X-MEN UNLIMITED INFINITY COMIC #13-20
“Paradise Lost”
Writer: Fabian Nicieza
Artist: Matt Horak
Colourists: Matt Horak (#13-18) and Rachelle Rosenberg (#19-20)
Letterer: Joe Sabino
Editor: Jordan White

If you’re not subscribed to Marvel Unlimited, you might expect that the vertically-scrolling, digital only Infinity Comics would be complete throwaways. You’d be largely right; there are a lot of cutesy comedy stories there, plus some regular stories that would have made fairly uninspired fill-in issues. There are exceptions, though. The Kushala Infinity Comic was, if nothing else, a proper origin miniseries for a new character. Spine-Chilling Spider-Man isn’t important to the wider plot, but it’s written Saladin Ahmed and it’s worth your time if you have a subscription.

X-Men Unlimited, uniquely, is an actual ongoing series where stuff happens that actually matters to the regular books. Not stuff that’s hugely important, admittedly, but it’s a place where the status quo of minor characters can be genuinely change. Which might explain why it’s going to get print editions, though I can’t for the life of me understand how the Hickman / Shalvey arc, which is pretty much built around vertical-scrolling storytelling gags, would ever work in that form. Buy it if you must have a physical archive version, but read it online.

This arc is a sequel to Fabian Nicieza’s Juggernaut miniseries from 2020-21. I suspect a bit part of the reason why it exists is that the miniseries set up Juggernaut with a new status quo – leading a group of ex-villains called the Unstoppables, who were going to rescue other villains from people who wanted to exploit them. But in that book, Juggernaut wasn’t allowed on Krakoa, because he wasn’t a mutant. And in Legion of X he’s going to be on Krakoa. So there’s a gap to be bridged.

Which is fine as a starting point. There are tons of stories to get from A to B there. Sensibly enough, Nicieza decides that the way to go here is to follow up the story he set up in Juggernaut.

The basic conceit here is that with most of the mutants safely ensconced on Krakoa, the mutants who are still out there in the wider world have become particularly attractive to the sort of bad guy who wants to experiment on them. Even, in this case, lowly minor characters like Rubbermaid. Come on, Rubbermaid. You remember her. She was a random student with a speaking part from X-Treme X-Men #20! She’s a Chris Claremont / Salvador Larroca character! That’s pedigree!

Rubbermaid has wound up in government custody, and the X-Men ask the Unstoppables to pop in and break her out in a nice deniable fashion. Deadpool, meanwhile, has been hired to capture her for the Warden, the villain from the Juggernaut miniseries, who wants to experiment on mutants in order to copy their powers. Deadpool utterly fails to get her away from the Unstoppables and winds up teaming with them against the Warden. Nice and simple.

I’m not hugely familiar with artist Matt Horak; I think his only previous work for the X-office was the final issue of Age of X-Man: Prisoner X, which is obviously fill-in work. He’s done arcs on Punisher and Spider-Man / Deadpool, though, and he’s a solid enough storyteller. He’s certainly got the hang of vertical storytelling. I’m not so much thinking of the gimmicky stuff like the vertical repetition – and Nicieza’s clearly fond of that joke, which is fair enough – just the straightforward momentum of the action sequences. I like his version of Cain, too – he comes across as a well meaning meathead, trying to play the hero role but conscious of his own lack of qualifications and his own exclusion from the rest of the X-world. There’s something attractively rough around the edges about his work, too.

In plot terms it’s a Juggernaut story with Deadpool as a random guest star, but the book does benefit from having him around. Everyone else in the core cast, including the Warden, is either taking things terribly seriously, or at least very angst-ridden. In the miniseries, D-Cel served the role of undercutting all that. She’s on Krakoa now, so Deadpool’s serving the same function. And you can do the odd gag with Deadpool, who can see through the fourth wall, enjoying the novelty of a new medium. (“Is it wrong that I am very excited to see this thing crash in a vertical scroll?”)

All this leads to the Warden giving himself tons of powers all at once, and heading to Krakoa as a seemingly unstoppable force, thus giving Juggernaut and Deadpool, the two semi-detached members of the X-family, a good reason to go there and save the day. It all works pretty well in terms of tying up the Warden storyline. On the other hand, it doesn’t really tie up the Unstoppables more generally (nor does it pretend to), and it’s a slightly odd call to keep the rest of the team on the sidelines for half the arc. And the stuff which tries to justify Cain being welcome on Krakoa in future is a bit underdeveloped.

But it’s likeable enough, and Nicieza makes the Juggernaut into quite an engaging hero. It’s not a home run but it’s more than decent.