X-Men: Hellfire Gala
X-MEN: HELLFIRE GALA #1
“Time Flies When You’re a Mutant”
Writer: Gerry Duggan
Artists: Kris Anka, Russell Dauterman, Matteo Lolli & CF Villa
Colourists: Matt Milla & Matthew Wilson
Letterer: Cory Petit
Design: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen
Associate editor: Lauren Amaro
Senior Editor: Jordan D White
So yeah, this came out ages ago. As in, July. I was thinking at one point that I’d treat it as the first chapter of the next block of Gerry Duggan issues, which is kind of what it is, but it’s also off to the side a bit. So. Let’s just do it now.
The first Hellfire Gala was a line-wide crossover, but an unusual one. It wasn’t unified by a single story; it was all the different books showing what their characters were up to at the same event. There was a big reveal – the terraforming of Mars. There was a secondary reveal – the new X-Men line-up. And there was a cliffhanger – the Scarlet Witch got killed. But it wasn’t a single story, as such. It was different, and it worked quite well.
The Incomplete Wolverine – 2005
Part 1: Origin to Origin II | Part 2: 1907 to 1914
Part 3: 1914 to 1939 | Part 4: World War II
Part 5: The postwar era | Part 6: Team X
Part 7: Post Team X | Part 8: Weapon X
Part 9: Department H | Part 10: The Silver Age
1974-1975 | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1979
1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985
1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991
1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997
1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003
2004
We’re midway through the Mark Millar / John Romita Jr run. It already carried us through the first couple of months of the year, and when we left off, Wolverine had just been captured by the good guys after his brainwashed rampage on behalf of the Hand. If you haven’t read this storyline, you can probably guess what happens in the second half.
WOLVERINE vol 3 #26-31
“Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.”
by Mark Millar, John Romita Jr, Klaus Janson & Paul Mounts
March to August 2005
S.H.I.E.L.D. deprogram Wolverine by putting his mind through repeated simulations in which his normal personality can finally reassert itself. When the Hand attack with a bunch of brainwashed villains, Wolverine has to be woken ahead of schedule to fight them, but his normal personality is indeed restored. The attackers include a bunch of minor villains that Wolverine hasn’t encountered before – Slyde (Jalome Beacher), S.H.O.C. (Todd Fields), the Spot (Johnny Ohnn), Vibro (Alton Vibereaux), Poison (Cecilia Cardinale) and Leap-Frog (Buford Lange). In a completely random bit of continuity, the scientist who cures Wolverine, Dr Weinberg, is the former Rabble-Rouser, a one-off Human Torch villain from 1964.
Naturally, Wolverin sets out for revenge and atonement. In practice, this means killing everyone he can get his hands on from HYDRA, the Hand or the Dawn of the White Light cult. Basically it’s a mirror of the first half, except now he’s going after the villains. S.H.I.E.L.D. also fret about whether he’s really deprogrammed, but nothing really comes of that.
In the course of his casual slaughter – and this arc is really casual about having Wolverine kill large number of bad guys – the brainwashed Northstar is captured. As for Elektra, she was never under Hand control after all, and she was just playing along. Finally, Wolverine and Elektra lead SHIELD against the bad guys. Elsbeth is apparently killed in a missile strike, while Gorgon is turned to stone by his own powers and shattered. His ridiculously OTT powers are better suited to being a one-off villain, which is how Millar seems to have conceived him.
X-Men #15 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-MEN vol 6 #15
“Collapse Theory”
Writer: Gerry Duggan
Artist: Joshua Cassara
Colourist: Guru-eFX
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Design: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen
Editor: Jordan D White
COVER / PAGE 1. The Children of the Vault with the defeated X-Men. Don’t worry, it’s only a dream.
PAGE 2. Data page. An opening quote from Forge. Note that he’s treating Krakoa as a government like any other. When Forge was first introduced, he was a weapon designer for the US government, and he designed the neutraliser device that led Storm to lose her powers for a while.
PAGE 3. Forge and Cyclops make their way through the jungle.
This is apparently part of the simulation which Forge creates for the Children of the Vault (as explained later), but it’s repeated on page 16 in the real world.
“You wanted to know what I was doing for the Council so much that you put me on the X-Men.” Cyclops did indeed nominate Forge onto the X-Men without asking him in X-Men: Hellfire Gala, leading Forge to assure Professor X that it wouldn’t interfere with “Project Blackbox.” We’ll find out in this issue what Project Blackbox actually is.
A.X.E.: Avengers #1 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
A.X.E.: AVENGERS #1
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Federico Vicentini
Colourist: Dean White
Letterer: Cory Petit
Editor: Tom Brevoort
Although it’s billed as a separate one-shot, this is essentially A.X.E.: Judgment Day #5 1/4. Note though that it doesn’t have the Progenitor’s narration from the regular series.
COVER / PAGE 1. Iron Man in the shadow of the Progenitor.
PAGES 2-3. Recap and credits.
PAGES 4-6. Inside the Progenitor, the team make plans.
“For an Avengers, Eternals and X-Men get-together, this Avenger is feeling distinctly outnumbered.” This feels like a nod to the Avengers’ somewhat peripheral role in the crossover, which only has a peripheral tie-in issue in Avengers itself. It might be said that so far, this is more of a story about the Eternals, the X-Men, and the Avengers’ house.
Sabretooth
SABRETOOTH #1-5
Writer: Victor LaValle
Artist: Leonard Kirk
Colourist: Rain Beredo
Letterer: Cory Petit
Design: Tom Muller
Editor: Jordan D White
So there’s a couple of reason why I didn’t do annotations for X-Terminators #1: one, it’s not that sort of book, and two, my backlog of reviews runs all the way back to this miniseries. But look, the trade paperback’s not out until the start of October. So it’s not late. On the contrary. It’s actually very timely.
And this book is good, isn’t it? Sabretooth isn’t necessarily the easiest character to build a series around. He is, after all, proudly one-dimensional, that dimension being extreme violence. He was brought in to the X-books to serve as a mirror for Wolverine, after all. But in Krakoa he has another role, as the mutant who was banished to the Pit practically on day one, and hasn’t been seen since. In an age when the central premise is that all the mutants are on the same side, even the likes of Apocalypse and Omega Red, Sabretooth is indigestible.
New Mutants #30 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
NEW MUTANTS vol 4 #30
“Still Classic”
Writer: Vita Ayala
Framing story art: Alex Lins & Bryan Valenza
Moonstar art: Justin Mason & Bryan Valenza
Karma art: Jason Loo
Wolfsbane story art: Emma Kubert, Roberto Poggi & Antonio Fabela
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Sarah Brunstad
COVER / PAGE 1. Members of the cast pose – specifically, that’s Galura behind the logo; Warpath, Magik and Karma in the top tier; X-23, Anole and Dani Moonstar in the middle tier; and Cosmar, Wolfsbane and Sunspot at the bottom.
PAGE 2. Letter from the author. This issue is an anthology special celebrating the 40th anniversary of the New Mutants’ debut. It’s not connected to wider storylines and I wouldn’t have done annotations for it if it had been a one-shot, but it’s part of the regular series, so we’ll run through it quickly.
PAGE 3. Recap and credits.
PAGE 4. Data page. Sunspot invites us to the 40th anniversary celebration (or whatever it is in continuity).
PAGES 5-6. Sunspot is unhappy about the preparations for his party.
“Cidade do Paraíso.” “Paradise City.”
Legion of X #5 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
LEGION OF X #5
“A Canticle for Liebenden”
Writer: Si Spurrier
Artist: Jan Bazaldua
Colourist: Federico Blee
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Design: Toom Muller with Jay Bowen
Editor: Sarah Brunstad
COVER / PAGE 1. Legion, Banshee, Pixie, Nightcrawler, Juggernaut and for some reason Storm, standing around.
PAGE 2. Data page. Obviously, this is Professor X writing about his son Legion (David Haller). By likening Legion to something that he “crafted”, Professor X could just be referring to his status as Legion’s biological father – but it’s more likely a reference to the data pages in Powers of X #6 which indicate that Moira MacTaggert deliberately identified genetic partners for herself and Professor X to produce powerful reality-altering mutants. The obvious implication was that this was the genesis of Proteus and Legion. (Professor X’s continuing discomfort with Legion’s power and lack of controllability should probably also be seen in this light.)
PAGE 3. Recap and credits.
“A Canticle for Liebenden.” The title is probably a reference to Walter Miller’s novel A Canticle for Leibowitz (1959), about a monastic order preserving knowledge in the centuries after a nuclear war, until humanity is ready for it again. Liebenden means lovers or loving. A canticle is a kind of hymn. If this sounds familiar, the same book was referenced in passing in Immortal X-Men #3, though that’s probably just a coincidence.
A.X.E.: Judgment Day #5 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
A.X.E.: JUDGMENT DAY #5
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Valerio Schiti
Colour artist: Marte Gracia
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Tom Brevoort
COVER / PAGE 1. The Avengers, the X-Men and the Eternals in the shadow of the Progenitor.
PAGES 2-3. Recap and credits. To be honest, there’s not much annotation called for in this issue, since we’re deep into the story.
PAGE 4. The Progenitor renders its judgment.
And the characters who were already at the North Pole flee.
PAGE 5. The civilians react to the judgment.
Recall that last issue, Daniela and Jada passed, Tom and Katrina failed, and the Progenitor declined to judge either Komali or Kenta. Both Tom and Katrina appear to react to the judgment by developing the self-awareness that they were previously lacking, and that caused them to fail. Kenta is more explicitly rated by the Progenitor as a blameless innocent. Komali appears to be simply waiting to die so that she can be reunited with her late husband.
Wolverine: Journey of Time #1
WOLVERINE: JOURNEY OF TIME #1
Writer: Jody Houser
Artist: Marco Itri
Colourist: Valentina Taddeo
Letterer: Joe Sabrino
Now this – this is completist territory. It appeared on Marvel Unlimited this week, with a listed publication date of 15 August 2022, but as best as I can tell, the only physical edition is a giveaway available exclusively from Moto Guzzi dealerships. They’re an Italian motorcycle manufacturer, and their logo is on the cover. So is their bike. There is no credited editor, although there is a credit for the “project manager”, the “partnerships co-ordinator” and the “Director, Customs Solutions”. So you know it’s going to be class.
Still… let’s not jump to conclusions, right? Jody Houser is a proper writer, after all.
Jody Houser is also a professional. Jody Houser knows the remit and Jody Houser is going to deliver on the remit and Jody Houser is going to cash the cheque because Jody Houser has bills to pay. Logan has seen The Bike on page 1 and he has voiced his approval of The Bike by the start of page 2. The client is happy. This is good. After all, nobody else but me and the creative team will ever read this.
There’s a fight a few pages later. We never actually find out why there’s a fight. I suppose they might be trying to steal The Bike but it’s just a Moto Guzzi V100 Mandello S. You can buy one for £16K, which has to be cheaper than hiring a bunch of criminals. So maybe there’s just a fight, for reasons that aren’t important. One of the bad guys either steals The Bike or tries to escape on The Bike and that’s what matters. Bullseye shows up for two pages, which is nice of him. He needs a better agent. The art is perfectly acceptable. The Bike looks good. We’re all impressed.
X-Men & Moon Girl #1
X-MEN & MOON GIRL #1
Writer: Mohale Mashigo
Pencillers: David Cutler & Marika Cresta
Inkers: José Marzan Jr & Marika Cresta
Colour artist: Rachelle Rosenberg
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Editor: Lauren Bisom
From the “technically an X-book but only barely” file comes this one-shot which, as so often, isn’t a one-shot. It’s the final issue of a three-part miniseries, the other parts being Miles Morales & Moon Girl #1 and Avengers & Moon Girl #1. Once again, Amazon has quite sensibly listed the whole thing as a miniseries called Moon Girl Team-Up, but officially, that’s not the name. Officially, this is three one-shots and they’re all #1.
So that’s irritating me before I’ve even started reading it.
Anyway. The High Evolutionary has stolen Devil Dinosaur and plans to clone it. He’s also obtained a sample of Wolverine’s blood so that he can use its healing factor to stabilise the clones. I don’t remember this ever being an issue for the High Evolutionary in his many years of vigorous cloning, but sure, let’s go with that. In this issue, Moon Girl, Havok and Wolverine head to Counter-Earth to fight the bad guy. Yes, just those two. And again, sure, okay. It’s Moon Girl’s book and you don’t want her being vastly outnumbered. Besides, using Havok avoids just retreading the usual schtick of “wide-eyed pre-teen hero teams with grumpy old Wolverine.”
