Uncanny X-Men: Divided We Stand

Continuing my exploration of X-Men, I finished X-Men: Messiah CompleX, which did much to really revolutionize the status quo of the series. Following on from that story, I will be picking up the threads with Uncanny X-Men and the newly retitled X-Men: Legacy, as well as occasional interlinked stories not from those titles, and of course work on building up the back catalogue. Lots of work ahead! To start down that road, I picked up Uncanny X-Men: Divided We Stand, which picks up the pieces for the X-Men team after X-Men: Messiah CompleX.


After the shocking events to close out Messiah CompleX, the X-Men are on a bit of a hiatus. Scott Summers and Emma Frost are in the Savage Land on vacation, while Wolverine, Colossus, and Nightcrawler are in Russia, trying to help Colossus get over the grief of the apparent death of his love, Kitty Pryde (over in Astonishing X-Men, which isn’t reviewed here), and Angel, Iceman, Warpath, and Hepzibah head out west on a mission that is rather mysterious. However, no one gets the full relaxation that they need, as old enemies try to take advantage of Colossus and his friends, while the team that headed to San Francisco meets a powerful mutant force that seems to have turned the city back into the sixties.

Uncanny X-Men: Divided We Stand contains: Uncanny X-Men # 495-499

After the big blow-out extravaganza that was Messiah CompleX, the X-Men needed some down time. That was one of the highlights of Claremont’s run, showing us some of the time off for the X-Men. However, in Divided We Stand things don’t work out quite as well. The Summers/Frost storyline quickly pulls back to San Francisco, where the whole flower-power scene gets a little old after a while. The storyline just wasn’t as engaging as I would have liked it. However, it does come to a satisfying conclusion that sounds the call for a new home for the X-Men.

The Wolverine/Colossus/Nightcrawler story was much more engaging of the two, with great dialogue and good action. The story as a whole felt rather unimportant as a whole to the furthering of the X-Men storyline, but it was fun, and worth the read.

All-in-all, this one isn’t the best of the collections out there, but it is worth a pick up for fans of the series.

8/10