Uncanny X-Men #16 annotations
UNCANNY X-MEN vol 6 #16
“The Dark Artery, conclusion: The Voice of Darkness”
Writer: Gail Simone
Artists: David Marquez & Luciano Vecchio
Colour artist: Matthew Wilson
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Tom Brevoort
THE X-MEN
This is mostly an Outliers story, but Rogue, Gambit, Wolverine, Nightcrawler and Jubilee are there to fight alongside them. Gambit’s Eye of Agamotto teleportation doesn’t work in the Penumbra.
Wolverine has met Henrietta before, and she knows him as “James”. He seems to like her. It’s not clear whether they only met before she arrived at Haven (which could be shoehorned into his continuity without too much trouble) or whether the idea is that he’s also been aware of Haven for ages (there’s nothing in this or the previous issue to directly contradict that)
Deathdream. He tries to put a stop to the fight in Penumbra by declaring himself Shuvahrak’s successor and apparently offering to take over the role. He’s much more authoritative than usual in this form; presumably Shuvahrak has some influence on him once he starts to accept the role. He also glows with power – maybe because he’s in a location that powers him up, or maybe just because he’s accepting the role. Jubilee takes him to be trying to save his friends by claiming the throne of Penumbra.
Charts – 20 June 2025
Oh, come on.
Alex Warren returns to number one for a thirteenth week, beating Sabrina Carpenter into second place by a comfortable 10% margin. There’s a big gap between those two and the number 3 single, but… no, more Alex Warren. Fortunately, next week he will finally get hit with the downweighting rule, and that will get rid of him for good. From the number 1 spot, anyway.
We have to go a long way down to find any new entries:
30. J-Hope featuring GloRilla – “Killin’ It Girl”
This is another BTS single, nicely timed to fit with the band returning from military service. J-Hope has been out for a few months already. It’s only his second solo top 40 appearance – the other was a single with J Cole that reached number 37 in 2023. God, the vocal processing on this is annoying.
The X-Axis – 16 June 2025
ASTONISHING X-MEN INFINITY COMIC #25. By Alex Paknadel, Phillip Sevy, Michael Bartolo & Clayton Cowles. Start of a new arc, and this is still a Generation X reunion book. This time, Paige and Angelo investigate Mursay, an island in the Orkneys supposedly offering itself to mutants as a new home. Naturally the place is hugely suspicious. And hey, Mursay is actually a fairly reasonable name for a fictitious island in the Orkneys! Obviously it’s a lost opportunity to set a story on Muckle Skerry or Papa Westray, but sure, the smaller Orkney islands are a reasonable enough place to do this sort of story. The first chapter doesn’t really set up much beyond “obvious trap”, but it does that well enough, so no complaints.
X-MEN #18. (Annotations here.) End of the arc, and five issues feels like it was too long. Particularly as we still don’t get to find out that much about the individual 3K X-Men, despite them having such a big role. We have fill-in art from Emilio Laiso on the last chapter too, which is perfectly fine but lacking a little in distinctiveness. There are plenty of good ideas in here – the Beast being approached by 3K because everyone knows he’ll turn into a villain in the end, Ben Liu’s slightly-too-aggressive approach to doing the right thing, and the twin being talked down. The bit where she softens on being given a name is very effective, and the parallels with Cassandra’s own back story are left nicely understated. But… it’s still basically a five-issue action sequence which is more of a step in a larger story than a complete story of itself.
Psylocke #8 annotations
PSYLOCKE vol 2 #8
“Into the Snow”
Writer: Alyssa Wong
Artist: Moisés Hidalgo
Colour artist: Fer Sifuentes-Sujo
Letterer: Ariana Maher
Editor: Darren Shan
PSYLOCKE
She’s returned to the bamboo forest where she and Mitsuki used to train as children. Her apparent aim is to hunt down and kill Master Hayashi in order to free the ghost of Mitsuki. However, when she reaches the compound, she finds a likely hallucination of an adult Mitsuki who greets her as an old friend.
More training flashbacks include Kwannon and Mitsuki being despatched to kill a Hand traitor (more of him below). This seems to be a different mission from the one in the previous issue, as they look a little older and Mitsuki’s relationship with yokai is more clearly established between them. Kwannon doesn’t know at this stage about her psychic powers, but they seem to emerge briefly during the fight with theoni.
She used to regard her scars from her training as a reminder of her childhood (apparently in a positive way), but they’ve been lost through resurrection. That might have been a deliberate choice, since Krakoan resurrection generally preserved such things. Perhaps she simply didn’t want to volunteer their significance to her and allowed the Five to assume that they were merely injuries.
Wolverine #10 annotations
WOLVERINE vol 8 #10
“All Happy Families”
Writer: Saladin Ahmed
Artist: Javier Pina
Colour artist: Bryan Valenza
Letterer: Cory Petit
Editor: Mark Basso
WOLVERINE
Okay, so I’m busy today, and this issue is a real blessing, because at least in terms of annotations, there’s not that much to say about it.
Just to recap, issue #8 ended with Logan getting a letter supposedly from his mother, asking for his help. Issue #9 then saw him crossing paths with a yokel in a bar, then running into Department H before driving back to the ruins of the Howlett Estate. On arriving, he defeated Harpoon and Vertigo, and the issue ended with him claiming to pick up Sabretooth’s scent in the building.
X-Men #18 annotations
X-MEN vol 7 #18
“Invitation”
Writer: Jed MacKay
Artist: Emilio Laiso
Colourist: Fer Sifuentes-Sujo
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Tom Brevoort
THE X-MEN
Cyclops. His prediction last issue that the 3K X-Men would fall apart once their leader was taken out proves to be correct. He claims to recognise this sort of internal tension from his years leading Wolverine (presumably referring mainly to the 70s and early 80s stories, which is really when Wolverine was troublesome as a team member).
Magik, Juggernaut, Psylocke and Temper help wrap up the 3K X-Men but don’t get much more to do.
SUPPORTING CAST
The Beast. Wyre has come to offer him membership in 3K. This Beast, of course, is a copy of the Krakoan Beast who was restored from a much earlier back-up, and therefore doesn’t remember any of the previous Beast’s activities in X-Force and Wolverine during Krakoa. But a key part of his character is now the fear of ending up like that again. Wyre’s pitch to the Beast is that he clearly is a monster and should embrace it and join 3K. Presumably this is at least in part mind games, since if they’re even vaguely aware of the Beast’s status quo – and Wyre’s dialogue suggests that he is – then they must know that he’s unlikely to buy into this idea right away. However, he doesn’t throw away their business card just yet…
Charts – 13 June 2025
We’re saved!
1. Sabrina Carpenter – “Manchild”
This is the lead single from her upcoming album “Man’s Best Friend”, and it finally liberates us from Alex Warren’s “Ordinary”, which had been number 1 since March. The margin is less than 5% but I’ll take it. “Manchild” is a perfectly good Sabrina Carpenter single in the vein established by the previous album (and it helps if you stick with it to the middle eight, which acknowledges that if she’s running into this many incompetents, the issue might actually be with her taste in men).
It’s her fourth number one, following last year’s triumvirate of “Espresso”, “Please Please Please” and “Taste”.
The X-Axis – w/c 9 June 2025
EXCEPTIONAL X-MEN #10. (Annotations here.) It’s a skip week for the X-Men’s Infinity Comic, before you ask. So, first up we have Exceptional X-Men, as the three kids finally get to do something. I’m all for the slow pace and character focus that Eeve Ewing brings to Exceptional, and while it’s questionable to bill it as an X-Men comic, I’m happy to see the current X-books doing something as commercially… stubborn as this. The flip side, though, is that it has taken an awfully long time for the kids to actually do anything, and even when they have, they’ve remained in the shadows of the established cast. Axo does get his moment in the sun here: Sinister’s goth Alice in Wonderland mindscape is fun and nicely realised by Carmen Carnero, and Axo gets to save the day by bringing to bear a level of empathy that Emma just can’t summon. Bronze and Melée still feel like they haven’t had their chance to shine, though, and ten issues in, it’s starting to feel like the book needs to kick it up a gear. As the coming out moment where the three teens declare themselves X-Men this… works for one of them? It’s still fine but it’s not really the book at its strongest.
PHOENIX #12. (Annotations here.) Mostly an account of how Sara Grey got here, which calls for an awful lot of fudging of the timeline in order for it to work – and on top of that, we’re pretty much encouraged to doubt the whole thing. Visually, it feels a bit punchier than the previous issue, but I’m a bit puzzled by what we’re doing here. Sara Grey is a dropped subplot from the 1980s given a throwaway resolution in the 1990s – she’s hardly someone that was crying out for a second go. Perhaps the idea is to give Sara someone from home to relate to, but retooling Sara as a messiah figure for a world cuts against that. The issue doesn’t do a great deal to make me interested in Sara as a character – there’s a history here but no real hook.
Magik #6 annotations
MAGIK vol 3 #6
“The Road Back Home”
Writer: Ashley Allen
Artist: Jesús Hervás
Colour artist: Arthur Hesli
Letterer: Ariana Maher
Editor: Darren Shan
And let’s welcome new cover artist Pablo Villalobos, who actually thinks Illyana’s most noteworthy features are from the neck up.
MAGIK.
She still feels guilty about letting down Cal last issue, and is upset that Dani hasn’t contacted her since they last met. X-Men work has been keeping her mind off it.
We get a brief recap of her giving up the rulership of Limbo to Madelyne, in order to give them both a chance at a fresh start, in New Mutants #25-28. Magik also reminds us of the parallels between Belasco using her as a weapon, and Mr Sinister using Madelyne – she claims to see Madelyne as a kindred spirit.
Despite having surrendered the throne, Magik remains linked to Limbo, and the bombing of the Limbo Embassy by demon rebels causes her pain. Even the demons who are loyal to Madelyne still regard Magik as having an equal claim to the throne. Faced with both Magik and Madelyne together, the demons try to look to Magik for instructions.
Phoenix #12 annotations
PHOENIX #12
Writer: Stephanie Phillips
Artist: Roi Mercado
Colour artist: Java Tartaglia
Letterer: Ariana Maher
Editor: Annalise Bissa
PHOENIX
Jean doesn’t appear much in this issue, which mostly consists of Sara giving her account of how she came to be in Greyhaven. She appears briefly at the end, to look overwhelmed by her sister’s return, and to react to Cable’s entrance.
Jean also appears briefly as a child in Sara’s flashback, when she challenges Sara on deliberately throwing a baseball match. From Jean’s point of view, the significance of the scene probably lies mainly in the fact that she can verify it as a real incident. Well, if she does – it’s minor enough that she might think it’s something she doesn’t remember, and she doesn’t actually tell us that she remembers it.
