DNX #2
Writer: Jed MacKay
Artist: Federico Vicentini
Colour artist: David Curiel
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Tom Brevoort

COVER: The X-Men and the Fantastic Four, gathered around Magneto in his floatation tank. This is all pretty much symbolic –  Magneto is in a floatation tank in issues #1-2 of this series, but most of the characters shown are in Philadelphia.

There are two other DNX tie-ins out this week. X-Men #38 will get its own entry, but it’s basically an issue of Magneto either dreaming or being telepathically contacted by Professor X – the story is deliberately ambiguous. It might as well happen alongside this issue. Fantastic Four #17 is the first half of a two-parter about the FF’s attempts to cure Magneto, and it takes place after this issue.

PAGE 1. Agent Lundqvist returns to Juniper.

This is the statue of Bolivar Trask, creator of the Sentinels, which previously appeared in X-Men #34. It appeared overnight in the small town of Juniper, and was mysteriously protected by a force field that stopped the Juggernaut destroying it. Agent Lundqvist was sent along to go through the motions of keeping an eye on it in that story. This issue reveals that it was a creation of 3K.

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GENERATION X-23 #8
“Human Resources”
Writer: Jody Houser
Artist: Emilio Laiso
Colour artist: Erick Arciniega
Letterer: Ariana Maher
Editor: Mark Basso & Alanna Smith

COVER: Laura and Gabby in action against a mostly off-panel Nanny, with a battered Logan lagging behind.

PAGES 1-3. Laura and co find a massive hole in Facility-23.

Laura’s narration on page 1 is just a recap of the previous issue. As I pointed out before, Laura is apparently unaware that Nanny and Orphan-Maker escaped from the Pit in Sabretooth #5 (2022), and then went on to appear in Sabretooth & The Exiles. Logan also talks later on as if he thinks they were both last seen in the Pit. I’m not entirely convinced that anyone working on this comic knows about the Sabretooth stories, but fortunately, nothing really turns on it.

Wolverine isn’t healing because this story takes place between Wolverine #21-22, at which point his healing factor is suppressed by nanotech. There’s no particular plot reason for him refusing to explain this – he evidently just doesn’t want to talk about it and get interrogated. Most other books have ignored this storyline (which is now over), but for this book’s purposes, it’s actually quite handy that he can’t try to dominate the scene.

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WOLVERINE vol 8 #28
“Reforged”
Writer: Saladin Ahmed
Artist: Martín Cóccolo
Colour artist: Jesus Aburtov
Letterer: Cory Petit
Editor: Mark Basso

COVER: Just a Wolverine pin-up.

PAGES 1-2. Wolverine and Forge have dinner.

Yeah, I feel like going back to this format for a while.

The previous issue ended with Wolverine deciding that he should have the adamantium restored to his right-hand claws. Understandably, he’s approached Forge to sort this out for him. Forge was closely associated with X-Force during the Krakoan era, and he’s as good a choice as anyone to sort this out. We’re also told later on that he has “the world’s only store of liquefied adamantium on the planet” (sic). This is the first significant appearance he’s made post-Krakoa, although he did have cameos in X-Men: Hellfire Vigil and X-Men United #1. No, of course it isn’t, what was I thinking? It’s his first appearance since the previous run of X-Force, and he’s looking rather happier than he was in those issues.

Forge is back living in Eagle Plaza in Dallas, which was his home base in his early appearances back in 1980s Uncanny X-Men. We did see it briefly during that X-Force run. The name “Aerie” for Forge’s penthouse also dates from around that period, I think.

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X-MEN vol 7 #37
“Psi-War”
Writer: Jed MacKay
Penciller: Netho Diaz
Inker: Sean Parsons
Colourist: Arthur Hesli
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Tom Brevoort

COVER: Kid Omega and Cassandra Nova fight in the mindscape.

This is a DNX tie-in issue.

PAGE 1. Kid Omega prepares to fight Cassandra.

This is technically a flashback to “three minutes ago” – i.e., immediately before Kid Omega attacks Cassandra during the scene in pages 11-13 of DNX #1. Page 16 of DNX #1 (where Kid Omega confronts Cassandra in the mindscape) takes place between pages 1-2 of this story, and the rest of the issue picks up from there.

He’s speaking telepathically with someone who isn’t identified at this stage, but since she goes on to say that “you’ve got backup” at the start of page 2, we can take it that this is the character he calls in as back-up later in the issue.

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DNX #1
Writer: Jed MacKay
Artist: Federico Vicentini
Colour artist: David Curiel
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Tom Brevoort

COVER: The X-Men and the Fantastic Four facing the camera, basically. The art is by Kaare Andrews.

DNX is a crossover running through this five-issue miniseries, X-Men #37-41 and Fantastic Four #17-18. X-Men #37 also comes out this week.

This feels like a story more suited to the scene-by-scene format, so let’s go with that. I’ll use the story pages, since Amazon’s reader still persists in listing every comic as starting at page 2.

PAGE 1. Cyclops recaps the Age of Revelation.

This page is essentially a recap of the “Age of Revelation” event, set mostly in a future timeline in which Revelation had released a “X-Virus” that turned some humans into mutants, and killed the rest. The future Cyclops and Beast attempted to swap minds with their present-day counterparts in order to kill Revelation before any of this could happen, but accidentally swapped places with the original Beast – the Chairman of 3K – instead.

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INGLORIOUS X-FORCE #9
“A Force to be Conflicted”
Writer: Tim Seeley
Artist: Michael Sta. Maria
Colour artist: Romulo Fajardo Jr
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Editors: Mark Basso & Alanna Smith

COVER: The two X-Force teams fight.

X-FORCE: 

Cable. The entity that’s been possessing him throughout this series is named Catharsix. Cable remains oblivious to the fact that he’s possessed; his own dictaphone recordings actually show him talking to himself, but he apparently can’t register the other voice.

The previous issue ended with another time slip, in which Cable’s mind appeared to be transported to the Askani timeline, somewhere amongst the flashbacks in Cable vol 1 #1-2. There’s no direct follow-up on that – Cable’s mind appears to have returned to the present day, and he either doesn’t remember or doesn’t mention what happened.

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WOLVERINE vol 8 #27
“This Man, This Metal”
Writer: Saladin Ahmed
Artist: Julius Ohta
Colour artist: Jesus Aburtov
Letterer: Cory Petit
Editor: Mark Basso

COVER: Wolverine holding up his claws, with one of the other three Savage Champions – Wolf With A Gun, Red Hare and Boneclaw – reflected in each claw. It’s a loose homage to the cover of Incredible Hulk #340.

WOLVERINE:

His narration says that “I’ve recently learned that I’m one of the Savage Champions – warriors with the power and duty to defeat the Adamantine”. That’s his pep talk from Athena in issue #19, which is also the source of the material in this story about the Savage Champions embodying man, beast and metal. Broadly, the point of this story seems to be to convince him that he should get his adamantium restored, by reminding him that his status as a Savage Champion, and thus his ability to beat threats like the Adamantine, depends on being a combination of man, beast and metal. He seems ultimately to be won round to the idea that he can only fulfil his role as a protector by embracing his adamantium.

The other three Champions seem to defer to his leadership, despite the fact that he’s got the least experience with the Adamantine of all of them. This may just be because he’s the only one who’s actually voicing any sort of ideas. His approach is to go for the mammoth’s unprotected eyes, which is basically how he beat Romulus in issue #8.

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UNCANNY X-MEN vol 6 #35
“Wild Ride, part 3: Fear and Fight Clubs”
Writer: Gail Simone
Artist: Luciano Vecchio
Colour artist: Matthew Wilson
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Tom Brevoort

COVER: Basically a pin-up of Repent, with a silhouette of the possessed Gambit behind him. The glowing circle around his neck doesn’t appear in the actual story.

THE X-MEN: 

Rogue. She says that she’s scared of churches. In a flashback, she attributes this to her Aunt Carrie taking her to a hellfire-and-brimstone type church as a child. This comes from the 2004 Rogue series, which established that Carrie took Rogue in when her parents died, and establishes Carrie’s puritan attitudes. Carrie is ultimately well intentioned, and the two reconcile in Rogue #6. The flashback of the two of them in church, and Rogue running out in a panic, seems to be original. She claims to be generally uncomfortable with magic, but within the logic of the Marvel Universe, at least part of the issue seems to be that the existence of actual demonic possession shows that the puritan religion of her childhood actually had a point.

She says that she “punched a UFO last week”. That was in issue #32.

She seems remarkably willing to accept at face value the protests of someone who’s in the middle of being exorcised, as opposed to just being unsure.

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WOLVERINE vol 8 #26
“Savage Journey”
Writer: Saladin Ahmed
Artist: Julius Ohta
Colour artist: Jesus Aburtov
Letterer: Cory Petit
Editor: Mark Basso

COVER: Wolverine, with the three “savage champions” from issue #20. Only two of them actually appear in this story, Red Hare and Boneclaw. The one on the left is Wolf With a Gun, and presumably we’ll see him in due course.

There’s not a great deal to be said about this issue, but let’s run through it.

WOLVERINE: 

Last issue, he regained his healing factor and the bone claws on his right-hand grew back. As this story begins, he’s uncertain whether to call in some favours and get them coated in adamantium again. On the one hand, his adamantium was originally foisted on him against his will and he’s uncomfortable with the idea that it defines him. But at the same time he clearly does think of it as his default setting, and seems to worry that he’s being self-indulgent in not making himself the strongest Wolverine he can be.

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X-MEN vol 7 #36
“A Theft”
Writer: Jed MacKay
Penciller: Netho Diaz
Inker: Sean Parsons
Colourist: Arthur Hesli
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Tom Brevoort

COVER: The Chairman, taking Magneto’s bloodstained helmet from him. Once again, this issue is billed as a DNX prelude.

THE X-MEN: 

Cyclops, Temper, Kid Omega, Psylocke, Beast, Magik and Juggernaut. To be honest, there’s not much to say about the core cast as individuals in this issue. Temper and Kid Omega continue to fight as something of a duo. Kid Omega has a routine where he can telepathically provide his team-mates with a video-game style map of their environment and the locations of their opponents; Psylocke regards this as a bit gimmicky, but genuinely useful.

SUPPORTING CAST:

Magneto. We get some further explanation of Magneto’s mysterious condition, originally identified by the X-Men as “resurrection-linked degeneration sickness”. In the “Age of Revelation” event, we learned that nobody in that future timeline had any memory of Magneto having this condition. Now, in this issue, the Chairman says that Magneto’s condition is due to “information sent from the future, encoded into your DNA”. Magneto says that “we” have the same theory, presumably meaning at least himself and the X-Men’s Beast.

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