X-Men Blue Vol. 3: Cross Time Capers Review - Marvel Monday

Once in a very Blue Moon

Written by: Cullen Bunn
Art by: Thony Silas/Rain Beredo (issue 16)
R.B Silva/Adriano Di Benedetto/Rain Beredo (17-20)
Letters: VC's Joe Caramagna
Publisher: Marvel
Reviewed by: Andrew McAvoy


I have a confession to make. Once-fictional time travel becomes too complicated I just switch off, at which point writers could sneak in a lot of continuity errors without me noticing it. My high water mark in terms of intelligence in the time-travel stakes starts and ends at the Back to the Future Trilogy. In other words I manage to understand how Biff became a millionaire and why people started disappearing out of the photo. This Volume of X-Men Blue collects the Cross Time Capers story arc (pssst...its a time travel story). Let's hope I follow it!

Okay, okay so I may have exaggerated slightly, I have read a few X-titles in my time so I do tend to follow the stories okay. I also have to say that I really like the concept of the X-Men Blue team or the All-New X-Men as they used to be. I thought that Bendis' original idea was neat and I actually think I prefer this team than any of the others. I like the idea of the old 60s heroes being dragged into modernity and it provides a lot of interesting angles.

This story picks up after the Mojo storyline cross-over (I have to confess to only reading the Gold parts) and sees the team deal with issues of time lapses which are distorting events. Our displaced team of heroes are called through space and time by Xavier to warn them that all is not well.

The resultant adventure sees a series of time-hops and gives our team, alongside Jimmy Hudson and Bloodstorm, an insight into how events are playing out as the future is revealed. They are shocked at events however and soon uncover that some sinister and familiar faces have filled the void left in history left by the X-Men being dragged into modernity (through future Hank McCoy's intervention way back when). This book sees a whistle-stop tour through a variety of locations before the mystery of who is messing with the timeline is solved...

Bits and Pieces

The art in this book by both sets of artists was great (I favored the art in the opening issue - Thony Silas aligns with my tastes perfectly and is the art featured in the sample pics in this review), and overall I thought this volume was a return to form in the X-Men Blue storyline. I keep alternating between Astonishing, Gold, and Blue as my favorite X-team title and they have all had their good moments since the resetting of the titles last year. This one sees Blue come back into my favor, and as far as a time travel yarn goes I was able to follow it (phew!). I wasn't keen on the Mojo cross-over storyline with X-Men Gold, but completist collectors may wish to note that the omission of the Blue issues of that story in this volume leaves a 3 issue gap between Volumes 2 and 3 of the X-Men Blue TPBs.

7.5/10