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X-Men: Die by the Sword #2 Review

I find it hard to believe that this storyline is going as it was originally intended, as it seems far too rushed to be planned this way. In that sense, it reads a lot like the end of Chris Claremont's run on New Excalibur, where it felt quite slapped together, as though plot elements meant to be spread out over two issues were now being resolved in a panel. Such a process makes it quite difficult to produce a good comic, and a good comic X-Men: Die by the Sword #2 is not.

The basic set-up of the crossover is not a bad one. The Captain Britain Corps were based on the concept of the Omniverse, which is something the Exiles could easily be fit into, as well (The Omniverse basically being a place of alternate worlds). So a threat TO the Omniverse would logically involve both Excalibur (Captain Britain's team) and Exiles (who travel through the Omniverse fixing what once went wrong - or something like that).

However, that's not really HOW the two teams get back together, as it is more Psylocke trying to save her brother, so they get transported to the Exiles' medical facility, where the two teams meet, and we get a reunion between Nocturne and her former Exile teammates and Dazzler with Longshot.

However, as I mentioned before, things are so slap dash, Nocturne basically gets no panel time for her reunions (and, as others have mentioned, also no mention about the fact that, in the time since Nocturne last saw her boyfriend, Thunderbird, she was pregnant - and now she is not, and one would certainly think that that would be a topic of conversation, no? My pal, Ben, discusses that topic, including Claremont's response regarding the topic on his blog here).

And Dazzler's reunion with Longshot is basically done through a series of quick panels - "Omigod! Longshot! Omigod! He doesn't remember me! Omigod! Maybe Mojo did something to him! Omigod! Maybe Mojo did something to me!" As mentioned before, the phrase I would use to describe it would be "slap dash."

Rouge Mort, meanwhile, is still silly looking, and Juan Santacruz does not exactly come off very good in this comic, as his art looks as rushed as the story itself. I know Santacruz can draw well - he just is not doing a very good job with this series.

Other things...

- the male Mystique, we barely know, and yet he gets this big heart-to-heart with Dazzler, for some odd reason.

- there are some "the devils" in the comic

- Quantum Leap should take a lesson from the Exiles - "leaping from world to world, sent by God, Fate, Time or...Dave Cockrum!"

- I REALLY don't get the whole "Thunderbird is now a macho lunkhead" thing. I mean, that's fair enough personality for a character, but it really isn't THIS character, like, at ALL. Strange.

I like the basic cliffhanger, where the Captain Britain Corps are going head to head with Captain Britain's greatest enemies (his brother, Jamie, and TWO Furies). That was good.

The rest?

Not so much.

Not Recommended.