I bought this book while caught up in a wave of excitement over the current Grant Morrison run on X-Men. I mean, how bad could it be, right?

Oh boy....

This is possibly the worst Comic Book I have ever had the displeasure of reading. Awful. Just AWFUL. I'd go lower than 1 star if I could.......

The only redeeming quality is Alan Davis' art, which takes up less than a third of the book. Other than that.....The story slavishly adheres to the Chris Claremont formula, keeping the X-Books in their own incomprehensible corner of the Marvel Universe. Genosha. The Acolytes. Villains with such awe-inspiring names as Fabian Cortez and Mellencamp. (MELLENCAMP!!! WHO THE HELL THOUGHT OF NAMING A VILLAIN THAT????) Page after page of so many expository word-balloons that the art is almost buried. The first chapter shows the X-Men rescuing people from a burning Hospital, complete with HUGE BLOCKS OF TEXT that just reiterate what we're seeing in the pictures. Isn't that the POINT of the art- To move the story along WITHOUT the writer having to spell out EVERY LAST THING? Wolverine cuts through a wall, while we read pages of dialogue about how Wolverine is cutting through a wall.....Gee, I never would have figured it out on my own!

I can honestly say that I suffered through this horrible book without ONCE being interested in what was going on. Character development is nil, readers unfamiliar with the characters will be totally lost, the writing is awful, the art is mostly poor-man's Todd Mcfarlane (Which ain't saying much!)......If you're looking for 200 pages of people talking while they fight pointless battle after pointless battle, you've come to the right place. Anyone with even a modicum of intelligence should steer clear.

And what brain at Marvel decided this poop needed to be collected?...

Ok, first off, I won't say that this trade paperback is awe-inspiring, but it's not bad. The story is average, continuing Magneto's constant attempts at ruling the human race, with the X-Men opposing him. Most of the battles are fought between the Acolytes and the X-Men, which is somewhat disappointing because the Acolytes are pretty incompentent. Yes, Mellencamp is a lame name for anyone (especially a bad guy), but get over it man. He's only in a few panels. As for Fabian Cortez, he's been around for a while and has his own place in the Marvel universe. Who's to say he can't use his own name? Jean Grey is known more as Jean Grey than Marvel Girl or Phoenix.
No where could I find the text reiterating the art to the degree that the reviewer talked about. I did notice it to a very small degree, as all comic books have that once in a while. All of the non-dialogue text serve more as a narrative explaining the characters' backgrounds or as an exposition on the characters' current state of being and emotion. All in all, there is a fair size of reading to do, but who says comic books need to be less writing? As for the art, I thought it was great. Marvel has been putting out great artwork recently and this continues the trend.
Hmm, as for the other points, I don't understand what his problem is with unfamiliar readers not understanding what's going on. That's how it always is! These comics are part of a series and if you don't keep up with the series, you'll get lost. That's how it's always been. Marvel would love to have anyone pick up these comics and get right into them, but that's completely unrealistic. Marvel lovers will enjoy this paperback, especially X-Men buffs like me. There is some character development... and the writing is decent. The one problem I have is that this X-Men vs. Magneto thing is getting monotonous, but there's actually more to this paperback than that. If you like Magneto (like me), pick this one up. If you like the X-Men, pick it u with a little caution. Anyone else, read it and judge it before buying it.