PSYLOCKE vol 2 #10
“Unmoored and Unmourned”
Writer: Alyssa Wong
Artist: Vincenzo Carratù
Colour artist: Fer Sifuentes-Sujo
Letterer: Ariana Maher
Editor: Darren Shan

COVER: Psylocke, possessed by the Lady in White.

This is the final issue of the series.

PAGES 1-2. Kwannon dreams of meeting the Lady in White.

The previous issue ended with Kwannon being possessed by the Lady in White after rejecting Mitsuki’s offer of an alliance to take over the Hand. In that issue, Mitsuki described the Lady in White as a yokai who “cares for the lost dead, especially lost children, and avenges them by tormenting their abusers until they lose their minds”. According to Mitsuki, the Lady saw Kwannon as one of the guilty, but Mitsuki used her powers to force the Lady to lure Kwannon to Japan as a potential ally instead. The Lady’s own comments about Psylocke earlier in the arc broadly confirmed that.

In this dream, however, Kwannon appears as a child, accompanied by a non-speaking Mitsuki. The scene broadly echoes flashbacks from issues #7 and #8, earlier in the arc. This version of Kwannon – a victim of the Hand – is obviously one much more likely to be viewed sympathetically by the Lady, and indeed that’s how the Lady treats her here (though she turns on her in their next scene). As in issue #6, the Lady gives Kwannon a vision of her lost child Hideko, but this time it’s in the context of inviting Kwannon to accept the Lady as a mother figure.

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WOLVERINE vol 8 #12
“Mother and Master”
Writer: Saladin Ahmed
Artist: Martín Cóccolo
Colourist: Bryan Valenza
Letterer: Cory Petit 
Editor: Mark Basso

COVER: Wolverine defends his mother. Despite what it says on the cover, Elizabeth Howlett isn’t really in this issue.

PAGES 1-2. Logan gets his “mother” to the car.

We established last issue that the whole scenario of Wolverine’s mother asking him for help had been contrived by Mastermind. That still left open the question of whether any part of it was true, but it looks from this issue as if the answer is basically “no”.

In Wolverine’s mind, he’s just rescued his mother from Sabretooth, and wants to get away before Sabretooth recovers. The whole thing is a little dreamlike, with Sabretooth simply vanishing, and no terribly clear explanation of how Elizabeth supposedly got a chance to write the letter asking Wolverine for help in the first place.

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EXCEPTIONAL X-MEN #12
Writer: Eve L Ewing
Artist: Federica Mancin
Colour artist: Nolan Woodard
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Editor: Tom Brevoort

COVER. Kitty and the kids get sucked through a wormhole; this doesn’t exactly happen in the issue, but close enough.

PAGE 1. Reggie panics about Kitty’s disappearance.

This picks up directly from last issue’s cliffhanger, when Kitty vanished into one of the portals in the park. The passers-by were also in the final panel of the last issue, where at least some of them seemed to be reacting with surprise, but here Reggie seems to be the only one who’s noticed (or at least the only one who cared).

Last issue, Reggie was preoccupied thinking about how to text Trista, and it seemed to be just coincidence that he was around when the portals opened. This issue explains that he’s a mutant too and that they’re created by his mutant power. Ironheart’s AI, NATALIE, told us last issue that the portal has “a precise set of emotional signatures bound up with its temporal emissions” and “will draw in people who are temporally sensitive or people with a connection to it”. Kitty was presumably drawn to it simply because of her experience of such weirdness as a member of the X-Men.

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MAGIK vol 3 #8
“Frayed Not Broken”
Writer: Ashley Allen
Artist: Matt Horak
Colour artist: Arthur Hesli
Letterer: Ariana Maher
Editor: Darren Shan

COVER: Symbolic image of Magik in Liminal’s hand, which would been a better fit for the previous arc.

PAGES 1-4. Magik, Mirage and Liminal track down the Scarlet Eye.

Okay, recap: Last issue, Magik showed up at the headquarters of the Society of the Eternal Dawn looking for Cal Isaacs. Cal turned out to be completely possessed by Liminal, although currently with little or no power; Liminal claimed that he would be “limitless” once his new body adjusted to him. The Society’s leader, the Embodiment, sent Magik and Mirage to Las Vegas where (she claimed) a magical artefact that could be used to separate Cal and Liminal was being used by local drug dealers to enhance their drugs. Magik insisted on Liminal coming with them because she didn’t trust the Society to take care of him; Embodiment agreed to this after using magic to symbolically remove Liminal’s heart, apparently as some sort of tether.

The High Roller. It’s a real Ferris wheel in Las Vegas.

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LAURA KINNEY: WOLVERINE #9
“Blood Ties, part 1”
Writer: Erica Schultz
Artist: Giada Belviso
Colourist: Rachelle Rosenberg
Letterer: Cory Petit
Editor: Mark Basso

COVER: Well, that’s Gabby leaping towards the camera. (Her codename “Scout” is never used in this story.)

PAGES 1-6. Flashback: Gabby and Xarus fight Strega.

“The Ossuary.” An ossuary is a place for storing bones. This one isn’t a Marvel Universe location, but the one in the actual Paris Catacombs.

Gabby Kinney. Gabby showed up at the cliffhanger of the previous issue waiting on Laura’s doorstep with their pet wolverine Jonathan, and with half her face deformed. The recap page describes it as “skin sliding off her face”, though it looks more like she’s growing lots of excess skin. This flashback establishes that it’s something done to Gabby by Strega. Gabby theorises later on that her healing factor is overreacting to it, though Clea will identify it as a curse.

Gabby showed up in Laura’s “perfect life” dream sequences in issues #6-7, but otherwise hasn’t been a presence in this series or in NYX, without any real explanation. Gabby explains here that with Laura “doing her whole ‘independent woman livin’ in the city thing”, she decided to go off and do some superheroing with Xarus, whom she met and befriended in the one-shot X-Men: Blood Hunt – Laura Kinney The Wolverine. Dialogue later in the issue implies that Gabby has been living in New York but not with Laura.

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X-MEN vol 7 #20
“A Civilized Discussion”
Writer: Jed MacKay
Penciller: Netho Diaz
Inker: Sean Parsons
Colourist: Fer Sifuentes-Sujo
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Tom Brevoort

COVER: Cyclops and Agent Lundqvist in jail.

PAGE 1. Cyclops arrives for his meeting with Lundqvist and is immediately punched in the face.

This is the third issue to feature an extended conversation between Cyclops and Agent Lundqvist – the first was in issue #3, and also took place in McDade’s Diner, and the second was in issue #10. Cyclops came off comfortably better in each of those arguments, which is at least one reason why Lundqvist doesn’t want to argue with him again.

Note that Lundqvist sets his gun aside at the start of the fight – evidently this is about asserting status rather than actually trying to hurt Scott. Scott seems to take the situation accordingly, and doesn’t use his optic beams – he claims towards the end of the issue that he believes Lundqvist is trying to provoke him into using his powers, though Lundqvist denies this.

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STORM vol 5 #11
“Thunder War Rises”
Writer: Murewa Ayodele
Artists: Mario Santoro with CF Villa
Colour artists: Fer Sifuentes-Sujo with Slex Guimarães
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Editor: Tom Brevoort

COVER: Well, that’s Storm on a hippo. Hippo enthusiasts should be warned that one only panel of this story features hippos, and they are riderless.

PAGES 1-2. Zeus convenes the meeting of storm gods.

As we’ll see, the purpose of this meeting is for the storm gods of assorted pantheons to decide whether to align themselves with Storm or with Hadad. Of course, Storm herself has yet to take any particular interest in Hadad, but we clarify later on that the storm gods are aware of her possession by Eternity, and regard her as having been selected by Eternity as his champion whether she knows it or not.

Hjem Spíti. Described as a “neutral realm for all pantheons”, this seems to be new – it’s not a pre-existing mythological term, either. Google Translate suggests that it’s Icelandic for “Sorry Home”, for whatever that may be worth.

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UNCANNY X-MEN vol 6 #19
“Skin Condition”
Writer: Gail Simone
Artist: David Marquez
Colour artist: Matthew Wilson
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Tom Brevoort

COVER: Deadpool and Outlaw flee the X-Men.

Hey, Outlaw’s got a logo!

PAGES 1-3. Ellis and Ezra stop by the All Star Diner.

The All Star Diner. As a footnote points out later in the issue, this is the same diner from last year’s Free Comic Book Day 2024: Blood Hunt/X-Men with the same mutant waitress. The sign that reads “Stop on in and make a friend” was in that story too, although it was just advertising the food there.

“She says I have a skin condition.” This is the same claim that was made in the FCBD issue. In that issue, Jubilee interpreted it as a sign that Uva’s mother was ashamed of her being a mutant, despite the obvious possibility that they might just be legitimately afraid.

The Midnight M. Uva makes the Midnight M signal to Ellis and Ezra on page 2 panel 3, presumably hoping that they’ll recognise it. It’s not clear whether Uva recognises them, though Ellis seems to think it’s at least a possibility. Ezra is in full uniform, so for that reason alone Uva might think he was able to help.

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PSYLOCKE vol 2 #9
“A Bird in Hand”
Writer: Alyssa Wong
Artist: Vincenzo Carratú
Colour artist: Fer Sifuentes-Sujo
Letterer: Ariana Maher
Editor: Darren Shan

PAGES 1-5. Mitsuki welcomes Kwannon in and tells her story.

The seal on Mitsuki’s costume is the same symbol that was burned into Kwannon’s wrist by the ghost figure in issue #7. We saw it on the door of Hayashi’s house in the previous issue (though it isn’t visible in the establishing shot at the start of the story), and we were also told that Matsu’o Tsurayaba had it as a tattoo.

Essentially, Mitsuki claims that Hayashi beat her and left her for dead, but she was saved by the yokai that she had previously befriended using her powers.

The umbrella. It’s a kasa-obake, which is a stock form of yokai. Basically an umbrella come to life.

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STORM vol 5 #10
“Thunder War Begins”
Writer: Murewa Ayodele
Artist: Lucas Werneck
Colour artist: Alex Guimarães
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Editor: Tom Brevoort

PAGES 1-2. Flash forward: Bishop releases an energy blast.

Bishop. This is the first time we’ve seen him in this book – his last non-cameo appearance was in the Timeslide one-shot at the end of last year. As we’ll see later in the issue, Bishop has been entrusted with looking after the mutant child from issue #1, who is offhandedly given the name “Jaden” on the recap page. The previous issue indicated that Storm had either had her knowledge of the child’s whereabouts magically suppressed in order to keep them safe, or at least had magically prevented herself from being able to disclose it.

We’ll see later that Jaden has had a nightmare and lost control of their powers; Bishop has to absorb the resulting energy; and this is him discharging it, which is likely to make Jaden traceable, hence Bishop’s regrets. The flashforward takes place around page 13 of the story.

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