MAGIK vol 3 #10
“Above All”
Writer: Ashley Allen
Artist: Germán Peralta
Colourist: Arthur Hesli
Letterer: Ariana Maher
Editor: Darren Shan

COVER: Magik and Mirage pose dramatically.

This is the final issue of the current run. Magik doesn’t have an equivalent title during “Age of Revelation”, but some sort of sequel with the same creative team has been announced to start in January.

PAGES 1-2. Magik, Mirage and Liminal hold the Society of the Eternal Dawn at bay.

The previous issue ended with the trio confronting the Embodiment and retrieving Cal’s heart (which Embodiment magically removed in issue #7), ultimately with a view to exorcising Liminal from Cal’s body. Magik also removed the limits on Liminal’s powers so that he could help them, presumably relying on the fact that he hadn’t fully adjusted to Cal’s body to keep him under some sort of control.

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PHOENIX #15
Writer: Stephanie Phillips
Artist: Roi Mercado
Colour artist: Java Tartaglia
Letterer: Cory Petit
Editor: Annalise Bissa

COVER: Well, that’s Phoenix being a bit upset, I guess.

This is the final issue of Phoenix before “Age of Revelation”, where it’s being replaced by Binary. Spoilers: it’s a bit of a mess.

PAGES 1-3. Flashback: Oblivion is persuaded to join the intervention against Phoenix.

This flashback takes place before the final scene of the previous issue, where Marvel’s pantheon of abstract cosmic entities lured Phoenix to the White Hot Room to confront her about her refusal to destroy Sara Grey. We established in issue #13 that Sara is not Jean’s real sister, but rather a copy inadvertently created by Jean from her memories of Sara in issue #10. We are assured that Sara’s continuing existence leads to a future timeline which is some sort of zombie wasteland, and so she must be destroyed. Why? It just does. But it’s really important to the plot that it just does. It’s literally the entire premise of the plot. So make a note of that, we’ll come back to it later!

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UNCANNY X-MEN vol 6 #21
“Of Mice and Mutants”
Writer: Gail Simone
Artist: Luciano Vecchio
Colour artist: Matthew Wilson
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Tom Brevoort

COVER: Wolverine and Ransom at a comic convention. We’ll come to which one below.

This is the final issue of Uncanny X-Men before it goes on hold for the “Age of Revelation” event. In practice, the next issue is Unbreakable X-Men #1.

PAGES 1-3. Flashback: Ransom’s origin story.

This is a significantly expanded version of Ransom’s origin story from issue #3. In the original version, Valentin says that he was born with no heart; that his parents were “wealthy and vain” and “my imperfection shamed them”, and “when I was kidnapped, they wouldn’t pay the ransom. His powers then activate when they try to kill him. He finishes that account by saying that “I ran away from home. 13 years old. Better to belong to nothing than to belong where you aren’t wanted.”

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EXCEPTIONAL X-MEN #13
Writer: Eve L Ewing
Artist: Federica Mancin
Colour artist: Nolan Woodard
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Editor: Tom Brevoort

COVER: Kitty Pryde fleeing down an alley. This isn’t directly to do with the content of the issue – it’s a pastiche of the splash page from X-Men #131 (1980), Kitty’s third appearance.

This is the final issue of Exceptional X-Men before “Age of Revelation”, when it’ll be replaced by Expatriate X-Men for three months.

PAGES 1-2. Kate wakes up in Deerfield.

Kate was sent back in time by one of Reggie’s wormholes in issue #11; the kids followed with his help last issue, and were followed by one of the three Wolfpack Sentinels who attacked the dance studio. Presumably, with Emma’s help, Reggie was able to target the same point in time as the original portal, so they arrive more or less simultaneously. Emma is able to contact Kate through the portal as well, although the kids had lost touch with her last issue – presumably, she’s been able to re-establish contact now that the Sentinels are taken care of.

By the way, I suggested last issue that there had to be some reason for the Sentinels to suddenly attack the dance studio, but, well, none is suggested in this issue. You’d have thought that the Sentinels attacking the studio would be a big deal going forward, but if so, it’s not something that this issue finds time to deal with.

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MAGIK vol 3 #9
“Above All”
Writer: Ashley Allen
Artists: Germán Peralta with Matt Horak
Colour artist: Arthur Hesli
Letterer: Ariana Maher
Editor: Darren Shan

PAGES 1-2. Lexi Larsen attacks Magik, Mirage and Liminal on the Las Vegas Strip.

Last issue, the Embodiment (the leader of Society of the Eternal Dawn) sent Magik and Mirage to Las Vegas to retrieve Zosimos’ Quill, a magical artefact supposedly capable of exorcising Liminal from Cal Isaacs’ body. The mission looked suspiciously like a suicide mission, the Quill turned out to be in the possession of a Society splinter group and the Society’s “Examplar of Recruitment” Lexi Larsen showed up at the cliffhanger to wipe everyone out and leave no witnesses.

For some reason, the immediate resolution of that cliffhanger has taken place off panel between issues: Magik teleported herself, Mirage and Liminal to the Strip, and Lexi is in pursuit. It’s not entirely clear why Magik didn’t simply leave the city entirely, but presumably she still has designs on the Quill.

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LAURA KINNEY: WOLVERINE #10
“Blood Ties, part 2”
Writer: Erica Schultz
Artist: Giada Belviso
Colour artist: Rachelle Rosenberg
Letterer: Cory Petit
Editor: Mark Basso

This one really isn’t going to take us very long.

PAGE 1. Clea starts tracking Gabby.

The previous issue ended with Strega abducting Gabby and teleporting away. Supposedly Gabby’s healing powers mean that her blood strengthens Strega’s magic, and sustains Strega’s undead creations. The artefact that Clea mentions is the Sphere of Shooyen, which Strega grabbed in passing during the fight last issue, and which shows up again later in the issue.

While Clea merrily sets about tracking Gabby with blood magic, we’ll see shortly that Strega has simply gone back to her base in the Paris catacombs, which would have been the obvious first place to check anyway.

PAGE 2. Laura speaks to Xarus.

In the catchily named X-Men: Blood Hunt – Laura Kinney the Wolverine #1 (they ran out of punctuation marks halfway through), Gabby rescued Xarus from vampires who were experimenting on him by feeding him mutant blood in the hope of giving him powers, as a trial run for doing it themselves if it worked. He does indeed unleash a single blast of red energy at the end of that story, although since the first thing that starts glowing is his hands, it’s not at all obvious that the original story had Cyclops’ optic beams in mind.

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WOLVERINE vol 8 #13
“Godfather for a Day”
Writer: Saladin Ahmed
Artist: Martín Cóccolo
Colour artist: Bryan Valenza
Letterer: Cory Petit
Editor: Mark Basso

COVER: Well, that’s Logan with Donna Angelina Andiamo and a bunch of dead guys. The logo is, of course, a parody of The Godfather.

PAGES 1-3. Wolverine and Nightcrawler in Louisiana.

They’re at the X-Men’s base at Haven in Louisiana, from Uncanny X-Men. Nightcrawler is part of the regular cast of that book, but he’s continuing to serve the role of sounding board and supporting character that he had in the book’s first arc.

Wolverine is attempting to drown his sorrows after the trauma of Mastermind faking his mother’s return from the dead in issues #9-12. As previously mentioned in issue #9 (and long established before then), this has little practical effect because his healing factor sobers him up almost immediately.

PAGES 4-5. Wolverine arrives at Donna Angelina Andiamo’s home in Chicago.

This is a single-issue story, but as per the footnote, much of it was set up in the 5-page Wolverine backup strip in Giant-Size House of M #2.

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UNCANNY X-MEN vol 6 #20
“Battle in Buenos Aires”
Writer: Gail Simone
Artist: Luciano Vecchio
Colour artist: Matthew Wilson
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Tom Brevoort

COVER: Wolverine and Ransom fight the Word of Strength.

PAGES 1-3. Corina Ellis tries to talk to M.

M. Monet was last seen in issue #9, where she had a background cameo as a newly arrived prisoner at Graymalkin.

According to Corina Ellis, nobody has seen M eat since she arrived at the prison, yet she’s somehow gained three pounds in weight. This is weird, since it has nothing to do with her established powers, but it’s hard to see why Corina would be lying about it. That said, it might be something to do with psychic illusion to freak people out – Monet is apparently immune to the control collar that’s supposed to suppress her powers (and they weren’t wholly effective on Professor X either). She seems happy to show her hand about this, apparently confident that the prison operation is on its way to collapse (for reasons we’ll get to).

Monet claims to have been a friend of Corina’s brother Oscar, and that his last words were to ask Monet to watch over Corina. She previously mentioned her brother and his death in issue #8.

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PHOENIX #14
Writer: Stephanie Phillips
Artist: Roi Mercado
Colour artist: Java Tartaglia
Letterer: Cory Petit
Editor: Annalise Bissa

COVER: A symbolic image of Jean and Sara.

PAGES 2-4. Sara and the In-Betweener.

Last issue, we established that Sara was not in fact Jean’s real sister, but rather had been inadvertently created in issue #10 from Jean’s memories of Sara. According to Cable, Sara’s continued existence somehow guaranteed a future timeline which was a zombie wasteland, though quite why wasn’t explained. The final scene of that issue saw Sara and her followers Vex, Kel and Rho trying to follow Jean and Cable, and winding up in the right place but in the present day. The issue ended with the In-Betweener appearing, making the same claim that Sara leads to a ruinous future, and calling her “the one between reality and imagination”.

This scene picks up from that cliffhanger, though Sara’s followers are nowhere to be seen (and aren’t mentioned anywhere in the issue). The In-Betweener has evidently taken her somewhere else, and we learn later that it’s the White Hot Room. The background is broadly the same as in the WHR scene in issue #11.

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X-MEN vol 7 #21
“Upstarts II”
Writer: Jed MacKay
Penciller: Netho Diaz
Inkers: Sean Parsons with JP Mayer & Livesay
Colourist: Fer Sifuentes-Sujo
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Tom Brevoort

COVER: The X-Men fight the Upstarts.

This issue is a sequel to issue #4 (“Upstarts”), hence the title.

PAGES 1-5. Jen talks with Kid Omega.

Jen Starkey. She debuted in issue #4 when the X-Men rescued her from the Upstarts. She claims here that she was lonely and miserable in Detroit prior to being attached – she stops short of saying that she was actively suicidal, but says she considered just letting the Upstarts kill her. She seems to think that no one will have missed her, and seems slightly surprised that nobody wondered why she had just left her life behind. (From the X-Men’s point of view, of course, this is just a genre convention. The same question didn’t arise with Ben Liu, recruited in issue #2, because they faked his death to stop people being afraid of his powers.)

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