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Title: X-Men: Emperor Vulcan
Writer: Christopher Yost
Artist: Paco Diaz
ISBN: 0785125515
Format: Trade Paperback
Page Count: 120
Overall Concept 7
Execution 8
Art 7

This 5 issue limited comic series picks up immediately after the events at the end of the Rise and Fall of the Shi'ar Empire (see previous post). The story follows the exploits of the heroes (Havoc, who has become the leader of the Starjammers due to events in the aforementioned story line, the Starjammers, the disposed Shi'ar Emperess, her military advisor, and the X-men who stayed behind with Havoc) as they try to fight against and take down Vulcan and what he has become. And this is all while a previously unknown threat to the Shi'ar arrives to eradicate them.

Christopher Yost does an excellent job of picking up where Ed Brubaker left off, and does such without the reader knowing the distinction. The story flows very naturally from the Shi'ar events. Mr. Yost has done a very good job of maintaining the feel of the story and keeping the 'voice' of the characters both the same to what Mr. Brubaker setup and to what us X-fans expect of these characters.

The art of Paco Diaz is not disparate enough from Billy Tan disjoint the story from the previous arc, and is enjoyable of itself.

The story does a great job of wrapping up elements left from the Shi'ar arc, yet also make new ones that can, at some future date, be appropriately addressed.

If as the old adage goes, "Always leave them wanting more", then Mr Yost and Mr Diaz have succeeded. I'm nearly chomping at the bit to find out what happens next with our heroes and the state they are left in at the end of the story.

I would recommend this story only to those X-fans who have already read the Deadly Genesis and Rise and Fall of the Shi'ar Empire stories, and only if they, as I do, like the characters in question in this series. I say this as this story is isolated from the rest of the Marvel universe and as such is not required reading.