So here it is ladies and gentlemen, the death of a long time X-Man. Don't worry, I'm not going to spoil it for you. You can probably find that anywhere on the internet, but I don't do that sort of thing here. I definitely will not tell you that it's Cyclops who dies--ooops! Just kidding, Cyclops doesn't die...or does he...

So the issue is well written as Cable, Wolverine and that group attempt to mislead Bastion as Nightcrawler, Hope and Rogue attempt to make it back to Utopia. But Bastion is not so easily mislead as his forces take on both groups of X-Men...and an X-Man sacrifices their life to save Hope who is believed to be the savior of mutant kind (or the destruction of it if you're to believe Bishop and Bastion). Like I said, the issue is written well--but is this necessary? I'm not one to overly care when they kill characters, I think that's the nature of comic books. But so much of it has been happening over the last couple years that no fan is looking forward to another death. It's not going to have an emotional affect for the readers (besides anger over another death) mainly because not only do they kill characters all the time, we know they're going to be back within a couple years--even if it's a super hero with a black ring or a techno-organic zombie. You'd think they'd be more apt to back away from the death for a while, to lessen the negative backlash they're going to receive--especially with the death of this character. Oh Marvel, put me in charge. Everything would be awesome, I swear.

Death rants aside, it's still a good issue--the writing is great. I love the reaction of one of the characters upon learning of the death of their comrade. But something seems amiss with Mike Choi's art. I don't know if it's rushed or something but it's definitely not as good as it usually is. This is only the beginning of the story, month one of three or four months worth of story--I really don't know where they'll go from here.