It’s a training day at Haven. Will the old vets put the new kids through the wringer, or do these newbies have some tricks up their sleeves?  Your Major Spoilers review of Uncanny X-Men #3, awaits!

UNCANNY X-MEN #3

Writer: Gail Simone
Artist: David Marquez
Colorist: Matthew Wilson
Letterer: VC’s Clayton Cowles
Editor: Tom Brevoort
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Cover Price: $4.99
Release Date: September 25th, 2024

Previously in Uncanny X-Men: Rogue, Gambit, and Wolverine have been staying at place in Louisiana.  They’ve recently been joined by Jubilee and a quartet of teenagers who have been running from something called The Hag, meanwhile Xavier’s school has been transformed into a prison.

LESSON ONE

Uncanny X-Men #3 starts with Charles Xavier being visited by a monster who was once his past lover, Sarah.  At Haven, Logan and Rogue having a conversation about the new arrivals, after which he reveals that he’s leaving.    Afterward, the team is given the house rules.  A brief scene at Greymalkin Prison shows that The Hag isn’t entirely under the control of the warden.  Back at Haven, Nightcrawler arrives to provide the first lesson for the new prospective X-Men.  Each of them tries to get a belt from Kurt, while also giving their backstory.  In the end, a combination of the teenagers is able to get the belt from Nightcrawler.  In the forest, Wolverine gets his first encounter with The Hag, and it doesn’t go well for him at all.  Back at home, Rogue suddenly hears Logan speaking to her from some unidentified realm, warning her that things are going very badly and that he’s dying.

GETTING THE NEW CHARACTERS ROLLING

While officially, this issue isn’t the first introduction for the new team of X-Men hopefuls; this is the first time that we’ve received some genuine information about their powers and their backgrounds.  The scenario to make this happen is pretty contrived, but it actually works well.  As for the new characters, their backstories are a bit cliché in terms of mutants.  Bad families, accidentally hurting people, scaring those around them, you know, the classics.  But, they at least all have strong personalities. All in all, it’s unclear yet if they’re going to have what it takes to be breakout characters, but for now, they are at least an interesting element to play off of the more established characters like Rogue, Gambit, and Nightcrawler.  What this issue really needed, though, and this goes for the series as a whole, is a bit more clarity.  This issue is still firmly in the “cryptically talk about things going on around us” mode, which was fine for the first couple of issues, but its results are diminishing at this point.

AN INTERESTING TAKE ON ACTION SEQUENCES

The art in Uncanny X-Men #3 doesn’t shake up anything; it’s still consistent and functional.  There was one sequence, though, that stuck out to me, and that is the bit where Jitter is trying to catch Nightcrawler using parkour.  To me, this kind of scene seems like an impossible thing to do using static images, but the way that they manage to depict this via echo-y images tracing the path of movement, just works.  It’s a small moment, but it’s indicative of some of the flair and little touches that this series has had so far.

BOTTOM LINE:  NEW CHARACTERS ARE FUN, BUT LOSING PATIENCE WITH THE PLOT

Uncanny X-Men #3 really should have been the issue that grounded things and established just what is going on with The Hag, Greymalkin Prison, the prophecy from the first issue, and what is so special about these new kids.  Instead, we get an issue with plenty of fine moments and a couple of fun interactions but not enough to make up for the very little advancement in the overarching story—3 out of 5 stars.

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Uncanny X-Men #3

60%

60%

Spinning Tires

Uncanny X-Men #3 really banks on the fun to be had in diving into the backstory of the new characters and seeing them interact with the old favorites, but this just isn’t enough to make up for the lack of progress happening with the plotlines of this series.

• Writing

  4
• Art

  8
• Coloring

  6
• User Ratings (0 Votes)
  0