Uncanny X-Men #16 Review

Writer: Matthew Rosenberg / Artist: Salvador Larroca / Marvel “I don’t trust anyone that isn’t us . . .” The darkest of days for the X-Men grow bleaker by the moment. In Part Six of the “This is Forever” story arc in the relaunched flagship title, several major shifts in team dynamics push the X-Men to the forefront of a war that was once complex, but now boils down to “us vs. them” in the name of survival. Uncanny X-Men #16 sits amongst the best issues of the post “Disassembled” with some teeth-clenching twists forebode only more brutal and desperate times ahead. In the opening pages, Cyclops keeps his promise to Captain America and delivers the Mutant Liberation Front members apprehended in the X-Men’s previous mission to stop an assassination. While they failed to stop the assassination, they also took on two prisoners (Banshee and Hope Summers) who they refuse to turn over to the government to potentially experiment on them.  Even when Cap press Cyclops about this, he stands firm and lets him know what time it is – ‘mutants first.” With clearly dwindled ranks and shaky foundation, Cyclops knows that change is needed for the X-Men to survive whatever is to come.  At the objections of his brother Havok and Logan, Cyclops dissolves his leadership of the X-Men and essentially turns the patchwork team into a committee – one vote for every mutant.  The results of the first vote release Banshee and Hope from being prisoners and back to the ranks of the X-Men as they make their w…