Like a sadist I picked up Uncanny X-Men Volume 3: Holy War TPB
. I really should have learnt my lesson after reading Volumes 1 and 2, but clearly I'm a slow learner. The trade paper back Holy War, collects Uncanny X-Men issues #421-427. In this collection, writer Chuck Austen seems to have struck a new low in his Uncanny X-Men run.
Once again he persists with the angst ridden love triangle of Alex Summers (Havok), Lorna Dane (Polaris) and "Nurse" Annie, which culminates in a wedding and a 'surprise' (that is sarcasm) twist. Does Alex love Lorna? Or does he love Annie? Woe is he. I would write more about it, but that about sums up that plot line.
The other major plot featured in the collection is the "Holy War" itself. This story focuses on The Church of Humanity's attempts to use Nightcrawler to bring down the Catholic Church. Essentially Nightcrawler begins to show signs his faith is wavering. The Church of Humanity, led by a former nun who was raped by a priest (hence her anti-Catholic motivation), target Nightcrawler with plans on making him the next pope and then revealing him to be the devil (due to his appearance)... or something... Basically this plot line, like the rest of the book sucked, and made very little sense. I get the impression that Chuck Austen is not the biggest fan of the Catholic Church.
The only glimmer redeeming feature in this collection is the story of Cain Marko (The Juggernaut) and his relationship with young mutant recruit Sammy. Following the Juggernaut has he tries to redeem himself is the most interesting idea Austen seems to have developed in the three volumes of his run I've read so far.
In summary, this is the worst collection I've read to date, even worse than volume 2. The characterisation of Nightcrawler in particular was hard to take... apparently Austen writes Nightcrawler as an emo kid? On a side note, this is another trade paper back that has Wolverine on the cover even though he appears in the six issues collected briefly. Avoid this one like the plague, unless you just have to have the whole set. 1 out of 10
This post has no comment.