Review by Karl Verhoven

Over four previous volumes Brian K. Vaughan has gradually been coming to grips with the needs of the X-Men. His characterisation hit the right notes from the start, but the plots haven’t been the stratospheric widescreen hits of predecessors, although Hard Lessons was a step upward. Magnetic North is the full flourishing.

Vaughan continues introducing variations of characters from the X-Men’s mainstream continuity, some such as Doug Ramsey previously mentioned in passing without being seen, and several via the Academy of Tomorrow, a school run via Emma Frost. There’s also a début for a major X-Men villain, this time well used, and everyone slots into an ever-escalating plot.

Magneto is seen on the cover, and readers are let in on him being behind much of what happens over the early chapters, something the X-Men don’t realise, believing him safely isolated in a prison cell where no metal features. “A healthy body count is kinda Magneto’s calling card” is an early pointer as to the activities being carried out under his instructions. Vaughan tackles Magneto’s pernicious ideology head on, but it’s worth stepping back to see how efficiently the various aspects of Magneto’s have been conceived by Vaughan.

Stuart Immonen is back to drawing some people with extraordinarily spiky hair, and while acknowledging the task of having to fit so many people into the pages, this isn’t his finest art, possibly due to an increasing workload as some early pages look great. The climax, though, should have been given distance for maximum impact, but the ending under Immonen is a succession of head and shoulders panels that don’t sell the spectacle.

Vaughan does, though, right down to an epilogue sequence you’ll kick yourself for not seeing it coming. It’s beautifully set-up and is the starting point for further stories. What a shame this is Vaughan’s last volume. Robert Kirkman takes over with Phoenix?