Uncanny X-Men #3 Still Crazy After All These Years

Art: Go to the head of the class Yildiray. Some incredible set pieces with the three pronged attacks. No shortage of great action within the fights, with everyone having a moment to shine, with Cannonball swooping in as Jean keeps everyone to task. All of the little attention to detail, such as the old school shading of characters during the confrontation in Kansas, it just gave me a nostalgic pang of the good old days.
Some other key images that stood out to me were that “uh-oh” moment when Legion reveals his true colors, with his signature spiky hairstyle ushering in the return of the crazy. Bishop full on blasting a Madri. The individualistic depiction of Bobby’s ice slide along with the memorable entrance of Jean’s team to help her best friend. And right up to the ominous scrawl on the placard at the end of the issue, as the school explodes (again).

And of course as always the coloring showcased perfectly both the iconic image of Jubilee and her plasmoids and the satisfying sight of Psylocke driving her psychic dagger home, with the facial expression of the Madri giving us all the indication we need that it is as powerful as ever. I never get enough of seeing this and it lays to rest any doubts fans have had about the body change having any detrimental effect on the iconic move.
Characters: For the most part the characterisation was completely spot on. From the image that shows Jean and Betsy rising to the challenge together, giving true testament to the teamwork the X-Men are so strong as ever as they pair up to tackle the crowd of Madri, with stunning effect.

Jubilee was full on feisty, Armor gets in a dig about being put on crowd control, Jamie was making glib comments upon being discovered about wanting some water, so all is right with the world where they are all concerned. Even Bishop remains stoic and humorless, yet still gets to deliver us a solid laugh as he hands a bigot his placard after saving his life. A great laugh, even in the middle of all the action.
There was only one tiny little problem for me, Bobby doesn’t remember Legion? I’m pretty sure he was right there at the bedside as David was lying there after the battle with the Shadow King. While I could buy that people forgot him as he wiped himself from existence, it makes no sense to me that everyone else including the kids at the school remembers him, but he doesn’t’In comparison to everything that was right with this however, I can live with it. Just to see the team work so cohesively and support each other so well was a dream come true.

Story: The flow of the narrative works very well for me here and pacing is tempered and measured, showing the plot is going to be pretty full on, with the right balance of humor in the discomfort of the bigot with the placard being saved by Bishop and then with his aside with Bobby, reminding me of their recent “IceShop” team up in Iceman’s series recently.

All the action in three different settings being tied in via Jean in a great show of psi communication, with Beast even commenting that the sensation still scares him was a great touch. Another issue of three different writers making the story gel perfectly. Coupled with the cliffhanger every issue, this is keeping me hooked and reminding me what I love about them. Just when I think they can’t top the final scene of each previous issue and they do it as this ending delivers yet another jaw dropping cliffhanger and the Age of X-Man begins to built up some impetus.