Broken Frontier

All hell has broken loose in the streets of San Francisco!  In this issue, a riot breaks out, the X-Men take the fall, and Charles Xavier plus Norman Osborn equals the same side.

In Utopia, the leader of the Humanity Now! Coalition, Simon Trask, has brought his march for anti-mutant legislation over the bridge to downtown San Francisco.  Trask and his mob of supporters do not expect to see the equally large mob of mutants to block their march to city hall.  Tensions boil over between the two groups and a riot explodes in the city.  With the X-Men trying to untangle other mutants from the unruly mob while protecting themselves and restoring order, Norman Osborn and his band of Avengers decide it is time to take action for the good of the city.  Osborn, working with the backing of the H.A.M.M.E.R. program, takes this opportunity to solidify his Avengers as the peacekeepers and Scott Summers (Cyclops) as the enemy.  With the Beast incarcerated for the earlier fighting that day, Osborn’s blueprints for his plan begin to unfold.  Emma Frost and Charles Xavier make some questionable moves in Osborn’s favor, and readers are left on a cliffhanger of epic proportions.

Writer Matt Fraction catches the reader with intrigue from the get go in this story.  Racism is always a volatile subject, and Fraction lets the words speak for themselves in this masterful issue.  The words themselves speak so much louder to a generation of people who are aware of the hatred and separatist movements that have plagued our planet for so long.  In Utopia, Fraction forces the reader to emote with the mob as hate speech is spewed and punches thrown.  It is in this issue that the reader is held captive by the innate violent natures in all of us.

Marc Silvertri pencils a thrilling issue, with masses of people pitted against each other and tension thicker than concrete.  Scene after scene remind some of us about a riot not so distant in our past, that of the Los Angeles Riot of 1992.  Fires, explosions, and mountains of people atop each other are all represented in horrific reality.  A bloodthirsty gaze from Hawkeye and an embattled Beast create images of pain that enhance this story exquisitely.  The ink and color team of Joe Weems, Marco Galli and others bring Silvestri’s vision home.

Overall, this story is one for the ages.  The battle for mutant rights has begun again, and this time, there are no clear lines drawn.