The X-Axis – w/c 20 January 2025
ASTONISHING X-MEN INFINITY COMIC #7. By Tim Seeley, Edoardo Audino, KJ Diaz & Clayton Cowles. Looks like we’re alternating creative teams on this book now, but Seeley and Audino are perfectly good, so I’ve no read complaints there. This is the first part of a Black Tom Cassidy arc, as he not only tries to return to the regular world, but also has to adjust to being separated from Krakoa. Given his role in X-Force, and his link with Juggernaut, he’s a sensible character to check in with, and this is a solid first chapter. It’s a little jarring at first to see Captain America show up, shrug his shoulders and think “yup, C-list supervillain”, but that’s probably how the non-mutant heroes should see the likes of Black Tom. It’s not like his Krakoan face turn was high profile – he was in the Krakoan secret service. So it makes a certain sense to play him as a character who’s even more directionless than most of the others – except for the obvious question of “So why isn’t he with the Juggernaut, then?” But the story is obviously gearing up to answer that question directly, and so far so good.
UNCANNY X-MEN #9. (Annotations here.) And I guess we’re doing alternating artists on this book, since David Marquez hasn’t drawn a whole issue since #5, and isn’t solicited to do so again until #13 as far as I can see. Mind you, at 18 issues a year, he was never going to draw them all. This issue was solicited with art by Javier Garrón, but winds up drawn by Andrei Bressan, which might explain why it looks a bit rough. Still, it tells the story well enough, and the conversation sequences are pretty good. As for the story, Uncanny X-Men is very much “The Outliers featuring the X-Men” at this point, but I like the Outliers, so I have no complaints about that. I’m not so sure about tying Ransom to Sunspot, though – yes, he’s a character in the mould of early Sunspot, but does it actually help him to draw attention to that fact? The Wolfpack Sentinels work as villains for the newbies, but it does make it a weird decision to use them in an ineffective background role in the “Raid on Graymalkin” crossover. But as another spotlight issue for the Outliers, this does its job quite well.
PHOENIX #7. (Annotations here.) Yeah, the wheels are coming off this, aren’t they? And look, I thought the first issue of this book was promising. It’s not the direction I have an issue with, it’s the execution. In the annotations I put the boot into the baffling plan of luring Thanos’ lieutenants to the fight instead of away from it, but the problems are much bigger than that. Why is Adani just standing around waiting for the plot to call her? Where are the rest of Thanos’ forces, when we established last issue that he’s got entire armies available to him? This is supposed to be a battle for control of the galaxy and of the Phoenix power, but in practice it’s a couple of characters having an argument on a balcony. Where’s the sense of scale and stakes? Most fundamentally, what is any of this actually about, thematically speaking? The book started by putting some interesting themes on the table, but at this point it’s just Stuff Happening. Nor is it making much of a case for Jean Grey as a compelling solo lead – in theory, taking her away from the X-Men ought to create space to draw out a role for her beyond “heart of the team”, but we’re not seeing it. At a bare minimum, this book needs some serious retooling.
HELLVERINE #2. (Annotations here.) Well, it does what it says on the tin. My main problem with issue #1 was that it felt like a Ghost Rider story with Akihiro swapped in, but this issue does a little better at drawing on the X-books’ side of the mash-up. It’s still very much a short-term gimmick – my bet is that this sticks around for about as long as the angel Punisher did – but there are worse ideas if you want something for Akihiro to do for a year. It’s weirdly light on actual characters, as opposed to demons and the possessed, but it sort of sells that as a sense of disconnected isolation. It’s decently paced, Ienco’s art makes it feel more grounded than it has any right to be… basically, if you’re going to do an “Akihiro as Ghost Rider” series, then this is a perfectly good example of that comic. What it’s not managing so far is to sell me on the idea that the series needs to exist in the first place. Mind you, if it was simply a storyline within an ongoing Akihiro solo title, I probably wouldn’t feel that way about it, so maybe I should just view it that way.
MYSTIQUE #4. By Declan Shalvey, Matt Hollingsworth & Clayton Cowles. I’m starting to feel that this book might be less than the sum of its parts. The big idea of the series isn’t so much the story as an attempt to go back to basics with the whole idea of a character who can change shape to impersonate other characters – you should never be sure which character is Mystique. And that seems like a good idea – it’s easy to take Mystique’s powers for granted and there’s a lot to be said for reminding us of why they should keep us on the back foot. Shalvey’s a great artist who can make that sort of thing work and feel fresh again. But it’s also an approach that keeps us distanced from Mystique and makes it hard to actually have her as the lead in her own comic. Really, the book’s solution to that problem is that this isn’t her own comic – it’s a Nick Fury miniseries with Mystique as the villain. And it’s a good take on Nick Fury, who’s easier to identify with when he’s in more of an underdog role. There’s a lot to like here, but is there actually a compelling story underneath it all? I’m not sure there is, but there’s still time for it all to be drawn together in the final issue.
WOLVERINE: REVENGE #4. By Jonathan Hickman, Greg Caullo, Tim Townsend, Alex Sinclair & Cory Petit. Meanwhile, off in an alternate timeline, here’s a post-apocalyptic quasi-western world where ageing Logan still wants revenge on Sabretooth. It’s obviously a riff on “Old Man Logan”, but without that storyline’s grimdark elements – the rather clever inversion is that this post-apocalyptic world seems to be getting back on its feet nicely enough, at least in the town where Forge and the remaining superheroes have set up, and people are looking to the future, but Wolverine and Sabretooth still won’t let it go. This time jump is where the book starts to make sense: the end of civilisation stuff isn’t just a random backdrop, it’s a story about Wolverine and Sabretooth continuing their arch-rivalry even with the world rebooting around them. It really is a great looking book, too, and it would justify its existence simply as an art showcase – but the story is coming together better than I expected too.
How does Cortez’s power boost enable Mystique to duplicate Juggernaut’s powers? His power is magic- he gets it from Cytorrak.
Speaking of Cytorrak. the X-Men appear this week in the 8 Deaths of Spider-Man storyline in Amazing Spider-Man 66. We see that the Juggernaut sensed the menace of Cytorrak’s scions and warned the X-Men so that they could head to New York to stop them. Am I the only person who got the impression that it was Cytorrak who warned the Juggernaut about his scions? Strange implied that Cytorrak rigged the challenge because he wanted the world to be destroyed. But this issue Cytorrak seems oddly nonchalant about his sons’ battles. And when Peter asked Strange about the purpose of the Covenant in issue 64, Strange refused to give him a direct answer. I think that Strange and Cytorrak have more going on here than they’re willing to admit.
As a side note, Breevort has said that he wanted Cyclops’s team to be the one that concentrates on mutant affairs and Rogue’s to be the traditional super hero team. But we’ve seen them intervene twice against super-villains- Hyperion and the Scions. In both cases ,they were threatening to destroy the planet and that would have killed mutants as well. But that just shows how stupid Breevort’s distinction is. Usually, when a super-villain is menacing people, they don’t announce in advance whether or not they’ll hurt mutants, and if they do, who would believe them?
Purple Man: Now I will rape these women!
X-Men: Are you going to rape mutant women or non-mutant women?
Purple Man: Non-mutant women.
X-Men: Okay, we’ll leave you alone.
In practice, Scott’s group just saves everyone. and so does Rogue’s.
The April solicits are out:
In X-Men 14-15, the X-Men FINALLY confront 3K.
Phoenix 10 has the final battle with Adani. It’s been speculated online that this will be the final issue. Stephanie Philips has said that we should be prepared for a new announcement regarding Phoenix. So it’s possible that the series will be rebooted without Adani. OTOH, we were told to watch out for a major development regarding Dazzler and it turned out to be a one-shot. (See below.)
NYX 10 is promoted as the big battle against Mojo. On the cover, Sophie has her powers back and Julian and Synch seem to be with the group. (So Julian’s turn as a villain WAS temporary.) My guess is that the series will be cancelled and we’ll see a new series based around whatever happens with Kamala traveling back in time to the All-New, All-Different era.
In X-Factor 9, Warren is Archangel again.
In Magik 4, Dani will appear.
In Deadpool/ Wolverine 4, Stryfe has his helmet on again.
Dazzler, Lila Cheney and several other Marvel singers will be appearing in a one-shot called Concert of Champions. A new Dazzler project was announced coming this April in the last issue of her series. I was wondering how they would handle it because the first issue of her series sold well but the last two sold horribly. I guess this is how.
Apocalypse and Arakko will be appearing in the third issue of the Power Man: Timeless series series written by Kelly and Lanzing. As Midnight pointed out in the Phoenix 7 thread, why are we finding out what’s going on with Apocalypse and Arakko in the Power Man: Timeless series? Kelly and Lanzingt are writing NYX- shouldn’t the answers be in there, especially since Arakki characters are appearing in that series?
I like MYSTIQUE because Shavley’s art makes it look different from all the other books.
I’m not surprised DAZZLER tanked in sales, because that book was truly bad–complete with a nonsensical payoff in the end.
There needs to be something that makes each of these solo titles stand out from the other ongoing title, and so far (outside of PSYLOCKE, which I genuinely enjoy) there isn’t,
It sure seemed like the “powers” Mystique was shifting into from Cable were his guns and grenades.
I wonder if Mystique duplicated Cable’s law degree powers while she was at if
Some stuff from Breevort’s blog:
There’s some talk about a Cyclops limited series- but it might or might not happen.
Breevort will be the editor overseeing One World Under Doom.
X-Men 10 will feature ” some hopefully-unexpected mutants making a reappearance”.
Breevort describes Dan Jurgens’s run on Thor- ” that has mostly been overlooked and forgotten contemporarily. But it was a very solid-performing title all throughout Dan’s tenure,”
I’m wondering if Breevort’s feelings that Jurgens’s run was under appreciated is why a villain from that run was used as the main opponent for Jean in her series. Unfortunately, it soon became obvious WHY no one had used Perrikus since Jurgens’s run.
And finally, a question about the next cosmic project:
MICHAEL BAUMAN: when will we get to hear more about the next Marvel cosmic project? And can we expect Phoenix to be involved?
TOM:Quite possibly, you’ve already heard about it, Michael!
I wasn’t a fan of Jurgens’ run on Thor. I didn’t understand why people seemed to enjoy it and wished it wouldn’t have gone on for so long. I thought it was boring. Reading descriptions of this Phoenix series brings back memories of how I felt reading the Jurgens Thor series.
I forget who made this observation, but an interesting aspect of Jurgens’ run on THOR is that it stretches across a multi-year period in which Marvel comics were undergoing a transformation in how they were written, e.g. by ditching thought bubbles. Despite being by the same writer, the differences between the first few issues and the last ones are therefore stark.
And then, the run was guillotined hard enough that he found out #79 was his last issue after #78 was written. I believe the editor was still T. Brevoort at that point…
Yeah, it was Breevort as editor. According to Jurgens, what happened was this:
https://www.comicboards.com/jurgens2-rc.php
“Heres what happened: I had written the script for [issue] 78 without any awareness that we were going to be wrapping things up at number 79. What was originally going to happen was that we were going to have somewhat of a concluding chapter in 79 and then, say, in issues 80 to 85 or 86, we were going to bring the next installment of [our] epic story. That was going to be the final touch. That was going to be the ribbon on the package, if you will.
After the script came in for 78, Marvel determined that they wanted to make Thor part of the re-launch that was coming out of the Avengers, so we had to wrap things up much more quickly than I thought we were going to have to. Which meant that [the end] wasnt necessarily going to be the end that I saw coming.
What we wanted to have happen at the end of the story was to position Thor in such a way that he could get something of a “clean start.” If the last few pages [of issue 79] happen to feel a bit rushed if they happen to feel a bit shoehorned in its because we wanted to give the next crew of guys the chance to put their stamp on it. Which I think is only fair. I would certainly want that if I was the incoming writer.”