X-Men Legacy #225 Review: Mind Over Matter

Hey, everyone… Here is my third review for this week, this time it is the next installment of X-Men Legacy.  Hope you enjoy it.

X-Men Legacy #225 cover X-Men Legacy #225 (preview | thread)
Writer: Mike Carey
Art: Phil Briones

NOTE: Wolverine only appears as a generic flashback in this issue.

SPOILERS BELOW…

RECAP: The issue opens with Amelia Voght having an ominous dream of Xavier. She wakes to find out everyone has had similar dreams and in fact the Professor is currently walking toward the Acolytes’ base.

Xavier walks right to the door and it opens for him. He uses Unuscione’s power to shield him from the defenses after making her only think she enabled her Psi-Shield. Exodus checks Random, Tempo and Unuscione’s psi-shielding and sends them to take care  of Xavier.

They confront him but he triggers latent mental suggestions and rends them helpless. Amelia confronts him but he refuses to tamper with her mind. She decides not to stop him though. He finally makes his way to Exodus and Shapandar. Exodus wants the Sentinel to attack but she takes Xavier’s side because of the help he once gave her.

Xavier questions Exodus’ purpose of defending mutant kind and takes him on a mental journey of the past of the Acolytes. The Professor lays out his case that the only way mutants can survive is to stop fighting amongst themselves and unite in San Francisco. He throws the fact that Exodus nearly killed Hope the first mutant to be born since Decimation and Exodus leaves to consider Xavier’s words.

While he waits, Charles wakes Cargill who has been in a coma since she attacked the Professor and when she tries to attack again he threatens her with sleep. Later he is playing chess alone when Amelia comes to him. She says Exodus is going on a pilgrimage and that she and several others are going to San Francisco. They make amends but she stops him when Xavier tries to kiss her.

Exodus makes a speech about their role in the new world and then symbolically destroys their old base. In the end, Charles and Exodus stand alone when a H.A.M.M.E.R. helicopter lands nearby. Osborn exits and asks for a moment of the Professor’s time.

MY TAKE: This series is fast becoming a must read for me. Although the plots are not always the most complex, the characterizations are amazing. And what is more impressive is that Carey is not afraid to make real changes. Things that should have been done years ago. He is taking old dangling plot threads and actually dealing with them.

In this issue he deals with the Acolytes, a group that has long been obsolete and breaks them up in an interesting and meaningful way. While I never could understand Magneto needing a strike force, as powerful as he is, I could accept them existing. But since his death, there is no need for yet another group of militant mutants that want to destroy the X-Men. Even worse it kept several interesting characters languishing in Limbo.

The plot was very simplistic but the strength was in the dialogue and characterizations. Xavier’s arguments were well thought out and believable as was the Acolytes’ responses. While the the interaction between Xavier and Exodus was strong, I was most impressed by his scenes with Amelia. It was good to see their past history being addressed at last.

I have never been much of a fan of Xavier, but he is very interesting and complex here. We also get to see him cut loose with his power which is very rare. He takes apart a powerful and seasoned team as if they were a bunch of amateurs. His planning and tactics side is never really shown, so it was nice to see how well he could plot the destruction of their team.

The series changes focus next month as indicated by the ending, but I hope it keeps the same attention to personality and abandoned plots that we have been seeing. Perhaps Carey can make Danger an interesting character as well.

In the end about the only problem in the issue is the simplistic plot. Everything else is very strong with particular attention to the characters’ personalities. While I might have been hesitant about the series’ change in focus, it has so far proven to be a vast improvement.

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 later in the week.

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