Uncanny X-Men #13: Dragon Riders Go!

Gail Simone split this issue into three distinct strands of story, with an eye towards braiding them together in future issues. The first strand involves progress on The Left Eye of Agamatto plot, which features the Ice Dragon from the first issue of the series taking Gambit on a midnight journey to The Savage Land, fighting a t-rex, and issuing cryptic warnings about incipient cannibalistic cravings.

Gambit’s voice still doesn’t feel exactly right, but his interactions with the dragon are both fun and exciting, so the slightly uneven tone is very forgivable.

The second plot followed a 19th century African American mutant leaving the relative safety of Chicago and taking a journey into the Deep South in order to fulfil a familial obligation. Simone used this opportunity to draw some intelligent parallels between the the extreme segregation faced by African Americans at the turn of the century and current trends of political oppression.

The third strand followed Deathdream leading the Outliers into an exceedingly creepy tomb (mummified corpses, unsettlingly posed, abound) to face a creature whose touch burns those whose hearts are filled with fear. The children are getting a lot of character development, with Calico and Jitter receiving a lot of positive attention in this issue.

It’s unclear, as of yet, how these stories are connected, however the premises are interesting and certainly strong enough to draw readers further into the coming issues.

David Marquez’s art is clear, detailed, and sensitively rendered. He puts as much detail into the backgrounds and settings as he does into the characters’ emotions, and the result feels like a heightened version of reality. The world he creates feels both alive and lived-in — an imaginary garden with real toads in it. You can peer into these pages and become, blissfully, lost.

This is an exciting, beautifully drawn, beginning — an excellent jumping-on point for new readers, and a satisfying continuation for those of us who have followed the story from the beginning.