The more I think about it the less I mind IC #7. It's still a bit anti-climactic, action-wise. Oh yeah, and it contains my least favorite plot deivce ever: The killer slips up and says something he/she shouldn't know, thus revealing him/herself. Fuck you Minority Report. But it seems like they would have had her anyway, so that's not awful. Anyway, I'm starting to feel like maybe it does make sense. In this crazy larger-than-life world of heroes it may actually make some sense that Jean would think the only way to get Ray back was by trumping up some danger. After all, isn't almost every superhero relationship built around some amount of deadly peril?

I need to sit down, read the whole thing through and let it settle.

To address what Alex says below, I think the best thing to come out of IC may be the ramifications for the big leaguers. There were a ton of good subplots left running. They aren't really dropped threads because they end up not being involved with the murder, but they all came out in IC: the power pact, Batman being mind-wiped, Wally West has some interesting stuff going on, New Boomerang (who's his mom?), Dr. Light is dangerous again, Calculator as the evil Oracle. This is all good stuff.