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.