Claw and Order

Astonishing X-Men #23

This one was sooooo cool.

Let’s review: Last issue, the X-Men were on the run, and a powerless Cyclops decided on a plan for him to lure the Breakworldians away on an escape pod so the rest of the team could escape. And the Breakworldians blow up his ship and kill him.

And in this issue, the Breakworldians bring him back to life just so they can torture him into revealing details of the X-Men’s Leviathan program. Wolverine and Armor are captured, while Beast, Emma Frost, Colossus, and Shadowcat make their own plans. And Cyclops reveals that the entire team knew all along that the Breakworldians were spying on them. What follows is this wonderful of last issue’s debate as the team prepares to send Cyclops off to his death — this time, however, with the added psionic thought-balloons as everyone telepathically makes their real plans. “Leviathan” is a hoax, designed solely to get Kruun, the Breakworldian leader, to bring Cyk back to life to interrogate him about the “doomsday device.”

Frustrated, Kruun says lies are humanity’s greatest weapon and demands to know what other lies Cyclops has told. Turns out that the “powerless” Cyclops isn’t powerless any more.

Verdict: Secret telepathic conversations, Kitty’s awful acting, and four pages devoted to a single optic blast make this a very solid thumbs up.