LAURA KINNEY, WOLVERINE #7
“My So-Called Perfect Life, part 2”
Writer: Erica Schultz
Artist: Giada Belviso
Colour artist: Rachelle Rosenberg
Letterer: Cory Petit
Editor: Mark Basso

WOLVERINE

Last issue consisted entirely of Laura hallucinating about a world in which she lived a happy family life with Logan as her father and Gabby as her younger sister, with Julian Keller (Hellion) showing up at the end of the issue. As it turns out, all of this is the result of Beautiful Dreamer (see below) being used to sedate Laura while the Badoon try to experiment on her.

Laura’s dream life  includes Julian as her boyfriend, which fits with the way their relationship was written in NYX #8. For some reason, Julian’s arrival also seems to destabilise what was previously a fairly ingrained illusion: not only does he lead her to step outside the house (which she didn’t do at all in the previous issue), but he proposes marriage to her.

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X-MEN vol 7 #17
“Visitor”
Writer: Jed MacKay
Penciller: Ryan Stegman
Inkers: JP Mayer, Ryan Stegman & Livesay
Colourist: Fer Sifuentes-Sujo
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Tom Brevoort

THE X-MEN

Cyclops, Psylocke, Temper, Magik and Juggernaut are all still fighting the 3K X-Men throughout this issue, and their plot doesn’t advance that much.

Kid Omega. He survived the explosion in issue #14 thanks to a psychic “macro” that created a telekinetic shield around him while he was unconscious, only to be opened on the arrival of an “authorised ally”. We’ve seen him do something broadly similar when he used pre-prepared mental traps to beat the more experienced Professor X in issue #13, though that was reusing a trick he’d picked up from Cassandra Nova.

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DEADPOOL / WOLVERINE #5
“Soldiers of Misfortune”
Writer: Benjamin Percy
Artist: Joshua Cassara
Colour artist: Guru-eFX
Letterer: Joe Sabino
Editor: Mark Basso

So… I skipped the last two issues of this book because there wasn’t much to say about it, and also because it’s a Wolverine team-up book with a character who’s at best on the fringes of the X-books. I’m certainly not doing the Wolverine & Spider-Man team-up book. But this issue looks like the story might have some wider importance to the X-books after all, and it is an ongoing, so…

DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE

Wolverine. By way of recap, then: Stryfe is putting into plan a scheme to cause mass destruction, which involves controlling Wolverine and Deadpool via nanites that they were infected with years ago. Wolverine was initially immune to this, presumably because his Krakoan resurrections gave him a new body without the nanites, but he’s been infected now.

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MAGIK vol 3 #5
“Fate Unbound”
Writer: Ashley Allen
Artist: Germán Peralta
Colourist: Arthur Hesli
Letterer: Ariana Maher
Editor: Darren Shan

MAGIK

She’s upset and passive-aggressive about Mirage going behind her back last issue and asking Cal to keep an eye on her. She privately accepts that Mirage is right to be concerned about the threat from Darkchild, but she’s still hurt by their distrust and by not being told about this “back-up plan”.

The three weeks that Liminal gave her in issue #3 to endure the Darkchild without her mental blocks have elapsed – this must have happened between issues #4-5.

When Liminal escapes into Earth, the wards that Magik placed as holding measures in issues #1, #2 and #4 are broken, causing her pain. (These are the locations at the bottom of page 6.) She claims the pain is normal when a magical spell breaks, particularly a complex one. This allows Darkchild to briefly take control, until Magik uses literal self-harm to focus on the pain and suppress her.

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UNCANNY X-MEN vol 6 #15
“The Dark Artery, part 3: As Close to Evil”
Writer: Gail Simone
Artist: David Marquez
Colour artist: Matthew Wilson
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Tom Brevoort

THE X-MEN

Rogue. She’s “more embarrassed than injured” by her defeat by Sadurang last issue. And she’s s understandably annoyed that Gambit has brought her to Haven without being honest with her about what it actually is.

Gambit. He already knew that Haven guarded the Artery, and for whatever reason, he chose not to tell the X-Men about it. Given its historical status as a mutant burial site and the fact that, well, they’re the X-Men, it’s not really clear why he was keeping it secret – especially as Marcus seems to think that mutants have the right to know about it. The only explanation Gambit offers is that it’s “not an easy conversation to have”, suggesting that he thought the Artery was essentially inexplicable – perhaps he views it as too weird and magical for the other X-Men’s frame of reference. (There’s no Magik on this roster, after all.)

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EXCEPTIONAL X-MEN #9
Writer: Eve L Ewing
Artist: Carmen Carnero
Colour artist: Nolan Woodard
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Editor: Tom Brevoort

THE CORE CAST

Axo. His “affective core”, as visited by Emma, consists of him sharing a meal with his family and friends – despite the fact that we’ve repeatedly seen him blowing off his father’s attempts to have these sorts of moments with him. Emma seems surprisingly touched by it, and describes it as “lovely”.

He’s a powerful enough telepath for it to be worth Emma’s while borrowing his power in order to defeat Sinister.

Bronze and Melée. They bluff their way out of Axo’s clone collapsing with a ludicrous tale about a school science project, which people are apparently willing to accept. Well, it is the Marvel Universe.

They accept the instruction to remain at the dojo while the grown-ups deal with Mr Sinister, but they’re understandably bored and frustrated. Whether because of that or because they’re taken by surprise and railroaded, they fall for Sinister’s fake Iceman. Rather than making a positive contribution to defeating Sinister, their main role is to stay calm and get themselves out of trouble without having to divert the attention of the established X-Men.

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WOLVERINE vol 8 #9
“The Long Road Home”
Writer: Saladin Ahmed
Artist: Javier Pina
Colour artist: Bryan Valenza
Letterer: Cory Petit
Editor: Mark Basso

WOLVERINE

The previous issue ended with Logan in a motel room receiving a mysterious letter supposedly from his mother, apologising for rejecting him (in Origin) and asking for his help. According to Logan, that was “[a] couple of days ago”. He also claims that he’s rejoined the X-Men and that “I left the wilderness weeks ago”.

Unfortunately, if we take everything in the series so far at face value, there is no time for that to have happened. The series began with him hiding out in the wilderness and Nightcrawler trying to persuade him to come back. Also, footnotes explicitly had it taking place before X-Men #1. The only gaps in the action since then have involved Logan hiding out in remote cabins trying to train Leonard the Wendigo, and also take place at a time when Nightcrawler still somehow has access to the Blackbird, which isn’t around in Uncanny X-Men.

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PHOENIX #11
Writer: Stephanie Phillips
Artist: Roi Mercado
Colour artist: Java Tartaglia
Letterer: Cory Petit
Editor: Annalise Bissa

PHOENIX

The previous issue ended with Jean receiving a psychic message from someone claiming to be her sister Sara. Since then, Jean hasn’t had any further psychic contact with Sara, but she has had recurring nightmares about Sara being taken away by villains. The one we see features demons.

Jean is certain that the woman she sensed was the real Sara, and somewhat irritated by Scott’s scepticism. She places particular importance on this not simply because it’s her sister, but because the rest of her family are all dead (having been slaughtered by the Shi’ar in Uncanny X-Men #467).

When Jean meets Sara, she’s equally certain that it’s her real sister. But she acknowledges in narration towards the end that she very much wanted to believe this, and didn’t ask awkward questions.

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X-FACTOR vol 5 #10
“Survivors Guild”
Writer: Mark Russell
Artist: Bob Quinn
Colour artist: Jesus Aburtov
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Editor: Darren Shan

This is the final issue of X-Factor, which has been cancelled. So as you’d expect, it’s a cut-to-the-chase wrap-up issue.

Although the solicitations always had the cover art showing Havok laying flowers on X-Factor’s grave, the solicitation text bears little resemblance to the story as published: “General Mills gives X-Factor one final test of loyalty! How will Angel, Pyro and the others complete their mission without selling out their people? Can Havok still make a difference? And what final secret is X-Factor hiding?”

X-FACTOR

Angel. The subplot about his out-of-character behaviour is completely dropped, assuming that it actually was a subplot (after all, Darkstar’s been wildly out of character for the whole series). But since Angel’s behaviour is basically back to normal in this issue, it looks like someone just made a call that there wasn’t time to resolve the plot and it was best to brush it under the carpet.

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UNCANNY X-MEN vol 6 #14
“The Dark Artery, part 2: An Infectious Mind”
Writer: Gail Simone
Artist: David Marquez
Colour artist: Matthew Wilson
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Tom Brevoort

THE X-MEN

Gambit. He repeats his story from the previous issue about people panicking at the sight of his eyes when he was a child. He rejects Sadurang’s offer to return the Left Eye of Agamotto, a decision which Sadurang accepts without protest – but he makes sure to draw the prophecy of madness to the attention of the rest of the team.

Rogue. She vigorously defends her husband against Sadurang, to little avail. Gambit claims that you have to tread carefully with her when she’s in a bad mood (and makes a time-of-the-month reference).

Jubilee. Sadurang reminds her of Shogo, her adoptive son who turned into a dragon and remained in Otherworld after Knights of X. Sadurang claims that Shogo misses her, and advises her to visit.

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