The X-Axis – 3 June 2026
UNCANNY X-MEN #29. (Annotations here.) The final part of “Who’s Been Sleeping in My Bed”, and unless we’re coming back to some of this, I’m mostly confused. The Greymalkin prison storyline has never really worked, and it’s been one of the weakest strands of the post-Krakoan X-books, so I’m at least glad to see the back of it. Nor do I have a problem with Inmate X being a new character with a link to Corina Ellis (the foreshadowing was there), or with Ellis attempting a last minute face turn and being rebuffed. No, the problem with this arc is that about half of it is devoted to the Outliers/New Mutants material which doesn’t seem to tie in to the main plot in any way at all. It advances Mutina’s storyline, to be sure, but what was any of it about? I just don’t get it. Though it pales in comparison to…
STORM: EARTH’S MIGHTIEST MUTANT #5. (Annotations here.) Final issue of the run. It’s a blatant guillotine cancellation, despite having been solicited as a five-issue miniseries from the start, something which Ayodele only seems to have discovered when issue #1 was solicited. I don’t know what the lead-in times for this book are, but the series reads very much as if it reached for the emergency brake somewhere during issue #4, when the build-up to Storm’s “daughter” came to nothing and a scene set in her alternate timeline was compressed to a couple of pages. The final issue opts for attempting a thematic resolution and make a grand show of not resolving any of the actual plot on the grounds that we all know Storm wins somehow or other. To be fair, Ayodele does make an effort to tie his thematic resolution back to things that have happened over the course of the story. Still, the fact remains that it just stops, and with the best will in the world, this is the second time inside a year that I’ve read a guillotine cancellation issue from Marvel that played the meta card to get out of even going through the motions of resolving its storylines. (The other one was Astonishing Spider-Man Infinity Comic #36.) Sudden endings have always been a feature of superhero comics, and they’re never satisfying, but come on. More generally, the book’s ambition is laudable and always has been, and it’s a good thing that something so off kilter was able to exist in the current line, but it always felt like there were far too many ideas fighting for space at the best of times, coupled with frequently bemusing and confusing storytelling choices. But it swung for the fences, and you’ve got to at least respect that.
X-MEN OF APOCALYPSE #4. By Jeph Loeb, Simone Di Meo, Richard Starkings & Tyler Smith. Meanwhile, here’s the exact opposite of swinging for the fences. There’s a perfunctory plot about the whole “restoring the timeline” thing being a ruse – though it never made the slightest sense in the first place, being completely divorced from the original stories that it’s supposed to be referencing. There’s at least an effort to go through the routine of Gambit meeting an alternate Rogue, which is nothing new, and doesn’t fit with the original storyline that it’s supposed to be referencing anyway. But hell, at least that bit feels like Loeb wasn’t entirely asleep at the wheel when he was writing it. And yes, the art is often very pretty – Di Meo isn’t much good at location and atmosphere, but he does draw nice looking people. He’s making an effort, but there’s nothing else worth your time here.
CYCLOPS #5. By Alex Paknadel, Rogê Antônio, Fer Sifuentes-Sujo & Joe Caramagna. This is a bit more like it. It’s playing the classics, to be sure – isolate Scott from the team, force him to do the story with his eyes closed, have him inspire the sceptical new kids, his resourcefulness overcomes all – but the art is dynamic and the details are well built. You could probably have tightened it up to four issues but that won’t matter so much in the collection or on Unlimited. And yes, it does spell out the moral rather directly at the end. But the idea itself is sound: Scott can come across as a difficult and distant figure, but Donald Pierce serves as an opposite number who doesn’t care about the wellbeing of his followers at all, and regards them all as interchangeable bit part characters even though Paknadel has made sure to give at least a few of them real personality. At the same time, Scott gets to see that Pierce is turning these guys into soldiers and to be reintroduced to civilian non-combatant mutants, to remind him that not everyone ought to be in the X-Men. Very solid.
WHAT IF…? THE UNCANNY X-MEN #1. By Gerry Duggan, Jan Bazaldua, Arthur Hesli & Clayton Cowles. It’s “What if Cyclops had stayed with Madelyne Pryor”. Except it’s not quite that, because the turning point is actually that Madelyne gets saved at the end of Inferno, and Cyclops decides to retire as a superhero and go back to his family. That leads to Scott simply being a dad and living a normal life until Nate is old enough to become a teenage superhero, followed by an extremely abbreviated run through an alternate version of X-history. The timelines seem gratuitously garbled – why on earth does he have Atlantis Attacks and Acts of Vengeance taking place after Inferno? It doesn’t matter, but why namecheck them at all just to get it wrong? [EDIT: Never mind, I’m completely wrong about this. Atlantis Attacks was slightly after Inferno, and Acts of Vengeance was way after. That’ll teach me to do this stuff from memory.]
Anyway, it’s a What If story, so naturally it all ends in disaster, because that’s how every What If story ends. Nice to look at, not without its moments, but I don’t really buy the attempt to sell it as a story about how Scott inadvertently dooms the world by putting his family first; the chain of events is far too remote to make that any sort of moral story. And seriously, can we have a moratorium on What If stories that end with mass death? It’s been a cliche for at least 40 years now.
Cyke-Yes, the Sabretooth issue was towards the end of the series when Marvel changed the format, probably in an attempt to save it from cancellation. The series sort of turned into Warren Ellis’ Ruins for a while each month.
There was a Hulk story where Bruce Banner was already married to Betty before the gamma explosion. He was abusive to Betty. The gamma explosion turning him into the Hulk made him nicer.
There was a Spider-Man story where Gwen lives, they get married, and have a kid. Gwen dies of cancer from exposure to her radioactive husband. Peter begins to mutate into a half-human/half-spider hybrid. Peter and Gwen’s child, who inherits spider-powers, has to kill the monstrous Peter.
There was a Fantastic Four story (which was terrible) where Reed purposely attempted to expose his friends to cosmic rays as an experiment, hoping they gain superpowers so he can use them to stop Dr. Doom. The FF’s powers are slowly killing them, leaving Reed wracked with guilt.
The new direction didn’t last long, and it wasn’t too long before Marvel did cancel the series.
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Anyway, no one has mentioned the Nocenti written issue featuring “Storm Stayed a Thief”. It’s not particularly good, but it’s probably one of my favourite issues of What If? due to Nocenti featuring Jack Black in the story. Not the comedian guy. It stands out as I never expected to see quotes from Black in a Marvel comic.
Marvel’s late ’90s obsession with bronze age revivals
Was that related to the Blade films at the same time, which, full disclosure, I’ve never seen and didn’t know were Marvel until the MCU reboot was announced several years ago.
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I forgot about the Prof X became Juggernaut story. I’ll reread that one tonight.
‘My attitude was “get over it…. I was too young to read when that happened”’
I remind myself now and then that Peter Parker sold his marriage to the Devil almost 20 years ago now. It’s still the point at which my emotional connection to the series ended, but I’m not gonna grade every Spider-Man story for the last 20 years in light of it. I’m sure plenty of fans never read him while he was married.
I vaguely recall that Kurt Busiek said his own emotional connection to the X-Men died with Jean Grey (the first time she went, or a clone of her did or whatever). That amused me.
At first, I only bought X-Men issues of What If…?, and I also read the Inferno issue way before reading the actual crossover.
@Chris V: agree the horror-tinged “What If…? Starring ____” era wasn’t great, much as I liked the Sabretooth and Rogue/Nightcrawler issues. IIRC, the Quicksilver & Juggernaut issues weren’t bad, either. Still, the FF, Spider-Man, & Hulk issues you mention were among the worst What Ifs…? ever.
it is impressive though. Of all the many books that were launched throughout DeFalco’s period as Editor-in-Chief- only 7 made it past 100 issues- X-Men, Wolverine, Marvel Comics Presents (!75), X-Force (129), Excalibur (125), What If (114) and Cable (107). Of those, What If was the only non X-book that lasted that long. (Marvel Comics Presents usually had at least one feature with an X-Man for most of its run and was also biweekly.) And yes, there were several X-stories throughout What If’s run but it’s amazing What if lasted that long.
For all the fans of What If Magik Became the Sorceror Supreme — there’s an unofficial sequel by the same writer, published in a different sort of “imaginary story”: Doctor Strange: The End.
I love you guys so much ❤️
@Adam,
I don’t understand your reference I’ve been reading since the mid 80’s and don’t remember Peter being married in the main universe are you talking about the 20 years he and MJ lived together as a couple but never married. That’s how I remember it, and I sure no devil messed with my memory.
The sales figures for May 2026 are out. Uncanny X-Men 28 came in 18th. X-Men 29 came in 22nd. Cyclops 4 came in 39th. Jubilee: Deadly Reunion came in 47th, Magik & Colossus 4 came in 48th, Wolverine: Weapons of Armageddon came in 49th, and Wolverine came in 50th.
Cyclops. Magik & Colossus and Wolverine: Weapons of Armageddon did better than I thought. I wasn’t expecting them to stay in or regain the top 50 this month but they all did.
Wolveinre 20, on the other hand, was just embarrassing. Not only was it beaten by a Cyclops limited series and a Magik & Colossus limited series. it was always beaten by Captain America, Fantastic Four, Iron Man, BLACK CAT and MOON KNIGHT. Wolverine is definitely no longer Marvel’s second most popular solo hero.
X-Men United 3 came in 53rd. The fact that it came in 53rd with its 3rd issue suggests it’s not long for this world.It was supposed to be a flagship but not only was it beaten by limited series like Cyclops and Magik & Colossus, it was also beaten by books like Black Cat and Moon Knight as well as the third issues of Lobo, Deathstroke and Batwoman.
Storm came in at 74th. I doubt the last issue will do much better, considering the negative reception it got.
I mean competing with Ryan North’s Fantastic Four and Jed McKay’s Moon Knight was always going to be a big ask.
Maybe it’s time to let Wolverine (the character) lie fallow again for a bit. It would allow more development of other characters in his orbit.
Weapons of Armageddon, a Wolerine mini that is a lead in to a non X-book crossover thing beat the Wolverine solo ongoing. This can’t be exclusively about the decades long oversaturation of the character.
Steven-I don’t see any chance of that happening. Marvel is building their new Avengers push around Wolverine. He may not be leading the new team (but he may too), but Marvel are heavily pushing the idea that Wolverine is going to be an Avenger again. I seriously doubt he is leaving the X-axis to be an Avenger either. Marvel seems to be redoing the early-2000s period which killed Wolverine’s popularity (on every X-team, the Avengers, a solo title). The only difference is Logan isn’t anywhere as popular as he was in 2001, so the big lead in to Marvel’s crossover event which is supposed to reposition the Avengers back as Marvel’s flagship title ranks in 49th place.
I’m sure the new Avengers launch will do well, at least for a while, but if this can sustain multiple Avengers-adjacent spin-off books to fill up the line for Marvel is a much more uncertain question.
I think Marvel is pushing Wolverine out of desperation. Deadpool doesn’t sell comics, X-Men isn’t doing the numbers they want, and none of the other Marvel characters move the needle enough to get readers to try another new Avengers title. Spider-Man is also on the team, so that box is checked off. They’re going all in on Wolverine because he’s still a popular character, and maybe making him the lead Avenger or whatever will put a jolt into both his comic and Avengers.
Hasn’t Ultimate Wolverine still been selling well? Better than a lot of the mainline X-books, at any rate. And from the bits and pieces I’ve seen it doesn’t really look like a radical departure from traditional Wolverine, just a bit gorier and more action-packed than the current books.
@yrzhe: Ultimate Wolverine depicts a different setting (Russia controlled by the Maker-installed Piotr and Illyana) and alternate versions of some of the X-characters,. Wolverine spends the first few issues silent and brainwashed. When his real personality comes back, he’s largely the same as the 616 version. I liked Ultimate Wolverine, with the first half of the series being more interesting than the post-brainwashing issues. It made good use of the fact that anyone could die.
I’m not convinced, for me it read like a standard ‘it’s an alternate universe, so we’ re killing everybody’.
Anyway, after two years I still don’t know what the Maker did that resulted in Tony Stark being born significantly later than Peter Parker. This universe was never going to last with such shaky worldbuilding.