Era #11, Part 13: On Ice (Uncanny X-Men)

Grade: D+

Chris Claremont continues his run with two more stories. In "World's End" (Uncanny X-Men #455-459), the X-Men encounter a new threat as the Hauk’ka prepare their invasion to reclaim Earth. These Saurians are direct descendants of dinosaurs and have their own mutant super team. They quickly claim their first victory by possessing Rachel who slowly becomes one of them in both body and mind. In the second tale (Uncanny X-Men #460-461), the Exiles return from their dimensional travels, but Mojo and Spiral are hot on their trail.

I am already on the record proclaiming that I do not particularly enjoy Christ Claremont's collaborations with Alan Davis. Normally, they delve deeply into English mythology and lore, but this time, they decide to return to another easy stand-by: a new race in the Savage Land looking for world domination. He followed that with another run-of-the-mill Mojo story (this time artist Tom Raney).  I was bored. 

There were some highlights. It is clear that Chris is dedicated to keeping his XSE arc from the pages of X-Men X-Treme going now that he is back on Uncanny X-Men. Psylocke returns in the exact same place where she was murdered way back in X-Treme X-Men #2 (with plenty of exposition to remind us). It was bound to happen after 3.5 years (who stays dead forever in comics?), but this felt like a good mystery. I also really enjoyed the return of the X-Babies in the second story. 

[4-Stars] Uncanny X-Men (1963) #455

[4-Stars] Uncanny X-Men (1963) #456

[4-Stars] Uncanny X-Men (1963) #457

[4-Stars] Uncanny X-Men (1963) #458

[4-Stars] Uncanny X-Men (1963) #459

[5-Stars] Uncanny X-Men (1963) #460

[5-Stars] Uncanny X-Men (1963) #461

Collected in Uncanny X-Men: The New Age (Vol. 3): On Ice