UNCANNY X-MEN vol 6 #31
“Mars Needs Mutants, part 3”
Writer: Gail Simone
Artists: Rogê Antônio, Jim Towe & Federica Mancin
Colour artist: Matthew Wilson
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Tom Brevoort

COVER: A B-movie style poster of the X-Men versus aliens, with a hypnotised-looking Rogue.

THE X-MEN:

Rogue. She didn’t appear in the last two issues, the only explanation being Gambit’s comment last issue that she was “off on a consultation”. In issue #28, she told M that she was going on a “journey” to see “someone who might be able to help” with Gambit’s curse. Last issue, Gambit said that he had sent her a message about the alien invasion, but hadn’t heard back. This issue opens with her on her way back from “an unnamed island in the South China Sea”, presumably something to do with that.

She’s powerful enough to punch one of the Nur’s flying saucers out of the sky. She’s not sure what to make of them – she seems to regard slaughtering the Brood as at least arguably genocide.

(more…)

INGLORIOUS X-FORCE #7
“As Luck Would Have It”
Writer: Tim Seeley
Artist: Michael Sta. Maria
Colour artist: Romulo Fajardo Jr
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Editors: Mark Basso & Alanna Smith

COVER: Domino and Cable fighting side by side.

X-FORCE: 

Cable. He claims that he can’t interrogate the captured Mutant Liberation Front members telepathically because they’re being held on a level with power dampers that also affect him. Mind you, we know he’s under outside influence at the moment, so we don’t necessarily have to take that literally.

He claims that Professor X’s injunctions against invasive telepathic interrogation don’t apply “in times of war”, and apparently regards this as applying to the Mutant Liberation Front even though they’re amateur-hour bozos.

He greets Cyclops warmly and calls him dad, but we’re told later that beneath the surface he’s telepathically deflecting both Cyclops and Kid Omega with everything he’s got. He references Cyclops “rais[ing] me in the distant future to save me from a weaponized infection”, which is the Adventures of Cyclops & Phoenix miniseries.

(more…)

X-MEN vol 7 #33
“Anomaly, part 3”
Writer: Jed MacKay
Penciller: Tony S Daniel
Inker: Mark Morales
Colourist: Fer Sifuentes-Sujo
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Tom Brevoort

COVER: Magneto, in his classic costume, holding off a hail of bullets – precisely the sort of thing he can’t do any more.

THE X-MEN:

The Beast. Well, he’s still in charge in this issue, but it’s not really about him. Magneto rather marginalises him, and he can’t do much to help Kid Omega and Ben Liu. He does manage to persuade Department H to back off, though, even if it happens off panel, so you can chalk that up as another successful bit of diplomacy from him.

Ben Liu. Kid Omega references him being experimented upon by 3K and then dumped on the streets, which is the lead-up to his debut in issue #2. There are some brief flashbacks in this issue to the experiments themselves.

Kid Omega views him as a newbie who isn’t as hardened as the other X-Men (which is obviously right). This lack of faith seems to encourage Ben to step up and help to defuse Schwarzchild’s psychic traps, though really his only contribution is to experience some pain while Kid Omega does all the work. The booby traps set by Cassandra Nova are supposed to take the interlopers to their “Black Bug Rooms” – from New X-Men #116 – which Kid Omega describes as a manifestation of your shame and fear. For Kid Omega, this apparently works, though it takes place off panel. In Ben’s case, he ends up in Schwarzchild’s room – presumably because he has the same traps himself, which screws up how it works, but it’s not directly explained.

(more…)

WOLVERINE vol 8 #23
“Power Grab”
Writer: Saladin Ahmed
Artist: Julius Ohta
Colour artist: Jesus Aburtov
Letterer: Cory Petit
Editor: Mark Basso

COVER: Taskmaster advances on Wolverine, with adamantium claws extended. This doesn’t actually happen in the story, where Taskmaster only has the copied healing factor.

This is a pretty straightforward issue, but we’ll run through it anyway.

WOLVERINE:

For those just joining us, his healing factor has been switched off by nanites, and his right-hand claws are still broken from the fight with the Adamantine in issue #20. The previous issue established that his adamantium is poisoning him without his healing factor (which has happened before), but was rather inconsistent about how far this was affecting him – at times he seemed to be having trouble standing, but he also seemed able to hold his own against Taskmaster. This issue seems to be saying that his berserker rage is partly responsible for keeping him on his feet, and that his enhanced senses still give him some advantage in anticipating Taskmaster’s moves.

(more…)

UNCANNY X-MEN vol 6 #31
“Mars Needs Mutants, part two: The Devil I Know”
Writer: Gail Simone
Artists: Jim Towe & David Baldeón
Colour artist: Matthew Wilson
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Tom Brevoort

COVER: One of the Nur holding an unconscious Rogue, with UFOs above. This doesn’t happen in this issue – indeed, Rogue doesn’t appear at all. The slogan “They Came From Beyond!” might just be generic, but there was a film called They Came From Beyond Space in 1967 (based on Joseph Millard’s 1941 novel The Gods Hate Kansas, which seems a bit harsh, but I’ve never been there so I’ll have to take his word for it).

This issue also include part two of “Mind and Matter”, a serialised 5-page back-up strip for Marvel Voices celebrating Disability Pride Month. It’s got nothing to do with the X-Men, so I won’t be covering it. At least in the digital edition, there doesn’t seem to be any indication of where you can read part one – if you were wondering, it’s in Amazing Spider-Man #32.

(more…)

X-MEN UNITED #5
“Shadow Play”
Writer: Eve L Ewing
Artist: Eduardo Pansica
Colour artist: Brian Reber
Letterer: Joe Sabino
Editor: Tom Brevoort

COVER: The Shadow King manipulates Cyclops, Wolverine (Laura), Emma Frost and the Beast. This is a puzzling cover, since neither Wolverine nor Beast is actually in the issue.

There seems to have been some change of plan since this issue was solicited, since although the solicitation copy did describe something recognisable as this story, it also promised more about Lourdes Chantal and someone called Justina LaGuardia, neither of whom appears in this issue at all.

Amazon is billing this series as ending at issue #10.

THE X-MEN:

Five issues into the series, we finally get a clear explanation of whether people physically travel to Graymatter lane, as a discussion among the students about the whereabouts of the missing teachers includes Scout saying that “their bodies are back wherever they left them when they entered the campus”. Except… the very same scene has Rift opening a portal to send people direct from Graymatter Lane to a location in the physical world which isn’t where they came from. That’s happened several times in this series, but… how?

(more…)

GENERATION X-23 #5
“A Numbers Game, part 5”
Writer: Jody Houser
Artist: Marco Renna
Colour artist: Erick Arciniega
Letterer: Ariana Maher
Editor: Mark Basso

COVER: Just an action shot of Laura.

WOLVERINE:

Five issues in, this still feels more like a Wolverine solo title with an extended supporting cast, rather than a team book. So we’ll stick with that for now. Nonetheless, while she’s the lead character, there’s more to say this issue about the rest of the cast than there is about her.

She says that her healing factor is a little slower after it’s recovering from being suppressed – apparently this has happened often enough for her to know.

She’s surprisingly judgmental about X-Infinite having helped Facility 23 to give the Generated their extra powers and seems unimpressed by the suggestion that he could have felt that he had no choice. She seems to see both him and X-66 as pretending not to have a choice in order to duck their responsibility. X-80 is noticeably more sympathetic, so we’re not necessarily meant to be completely on Laura’s side here; there’s a definite sense that she feels that anyone in her position who didn’t resist successfully is showing a lack of backbone.

(more…)

WOLVERINE vol 8 #22
“Doctor’s Orders”
Writer: Saladin Ahmed
Artist: Julius Ohta
Colour artist: Jesus Aburtov
Letterer: Cory Petit
Editor: Mark Basso

COVER: Wolverine is sad about his broken claws.

WOLVERINE: 

As we established at the end of the previous issue, his healing factor isn’t working, although his senses are still fine. We’re essentially told that Wolverine will die without his healing factor. The reasons for that aren’t explained here, but various earlier stories have said that Wolverine would die of adamantium poisoning without his healing factor – this was a major plot point in Paul Cornell’s Wolverine run in 2013-4, for example. It doesn’t really make any sense, because if adamantium is totally indestructible then it ought to be inert. And Bullseye gets by just fine with an adamantium skeleton and no healing factor. But… it is the established way this works.

Wolverine has grudgingly agreed to see a doctor, and he’s reluctant to have Nightcrawler hanging around for the process. He seems to have intermittent bouts of weakness – Cecilia has to help him down the hallway, but he seems basically okay later in the issue when he’s fighting Taskmaster.

(more…)

X-MEN vol 7 #32
“Anomaly, part 2”
Writer: Jed MacKay
Penciller: Tony S Daniel
Inker: Mark Morales
Colourist: Fer Sifuentes-Sujo
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Tom Brevoort

COVER: Kid Omega, Beast, Animalia and Xorn fight off Department H.

THE X-MEN:

As before, it’s the Science Team in this issue. There isn’t a huge amount to say about this issue in continuity terms – it’s a pretty straightforward middle chapter – but let’s run through it anyway.

The Beast. After failing to make much headway with his diplomatic approach last issue, he does rather better this time. When everyone else starts squabbling about what to do about Schwartzchild and Department H, he takes command and successfully asserts his authority. He’s able to get the likes of Magneto and Kid Omega to do what he wants them to. And he does ultimately manage to talk down the panicky officer in charge of the downed Department H ship, who finally accepts his help.

(more…)

INGLORIOUS X-FORCE #6
“Less Than Zero”
Writer: Tim Seeley
Artist: Michael Sta. Maria
Colour artist: Romulo Dajardo Jr
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Editor: Mark Basso

COVER: X-Force, with Kali in the background.

X-FORCE: 

Cable. The previous issue ended with Cable turning out to be possessed by some green monster thing, wiping Domino’s memories and abandoning her. We’ll come back to Domino below, but so far as this issue is concerned, Cable seems to have no memory of any of this. We see him briefly turn into the same monster form for a single panel while he’s remotely directing X-Force’s fight against the Mutant Liberation Front in this issue, but he doesn’t seem to remember anything about it afterwards. Presumably, all this is ultimately going to explain the memory gaps that prevented him from remembering who killed Kamala in the future timeline in issue #1. Most likely, it’s going to be him, and the idea is that he wrote down the names of the X-Force members because they’d be able to stop him, not because they were suspects at all.

Oblivious to all this (or possibly being directed by the creature on some level), Cable turns his attention to the new Mutant Liberation Front from issue #1. His rationale is that his “one of us” message must have meant that some other mutant was responsible, and the MLF are a candidate because Kali is radicalising its members against other mutants who aren’t on board with their politics, such as Stryfe.

(more…)