A new creative team comes aboard with a three-parter that pales in comparison to the intriguing run that came before it.
We do get a nice Blackbird crash, though, and the first appearance of Sammy Pare, aka Squid-Boy.
The stories here feel very familiar. There’s several of them told at the same time, and they don’t have much overlap. There’s a huge cast. It is heavy on continuity. There’s nothing wrong with this formula per se, but Joe Casey’s writing had been so different that it feels stale to come back to this.
Professor X recruits Squid-Boy, who has been bullied and wants revenge. Black Tom is a plant guy now and and Juggernaut fight some X-Men for a bit but ultimately Juggernaut joins them because he likes Squid Boy.
Also, Havok is found by a nurse who falls in love with him even though he’s in a coma. This kind of silliness is just annoying at this point, when other Marvel series are revolutionizing superhero storytelling.
I don’t really understand why this arc is called “Hope.”
The Austen run…so it begins.