A Review From Christopher Franey

Alright I’m back and it is time to get UNCANNY!  Here we are at issue 19 of the current run of Uncanny and part 3 of “We Have Always Been.”  With this issue there is a change in the narrator as the box is white instead of red, we have quite the bold opening, “It seems it is finally time to lay our cards on the table and see who has the better bluff.”  I’m pretty sure this would be Emma Frost, a.k.a. the White Queen, who is our narrator for this issue.  We have Matthew Rosenberg continuing his story with a group of artists on pencils such as Carlos Villa, Carlos Gomez, and Bob Quinn.  They did a great job of blending styles so you don’t really notice a change in art. 

Let us jump into it, we have Emma watching the X-Men (a different group) fighting the Sentinels, and it appears that the Vanisher is her servant in this new version of the Hellfire Club.  So her group gets attacked by the Warlock infected X-men which leads to her capture by General Robert Callahan, who happens to be the director of O.N.E.

Callahan does a great job of using his position to beat down the White Queen, but Emma isn’t someone you mess with.  She manages to survive the bright light prison for a couple of days, but finally she does crack and reveals that Hank McCoy still has the serum that cures mutations, so Callahan does have plans to exploit this; which I’m pretty sure we saw this at the beginning of this volume of Uncanny. Callahan does a good job of taking care of Emma and showing that he values her and is also on guard against her powers.  While letting her know that she is in check, he informs her that all the X-Men are dead after their fight with X-Man (Nate Grey back in Uncanny 10).  Emma does have some freedoms and she uses that time for some shopping in which she takes Marrow out to help our her style since she’ll be part of the Hellfire Club.  Of course the good times don’t last for long as Callahan and O.N.E. strike and want Emma to come back in for some work.  She thinks shes got the upper hand, but she really doesn’t as Callahan is play acting, so when Emma calls on Vanisher to port them out, this winds up with him being fired upon by an experimental weapon which causes Vanisher to melt.  So Emma knows she has to stop as others are being hurt.  

She has been tasked by O.N.E. to find Blindfold which brings us to the events of issue 11; so it might merit a chance for rereading.  Around this point Emma finds out that Scott Summers is alive and this is a great moment for us fans with their reunion.  Before Scott died he went on quite the set of stories and it did pit him against a lot of the X-Men and his friends.  Things ended pretty badly with Emma during Bendis’ run of Uncanny X-men and it was pretty much set that their relationship was over.  Then we see the two together for Scott’s last story in Death of X, which set a chain of events that would lead to Emma’s character doing some questionable things.  I would say this issue did a great job of helping to redeem Emma.  

The moment shared by the two was quite interesting as you can see from Emma’s words that she cares for Scott, but then she takes this moment away and only she knows what happened here.  She explains that not one of the Hellfire Club can know Scott is alive as that would mean O.N.E. would go after him in some fashion.  Next she makes her way to Wolverine and they exchange some barbed words, but in the end she orders him to look for Scott and take care of him…so this really adds to the behind the scenes on the previous issues.  Callahan isn’t too happy to find out that Scott is alive and Emma hasn’t reported that.  Emma manages to broker a way for Scott to not be hunted down but be useful to O.N.E.  So this takes us to the list and how questionable it was that Scott created it. 

Now we’re back to last issue and we see “Captain America” with a captured Mister Sinister and she reveals all, and that it is Mystique and the Hellfire Club that are manipulating the X-Men.  While that should be all find and dandy for the bad guys, we are now seeing Wolverine and Kwannon and they are bringing the wrath…to be continued of course. 

 This issue was great, lots of twists and reveals that will make you rethink what you have seen and read.  I was talking with Rafa (@mobilerafie) about the issues and it had use questioning everything.  I honestly don’t think we’ve seen Captain America meet with Scott yet, but then again Rafa said it could be that Cap was just at the rally, so maybe they did meet and it was just Mystique taking advantage and showing up as Cap in later issues…good point, but who knows?  I know some fans have been having a hard time with the current story arc but I am absolutely loving the issues that Matthew Rosenberg is writing.  This is now even more of a mystery with the revelations that were dropped in this issue.  I’m questioning Cyclops’ choices and wondering how much Emma may have manipulated him or maybe even saved him.  It was a very touching scene and some great words she said about Scott.  I’m very excited for the next issue and beyond, so keep reading and Excelsior!