Writer: Karl Bollers
Pencils: Carlo Pagulayan
Inker: Dennis Crisostomo
Colorist: Transparency Digital
Cover Artist: Greg Horn
Here we are for the last six issues of the Emma Frost series and I am sad to see it go. Despite the fact that the middle part was somewhat mediocre “Bloom” comes back incredibly strong and on some levels exceeds “Higher Learning”. I have to admit I was worried at first when I was reading “Mind Games” because I was hoping at some point it would climax bigger than the opening, but sometimes that doesn’t always happen. Well, after reading this, I can assure you that it did!
“Bloom” tells the story of Emma when she finally decided to get out of Boston after the horrific death of Troy. She’s decided to try her hand in college at Empire State University in New York. Knowledge of mutants living among humans is becoming ever more known and protests have begun to happen on campus. Emma is up to her same old school tricks where she simply reads the minds of the teacher and other students to get her good grades. Her life at school seems to be fairly on track aside from constantly being asked out by the star basketball player… everything is right with the world. That is until her old school teacher shows up again, someone she still has a major crush on. This is where things get very interesting. This is at least interesting until another telepath shows up on the scene named Astrid. They quickly become friends and Emma can see Astrid has a lot more control over her powers than Emma. So Astrid essentially mentors Emma in the art of mind control and mind reading. Amidst all this things start to get a little tense with all parties involved and there’s no way you could ever tell it was coming. It’s so well written! Karl has expertly done it again and we can see where Emma started to dislike the human race like some mutants out there. I’ve barely given any of the story away, just merely told who the characters were and not how they enter the scene. But I seriously have to recommend this series to comic fans everywhere.
Emma Frost closes on, probably, the highest note possible. What a superb climax that gives us insight into her background. We literally got to walk with her through thick and thin and boy was it a ride. I’m really sorry to see the series end, but I’m personally glad it ended so well. All too often things end on a sour note or some conflict left unfinished. Emma Frost ends completely wrapped up and well told. We have no real questions and if something wasn’t explicitly told we can figure it out for ourselves, that’s how good of a writer Bollers is. Pagulayan did a great job in drawing this series once again. In some respects I think he captured the scenes a little better this time around. I’m not sure why, it just feels a bit more refined. As always Greg Horn’s cover art was a sight to behold and enjoyable for every issue as far as I’m concerned. Anyway, I don’t think this series will disappoint anyone. Very well done!
Overall Rating: 4.7/5