I have to give Mike Carey credit. He's making the "X-Necrosha" crossover work for his title in a way that makes it feel like it was his story all along. After all, "X-Men: Legacy" first involved a lot of looking to the past for Professor X and the X-Men in general. Now, the "Legacy" part of the title isn't about the team's past, but rather about training the X-Men to come. So how great is it that Carey gets a reason to merge the two into one?

After all, there are a lot of dead X-Men friends and foes from over the years. When Destiny first showed up in the "X-Necrosha" one-shot I was impressed, because she's a character who is not only acting in a different manner than the other zombies, but because of her connection to "X-Men: Legacy" protagonist Rogue. From there, Carey keeps connecting the dots, pulling Blindfold, Psylocke, Colossus, Nightcrawler, Magneto, and several of the trainees into the mix. With so many characters available at Carey's disposal, it's fun to watch him mix and match line-ups for just the right grouping needed.

Once the X-Men arrive at Muir Island, anyone who's read a lot of "X-Men" will see exactly where this story is coming. It's the one frustrating part with this issue, unfortunately; you see the ending coming a mile away even as the characters stumble blindly forward. When the reveal finally shows up at the 11th hour, it's the obvious come to life. I'm actually more interested in Destiny than this other villain from the dead, and hopefully the remaining parts of the story will focus more on her.

Clay Mann's guest pencils are good, if not great. He has a good sense of the X-Men and how they move, and he's particularly good at close-ups on the various characters' faces and how they react to developments in the script. He's also good at making characters look strong; the scene between Colossus and Psylocke on the beach, for instance, feels right because of the poses he puts the two of them in. I don't think I'd necessarily remember Mann's art six months down the line, but it's certainly solid and dependable work.

As a small sub-crossover within the X-Book family, "X-Necrosha" is proving to be an entertaining story that fits well with "X-Men: Legacy" and "New Mutants," despite being a story that originated (and ends) within "X-Force." Carey's turned "X-Men: Legacy" into a pleasant companion to "Uncanny X-Men" and it's a nice extra helping of these characters every month, just like it should be.