UNCANNY X-MEN #31. (Annotations here.) Another nice quiet week, then – just two X-books, at least in the main Marvel Universe line. I’m not complaining about that. Uncanny X-Men is still in the “Mars Needs Mutants” arc, which looks like it’s going to be about a bunch of aliens we can’t communicate with showing up to exterminate a bunch of innocent Brood. I’m still puzzled by the fact that the Brood had the aliens’ guns in the previous issue and not in this one. That reads like some sort of error, but it’s one that confuses the plot, so it matters quite a bit. Still, I like the design for the new aliens, and the basic idea seems solid enough. The Vig is quietly establishing himself as a fun supporting character, and the bits with the Outliers’ school dance work well enough. Mutina’s storyline is working for me too, with the continuing mismatch between what she says and what she actually does. As for the Greymalkin B-plot, it feels a bit detached from everything else, and the whole turning mutants into weapons thing is nothing new, but at least it seems to be finally coming to a head.

WOLVERINE #23. (Annotations here.) Well, Julius Ohta’s art has some memorable moments. I do like his Taskmaster towering over Wolverine, and the way he’s using the sai as a kind of improvised claws. He sells the terrified scientist at the end rather well, too. Beyond that, I really don’t know what Saladin Ahmed is trying to do with the book at this point. I’m just about willing to look past the idea that Cecilia Reyes can knock up an anti-nanite serum in ten minutes, but what’s any of it meant to be about? Maybe it’s meant to be something about Wolverine’s anger being both his strength and his weakness, but that’s hardly new either. I certainly don’t know who was crying out for a new incarnation of Post, a character who was killed off more than 25 years ago and never had much going for him beyond his character design (and then only when drawn by Andy Kubert). There’s nothing especially bad about this on a page-to-page level, but when I stand back I just can’t see anything new here.

X-MEN UNITED #5. (Annotations here.) I have no idea how much weight you can really put on Amazon listing this as issue #5 of 10, but I can’t say it would surprise me, because the book isn’t working at all. The art’s decent enough in this issue – probably as good as we’ve had it so far – but the fundamental concept of Graymatter Lane just doesn’t work, and I’m not entirely convinced that even the people making the comic understand it. It’s taken five issues to clarify that this is in fact just a mental projection and that everyone’s body is meant to be asleep at home – but if that’s the case, how does any of this stuff about Rift teleporting people direct to places on Earth work? This isn’t nitpicking, this is really basic, rudimentary stuff that feels like nobody has thought it through properly. And now we’re doing a psychic projection inside a psychic projection? I can live with things like the new characters being given inexplicable seniority over the long-time students – it doesn’t make any logical sense but that’s just the nature of rotating casts, and at least there’s some sort of gesture towards a reason for Axo to have a role here. And sure, we’ve defined Ransom and Melée as potential alpha figures, so let them take control. Fine.

But the premise of this book requires us to either buy into Graymatter Lane as a cool idea, or accept its USP as the team-up book where characters from different parts of the franchise get to interact. Graymatter Lane is a confusing mess, so that leads the interaction angle. That could work, in an era where the X-books are individually siloed, but they aren’t really interacting in a convincing way. The likes of Cyclops feel off, and the whole thing feels very inconsequential. If the basic format of this book really boils down to “a bunch of random characters go on a mission that doesn’t matter” then that’s Secret Defenders and the X-books doesn’t need one of those.

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