The pacing on this story arc is unbelievably tedious, and it feels as though it's being padded in order to fit with the longer form of the trade paperback, which usually includes six or more issues of a series. Hardly anything has happened since the first chapter, and Austen has yet to give his readers a hint of what the main antagonists are up to here. The Juggernaut/Sammy subplot is a little more interesting, but it's handled so clumsily that it fails to sustain my interest. Furthermore, some inky and unengaging character designs are introduced here.
After an overwhelming demonstration of his poewr, Azazel -- the mysterious figure who gathered key mutants on Isla des Demonas -- summons a select group of his alleged offspring and Nightcrawler's X-Men allies before him for a celebratory meal. Shocking revelations are made, including Azazel's claims as to his true identity. Meanwhile, Juggernaut, accompanied by Northstar, has travelled to Vancouver to visit his young friend Sammy, only to discover the mutant boy has been beaten. Ol' Jug's about to go off the deep end when some familiar faces arrive to intervene.
Though one might expect it to improve, Tan's art gets more and more impenetrable with every passing issue. There's a cue in the dialogue here that the visuals are not conveying all of the information they're meant to, with action being obscured by closeup shots that tell the reader nothing. The new designs of old characters that appear on the final two pages are -- I'm sorry, I have to say it -- downright ugly. Tan seems to fade in and out of manga mode, making for inconsistent visuals overall. The detail nature of his linework is impressive, but the storytelling leaves a lot to be desired. I also note that Tan's cover has a McFarlane-esque gust of wind creating a flowing effect for Husk's coat that somehow leaves her hair completely untouched.
The Juggernaut subplot, for it to work, asks the reader to accept a level of coincidence that would have had comics readers in the 1960s questioning the plausibility of the story. And despite its reference in the background information on the first page, the Polaris subplot is dropped altogether here. Mind you, I wasn't enjoying it much either.
The big reveal in this issue is that Azazel is the Devil, or at least he either believes himself to be or wants others to believe so. The problem is we already knew that. That was clear from the character's first appearance in #428, the "prologue" to this story arc. Hell, he looks like the Devil. Five issues of this story, and this is all we get? Austen needs to pick up the pace, if only to get past this ill-conceived and uninteresting storyline.
