X-Men Legacy #239 – Review

by Mike Carey (writer), Clay Mann (artist)

The Story: After a battle with some Sentinels, Rogue and Magneto continue to attempt to figure out the source of the strange weather storms occurring in Mumbai while Child of the Vault runaway Luz causes discord amongst Paras’ household.

What’s Good: It’s always nice to read the X-titles these days and see how embraced the new, younger mutants are by the creators.  Originally the stars of such titles as New and Young X-Men, as well as the second volume of New Mutants, many fans of those casts ( myself included) worried that wonderful new creations such as Anole, X-23, Elixir and Prodigy would be forgotten in favor of returning the focus to tried and true X-Men like Wolverine and Cyclops.  Carey has managed to find a pleasant middle ground in his approach to the cast of this title by mixing and matching stalwarts such as Magneto, Colossus, Husk and Gambit with the students like Trance, Indra, and Bling.  Acting as an anchor to bring them all together is Rogue, now tasked with mentoring the next generation of mutantkind.  The writer seems to genuinely enjoy scripting our favorite Southern Belle, and it’s a joy to not only see where he takes her in the Marvel Universe, but also to watch as he adds some much needed updates to her status quo.  Magneto also benefits from Carey’s pen.  The former villain’s new role in the X-Men has been an intriguing one and I’m happy that this story has taken advantage of not only that role, but Magneto’s past romantic dalliance with Rogue.  It adds a nice variety to her love life, giving the readers a break from the never-ending “Will they or won’t they” relationship she has with Gambit. Oh, and that is a beautifully awesome cover by Leinil Yu.