As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.

X-MEN BLUE: ORIGINS #1
Writer: Si Spurrier
Artists: Wilton Santos (with Oren Junior) & Marcus To
Colour artist: Ceci De La Cruz
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Sarah Brunstad

COVER / PAGE 1: Mystique and Nightcrawler (in his Spider-Man costume) in action together. I think the thing in the background is meant to be the Stark Sentinel from Uncanny Spider-Man #4.

X-Men Blue: Origins. The title is a play on the ongoing series X-Men Blue that ran for 36 issues in 2017-2018.

PAGES 2-5. Flashback: Mystique resists Professor X’s mental control and falls off a cliff.

This is a straight recap of a scene in X-Men: Hellfire Gala 2023 #1. We were told in that issue that her body was taken away by the sea, and naturally she showed up again in New York in Uncanny Spider-Man #1.

The recap narrator is the mysterious Bamf that hangs around talking to Nightcrawler, invisible to everyone else, in Uncanny Spider-Man; for present purposes, though, he just gives us a bare-bones recap of Hellfire Gala.

PAGE 6. Flashback: Mystique escapes the Hellfire Gala.

Basically, Mystique picks herself up pretty much immediately, already obsessing about “my baby” (as she has been in Uncanny Spider-Man). She kills and replaces a random Orchis soldier and escapes that way.

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As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.

REALM OF X #4
“The Promised Day”
Writer: Torunn Grønbekk
Artists: Diógenes Neves & Rafael Pimentel
Colour artists: Rain Beredo & Dono Sánchez-Almara
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Lauren Amaro

COVER / PAGE 1: Saturnyne watches as the cast are trapped in an hourglass. This doesn’t really have much to do with the story.

PAGE 2. Sif learns what’s happening in Vanaheim.

Sif took over as guardian of the Bifrost in King Thor #4 (2019) following the death of her brother Heimdall, and now has the same all-seeing powers that he used to. The Bifrost itself has actually been destroyed for most of her tenure, but it was recently restored in Immortal Thor #1. Although we don’t see the Bifrost in this issue, it’s mentioned twice as something that exists, so evidently we’re after that issue. That also means that Thor is wrongly drawn in the costume from his previous series throughout this issue, though that’s a minor error; he’s allowed to have more than one set of clothes.

Saturnyne has been magically preventing communication between Asgard and Vanaheim throughout this series, which we’ve seen mainly in the form of the prayers and messages from Vanaheim failing to generate a response from Thor. Curse used her powers to shut down that effect at the end of issue #3; Saturnyne’s “What did you do?” line is repeated from that issue.

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As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.

UNCANNY SPIDER-MAN #4
“Slice and Dice”
Writer: Si Spurrier
Artist: Lee Garbett
Colour artist: Matt Milla
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Sarah Brunstad

COVER / PAGE 1. Nightcrawler and Spider-Man fighting a Stark Sentinel.

PAGES 2-5. Nightcrawler watches Spider-Man deal with an anti-mutant mob.

Nightcrawler decides to leave it to Peter to deal with this – and he’s probably right that Peter’s better placed to try and calm the mob than he is. But the little ghost Bamf clearly sees this as another example of Kurt hiding from his problems. And he’s probably right too.

The Bamf also tells us directly that he isn’t an illusion. Admittedly, he would, wouldn’t he? But that’s consistent with issue #1, where he seemed to be able to shield Kurt from the Stark Sentinel’s detection.

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As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.

WOLVERINE vol 7 #39
“Last Mutant Standing, part 3”
Writer: Benjamin Percy
Artist: Juan José Ryp
Colour artist: Frank D’Armata
Letterer: Cory Petit
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Mark Basso

COVER / PAGE 1. Wolverine and the Black Panther fight Orchis.

This should be a fairly short one, because it’s simply another one-shot story with a guest star. Nothing wrong with that, mind you.

PAGES 2-4. Jun Wei is rejected by the Wakandan Prime Minister.

Wakanda. The current status quo in Black Panther is that T’Challa has been exiled, and the country is currently supposed to be undergoing a transition to democracy under the leadership of Prime Minister Folasade.

Jun Wei is the same Orchis officer who was kidnapped and briefly controlled by Chronicler over in X-Force.

“As you know, we are responsible for the exile of the mutants from Earth…” This is Orchis’s standard explanation of what happened in Hellfire Gala.

“Wakanda was wise not to sign the treaty with Krakoa.” Wakanda has indeed always been listed as refusing to enter into a treaty with Krakoa, on a list otherwise populated mainly by dodgy regimes. The official reason given was that the Wakandans simply didn’t need Krakoan drugs, and so Krakoa had no leverage with them. Black Panther has become rather more equivocal in its depiction of Wakanda over the last few years, but it’s still positioned here very clearly as taking the moral high ground. (Though not, apparently to the extent of actually offering mutants asylum.)

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As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.

IMMORTAL X-MEN #17
“The White Hot Danger Room”
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Juan José Ryp
Colour artist: David Curiel
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Jordan D White

COVER / PAGE 1. Jean Grey in contemporary costume, surrounded by images of her from various points in her life. From left to right, that’s:

• A Jean we can’t see enough of to place.
• Late 1980s X-Factor Marvel Girl
• Late 1960s X-Men Marvel Girl
• Phoenix / Black Queen from the Dark Phoenix Saga.
• Early 1990s X-Men Jean Grey
• Early Silver Age Marvel Girl
• Phoenix in X-Men #101, rising from the water with Cyclops in front of her.
• X-Men Red Jean Grey
• Morrison/Quitely New X-Men Jean Grey
• Another Jean too small to identify.

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As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.

CHILDREN OF THE VAULT #4
“Kill the Future!”
Writer: Deniz Camp
Artist: Luca Maresca
Colour artist: Carlos Lopez
Letterer: Cory Petit
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Sarah Brunstad

COVER / PAGE 1. Cable and Bishop fight the Children of the Vault.

PAGE 2. Cable threatens to shoot the City.

This is where we left off last issue.

PAGE 3. Recap and credits.

PAGE 4. Rodrigo Muñoz reacts – kind of – to the battle.

We saw Rodrigo before in issue #1. He was the kid wandering around the lithium fields just before the City showed up overhead.

As Martillo explained in issue #2, the Children’s “Message” transforms people “first in mind, then in body”; most humans will die in the process, but the tiny minority who survive will become Children of the Vault. Clearly, Rodrigo is some way into his transformation.

“Tierra Desnuda”, the name of Rodrigo’s Children-built “Tomorrow Town”, was previously given in issue #1.

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As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.

JEAN GREY vol 2 #4
“Ashes to Ashes”
Writer: Louise Simonson
Artist: Bernard Chang
Colour artist: Marcelo Maiolo
Letterer: Ariana Maher
Design: Jay Bowen
Editor: Sarah Brunstad

COVER / PAGE 1. Assorted Jean Greys squabble over who gets to touch the Phoenix Force.

PAGE 2. Jean is surrounded by other Jean Greys.

This is where we left off last issue. Leaving aside the two Jeans who are shown only in silhouette, the other Jeans on page 2, from left to right, are:

• Jean in her costume from the 2018 X-Men Red series.
• Jean in X-Men #100, just before she becomes Phoenix.
• Dark Phoenix.
• The Goblin Queen.
• Late 1960s Marvel Girl
• Time-travelling “Silver Age” Jean Grey from All-New X-Men.
• Jean Grey from the Morrison/Quitely New X-Men.

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As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.

ASTONISHING ICEMAN #4
“Out Cold, part 4”
Writer: Steve Orlando
Artist: Vincenzo Carratù
Colour artists: Java Tartaglia with Chris Sotomayor
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Designers: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Mark Basso

COVER / PAGE 1. Iceman and Spider-Man in action.

PAGE 2. Iceman races off from his citadel.

The previous issue ended with Iceman getting back home but quickly heading straight back out to deal with a problem in New York, which we saw was Feral (as a Hound) attacking Spider-Man. Mr Clean was fairly obviously engineering these events to lure Iceman away from the citadel and leave it unguarded. As we’ll see later on, Iceman has actually got some security measures in place – he’s not an idiot – but they don’t get the job done.

PAGE 3. Recap and credits.

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As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.

DARK X-MEN vol 2 #4
“Up Jumped the Devil”
Writer: Steve Foxe
Artist: Jonas Scharf
Colour artist: Frank Martin
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Jordan D White

COVER / PAGE 1. Chasm in the foreground, with Feint, Gambit, Goblin QUeen and Havok behind.

PAGES 2-5. Gambit brings Rogue up to speed.

Rogue is appearing over in Uncanny Avengers. So far, we’ve glossed over the question of why the two married characters aren’t together – but then, Rogue is a previous Avengers, and somebody needs to keep an eye on the Limbo Embassy.

“What he is not used to … is being the most honourable, responsible person in the room.” I’m not sure it’s that unprecedented, given the time he’s spent in the Thieves Guild, or indeed his stint with the Marauders… but sure, Gambit is normally the wild card rogue, and he’s being forced here into playing the role of the last normal X-Man.

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As always, this post contains spoilers and page numbers go by the digital edition.

UNCANNY SPIDER-MAN #3
“Superpositional”
Writer: Si Spurrier
Artist: Javier Pina
Colourist: Matt Milla
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Sarah Brunstad

COVER / PAGE 1. Nightcrawler fights Silver Sable.

PAGES 2-4. Nightcrawler fights Gaap and the Wild Pack.

The narrators here are the Vulture and Nimrod.

Gaap the Integument is said to be a Deviant; he’s a new character. Gaap is a traditional demon name; an “integument” is just a tough outer protective layer. Gaap is wearing the same mind control device that was used on Rhino last issue and on Nightcrawler in X-Men: Before the Fall – Sons of X #1. Obviously, this is a repeat of the same basic idea that was tried that issue with the Rhino: lure out Nightcrawler so the Wild Pack can try to catch him.

Nightcrawler has apparently embraced the nickname “Creepy Crawler”, after initially calling himself Spinnenmann.

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