X-Men #10.NOW Review

X-Men #10.NOW is a strange place to have a supposedly new-reader friendly jumping-on point. While this is being billed as the start of a new story arc, issue #10 is merely a continuation of the same Sisterhood storyline that has been unfolding since November. The only tangible change is the fact that artist Terry Dodson is out and Kris Anka and Clay Mann are in. New readers should be able to follow along well enough, but they'd be better suited starting with issue #7 instead.

Issue #10 gets off to a fairly slow start, as the characters regroup from their previous clash with Arkea and the Sisterhood and Bran Wood drops a bit of recap exposition. But the story eventually gets back into the swing of things, with strong character work all around this month. I'm very much enjoying the interaction between Sublime and Rachel as one of the more unlikely romantic pairings in the X-verse. Also intriguing is the growing turmoil within the Sisterhood as Arkea asserts control and the others begin realizing they may have made a deal with the wrong devil.

Another welcome element is that Wood expands his focus beyond the core cast of female X-Men and includes many of the younger mutants who so often get ignored in every single X-book. The impending showdown between these X-Men and Arkea's Sentinel army is a great chance for these younger heroes to shine.

While it's disappointing Dodson only illustrated half the storyline, and that this series has yet to acquire a regular artist, I won't complain about Kris Anka illustrating more X-books. His style is one of dynamic energy and elegant simplicity. It's unfortunate that his style doesn't mesh well with Clay Mann's heavier, more detail-oriented pencils. Both are more than suited to draw this series, but the way Anka's art abruptly shifts into Mann's doesn't do this story any favors.

Jesse is a mild-mannered writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter, or Kicksplode on MyIGN.

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