The X-Men battle another alien threat in X-Men #2, by writer Gerry Duggan, artist Pepe Larraz, colorist Marte Gracia, and letterer Clayton Cowles. This is another entertaining issue, but beyond one passage, it’s also surprisingly hollow.

After Rogue busts up a poker game and Jean Grey trains Synch how to use her telepathy, the X-Men are called to Kansas, where another denizen of Cordyceps Jones’s alien space station tries to destroy Earth using the Annihilation Wave. The X-Men save the day, defeating the Wave, getting valuable information on Jones, and eating Kansas barbecue. Meanwhile, Doctor Stasis sits down to some good reading- the autopsy reports from the X-Men’s attack on Mother Mold.

After the last two years of getting radically different X-Men stories, this book just kind of feels like a back-to-basics sort of thing. It’s almost like the old days at the X-Mansion, and that just doesn’t feel right anymore. The X-Men being superheroes and fighting aliens to save humans? It’s all so cliche and safe in a lot of ways. Sure, there are the trappings of the new Krakoan status quo, but that’s all.

This isn’t a bad comic- it’s action-packed, Duggan has a good grasp of the team’s individual voices, and the plot is superb, but it feels empty. Sure, the X-Men save a bunch of humans, and everybody has a mega happy ending where they put aside their differences to eat together. There’s mention of the Synch and Wolverine romance, and Gambit makes a roguish appearance (pun intended). It feels by the numbers and just sort of there. The Cordyceps Jones thing is fascinating, as is everyone trying to figure out Krakoan resurrection more, but after the Hickman revolution, this is safe X-Men storytelling. The only part of the book that resonates is Sunfire’s monologue about why he wanted to be an X-Man again because up until now, there didn’t even feel like there was a reason he was on the team.

The art is still amazing. Larraz and Gracia are one of the best art teams to work on an X-Men book in a while. The characters look great, the Annihilation Wave looks great, and it’s just an all-around joy to look at. Gracia knows how to light a scene like few others- the scenes with the X-Men fighting the Annihilation Wave bugs are dark, but the darkness never obscures the art, which is perfect- Larraz really has to be seen to be believed in this book.

X-Men #2 is entertaining if what you want from an X-Men comic is different from what Hickman has been doing. It’s a standard superhero book now, which is fine. Duggan does an excellent job with that sort of thing, and the book is never dull- every page gets used well. Larraz and Gracia are phenomenal once again, probably one of Marvel’s best art teams working right now. X-Men is a superhero book again, for better or for worse.

Grade: B