ASTONISHING X-MEN INFINITY COMIC #23. By Tim Seeley, Edoardo Audino, KJ Diaz & Clayton Cowles. Well, it’s a fight issue, but it’s a fight issue that also has the task of selling us on the revamped “Mutant Salvation Front”. The original Mutant Liberation Front always had some memorable character designs going for them – something that was genuinely one of Rob Liefeld’s strengths. But conceptually they’ve been more generic. This pared-down version of the group aren’t so much anti-human as pathologically pro-mutant, throwing themselves into a utopian vision of a restored mutant society. Using Wildside in the leader role seemed a weird choice at first, but Seeley actually makes a good case for it here: Wildside’s power is to create hallucinations, but there’s a thin line between a hallucination and a spiritual experience, which is how he can resposition himself as a preacher. That actually makes sense, complete with the suggestion that Wildside may not literally believe his visions but does believe in the importance of inspiring hope in his followers. And for the core group, sure, why not these three? Forearm is highly recognisable. Reaper is also highly recognisable, but now claims to have a higher perspective on the world because he’s also been to other universes. Which is true! He was in the Ultraverse Exiles for a while, and nobody remembers that. But as a guy who’s had weird experiences that he thinks make him open-minded… that works. And… well, okay, Strobe’s an odd choice because she was one of the more generic designs. And that design has been reworked here anyway, quite well. But sure, Strobe. Why not. Anyway, I like what Seeley is doing with these characters – they’re underused and this legitimately gives them something to do.

UNCANNY X-MEN #15. (Annotations here.) “Dark Artery” has been the strongest arc of the series so far, though this is something of a middle chapter issue. I assume the flashbacks are heading towards how Henrietta wound up as guardian of the Artery, and since the suggestion is that she’s looking for one of the Outliers to release her from that role, it’s an interesting reversal from her ultra-sympathetic role in the flashbacks. I’m looking forward to seeing how we pull that off next time. As for this issue, I like the way Deathdream is handled, and obviously David Marquez can sell the atmosphere of the Penumbra. I’m not so sure about the goth costumes for everyone, though I guess they help prevent the vibe of the Penumbra being polluted by too many bright colours, so they serve a function there.

MAGIK #5. (Annotations here.) End of the first arc, though we’re obviously not finished with Liminal, since the book’s only supporting character is tied to him, and Magik’s very upset about that. The main purpose of this first arc is actually to reconcile Magik to her Darkchild persona, which is a fair enough way of taking the character forward. It’s a stronger issue if you couple it with a re-read of the whole arc, since in isolation, the centrepiece of this issue is a rather on-the-nose exchange between Illyana and the Darkchild in which Illyana finally figures out that the Darkchild is not an outside influence but rather her own defensive reaction to trauma. The arc as a whole, though, builds to that very nicely with hindsight, by having everyone (except Cal) act as though Darkchild is a massive threat even though she never actually does anything beyond express delight at being let out, and carry on fighting the bad guys when she’s in control. So viewed in the round, there are subtler things happening. The understated art helps it too. This is one of the strongest books in the line right now.

DEADPOOL / WOLVERINE #5. (Annotations here.) Well, I gave this an annotation post because it’s an ongoing and the reveal seems kind of important but… I don’t honestly understand it or care very much. All the possible explanations of what’s going on seem to involve this being an alt-timeline Apocalypse, so whatever. More to the point, though, what’s the point of a Deadpool / Wolverine team-up series where they spend the whole first arc taking turns to be mind controlled so that they barely ever actually interact as characters? Are we trying to do delayed gratification here (even though Deadpool / Wolverine team-up stories are ten a penny)? Or are we just trying to avoid writing scenes where they have to interact because it’s not actually very interesting (which it isn’t, but the premise of a Deadpool / Wolverine book has to be that it is).

GIANT-SIZE X-MEN #1. By Jackson Lanzing, Collin Kelly, Adam Kubert, Laura Martin and Clayton Cowles. So this is a de facto miniseries about the timeline getting screwed up by Legion – or rather, the bunch of stray personalities left behind after David moved on to the White Hot Room at the end of the Krakoan era – and Ms Marvel going back in time to visit key moments from X-Men history. I’m not sure there’s really a point to this beyond doing a reprise of the greatest hits as a 50th anniversary celebration of the original Giant-Size X-Men #1, and I suppose that’s reason enough if you’re not expecting anything more than that. I can’t say it grabs me as anything more than a gimmick, though. I suppose in theory you can do something with Ms Marvel as the latecomer to mutant culture getting to see the parts of history that she’s only heard about, but I don’t think it works in practice – it winds up doing more to lampshade how awkwardly Kamala has been shoehorned into the X-books. It’s nice to see Kubert again, and I guess it’s nice to acknowledge that this Cyclops has met Ms Marvel before in Champions – though the bit about memories being suppressed is glossed over and it undercuts the idea that she’s an outsider to these events. I don’t think that trying to square off the original story with the later reinterpretation of Krakoa really works either – the story has to acknowledge that it doesn’t fit but doesn’t really have a clever angle on what to do with that fact.

There’s a back-up by Al Ewing, Sara Pichelli and Federico Blee, retconning in an obvious villain who rejects Professor X’s offer to join the X-Men, and that’s a bit more interesting – assuming that it’s heading somewhere – but it’s not a reason to pick up the issue on its own.

CABLE: LOVE & CHROME #5. By David Pepose, Mike Henderson, Arif Prianto & Joe Sabino. Final issue of the miniseries, and this certainly benefits from being re-read in one sitting, since it winds up looping back to the start, so it really helps if that first issue is fresh in your mind. Self-cancelling time-travel stories can be tricky to pull off, but this is a nice little self-contained affair about Cable meeting his soulmate in a future timeline and winding up having to delete their relationship in order to give everyone else a happy ending. This being a time paradox story, the actual mechanics of all that are decidedly wavy (shouldn’t there be two Cables at the end?) but the thrust of what it’s trying to do is clear enough, and it works. Admittedly, a re-reading also brings out that the book keeps coming back to a very odd line about Cable choosing “the bigger picture over the greater good”, which surely doesn’t make any sense because they’re the same thing? But Henderson’s art is fantastic throughout, with a great take on Cable’s techno-organics. And this is the sort of book I was pleased to see from the current line – something completely detached from everything else and just doing its story and going home.

ROGUE: SAVAGE LAND #5. By Tim Seeley, Zulema Scotto Lavina, Rachelle Rosenberg & Joe Caramagna. Well, I said at the start of the series that this was less T&A than the covers suggested, and so it remains – and hey, Ka-Zar’s there as a guest star for the equal opportunity loincloth. Beyond that, it’s a bit meh, and to be honest, it doesn’t get much better from a re-read in one sitting. The main plot is Zaladane’s scheme to take over the Savage Land, which of course is the story that was underway when we picked up Rogue’s thread in Uncanny X-Men #274. So you can see why this book has to deal with that… except it’s not a Rogue story. At a push, it’s a Magneto story, since Zaladane has more resonance with him. The other problem is that the story can’t properly resolve because, well, it’s still going in Uncanny #274. In lieu of that, there’s a lot of Savage Land types running around, of varying levels of familiarity, none of whom are all that interesting either. There are some nice character beats in there, it looks nice enough, and it’s generally okay on a scene-by-scene level, but it doesn’t really make for a memorable Rogue story.

WOLVERINE & KITTY PRYDE #2. By Chris Claremont, Damian Couceiro, Carlos Lopez & Ariana Maher. On the whole, a perfectly decent little continuity implant series. Couceiro’s art helps a lot by giving it some boldness and energy and downplaying the nostalgia angle, and I do appreciate Claremont doing a little more with Kitty and her father. The cliffhanger is a bizarre left turn, though, and suggests a worrying swerve into the wider late-Claremontverse, with a version of Ziggy Trask from his X-Men Forever showing up, along with a bunch of human-size Sentinels from the 2013 X-Men Gold one-shot. I’m not sure how any of that fits with the parts of the book that have been working. But the book has been good enough so far, so we’ll see how it goes.