Comic Review: Uncanny X-Men (2018-) #19

Uncanny X-Men (2018-) #19

Marvel Comics

Writer: Matthew Rosenberg

Artists: Carlos Villa, Carlos Gomez, Bob Quinn

The secret history of Emma Frost finally revealed! Except it’s not, no. But with Uncanny X-Men (2018-) #19 we are getting an issue that primarily is focusing on Emma Frost. The X-Men are still missing, the young X-Men are gone for good. X-Force is running around, but we’re not crossing those two streams any time soon, it looks like. But Emma Frost is still kicking around and we get to see what the sometimes enemy, sometimes friend, X-Men character has been up to.

General Robert Calahan, the head of the Office of National Emergency captures Emma Frost. He forces her to work for him in capturing mutants for “national safety” reasons. The story jumps through different periods, all within this run of Uncanny X-men, and offers some “behind the scenes” looks at the story so far. We find out why Anole stole the “cure” that Beast was working on. There’s an appearance by the Warlock hybrid members of the New Mutants. We even see Cyclops and Wolverine, both freshly back from the dead at the time.

I enjoy these kinds of stories. Even if you don’t, we get some new perspective on the story so far. I don’t think we’ve seen Emma Frost since the X-Men Black single issues, and before that, I think it was way back during the Inhumans vs X-Men story. Being a bigger X-Men character, it’s nice to see where she’s been. Matthew Rosenberg is one of my favorite writers, and it’s nice to see him tie in some stories from other series he’s worked on.

With any comic that has multiple artists, some is going to be better than others. But I think, for the most part, the art in this issue is pretty good. The action, where it is, looks good. Most of the character designs look appropriate. Emma Frost is always wearing some fancy, if not revealing, clothing. The different styles help differentiate the passage of time in the issue. Which is good, because the time period ranges from about a year or so back, all the way to the present. While most of the art is fine, the scene with Wolverine is a little wonky to me. Wolverine is muscular, but he looks jacked in it. The faces are also a bit off in the scene, but it’s the only one where I have any complaints.

We’re getting closer to the relaunch of the X-Men comics under Jonathan Hickman, and I’m interested to see where that starts. I enjoy Matthew Rosenberg’s writing, and I’m wondering where he’s planning to take the team since things aren’t going so well for them right now. To that end, I enjoy this issue. It’s giving us a good alternate view to most of this Uncanny X-Men series, going all the way back to its start. The art, for the most part, is good, and effective in its storytelling. If you’ve been enjoying the series, there’s no reason to jump off the train now. You’ll like this issue.