X-Men Outback #2: What’s A God To A Godshredder?

As the X-Men continue to settle into their newly acquired phone in the Australian outback, the problems just keep on coming. After repelling Sabretooth’s “welcoming party”, they now have to contend with a threat coming from inside the house.

The Outback Era of Uncanny X-Men, is a sometimes overlooked yet still very popular moment in time for the merry mutants. Sandwiched between Claremont’s peak of Inferno and his tragic downfall due to editorial shifts, this second issue of this section of history continues to bring that nostalgic flair with it.

Steve Orlando channels Claremont in the best way, with a script keeping the spirit of those beloved 80’s stories, with the dialogue a tad bit modernized for today’s audience. There are some solid moments of characterization throughout, but the main crux of the story is Wolverine running a gauntlet of his brainwashed teammates in order to defeat the villain of the story, the once deactivated Reaver Godshredder.

Orlando does create some creative ways for Logan to defeat his friends without popping his claws, but it still would have been cool if the whole team got to face Godshredder. It does result in a nice moment in the end for Logan though.

Stephen Segovia’s art is somewhat reminiscent of Marc SIlvestri’s style from these older books, but he still puts his own spin on it. The fights with the X-Men and Godshredder (who looks very cool) are entertaining but there are a couple questionable character design choices, most notably Madelyne Pryor.