Uncanny X-Men #1 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
UNCANNY X-MEN vol 6 #1
“Red Wave”
Writer: Gail Simone
Artist: David Marquez
Colourist: Matthew Wilson
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Tom Brevoort
This is the sixth ongoing book with the Uncanny X-Men title; the last one was the Matthew Rosenberg run that preceded the Krakoan era back in 2019. The Free Comic Book Day one-shot for this year is effectively an issue #0 of this book, though the opening scene is a flashback to Corrina Ellis’s arrival at the X-Men Mansion, so at least that scene takes place before the FCBD one-shot – in fact, the whole issue probably does.
THE X-MEN:
Wolverine. He hasn’t been keeping in touch with the other X-Men, although he does show up for the death of Miguel, an “old army buddy” we haven’t seen before. They apparently had a bet about who would die last, and Logan feels guilty for cheating by Krakoan resurrection. He advises against joining Cyclops’ group – we saw him leave that group in X-Men #1, and he suggests here that it’s a closed community which is too far under Cyclops’ thumb.
Rogue and Gambit are in Mexico where we last saw them on holiday in the epilogue of X-Men #35. They and Wolverine show up to deal with Sadurang, apparently just as a bit of pre-emptive superheroing. Rogue seems surprised to be treated as the leader, despite having led an X-Men team before during the Mike Carey run. Sadurang accuses her of being a scared little girl pretending to be an adult, and it’s implied that this is to do with the truth-revealing properties of his Eye of Agamotto (but see below). She’s depressed about the loss of Krakoa and wants to find a direction, if only to prove that there was some purpose in the mission that she’s devoted her life to since joining the X-Men.
Gambit gets to face down Sadurang by threatening to destroy his beloved Eye of Agamotto, which Wolverine views as an impressive performance. According to Rogue, Gambit doesn’t really understand her depression and isn’t sure how to help.
Nightcrawler seems to be focussing more on pastoral work these days. Rogue says that he offers to give Harvey X the last rites, although that seems to overlook the fact that Nightcrawler isn’t an ordained priest.
THE SUPPORTING CAST:
Professor X arrives at the Mansion in restraints in the opening flashback. He’s not directly identified here, but we know from X-Men #35 that he’s the “Prisoner X” we saw in the Free Comic Book Day one-shot.
Cyclops cameos to ask Rogue to visit the dying boy. Clearly, the likes of Rogue and Nightcrawler are still on good terms with him even though they aren’t joining his group – this isn’t a schism, they just apparently don’t fancy holing up in Alaska.
Kate Pryde has a one-panel cameo refusing Rogue’s invitation to meet up and form an X-Men team. She reiterates that she doesn’t want to be in the X-Men, calls Rogue “Anna Marie” rather than by her codename, and demands to be left alone. We’ll see more of this in Exceptional X-Men.
Harvey X is a low-level mutant in a regular hospital, and a huge fan of the X-Men. The X-Men visit him for a Make-a-Wish type request, and he’s ecstatic to see them. Then he drops dead.
Marcus St Juniors is a friend of Gambit who seems to run an orphanage in Louisiana, or maybe a foster home (“all orphans are welcome here”). He’s a new character.
THE VILLAINS:
Corina Ellis, the prison warden from the FCBD issue, opens the issue with a vehement anti-mutant screed. She cites Solzhenitsyn’s description of the Soviet purges with apparent approval, and seems to want to create a reign of terror. We’re still not told why she and her group have gained control of the Mansion, but she does claim that “we were invited”. By who? If the answer is Professor X then he might well have an ulterior motive. Oddly, the Mansion is furnished with personal belongings in the bedrooms, despite the fact that nobody has lived there in years. Either this is a weird continuity discrepancy or this stuff is fake (and I’m kind of assuming it’s the former, but you never know).
Two of her sidekicks get speaking parts: Captain Ezra, who seems like a plodding but loyal soldier type, and Scurvy, who we saw before in the FCBD issue. X-Men: From the Ashes Infinity Comic #6 has confirmed that Scurvy is a telepath, something implied but not actually stated in either of Simone’s issues.
Sadurang is the giant dragon thing in Mexico. A footnote says that he fought Iron Man and the Avengers in Savage Avengers #14-16, which isn’t exactly right.
Sadurang debuted and fought Iron Man in Tony Stark: Iron Man #12-13 (2019), which was a “War of the Realms” tie-in also written by Gail Simone. In that story, he’s a sorcerer dragon hordeing riches, who’s sent by Malekith to deal with Iron Man, but seems mainly obsessed with getting Iron Man’s wealth. The suggestion may be that he’s been turned into a dragon in connection with his greed, similarly to Fafnir, though he can also turn into a human form in that story. Anyway, he gets distracted by Wall Street, and then gets beaten with iron as the standard magical weakness.
In Savage Avengers #14 and 16 (2020-2021) – issue #15 is a cutaway to a different storyline – he fights the surprisingly X-heavy makeshift team of Conan, Magik, Juggernaut and Black Knight (who aren’t really the Avengers). In that story he seems to slaughter a lot of people in order to get some peace and quiet for his nap, which makes the X-Men’s reaction to his appearance in this issue a bit more understandable. The heroes are after him to get his Eye of Agamotto, so that they can use it against Kulan Gath. Eventually he gives Magik his Eye in exchange for some peace and quiet in Limbo – apparently he somehow returned to Earth and retrieved the Eye from her. It was last seen in Savage Avengers #16 when Dr Strange locked it away for safekeeping. As for how Sadurang escaped Limbo and retrieved his Eye of Agamotto, your guess is as good as mine.
Although Sadurang’s Eye of Agamotto had been established in the Iron Man story, in Savage Avengers it’s said to be one of three Eyes, and to involve power rather than knowledge. This story seems to treat it as having the same insight abilities as Dr Strange’s version of the Eye. (The third Eye is missing and needn’t concern us.)
Endling is apparently the name of a villain foreshadowed by Sadurang. He says that Endling is “ruinous” and represents some sort of retribution for the X-Men having cheated death. Curiously, Sadurang says that only two of the three X-Men have cheated death – if he’s referring to Krakoan resurrection, surely all three of them must have been resurrected at some point? I haven’t had time to check, though. Harvey X, said to be a low-level precog, also declares that “They’re coming. You have to help them. One of them is the Endling.” He may be referring to the mutants who show up at the end of the issue.
A mystery creature who may or may not be Endling also appears, attacking a mutant called Fawn. This creature is only seen from shadow with massive claw hands, and seems magical, but she also has two henchthugs with stun batons. The largely symbolic bonus page accessible via the QR code seems to be narrated by the same character, judging from the font. In it, she claims that Professor X routinely lets teams die and has new ones come up in their place; she suggests that Rogue and Cyclops are the pillars of the X-Men; and she claims to love Professor X.
OTHER SPECIFICS:
Page 4 panel 3. The room shown has an old-style X-Men uniform in a display frame on the wall, and a stuffed toy of Lockheed. We’re not told who it’s meant to belong to, but Kitty Pryde would be the obvious guess. But see above.
Page 5 panel 2. “Have you read any Solzhenitsyn, Captain? He wrote a trilogy of books about his time in a Soviet gulag.” The Gulag Archipelago (written 1958-1968 and published 1973), a non-fiction series setting out his account of the Soviet gulag system, including purges and show trials.
Page 14 panel 5. “There’s two eyes of Agamotto.” If you want to nitpick, there’s actually supposed to be three, with the third one being missing: Kulan Gath created a fake version of it in Savage Avengers. But Wolverine doesn’t necessarily know that.
Page 15 panel 1. “The favoured student of Dormammu.” Dormammu is a Dr Strange villain; Sadurang’s study with him is practically the first thing he mentions in Tony Stark: Iron Man #12, so he clearly thinks it’s a big deal.
Page 26 panel 1. Somehow, Harvey has managed to get a poster of Giant-Size X-Men #1’s cover on his hospital room wall. If you want to rationalise this in continuity, the usual Marvel Universe explanation is that Marvel Comics exists in the Marvel Universe and produces comic book versions of real-world stories (which, in the case of the X-Men, would obviously be unlicensed).
Page 27 panel 1. Nightcrawler’s gift for Harvey is a Morrison-era X-Men jacket.
Page 34 panel 1: “Before the school, I had nothing.” Mystique might disagree with that, but if Rogue is talking about a purpose that she values, then that’s probably fair enough.
Bonus page: The P symbol with the eye in it is the same one that Professor X’s jailers had on their equipment in X-Men #35.
While the visuals were excellent and I liked some of the dialogue, the disjointed storytelling made it hard for me to enjoy this issue. Were thrown from scene to scene to scene with little connective tissue. The fight with the dragon felt like padding, a chance to show the characters in action in an otherwise talky story. I liked Gambit’s solution, though. The parts with Harvey felt forced. I’m not a continuity hound, but the X-Mansion was pretty trashed during the Krakoa Era. This book might improve next issue, when the main thrust of the first storyline gets going.
The third eye of Agamotto is complicated. In his original stories, Strange used another eye of Agamotto, which later was used by Silver Dagger and Rintrah. So you’d THINK that would be the third eye of Agamotto. However, in Savage Avengers, Duggan confused things by describing the third eye as lost to time.
Note that Wolverine says Dr.Strange has the other eye of Agamotto. Dr. Doom obtains the Eye during Blood Hunt. Does that mean that this issue- or at least part of this issue- takes place during Blood Hunt? Because Wolverine’s appearance in this issue takes place after X-Men 1, and both Illyana and Kwannon are on vacation during Blood Hunt. I mean, it’s POSSIBLE Scott let them both go on vacation at the same time but it seems like letting two members of your team go on vacation at the same time is tempting fate.
Re: Sadurang escaping Limbo- Remember that Evil Illyana took over Limbo for a few weeks between Illyana’s and Maddie’s reigns. It’s possible that Evil Illyana returned Sadurang to Earth for some reason.
Rogue’s “My sexuality is one hundred percent X-Men” line was horrible. The internet mocked it mercilessly.
It’s annoying that Philip being a telepath was only clearly mentioned in a webcomic and not in the actual issue. Maybe Simone would be better suited to making sure she describes the characters’ powers instead of coming up with lines about Rogue’s sexuality being one hundred percent X-Men.
So who is the mystery narrator at the end? She says she loves Xavier. That would fit Moira but I don’t think they’d use her so soon after Rise of the Powers of X. Legion and Xandra might fit but they don’t seem like they would try to destroy the X-Men. Cassandra Nova MIGHT work, since she was the Zealot in the other QR page but I’m not sure if she loves Charles. And I can’t see Lilandra, Gaby Haller or Amelia Voght engaging in a scheme like this. Maybe Xavier got Amelia pregnant and the narrator is their child?
This is the first “From the Ashes” title I have read, due to wanting to give a Gail Simone penned Uncanny X-Men title a chance, and I will also be reading X-Factor because I am a fan of Mark Russell’s work. Gail Simone is a good writer. However, I don’t feel I will be continuing with this book going forward. I find the new direction for the post-Krakoa X-titles to be depressing. There is certainly a back-to-basics feel to this comic, reminding me of a few different late-1990s X-Men directions (post-Onslaught, Revolution). The difference is that this is not the late-1990s, and I’m not the person I was in the late-1990s anymore. It’s not even that I miss the Krakoa status quo, as after Hickman left I felt the books took several missteps. Krakoa feels more like wasted potential rather than a direction which should have continued.
This just doesn’t feel like something I want to read. I think I’m not in a place in my life anymore where I can truly enjoy the X-Men comics any longer. I enjoyed the fact that Hickman’s House/Powers was more of a science fiction plot than another X-Men comic. I understand that 2024 isn’t the time for something following the promise of Grant Morrison’s New X-Men, but if we are looking backwards now, I’d rather read a comic that follows on that type of vision rather than the late-1990s. Well, I gave Simone a chance.
Michael-It’s not Moira. If Brevoort says Cable is too complicated a character to use while the X-titles are being relaunched, imagine trying to explain Moira’s return from Phoenix’ artificially created timeline sealed away from any other reality. I really doubt Moira will ever be seen again (at least in the present Marvel timeline). Hickman’s era is it’s own self-contained circle: Moira was “dead” until Hickman, now it’s like Moira never returned.
Remember that discussion we had several years ago about natural “jumping off points
“?
Chris V (pronounced “Chris the 5th” or “Chris 5”) just announced HIS
That’s what I said about New 52. Even wrote an article for Heidi about it. Jumping on points are perfect jumping off points. But comic fans, often completists and obsessive, can’t always bring themselves to do it,
It’s true. It can be a hard decision. I should have dropped the X-Men after Morrison (only returning to buy X-Men: Legacy under Carey due to enjoying Carey’s writing). I had dropped the X-books a few times earlier in my life (after Claremont and after Onslaught broke me as a human being), but I always found myself missing the characters and going back to buy the issues I missed, so I decided I should save myself the trouble of tracking down back-issues. I don’t find myself missing these characters anymore.
I gave up on trying to follow DC after the Rebirth relaunch ended. I couldn’t even tell you what has been happening with DC Comics since that point. Spurrier’s Hellblazer has been the only DC book I have bothered with in years.
Also, yes, there was a revelation that my name is Chris 5 at the end of the 89th lifetime, when Jonathan Hickman travelled back in time to replace Chris Claremont circa 1985.
Paul,
Do you do research for these columns, or can you just discuss Solzhenitsyn and the continuity of 50 year-old MacGuffins from any corner of the Marvel Universe off-the-cuff?
Impressive either way.
The idea of the mansion (especially in the set-up we see of it) being fully furnished is weird.
The classic version of the Mansion was destroyed by Magneto (or Xorn I guess) at the end of the Morrison run and we got the 2004 Reloaded relaunch redesigned version that lasted through the Whedon/Brubaker era before it too was destroyed in the Messiah Complex storyline.
We had the Jean Grey school which was obviously a totally different kind of campus and the ResurreXtion-era one in central New York.
When was the last time we saw the mansion in the Krakoa era?
I’m willing to give this a shot. Gail knows her stuff and rarely disappoints, at least not substantially.
I figure right now, the X-Men are scattered, demoralized, and discouraged following the fall of Krakoa, the arrest of Xavier, all the other stuff which came about as part of the dismantling of the old era. So now writers are taking the chance to build them up again. Sure, we could have just done a time jump into the new status quo, but I think the current teams wanted a chance to chronicle the recovery and rebuilding. Given that the Krakoan era pretty much launched after a time jump straight into “here’s where we are…” maybe it’s okay to take some time and dig into the characters.
At least, I want to believe it’s going to get better/more positive/more optimistic… I really hope we’re not in for misery porn for too long. (i.e. Kitty sulking in Chicago, Logan running with the wolves in Canada, etc)
There’s a long tradition of the mansion being impeccably restored in the month it takes to publish the next issue. IIRC, Claremont cracked a joke about it in the original Inferno story, so it was already a trope 35 years ago.
I know the X-mansion was seen after this point, but in Giant Size X-Men: Nightcrawler (by Hickman) we saw the mansion overgrown with Krakoan vegetation. To be fair, Xavier’s office was seen to still be fully furnished with his desk and shelves full of books lining the walls. I guess it is possible that they left everything behind in the mansion (to join a cult). The vegetation being gone could be explained due to when the gates were shut down that Krakoa withdrew all trace of itself from the mansion back within itself.
This had awesome art, but was another underwhelming start. All the best X-era launches start BIG in my opinion. Magneto stealing nukes and the creation of the Blue and Gold teams in X-men #1. Genosha being destroyed and the intro of Cassandra Nova in New X-Men. HoX/PoX. The line just feels small scale right now and that’s not an exciting status quo.
“Sadurang says that only two of the three X-Men have cheated death – if he’s referring to Krakoan resurrection, surely all three of them must have been resurrected at some point? I haven’t had time to check, though”
Gambit is definitely dead and then resurrected in Knights of X, Wolverine on numerous occasions in X-Force, but I don’t actually seem to recall Rogue going through the Krakoan resurrection.
She came close in Uncanny Avengers, but there she avoided dying in extremis thanks to Deadpool’s powers.
Mixed feelings about this one. Great art, some nice character bits interspersed with awkward lines or character takes (why are we back to Priest Nightcrawler??? If this is a ‘back to the 90s’, ‘these are the characters as you remember them’ title… Who the hell loves Priest Nightcrawler and wanted him back?).
I’ve loved some of Simone’s books and have at least fond memories of others – but they weren’t memorable because of perfect single issues, but rather because of character interactions and development accruing over time. I wish this was a banger of an issue, it wasn’t, but I’m still hoping that it will hook me over the next few months.
Nut seriously, why is Kurt pretending to be a priest? Especially if there was no significant time jump (not to mention that you don’t get to become ordained in the course of a 6 month time jump…). Is Simone misremembering early 2000s stories? Could be, but if so, it’s an editor’s job to fix that.
I _believe_ (perhaps wrongly) that a trained layperson (which Kurt presumably is) may perform Catholic Last Rites if a priest is unavailable.
But a careful second reading shows hints that Kurt may have been ordained off-panel. When Rogue meets him she asks whether she should call him “father”, which at first led me into recalling how they relate (foster brothers IIRC). And her narration has Kurt offering and having the parents’ approval.
If that is true, it would go some way into explaining why Kurt is there as well and why Scott mentions his presence to Rogue. It may even be a task related to his Priest training.
On the other hand, a quick search informs me that the process usually takes about eight years and requires invitation by a Bishop. It also involves having duties to the Church, so the timing is indeed tricky at best. Maybe Kurt is in training and we will see him having to choose between the Church and the X-Men soon.
Probably worth noting that an “endling” is the last surviving individual of a soon-to-be extinct species, because it seems pretty thematic.
I realize I have beaten this dead horse into glue, but it is absolutely mystifying to me how anyone can come this off the borderline-unreadable Duggan run and the mediocre Percy run and find the books to be anything less than solidly adequate.
@ Matt Terl: “I realize I have beaten this dead horse into glue, but it is absolutely mystifying to me how anyone can come this off the borderline-unreadable Duggan run and the mediocre Percy run and find the books to be anything less than solidly adequate.”
I don’t understand how anyone can come off the exciting and funny Gillen run and the epic Ewing run and find these books to be anything more than underwhelming.
We turn horses into glue by beating them?
That sounds more horrible than the New 52
Beating a dead horse is slightly more fun than reading the New 52
Morrison’s Action Comics and Lemire’s Animal Man hold up to the test of time.
———————————————
“Adequate” really isn’t a good recommendation considering that the X-books, minus a brief Hickman stopgap, have been “adequate” to “barely passable” for years, and the first Simone issue of Uncanny cost $5.99. I also dropped anything being written by Duggan or Percy after I realized that one didn’t need to read every Krakoa-era title to discover key secrets to Hickman’s set-up, while mostly following Gillen’s comics after Hickman.
As I said, Simone is a fine writer, it’s what this “From the Ashes” initiative represents that has soured me. Mostly, I’m simply burnt out entirely on mediocrity or nostalgia in comic books.
1/26 of the original NEW 52 being good does not make the whole of it any less forced and ungainly.
There were two lines in Rogue’s narration about Wolverine (and his later comment about his claws in the hospital) that made me think it’s actually Mystique. Rogue feels weird when they hug at the beginning, saying he never hugs her, and then says Logan pulled away from a second hug after the battle. But maybe I’m reading too much into it.
Full disclosure: I do not understand how to make glue.
“Rogue feels weird when they hug at the beginning, saying he never hugs her, and then says Logan pulled away from a second hug after the battle.“
I admit I am not 100% on Rogue’s current status quo, but not getting a lot of PDA is one of her most iconic traits, right? I feel like maybe both of them are out of character here if he gave her a snuggle and then she tried to reciprocate.
Did anyone else think Harvey being drawn in a relatively low-detail manga style, noticeably different from everything else, was going to be a plot point?
@ Mike Loughlin: “ I don’t understand how anyone can come off the exciting and funny Gillen run and the epic Ewing run and find these books to be anything more than underwhelming.”
I thought Gillen’s run felt like he was being forced to clean up someone else’s mess and was doing so dutifully and competently but will little of his usual flair or excitement. I would say his books, for me, were about on par with this one, and I’m much more excited to have him spending time on the very-strong-seeming The Power Fantasy than wasting it in X-land. I loved Al Ewing’s various runs so much and miss them tremendously, but will happily sacrifice them for linewide competence and a stable of writers that is more diverse and interesting across the board, even with if no Ewing-level superstar has shown up yet.
This was a win for me. It feels significant that after 61 years (!) this issue marked the first run by a female writer on Uncanny (specifically helming it solo, as I know that Kelly Thompson had a short run with Matthew Rosenberg and Ed Brisson). And for me, as much as I enjoyed the big blasts of launch issues growing up, I’m here for Rogue’s introspection and processing of grief – I also very much liked this in X-Men 97 – feels more relevant to me in my life right now and the world? So keen to see where Gail Simon takes it and I really hope it leaves a significant mark on X-Men in a different way.
@Matt Terl : “I loved Al Ewing’s various runs so much and miss them tremendously, but will happily sacrifice them for linewide competence …”
I hate seeing my fellow X-fans set themselves up for disappointment. =(
—
@Chris(es) :
Unfortunate, but this is a jumping-off-point for me as well. Brevoort is an absolutely insufferable editor — i.e. PR person, a Marvel editor’s real job (we’ve seen time and again how very little actual editorial review happens across Marvel’s stable). I cannot stand the dude’s snide attitude and dismissive bullcrap.
Just as importantly, “back to unmitigated, perpetual social anxiety” is not going to provide some missing spark to the X-line. We’ve been there and done that endlessly, and you really can’t dig any lower past the barrel than the Rosencanny era or Orchis reign. The mutant hate coinciding with praise for the F4 and Avengers a also isn’t going to ever get any less illogical.
If the line isn’t going to do anything else with its time, I guess it’s up to me to do something else with mine.
@Glenn Morrow:
I wonder if the reason I’m at least somewhat hopeful for this round of launches is that I cannot be bothered to read any of Brevoort’s public schtick (or any other editor’s, really. I guess I read Hickman’s interviews and what-not but he’s such a process wonk, his interviews tend to have a lot of nuts and bolts mixed in with the hype).
The creative teams include some folks that I like and some folks that I don’t know but am willing to give a shot, which is a good start from an editorial team, in my mind. Is there something specific in Brevoort’s work history (NOT interviews or blogs or whatever) that puts people off?
“All the best X-era launches start BIG in my opinion…The line just feels small scale right now and that’s not an exciting status quo.”
I agree — small scale and kind of scattered? I don’t mind a more “back to basics” approach, but teams/individuals/locations seem all over the place. I’m hoping that’s intentional and we’re moving toward a big re-unification.
[…] X-MEN #1. (Annotations here.) So there’s a lot to like here, but I’m not entirely sold yet. On the plus side, Gail […]
@Matt Terl:: To each their own. I love how Gillen wrote Immortal X-Men, and the highlights eclipse anything I’ve seen from “From the Ashes” so far. Sure, “Rise…” and “… Forever” weren’t as good, but Gillen’s handling of the Dominion and Phoenix plots were more interesting and satisfying than anything I’ve read in the first few books of the new era.
Matt Terl-I try not to follow any creative types online, if I can help it. I am somehow who wants to judge creators by what they put on the page. I certainly don’t have a problem with Brevoort as an editor, in and of himself. It’s pretty obvious he wants a more traditional 1990s style line of X-books, which is all I am judging Brevoort (or more correctly “From the Ashes”). I rarely even look up comic book news online, getting most of it the old-fashioned way by reading Comic Shop News once a week.
The Big Two have been losing my interest for a while and spending $5 on a book that leads me feeling cold or depressed isn’t a good use of that money. I am enjoying Ewing’s Immortal Thor, Spurrier’s Hellblazer, Into the Unbeing, and William of Newbury.
I liked it well enough. Certainly more than adjectiveless, about the same or slightly less than NYX. But I don’t have a lot of enthusiasm for it. For any of the faults and bad titles the Krakoan era had, there was a clean setting and purpose that was unusual in Marvel or DC.
Now we’re back to a more normal status quo, where they have a shared universe but it’s generally background noise except for crossovers. Scott can do his thing and be strongly “back to work, work, work”, Rogue and Gambit can do their thing while not being up for that, Kate can go off and do her own thing too. This isn’t unusual at all for a sub-line like the X-titles. It’s just kind of disappointing after what was something that did tie them all mostly together, and so my energy for the titles is more muted than it might otherwise be. Throw this at me 8 years ago and I’d probably be bouncing.
Maybe I’ve been listening to too many horny X-Men podcasts, but I was feeling some kind of vibe about what Logan was about to suggest when Scott called.
I guess invent your own reason why Rogue wasn’t able to fly in any of the many mutant-adjacent healers to help Harvey.
Having recently listened to coverage of Onslaught and Operation Zero Tolerance on Jay & Miles, I find the mansion being seized/stripped by anti-mutant forces and Charles imprisoned to be seriously retready. Scott’s Alaska group feels a bit like the Revolution era. Everything about this new era feels retready.
My favorite X-Men restart that went nowhere was Lee/Liefeld/David/Portacio.
I’m curious if the Upstarts story would have kept up the energy if it all hadn’t gotten kicked to Kubert, Lobdell, Capullo, and Niciesza.
I can never spell Fabian’s last name.
I wish Claremont stayed on Uncanny writing gold team with Lee on blue team and no one stepping on Claremont and David so much.
Still: PAD being irritated at his Summers brother have crossovers with the other Summers brother feels mildly unreasonable to me.
@Chris- as I understand it, what PAD resented was a policy that prevented writers from including a book’s normal subplots in a crossover, because it might confuse readers who read the crossover in a trade. This was a relatively new policy, since before X-Tinction Agenda, it usually took many years for a story to be collected in a trade. It would have been nice if someone had told PAD about this policy BEFORE he started writing X-Factor.
this wasn’t as bad as x-force but felt weak. Rouge seems very out of character and that is despite the potential for her depression to be a plot twist. When did she have time to hang out with a nurse from a children’s cancer ward. She has been with the X-men continually since she was like 18.
Agreed on the comments regarding both Rogue and Nightcrawler.
Having Kurt disconnect completely from his very obviously blasphemous explorations of spirituality, purpose, and morality throughout the Krakoan era would be harsh enough as it is – a soft reset to him being a priest is, at least on a first reading, tremendously jarring. It’s too big of a “why?” not to raise more eyebrows then those presently on my face, and the issue skips over the context completely.
Rogue’s tentativeness about being a leader is on part with that. I liked Carey’s take best, as far as her character is concerned: a bit sullen and bruised, fiercely committed and very powerful, and willing to come into her own as a teacher, a guide, and a leader.
I just don’t think she works well as the wide-eyed, melancholy, viewpoint character. Especially since she was mostly wrapped up in storylines that have next to nothing to do with the construction of Krakoa itself during the previous era.
Also noticed the moment with Logan, and I actually think it being Mystique could be the more interesting reveal. It’d lean into her being set up as a protagonist and the book’s southern gothic inclinations a lot better, if you think about it.
Another thing that’s striking me as a bit off is that if this is a transitional phase of “where and how are they now?”, it seems to lack the general throughline to make its direction (or lack thereof) more intelligible.
It feels weird that the teams seem largely unaffected by what happened throughout Krakow in terms of their make up. And there’s a lingering dissonance to the fact Rogue just had a chance to meet up with Logan, while Scott has fully set up Revolutionsville in Alaska.
It’s like there’s a strange set of absences that permeate these titles: you don’t really learn much about the situation of mutants in general, or whatever’s left of the idea of the X-Men…
I can’t quite put my finger on it. But it’s almost like we needed something more open ended, episodic, and with a further reach to come to the point where setting up new teams feels emotionally relevant.
If that makes any sense at all…?
Chris
I love that reboot. It goes absolutely nowhere but those 10-15 issues were so much fun to read as a teenager. It felt so exciting.
I still enjoy revisiting them every few years. They’ve got their issues but they’re still a lot of fun.
I don’t recall Kurt ever being a blasphemer. I suppose he was an herectic during the Krakoa era. Not the same.
Are you folks guessing that Mystique is disguised as Wolverine? I don’t think that could work. Mystique can’t emulate his claws, his fighting style or his enhanced senses, which he clearly used in the hospital and again at the closing scene, can she? I could perhaps see Mimic there, but not Mystique.
Is it unusual to call Rogue by her name?
Considering that half of this book is Wolverine and Gambit, it wasn’t bad.
@Luis Dantas- on a data page during the Krakoan era, Dr. Nemesis theorized that it might be possible for Mystique to use her powers to duplicate superhuman powers. But it would be extremely odd to reveal that Mystique had gained the ability to duplicate super-powers off-panel based on a data page from nearly a year ago.
“Gillen’s handling of the Dominion and Phoenix plots were more interesting and satisfying…”.
Very much opposite for me. The Dominion story ending up being all about Sinister and Phoenix was a really odd, out of left field choice as there’s nothing at the start of that overall story that suggests it. Or even in the middle of the overall story, barring a tiny bit about the Phoenix blade in Inferno. There was no part of me that wanted this to turn into the origin story of Phoenix. Then there was Jean’s Phoenix powers just allowing her to do ANYTHING the story needed her to be capable of at any particular moment. And the way in which Enigma came into being making very little sense. Rise of the Powers doesn’t feel like the follow on from or ending of Powers of X at all.
I disagree about the Phoenix not being foreshadowed, although I do mostly agree with your points otherwise. For one, I’m sure that Hickman planned to end the threat of Sinister with whatever his version of “Sins of Sinister” ended up being. However, I did very much like that Gillen understood Hickman’s point about the Dominions and the machines in the end.
Anyway, back to Phoenix. It was right there by Hickman at the very start. A Dominion is threatened by nothing, except the Phoenix and Galactus. The Phoenix is already baked into X-lore, and Hickman wanted to bring Franklin Richards into his cast due to the Galactus connection, but editors overruled Hickman on Franklin. Pair that with what Hickman showed at the end of Life 10A and this story couldn’t have ended otherwise than the Phoenix.
I’m pretty sure the very embrace of the concept of resurrection (and an ethics built around it) is very obviously and very flagrantly counter to doctrine. Blasphemous covers that fairly, I think.
The “Anne Marie” bit is about repetition more than anything. It’s reiterated over the issue in a way that I at least found heavyhanded.
I never enjoyed Rogue getting a name imported from a movie character that she barely resembles.
And the people that know her as “Rogue” likely won’t call her by the other name
Not to mention the whole “letting go of human names” vibe of Krakoa – which would nicely fit Rogue, if bit for some rampant species essentialism, then at least because she’s been completely defined by her powers since her teens.