Originally Published: May 11, 2011, on Comicvine.com

Armor continues to mourn her personal losses while Cyclops, Wolverine, and Emma Frost look for a way to calm down Fin Fang Foom before their recent trip to Japan becomes too much more like a bad Godzilla movie.

The Good

There is a lot of action in this comic as Cyclops, Wolverine, and Emma try desperately to figure out how to take down Fin Fang Foom and figure out why exactly he is attacking Tokyo right then and there.

It was also very good to see some strong, much needed, character development for Armor, which is sprinkled in at solid moments to break up the chaos with the other X-Men. In fact, it was great to see Armor at all as I think this is a character that needs to be more heavily featured in the other X-Men monthlies.

The Bad

The worst part about this comic is trying to remember what happened in the last issue since the release of this has been so sporadic in the past two years. Never have I read a comic that needed its “Previously In” page more than this.

I also don’t like the fact that Mentallo is the bad guy here pulling off this crazy extortion plot against Roxxon. It just doesn’t seem to fit with the threats the X-Men are always facing in their other monthlies and unless he is working for someone bigger and badder behind the scenes, which would be more his M.O., it just doesn’t work for me.

The final part about this comic that irked me the wrong way was how it portrayed Wolverine. Maybe its because he’s in Japan or maybe he can relate to something being mind-controller, but normally he would not show as much concern as he did for something like Fin Fang Foom like he did once he realized someone else was pulling the strings.

The Verdict

There was some solid action going on in this issue along with some much needed character development for Armor, which I really enjoyed. I have a problem though with Mentallo getting this much attention and Wolverine acting out of character a bit.

In the end, if you weren’t picking up Astonishing X-Men before or can’t remember what happened in the last issue because of such a long delay between releases, then you are probably better for it. Unless you’re a diehard fan of this series, you can give it a pass this go around until it starts being released regularly again.

2/5 Stars