X-Men Gold #5 Review

Writer: Marc Guggenheim / Artists: R.B. Silva, Adriano Di Benedetto, Frank Martin / Marvel Comics Issue #5 of X-Men Gold picks up right where Issue #4 left off, with our X-Men team saving Gambit from some ill-conceived solo superheroing.

From there the team vanquishes the now sentient AI nano-tech Sentinel — that’s a lot of descriptors, I know. Did I mention it is gigantic at this stage? A Gigantic sentient AI nano-tech Sentinel. And that still doesn’t cover half of it. While Kitty pretty much single-punches the long-named monster, Logan tromps about the building saving civilians with his usual charm.

All in a night’s work. I’m starting to get a feel for Guggenheim’s favorite characters, or at least the ones he finds easiest to write. Storm and Logan have the most clear and classic personalities, while Nightcrawler and Colossus are less distinct, their activities limited to utility tasks like throwing people and flighting the X-Jet. Kitty and Rachel are the most…squishy in their presentation. Kitty just seems to want to do good and to go about doing that as best she can. There are no good hooks into the leader’s call to lead yet. Meanwhile Rachel is falling into some of Jean Grey’s old habits — spending the issue either acting as a human telephone to deliver messages to different team members or passed out because of some psychic activity. Here’s hoping Guggenheim gives her more to do in coming issues. The art style has settled down into one that is bright and large. So…