X-Men #22 annotations
X-MEN vol 7 #22
“Dawning of an Age”
Writer: Jed MacKay
Artist: C F Villa
Colour artist: Fer Sifuentes-Sujo
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Tom Brevoort
COVER. A split image of Cypher and Cyclops, with their symbolic predecessors Apocalypse and Professor X in the background.
This is the final issue of X-Men before it goes on hiatus for “Age of Revelation”; the story continues into the stand-in mini Amazing X-Men.
PAGES 1-2. Magik collects Cyclops from the Merle town jail.
Chief Robbins arrested both Cyclops and Agent Lundqvist in issue #20 when they got into a fight in a diner. She tells us here that she was putting on a show to demonstrate that the authorities will treat mutants (and Lundqvist) just like anyone else. She’s well aware that Cyclops could have left at any time, and once Lundqvist is out of the way, she’s willing to say so openly.
Hopefully Robbins doesn’t really deal with regular bar fights in the way she did in isuse #20, which was to give one warning and then take out both combatants with a taser. But she would probably argue that shooting first and asking questions later was the only way she was ever believably going to arrest them both – and while Cyclops might have been willing to play along, Lundqvist certainly wouldn’t have been.
Lundqvist’s claim in issue #20 was that he didn’t hate mutants, but merely resented the ones that regarded themselves as above the law. Robbins clearly doesn’t share that view, but does seem to regard it as important that Scott at least plays along with her authority. Magik a big show of not respecting Robbins – in similar terms to Kid Omega in issue #20 – so there’s a lurking issue there.
In line with the Magik solo series, Magik is effectively in persona here, and Cyclops calls her on it, asking what she’s done in his absence that she’s trying to distract from. In fact, last issue, Magik took it upon herself to lead half the team against the Upstarts in his absence – and seemed to regard it as quite convenient that Scott wasn’t around to stop her.
PAGES 3-4. Psylocke and Temper talk to Trevor Fitzroy.
Magik’s crew – consisting only of herself, Jen Starkey, Kid Omega and Juggernaut – defeated Trevor Fitzroy and his Upstarts last issue, with Juggernaut killing Ocelot. It’s not clear what happened to the other two Upstarts, Orbit and Orifice – presumably they were also brought back to the Factory as prisoners, but Psylocke and Temper talk as if Fitzroy was their only prisoner. Even if Fitzroy was their top priority (for reasons we’ll come to), they surely wouldn’t just leave the other two Upstarts to make a break for it.
Fitzroy is remarkably confident that Psylocke’s threats are bluffs, considering that Ocelot was killed in front of him last issue. But he’s basically correct when it comes to Psylocke in particular, as she reminds us on the next page that she regrets her assassin-era body count. Temper is also positioned at the moderate end of the team spectrum, fretting about possibilities for rehabilitation.
Psylocke tells us that Fitzroy is the payment that the X-Men owe to King Bedlam for “services rendered”. This refers back to issue #10, where King Bedlam and his Hellions attacked O*N*E facilities on the X-Men’s behalf; there was mention in that issue of Bedlam wanting “a very specific head”. Psylocke’s very compressed explanation is that “Years ago, Trevor Fitzroy murdered Marie-Ange Colbert, a crime that [Bedlam] has been very interested in repaying.”
Marie-Ange Colbert is Tarot of the original Hellions, and she was murdered by Fitzroy in Uncanny X-Men #282. She later showed up alive and well in X-Force #87-90 as part of Bedlam’s new Hellions. A flashback in X-Force #87 established that the two had been in love as teenagers before she joined the original Hellions, and it was strongly implied that this had something to do with her return from the dead, but the plotline was never resolved.
PAGES 5-8. Beast and Juggernaut argue.
There’s an obvious irony here in Glob Herman sticking doggedly to his vegetarian principles while regarding Juggernaut’s murder of Ocelot as a minor bit of social awkwardness.
Beast is the most willing to challenge Juggernaut about this, partly because he sees it as threatening the well-being of Jennifer Starkey (who he clearly is interested in, despite her worries on that front), and partly because this version of the Beast was restored from a back-up that predated Juggernaut’s face turn. Of course, this version of the Beast only exists because the previous version went mad and did assorted awful things – Juggernaut resists the temptation to point that out.
Juggernaut’s initial reaction to being confronted on this is to ignore the killing bit and engage with the argument about whether Jen needed to confront her fears (on which he has a reasonable point). His argument for killing Ocelot is decidedly unconvincing, though – he claims that the guy had it coming, and argues that he would have carried on killing. But Ocelot had already been defeated, and besides, he didn’t kill the other Upstarts – he did it because Ocelot didn’t take his threats seriously and clearly thought that he’d gone soft. His machismo was threatened, but he’s evidently rationalising it to himself as reasonably combatant behaviour.
PAGE 9. Ben and Jennifer.
Jen claims to be completely unbothered by seeing Juggernaut murder someone; she attributes this to the violent instincts that come with her predatory animal form.
Jen reminds Ben that he was originally brought to the Factory in issue #2 after the X-Men had faked his death, that he’s been required to stay on base to prevent the truth from coming out, and that there’s no need to keep up the pretence now that Lundqvist has revealed (in issue #20) that they know he’s alive. Ben brushes it off – he wants to stay, claiming that he can’t go back to San Francisco after being such a threat to the city in issue #2, but seeming rather more interested in getting control of his (rather intimidating) power.
PAGES 10-12. Cyclops and Magik arrive back at the Factory.
Kid Omega knows the rules of chess but can’t play it very well without cheating. Unfortunately for him, he can’t read Magneto’s mind because of his telepathy-blocking helmet.
Magik accuses Cyclops of being “too busy” to deal with the Upstarts because he was playing by the rules, and invokes her former status as a Great Captain on Krakoa. As in her solo book, Magik tends to reach for the best arguments she can think of to score points on people whether she necessarily believes them or not. She has an image to maintain.
For some reason, Magik also ignores the other two Upstarts even when recapping for Cyclops. Kid Omega is completely correct to say that his injuries were vastly more serious than she’s letting on – she’s avoiding telling Scott how badly wrong the mission nearly went.
Psylocke is the official second in command but seems to have no problem with Magik going off like this.
The “second Iron Night” that Cyclops refers to is presumably the events of issues #14-18, with Magneto piloting the Sentinel to fight a kaiju.
PAGE 13. Revelation, Bei and Warlock arrive at the Factory.
We saw them set off in this direction in issue #19.
PAGES 14-17. Revelation asks for his group to join the X-Men.
Cyclops is clearly sceptical about this (as is Psylocke), partly because he’s aware in general terms of what happened in X-Men: Heir of Apocalypse, and partly because Revelation is clearly acting differently – although he seems to greet Scott warmly, he’s clearly presenting himself as more of an authority figure here. The art shows him as rather smug, though I’m not sure how far the script really intended that.
Revelation acknowledges himself as the heir of Apocalypse, but compares it to Cyclops’ status as the heir to Professor X – a neat way of reframing the role in a way that Cyclops may be more sympathetic to. He argues for building on both mentors’ ideas and people seem somewhat receptive to that. Cyclops calls a vote…
PAGES 18-20. Revelation is admitted to the X-Men.
We established in issue #19 that Revelation can now control people with language, but in that issue he did it with direct commands (which were shown in a different coloured speech balloon). In the absence of anything similar here, it seems that he doesn’t directly compel the X-Men’s vote. In the Age of Revelation one-shot, Xorn said that Revelation only seized control at a later point in time. Besides, while nobody votes against, two abstain and some hesitate.
Kid Omega is particularly enthusiastic, which fit with his role as one of Revelation’s enforcers as shown in Age of Revelation (to be followed up in the Omega Kids mini). Psylocke, Magik and Juggernaut simply agree. Temper doesn’t seem to understand why there might be an argument for not admitting literally any mutant who showed up at their door. Jennifer and Ben don’t understand the context but can’t see a problem either. Glob Herman seems to go with the flow. Magneto hesitates but agrees before the vote is clear – he’s always been written in this book as having an open door policy for mutants. Cyclops rather implies that he might have voted against but he isn’t going to go against such a clear consensus.
The two abstainers are the Beast, who isn’t confident that he knows what’s going on, and Xorn. In Age of Revelation, Xorn claimed to be uniquely immune to Doug’s powers, which is presumably why he has doubts about what he’s seeing. However, he said in that flashback that he had agreed with Cyclops’ decision to let Revelation and co join – in the context of this scene, it seems he agreed with Cyclops’ decision to accept the consensus.
Cyclops is interrupted before shaking hands with Revelation. The flashback to this moment in the Age of Revelation one-shot showed the handshake, so this is a point of divergence in the timeline. It looks like we’re doing a “Days of Futures Past” routine, with the future Cyclops swapping places with the current one. We saw this future Cyclops briefly at the end of in Age of Revelation.
“PAGE 9. Ben and Jennifer”
Is that Affleck and Garner or Lopez?
I am glad that Paul pointed out that the cover is half-Cypher, *sigh* Revelation, and half-Cyclops, because my first thought was half-Alex and half-Scott.
*I* thought that was Cassandra Nova rather than Professor X, especially since she’s part of 3K.
“I am glad that Paul pointed out that the cover is half-Cypher, *sigh* Revelation, and half-Cyclops, because my first thought was half-Alex and half-Scott.”
Alex would have been a good choice as Apocalypse’s Heir. He’s always been portrayed as kind of wishy-washy and uncommitted to Xavier’s dream while looking for a stance that will let him stand out against Scott. He’s also been part of various “camps”–X-Men, X-Factor, that whole Mutant X thing, the Unity Squad… I know we’ve had a lot of “Scott vs Alex” over the years, even as recently as X-Manhunt, but seeing him adopt Apocalypse’s mission might have been interesting.
Still not even sure what Ben’s power actually -is-.
The King Bedlam/Tarot plotline was weird and I’m genuinely surprised to see anyone bring it up after so long. But Mackay likes his deep cuts. I liked Tarot and hated that she died with most of the other Hellions, but her return was so handwaved, it was frustrating in its own right. I wonder if/when we’ll see more of this plotline explored… presumably after AoR is over and we resume normal programming.
I like Jed MacKay’s writing. His characters have some nuance and depth and show it in their dialogue, which is very clear while falling just short of being explicitly expository. Illyanna, in particular, is so clearly characterized and so in line with the portrait in her solo series that I am starting to suspect that the decision to publish that series preceded that of making her a part of the active roster.
Doug was just short of obnoxious here. He is certainly self-confident, but seems to have lost any remnant of humility. As a phase it is fine, given the context. I trust Scott noticed it and noticed also that – uncharacteristically – Doug is essentially lying about having been a part of “any and all” mutant teams. For one, I don’t think he was ever a member of any configuration of X-Factor. That ought to raise at least one red flag for such a tactician as Cyclops.
Scott himself is clearly shaken, yet hiding it well. Reminds me of that time in the Rosemberg run (was it 2019’s #16?) when he decided that there were other, better potential leaders in his group. His self-control is quite scary at this point. I would welcome seeing MacKay’s Scott face off against Doctor Doom. I guess I will have to settle for Revelation for the time being.
Looking forward for Xorn’s scenes in “Amazing X-Men”. He, too, is a quiet powerhouse trying not to draw too much attention to himself. I have a hunch that it won’t last much longer.
“the plotline was never resolved.”
Tarot showed up during Necrosha as one of Selene’s reanimated dead. By that time, King Bedlam had lost his powers. I think we’re supposed to assume that King Bedlam’s powers were keeping her alive somehow and when he lost his powers she went back to being dead. And now she’s back again, courtesy of the Five.
When Cain learns that Charles taught Beast “X-Men don’t kill”, his response is “What a joke that turned out to be”. Does Cain still think Xavier murdered those people during Fall of X? Scott found out the truth during X-Manhunt: Omega. You’d think he would have shared it with the rest of the team.
Scott says the X-Men aren’t a democracy. This is one of those things that varies Depending on the Writer. Sometimes they settle important decisions like who should be leader by duels in the Danger Room. And other times they do vote on important matters.
Re: Magneto- it might have been nice to acknowledge his connection to Doug- he was teaching the New Mutants when Doug died. which is clearly what’s motivating his actions as Revelation.
The letters page said the Chairman’s identity will be revealed soon. I wonder if it will be revealed during Age of Revelation.
@Luis Dantas Cypher was part of Serval Industries’ X-Factor during All-New X-Factor
@Luis Dantas
Doug was a member of the corporate ALL-NEW X-FACTOR from 2014-2015.
To me, the most interesting thing about Alex has been that his entire existence has been mostly defined by the pointlessness of him existing as a character in the firdt place. It’s not like Arnold Drake had a specific story to tell *about* Scott having a brother when he created Alex. He wasn’t introduced as a long-lost brother, or even the cliché of an evil sibling. He was just suddenly there. Completely out of nowhere. Here you go. This is Scott’s brother. Enjoy.
And now decades later, he’s still trying to find a place to fit. Put him in the X-Men and he’s inevitably going to be held up against Scott. Give him his own gig, and it’s inevitably going to be short-lived.
He shouldn’t have existed in the first place. His code name should have been “Extra”, not “Havok.” He’s a human spare tire.
Just kill the poor bastard already and leave
him dead.
X-Men don’t kill.
Unless you’re Cyclops, Jean, Beast, Warren, Betsy, Kitty, Piotr, Kurt, Logan, Ororo, Bishop, Cable, Idie, Quentin…
I’m having trouble placing Doug on X-Force – apparently we’re counting tagging along with X-Force in Second Coming.
Also, I think he was and wasn’t an X-Man. He joined the New Mutants reunion book after Necrosha and at the time they were an X-Men team… But it was a team composed solely of New Mutants. And, later, X-Man.
I stand corrected.
Still, isn’t it a push to call him a former X-Force member and X-Men member? What am I forgetting?
Doug’s mistrust of both Xavier and Magneto (due to Magneto’s teaching the New Mutants when Doug died) influenced his decision on having doubts about the nation of Krakoa being ruled by the two.
Magneto: “Every time Doug does something controversial he blames me. I didn’t kill the damn kid. I was riddled with guilt over his death.”
@The Other Michael, Moo- It’s funny. I was just thinking yesterday that maybe the Chairman is Alex’s split personality. The one that was supposedly created by Emma and Empath during Hellions.
It’s true that’s it’s not clear whether Drake intended Alex to be a mutant. And it’s true that Claremont had no clue what to do with Alex and Lorna before the Mutant Massacre.
But I think that what really killed Alex as a character was the decision to turn Maddie into the Goblin Queen in the lead-up to Inferno. Before that you got the impression that Alex just wanted a normal life but was drawn back into the X-Men because of duty. And that was part of the reason he was drawn to Maddie- because she wanted a normal life too. And Alex was the only one who realized how creepy Betsy was.
Unfortunately, Inferno redefined Alex as the Screwup Summers Brother so Scott would look better in comparison. And he stayed that way for the rest of Claremont’s run. Then when PAD wanted to use Alex as X-Factor’s leader. he basically had to ignore all of that to make Alex into a competent leader. And the character’s been a mess ever since.
I don’t think he’s been a mess since that point. Alex seemed popular in the early days of X-Factor. It was when Alex started to become a poster child for mind-control, and the “is he brainwashed or is he not?” portrayal when Alex was leading the Brotherhood is when the character was truly ruined.
“*I* thought that was Cassandra Nova…”
So did I. Finished the issue wondering how she tied in. Wasn’t until Paul’s post that I could even see it as Xavier.
“…they surely wouldn’t just leave the other two Upstarts to make a break for it.”
I took it as exactly that. Fitzroy was the target, and Ocelot gutted and nearly killed Shrimpo while actively trying to murder Kid Shashimi. Why not let the others just walk away? It was off-panel, but I didn’t get the sense they even had to run away. I suppose Magik could leave them in Limbo or such. Rogue brought a dangerous combatant to Greymalkin in a different title, simply because the X-Men aren’t really set up for keeping prisoners. Tempest’s dialogue here felt right. Trying to imagine Cyclops running a RAFT style prison, and all that I can visualize is pre-resurrection Beast. Being complicit in Fitzroy’s cold blooded murder for the agreement feels harder to justify than Ocelot’s — even with Fitzroy’s body count.
MacKay’s Moon Knight was a delight. Initially I couldn’t stand his take on the X-Men, but I am coming around. Magneto and RLDS have been mostly ignored lately, which is to my liking. That is the part that should be ignored and not revisited. Brevoort has claimed that we will learn more about RLDS soon, and I am hoping we simply don’t.
“It’s true that’s it’s not clear whether Drake intended Alex to be a mutant.”
It is? Huh. See, I didn’t even remember that. I just assumed Drake had established that already before he handed the carkeys back to Roy Thomas.
But that’s interesting. Personally, I don’t think Alex should’ve been created in the first place, but if he was going to exist at all, having him *not* be a mutant would’ve been a better choice. Then you could have Scott feeling inadequate next to his normal brother’s normal life with a normal wife, kids, children, a career, house with a white-picket fence, the whole nine yards. You know, living out a life Scott wishes for himself but isn’t likely to ever have.
Mind you, had they actually gone that route with Alex, he’d be dead by now. There’s no way he would have survived Lobdell’s run.
“kids, children,”
No, no, that wasn’t a mistake on my part. I know it *looks* like a redundancy because I wrote both kids *and* children. But I totally meant to do that. Yesiree, I did. Because by “kids”, I meant young goats, obviously. Alex would have a wife, career, house, children, and baby goats. You know, like most families do.
Yep, I just No-Prized my own comment.
He would have ended up part of the Phalanx, yeah.
Scott must have felt even more inadequate that his younger brother, who was quite average, was already graduating university while older brother, Scott, had only graduated high school.
I’m pretty sure Drake did intend for Alex to be a mutant though. Scott is thinking about how Alex always excelled at athletics, even though he’s quite average, because he was “born like myself”. I don’t know what else Drake could have been intimating other than Alex being a mutant.
I’m not sure now if it was a conclusion I came to from what was on the page back in the day, or just headcanon, but I recall thinking that Tarot was using her power from beyond the grave, and Bedlam’s scrambling power somehow allowed her to animate pictures of herself rather than just pictures on tarot cards.
This was a case where I really appreciated Paul’s annotations, because while I remember Fitzroy killing the Hellions as part of the Upstarts game (a plot that never really got resolved, and would have made for a good crossover in the 90’s), I didn’t remember her real name and never read that part of the X-Force run. Indeed, my only association with the Aaronsons was from Age of Apocalypse. So, thanks for putting this together!
I liked this issue overall as a setup. The audience is already primed to know that Cyclops will invite Doug to join the X-Men, but the setup where he’s distracted by Magik going rogue, Juggernaut killing a downed enemy, Quinten almost dying, etc when he leaves then alone for one day helps sell why he’d make the call for a vote rather than telling him they’d call next time Beast wants someone with whom he can practice his Latin.
About RLDS and finding out more about it…
Perhaps it would be a bit too obvious, but didn’t the Legacy Virus get that name because it was described as Stryfe’s legacy, brought from the future?
Perhaps we are about to learn that RLDS has its origins and/or its cure on the alternate future of Age of Revelation.
@Chris V- Yeah, but fans had already stated to joke about Alex being easily mind-controlled by the end of Claremont’s run. He’d been mind controlled into serving Erik the Red, turned into the Goblin Prince, mind controlled into kissing Betsy and walking into the Siege Perilous and turned into a Genoshan Magistrate. X-Factor 71-111 were a brief reprieve before Alex turned into the screwup Summers brother again.
Personally, I thought Alex peaked with his “maybe mutants wouldn’t be persecuted if they stopped whining all the time” speech from Uncanny Avengers. It generated a lot of complaining online because it’s a terrible argument, but it’s exactly the kind of terrible argument I can see Havok making.
There’s something to be said for having a whitebread, professionally-successful, human-passing mutant who doesn’t particularly care for superheroing or mutant activism but keeps getting dragged into their orbit thanks to his family. Felt like a natural progression from him leading the government-sponsored X-Factor, and it puts him in mild opposition to Scott without needing yet another mind control plot.
@yrzhe – Oh, right. I forgot about Alex’s Candace Owens phase.
It does seem odd that “fans” (who?) would fixate on Alex being easily mind-controlled considering every instance you cited besides Inferno involves other people as well. Polaris served Erik the Red too. Colossus and Dazzler were mind-controlled into the Siege Perilous too. Sabretooth and Mystique were inverted during Axis too. So what?
I’d say Alex Summers’ failure comes down to the accumulation of all his bad stories and lack of popular, defining stories. Every X-Men gets mind controlled, but Alex got stuck wearing matching outfits with Maddie. Howard Mackie stuck him in some dreadful stories in X-Factor and Mutant X, and when he escaped Mackie he was being written by Chuck Austen.
Uncanny Avengers gave him that terrible speech and a bizarre relationship with the Wasp before leaving him magically evil.
So what does Alex get to balance that? He was the reluctant guy in the Outback X-Men era. He was in PAD’s original X-Factor run, but mostly as a straight man, and I think he’s the only character on that team PAD never revisited. He was central to the Vulcan storyline, but that was well below Brubaker’s usual standards, and not fondly remembered. His most memorable stories are his worst stories.
“…mind controlled into kissing Betsy”
Lucky bastard.
“I think he’s the only character on that team PAD never revisited.”
Well, he revisited him briefly, anyway. I think I recall both he and Lorna stepping in to help out X-Factor Investigations while Madrox was on leave or something like that.
@Woodswalked- Regarding Fitzroy, I think the idea is that (a) the team are justing handing Fitzroy over to the Bedlam Brothers and don’t know whether they’re going to kill Fitzroy or just do something nasty to him and (b) if the team turned Fitzroy over to the authorities he’d be likely to wind up in Graymalkin where he’d be mistreated.
@Diana- Lorna also developed a reputation for being crazy and/or mind-controlled. It’s partly due to the fact that Lorna and Alex were mind-controlled during the Eric the Red story lfor TWO YEARS- most heroes are freed from mind control after a couple of months.
Alex should go finish his Ph.D. in Geophysics. In fact, that could be his own solo series, “Alex Summers, Grad Student”. We know from Spider-man that 75% of Marvel’s college professors are evil, so there’s a lot of superhero brawls to be had on college campuses. Throw in the usual “I was at college when not a member of a team” excuse for characters not starring in a series, and he’s got a supporting cast. When he comes back to an X-team as Dr. Alex Summers, by the laws of comic book education, he’ll be able to build robots with complex AI.
No-Prize : theres no such thing as RLDS, Magneto was physicallyresurrected by 100% pure magic in his latest resurrection (written by Al Ewing) so his physical body is now Xtremely sensitive to the never-ending chaotic fluctuations in Earth-616’s planetary magick fields (which is also what Paul Cornell did to Alistair Stuart in his 2007 MI-13 mini-series 18 years ago IRL) so thats why he’s so physically decrepit now when he should still be in his physical prime
You know, I’d never thought of it before, but it IS mildly interesting how many teams Doug has been on despite having been dead for so long and how passive his powers are.
The New Mutants, obviously. The X-Men, whether you count the time the New Mutants promoted themselves when the X-Men became the X-Babies, or the Utopia-era team. X-Factor, the Serval Industries version. X-Force during Second Coming… I know it was only one mission, but he got an X-Force uniform and saved the entire mutant race, I think that counts. Even kinda sorta Excalibur, if you count Douglock. (I know technically that was Warlock, but it was Warlock mixed with a copy he’d stored of Doug’s mind, that kinda counts, right?)
Honestly, he’s approaching Namor levels of team cross-pollination. How long can it be before Doug joins the Defenders?
@Drew – And now he’s going to be at the center of a major crossover event. Coming back from the dead gave him one hell of a second wind.
I’m surprised he didn’t turn up in one of the Deadpool films since he’s exactly the sort of character whose powers Deadpool would enjoy mocking. “Great, so you’re basically Google Translate.”
“X-Force during Second Coming… I know it was only one mission, but he got an X-Force uniform and saved the entire mutant race.”
I was wondering when he was on X-Force. I guess that counts, but feels like a stretch.
I also read that cover image as Cassandra Nova because of the dramatic cheekbones and pointy chin. Maybe Charles had his buccal fat removed to boost his modeling career?
I’ve always liked Alex, but never really understood his inferiority complex. Alex had adoptive parents and a great girlfriend. His power is just as cool as Scott’s. And most importantly, Scott’s amazing but rigid leadership is clearly overcompensation for something. If anything, I’d expect Alex to constantly be telling Scott to chill out.
Doug’s brief time in X-Force did set up my favorite Wolverine line ever: https://i.imgur.com/bUD558E.png
Alex Summers is also a character who keeps having his niche written out (or written badly). He goes from Cyclops’s younger brother to another guy, like Scott, cursed with a power so destructive he fears to use it.
Then he becomes the mutant who doesn’t want to be a superhero, which relegates him to guest appearances and requires stuff like the Hulk mistaking Lorna for Jarella or Shi’ar mind control to justify having him turn up.
Claremont eventually settles on using him as the dilettante X-Men member, the guy who joins shortly after the Mutant Massacre for personal reasons and struggles with the grim realities of fighting in the underground mutant wars. This culminates in his being seduced by Madeline and becoming the Goblin Prince, since the story is abut Alex’s comparative naiveté and weakness.
Once that’s over, he’s rehabbed by Peter David’s take is that he’s a reasonable guy with a bit of an inferiority complex about his brother, but ultimately needs to trust in his own strengths and ways of doing things.
I didn’t read Mutant X, just Paul’s reviews of it.
But the next big use of the character is Rick Remender’s stuff, which starts with a tone-deaf version of “Alex is the mutant who wants a normal life” and eventually becomes a variant of “Havok is mind-controlled into fighting his former allies.”
Russell seems to have done weaker retread of PAD’s take, with emphasis on Alex being torn between fighting for mutants and fighting for the status quo.
Perhaps the closest thing he has to a consistent character trait is an innate reluctance that means he must be directed into action by outside forces or peer pressure. Whether it’s about his reluctance to use his powers, his reluctance to lose his sense of a regular person’s life, or his reluctance to be compared to his brother, he’s the guy who at some level kind of doesn’t want to be there or doesn’t want to grapple with the themes of the X-books. Even his classic costume was something someone else forced on him.
Throw in his connection to Lorna, another very inconsistently handled character whose underlying motivations swerve all over the place, and you have a character who’s genuinely hard to write interestingly or definitively.
“Alex had adoptive parents”
Ah, yes. The loons who pressured Alex to behave like their dead son. I think Scott got the better deal there.
Which, by the way, officially kicked off the trend of Alex being judged against someone else.
Okay, then of the six members of PAD’s original X-Factor, he brought back five to be members of either X-Factor Investigations or Serval Industries.
@MasterMahan – Wasn’t Alex already spoken for (Uncanny Avengers) at the time the Serval incarnation of X-Factor came along?
“Doug’s brief time in X-Force did set up my favorite Wolverine line ever.”
That WAS funny, agreed. It also sets up one of my favorite “Wolverine has a heart” moments when, after Doug nearly kills himself shutting down every Nimrod in existence, Logan — clearly feeling bad about his earlier joke — insists on being the one to carry Doug to safety.
“Okay, then of the six members of PAD’s original X-Factor, he brought back five to be members of either X-Factor Investigations or Serval Industries.”
All six, no? Madrox, Strong Guy, and Wolfsbane were founding members of X-Factor Investigations (with Pietro hanging around the margins being villainous). Havok and Polaris stepped in and joined the team for a while in the book’s last couple years when Madrox was missing in action. And then Quicksilver was on the Serval Industries version.
@Michael ‘a) “a very specific head” combined with other dialog gives the clear impression that they are holding him to be turned over to King Bedlam and the X-Men have given no reason to expect Fitzroy will survive the torture. There is not much sub to that text. Even if they are not certain, to expect otherwise is not a reasonable position. (Okay, Glob probably hasn’t thought it through like Magik and Psylocke have.) b)Fitzroy at Graymalkin would likely result in his immediate escape and resumption of mass murder. That was essentially his origin story which led Bishop to time travel in the first place.
Is this supposed to be less problematic?
@Drew – He said five of the six, not all six. And Polaris was also in the Serval group.
MasterMahan (if I’m reading him right) seems to be implying that PAD may not have been particularly interested in using Alex as a regularly featured cast member in his subsequent X-Factor relaunches, and who knows? Perhaps he wasn’t. But I don’t think that can be determined solely on the grounds that he didn’t cast him. Alex was already appearing regularly in other books every time PAD had an X-Factor series to launch. Perhaps he might’ve cast him again but couldn’t.
Although I doubt PAD would’ve cast either Alex or Lorna at the start of X-Factor Investigations even if they were available. He was focused on Madrox at the time and having either or Alex or Lorna there would have overshadowed him. Even when PAD eventually had them show up for their brief pinch in and help stint towards the end, from what I remember the point of that *was* to have them overshadow Jamie and for him to feel insecure about it.
@Omar- You left out the whole Nurse Annie mess, under Chuck Austen, right after Mutant X, which just made Alex and Lorna look more dysfunctional.
I think that Havok’s arc in Claremont’s X-Men suffered badly from the decision to turn Maddie into the Goblin Queen. It seemed like one of the reasons that Claremont paired them together was because Maddie, like Alex, was also RELUCTANT and would much rather live a normal life with her son. And after Alex saved Maddie from. suicide, he seemed to be settling into a role as the conscience of the team- convincing them not to toss Tyger Tiger through the Siege Perilous, to let Peter help Illyana. And a big part of that arc seemed to be saving Maddie and acting as her comforter and protector I’m not sure if Claremont planned for them to actually get together since they clearly still had feelings for Scott and Lorna. But once the higher-ups ordered Claremont to turn Maddie into the Goblin Queen, Alex’s entire arc had to be changed and the results were not very flattering to Alex.
It did certainly hurt the character, as I found the idea that Madelyne was going to find healing at the hands of Scott’s brother to be some really nice characterization on the part of Claremont. Unfortunately, that still wasn’t going far enough to salvage Scott for Marvel.
Then, after the entering the Siege Perilous, Alex ends up a Magistrate on Genosha. I guess the idea was that Alex was trying to lead a revolution and got captured, but I don’t think even that much of the backstory made it on the page, so it looks like Alex is a truly horrible person (either the Siege Perilous judges that Alex deserves to be a slave to those who hate his kind, or Alex’ fondest wish is to be not a mutant even if it means becoming someone who hunts fellow mutants). Even with the original intent, Alex looks to be a complete screwup, as he manages to fail spectacularly in a very short period of time.
Somehow though, Alex was still recoverable as a character for Peter David. It was downhill after that. Ending up being handled by Howard Mackie and Chuck Austen? There is no greater judgment upon a character. Even the Siege Perilous treated him kinder.