‘Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men: Exodus’ Review: A Nation Rises

Hey, everyone, jrpbsp here… Playing catch up this week so I am going to go ahead and start with the final chapter of Utopia.  Hope you enjoy.

Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men: Utopia #1 cover Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men: Exodus
(preview | thread)
Writer: Matt Fraction
Art: Mike Deodato and Terry Dodson with Rachel Dodson

SPOILERS BELOW…

RECAP: The issue opens with a flashback to a scene from ‘Uncanny X-Men’ with Beast confronting Scott and Emma about their secrets. This will lead into ‘Dark X-Men: The Confession’ one shot.

The action then jumps to the present where Osborn is leading his Avengers and the remains of his X-Men against the real X-Men and their assembled mutants.

Bullseye attacks first with a barrage of arrows and Scott sends Warren to take him out. Angel snags the man and hauls him off.

The next wave attacks and are met with a group of girls piling on Moonstone. The defenders use fire to attack Venom before Colossus moves in to slug it out with him. Laura goes head-to-head and claw-to-claw with Daken while Wolverine puts his claws through Omega.

Warren drops the Dark Hawkeye and changes to his Archangel persona and the two go bow-to-wings in a ranged shoot out. Seeing things are not going well, Norman joins the attack with Sentry and Ares. Namor intercepts Sentry and they knock each other through a few buildings. Scott attacks Osborn but is quickly blasted down.

Mirage returns with the powers of a Valkyrie and Hela’s blessing, and she and the rest of the New Mutants intercept and knock down Ares. Dark Beast is still up but he is quickly taken down by the Science Team in revenge for their Beast’s treatment. Colossus is shown to be holding his own against Venom, keeping him out of the fight.

Mimic gets attacked by Iceman who is helped by a bunch of others to overpower Rankin’s duplication ability. Laura is joined by Armor and Pixie to combat Daken while Emma seeks out Xavier to get his telepathic help.

Together the two mutants are able to pierce the Sentry’s mind and find the White Room to talk to Bob. The room has been corrupted by the Void and Emma has to force Bob back to himself. Finally achieving clarity, he flies off into deep space with the Void hot on his heels. But there is a price to pay, a piece of the evil embeds itself in Emma’s mind forcing her to remain in diamond shape to deny it access to her telepathy.

With one big gun gone, Osborn only has Ares left, but he is stabbed and taken down by Mirage. Omega is still unable to defeat Wolverine and Daken is pulled down by the three girls. Norman blasts Cyclops again but is told by Moonstone that the only way to win now would be to kill them all. But with the cameras rolling that is not something he could spin away. With no further choices he withdraws his team.

Scott declares the island sacred ground and a safe zone for all mutants to the press but Norman holds his own meeting and says the island is a mutant detainment camp holding dangerous militants.

The X-Men start to rebuild their home with refugees pouring into the city. Emma points out the last time they declared an island home it did not work out well but Scott promises it will be different this time.

MY TAKE: This issue is a solid if simplistic finale to the series. It was pretty much one big fight scene, but for the most part the combats were interesting and well done. There was not much plot but they did manage to cram in some story and little character moments that made the issue better.

It was nice to see that Fraction did put some thought into the match ups and most of them had meaning. I liked seeing Daken getting taken apart by Laura and Wolverine’s girls and it was nice watching Omega getting taken to task for the death of Alpha Flight. Most of the remaining fights were decent but nothing I had a particular interest in although I did enjoy the scenes between Cyclops and Osborn.

Of course it goes without saying that I am overjoyed to see Mirage returned to powered status, especially since I was always a fan of her Valkyrie powers and persona.

I was not particularly happy with the amount of time dedicated to the Sentry. He is very uninteresting in my opinion and we have seen him fly off into space so many times it is silly. The payoff with Emma has potential though so we will see where that goes.

Some of the powers and the fights seemed a bit off as well, which took me out of the story. I still believe that the Avengers were given far too much credit and did too much damage to hardened combatants. With the sheer number and power of the gathered mutants the fight should have been over before it began. On the other side of the coin it seemed like Namor was overpowered to be able to go toe-to-toe solo with the Sentry for as long as he did.

In the end we have some strong fights which are really only there to set up the new status quo for Nation X. But in the process we are given a good story with plenty of action and enough character moments and plot to keep it entertaining. While I am not personally excited to have yet another mutant homeland scenario, if it is done well, it has the potential to be a springboard for some very good stories.

Thanks for reading my review for Wolverine Files. I will be keeping to this format for the most part but please keep the comments coming and I will see everyone again next time.

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