Uncanny X-Men #518 - Marvel

There's a lot of stuff going on this issue, but . . the majority of it is spent trying to cure Emma. Well . . maybe not so much 'cure', as perform psychic surgery. Scott is worried about Emma's well being, but in order to get her back to her physical self they need to remove the shard of the Void that stayed inside of her when she was trying to help Bob Reynolds, the Sentry. Anyways, he gets inside her head and is attacked by more Emma's . . supposedly different facets of her personality. They claim that they're trying to protect her . . that being human means feelings, and feelings mean pain. So they're trying to push Scott out. Kind of like anti-bodies fighting an infection. But the phrasing and speech tells Scott that this isn't actually the woman he loves, but rather the Void trying to trick him. Together Scott and Emma fight back, and eventually get her back to her human form. But in the process . . the Void has switched tactics and has moved into Scott's head. 'I think the Void has wanted Scott all along. The Void is inside Scott Summers . . .!' Meanwhile we find out that there's still a Predator X alive and it's living in the sewers of NYC. Also Hank and the Science-squad have gone to Magneto for help. Apparently the generators that they built to keep the island afloat aren't sufficient for the job. They're hoping that since this was once Magneto's home, and he's intimately familiar with the island, that he'll use his powers to help keep them afloat until they can fix the situation. He appears to be wanting to be helpful . . for now. Also Hank is having a crisis of conscious. He's not happy with what the X-Men, or Scott have become. He's feeling like anything he may do to help the team is only stop-gap measures until a greater more immediate threat appears. He's getting tired of banging his head against the wall. All of this, plus Necrosha, spells even more change for the X-Men in the near future. I know Scott's trying to create Nation X here, but . . I have a feeling that we're only starting to feel the growing pains. There's going to be a lot more to come. Matt Fraction is doing a great job with this book. Like Chris Claremont, he's got a lot of various story-lines working their way through each issue. However, he doesn't drag them out for months, or years at a time. When things pop up they're handled pretty directly, and then we move on to the next crisis. The problem is . . the waves of crisis that have been breaking Scott's back don't seem to have any end in sight. 'What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger.' Well . . in that case Scott should be a superman by now. I love this book, and I love these characters. Also Terry and Rachel Dodson are doing a terrific job with the art.