most part Volume 2 of Onslaught: the Complete Epic is just filler. The first issue or two deal with the X-Men on their mission to deal with Onslaught. Reveals that Xavier is like Batman: crazy prepared! He has files on how to kill each of the X-Men. That was neat to see. The issue where Wovlerine talks to this Aboriginal mutant was pretty awesome. Esp the fact that such a guy exists. But the rest of the book just seemed like filler that could have been safely ignored.

That’s not to say it wasn’t fun to read. While the X-Factor story was boring and just involved the Beast/dark Beast story, the Spider-Man story was a lot of fun. The only thing that sucked is that it was still during the time of the clones so we had Parker and Reilly both instead of just Parker. The Green Goblin issue was great because it was the same events of the Spider-Man book from Goblin’s point of view.

The X-Man and X-Force issues may or may not become relevant in future books.

The only thing that bugged me is that no one in the Marvel universe outside of the X-Men (and their affiliates) seems to know about the sentinels. Now, this may just be because I’ve only seen the sentinels in the X-Men 1994 cartoon where everyone knows about them. They appear on the news. Senator Kelley campaigns on using them, etc. I understand that heroes that aren’t mutants might ignore it because the sentinels are after mutants, but they should still know what they are. Perhaps someone can help me out in the comments and let me know if this is a valid criticism or not.

A Good Setup….can it deliver?
Flashpoint: Lois Lane and the Resistance # 1 – Breaking News
There’s one major flaw to this book – it’s only three issues long. The world of Flashpoint is actually a pretty awesome world. Thomas Wayne as Batman, Lois Lane as a War Correspondent. So it sucks that they’re doing the whole thing over three months. And this book suffers for it. I gave it four stars because I think it has a lot of potential and is a good startup to this story arc. The problem is that both the cover and the title lie. Going into the story, I thought Lois has been assigned to work as a War Correspondent and then ended up working for the resistance. Instead, as it says in the plot summary, she’s working a Paris fashion show and ends up embedded by accident. If this were a normal story arc, we’d have an awesome story because they’d be able to spend the book showing the process behind enemy lines. Instead we get a few tantalizing panels and then Lois is running away for the last few pages. I’m hoping they can up the ante in the next two books, but I think they’re letting a great potential story suffer for having to occur over three issues.

Maybe….
Daken: Dark Wolverine # 10 – Big Break Part 1
I kept passing over this book in my comic shop. At first I thought Dark Wolverine was like Dark Beast – someone from Age of Apocalypse. Then I read on here about how he was Wolverine’s kid. That sounded a lot more interesting. So I picked it up and…. I don’t know. He comes across as Tony Montana (from Scarface) – trying to come up in the crime world and being unnecessarily violent. As well as becoming drug-addicted. Although, with his healing factor, he won’t end up toothless or whatever the consequences of the drug are. I feel bad writing this as the end of the book contains a paragraph or two on how they didn’t think they could make Daken into a character people could root for and so on. Right now he just seems like a loser kid in rebellion.

So I didn’t add it to my pull list, but I did make a note to check out the next issue to see how I feel about where the story is going. It could get interesting as someone is apparently impersonating Daken in order to get him blamed for some murders. Or maybe it’s him and he’s high. It wasn’t 100% clear.

Good, but what happened to the other story?
X-Men: Legacy # 251 – Lost Legions, Part 2
Last issue had two stories: Lost Legions and the story of the Red Chick who disappeared. While the Lost Legions story was good in this issue, the other story seemed to be a much more pressing one. So I was hoping we’d get some of that. Oh well.

This story was a lot of fun. Legion’s personalities have made for some entertaining enemies. This issue featured one who could multiply himself like Madrox only he does it Matrix Agent-style – by turning anyone he touches into one of his clones. And, like a vampire, only by getting the #1 guy can they stop them. The second one in this issue was a little girl who amplifies people’s emotions. So that leads to some really crazy scenes and they both may have far-reaching consequences as people spoke their minds and acted on urges that they should have kept to themselves.
SPOILER WARNING:
Let’s just say that for once, covers don’t lie.

Better than Vol 2. Starts Off Well
X-Men: Complete Onslaught Epic # 3 – Volume 3
The book starts off with an awesome fight with all of the heroes. Then the EMP from Vol 2 is set off. Looks like the books in this collection are ever so slightly out of order. This happens a few times in this volume. You find books rewinding time a few minutes and then dealing with stuff up to the present. It’s hard to realize (as I read in one of the late comics in this volume) that only a day or two have passed since this started. Imagine back when Onslaught was going on month-by-month.

X-Men 336 starts off awesome and finishes strong. Cable 35 is an awesome issue. Cable, Invisible Woman, and Apocalypse have to call a truce to try and attack Onslaught. It is full of raw emotion, drawn well, and just works. X-Force issue is one of the weakest (but not the weakest) issues. Going forward it’s cool because all the team members have bonded. They get to see each others’ fantasy worlds (not sexual) and so grow as a team. I loved Caliban’s fantasy where he’s essentially Superman. I’d like to think the guys at DC appreciated the nod. X-Man 19 is and interesting back and forth between Sinister and Nate. Lots of people end up holding the idiot ball. Also, did Threnody’s captors leave her on her own to go have sex because it was the end of the world? That seems to be what was implied.

Hulk 445 was good and continues to show how Onslaught can mess with everyone’s head. Iron Man #332 is overall pretty good. It continues the storyline of the Professor X armor. Has a good ending. Avengers #402 shows them helping out NYers. I think it’s kinda ridiculous for Captain America, a WWII soldier, to say “So much chaos and destruction. I’ve … I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Thor #502 was interesting, but pointless. It could have been removed and nothing would have been affected. IT is the most pointless book in Vol 3. Wolverine #105 is mostly pointless when it comes to resolving the Onslaught story. But it helps Wolverine reset after Onslaught to be more man-like.

Finally, why is Storm on the cover? I don’t think she’s even in this book. (She might be in the beginning and I may have forgotten) It should have been the Avengers – they are the main characters