Book of the Week 4/16/08 X-men: Divided We Stand #1

Written by Mike Carey, Craig Kyle, Chris Yost, Skottie Young, Matt Fraction
Art by Brandon Peterson, Sana Takeda, Skottie Young, David LaFuente, Jamie McKelvie
Letters by Cory Petit

I make a pull list every week before going to my store and I saw X-men Divided We Stand on Marvel's list of new books and I completely disregarded it. I thought it was a collection of stories gathered after messiah complex or at best a preview book of things to come and I decided that was not going to be worth my money. But when I got to my store I found that this book was already in my box and it being a somewhat light week, I decided to go for it and I am glad that I did.

Divided we stand is a group of short stories following various X-men characters following Messiah Complex and it was truly a great book. I've had my fair share of complaints about Messiah Complex, mostly about missing characters in the aftermath and this book did an excellent job of showing different characters reacting to what being an X-man meant to how they deal with the team no longer being around.

The stories varied from good to great but the stories with the New X-men were truly touching and emotional. I'll go into depth more on this week's podcast but there was a certain storyline in this book that really addressed something very important about being a young student at Xavier, something that I don't ever think has been addressed before.

Over all this book should have came out a couple of months ago and it would have really helped smooth the transition from Messiah Complex but regardless it was a book filled with wonderfully crafted character examinations and truly touching emotional moments.

This is a must read for any X-fan out there.