Life In Wartime In War Of The Realms: Uncanny X-Men #3

One thing I’ve really enjoyed about War of the Realms as an event is how much it actually feels like a war. For the X-Men, with their recent losses, it might be more than they can handle.

Matthew Rosenberg, Pere Perez, Rachelle Rosenberg, and Travis Lanham wrap up the tale of the X-Men’s war.

The X-Men have transformed a minor league baseball stadium into a fortress, while they pray for reinforcements, particularly Magik. However, Illyana is a captive of Sabretooth, who’s determined to use her to gain favor with Malekith. How can the X-Men- and Wolfsbane in particular- come through to save their teammate and win their battle within the war?

I really enjoy what Rosenberg does here. He tells a tie-in story that ultimately isn’t crucial to read for the full War of the Realms experience, but definitely enhances it and the core X-Men story as well. He keeps the stakes as much about the characters as he does about the plot too, especially Wolfsbane. Rahne gets the spotlight she was lacking outside of the main series, and we get some insight as to where her mental state was before her death several issues back in the main series. Once again though, two major characters die, a trend in Rosenberg’s run that has shifted from “there’s real danger here” to “oh, who’s next?” and that works to the story’s detriment.

Perez has a great eye for action, which makes the issue’s many fight sequences exciting reads. His character work is very good, with character acting feeling genuine and not at all wooden. He does fall down on some of the work with non-human characters, especially Rahne and her family, whose lupine features instead come off as just very hairy people. Rosenberg’s colors set a fantastic mood, using greys and cool colors to emphasize the cold that the characters are feeling.

The war is over for the X-Men… Now they need to get back to their OTHER war. It’s tough to be a mutant.

War Of The Realms: Uncanny X-Men #3 is available now from Marvel Comics.