The X-Axis – w/c 13 October 2025
X-MEN UNLIMITED INFINITY COMIC #40. By Alex Paknadel, Tim Seeley, Phillip Sevy, Michael Bartolo & Clayton Cowles. Well, this certainly feels like the series is wrapping itself up, with the heroes finally getting to fight the X-Cutioner and a greatest hits selection of his weapons from previous arcs. There isn’t that much more to it, though, and the background storyline about the X-Cutioner and Cassandra has always been rather less interesting than the individual stories along the way. This isn’t bad, but it feels more like an obligatory resolution than something that’s going to kick that overarching story up a notch.
UNBREAKABLE X-MEN #1. (Annotations here.) We’re in week two of the “Age of Revelation” proper – as opposed to the prologue one-shots – and they’re turning out to be a broader range of stories than I would have expected. There are four tie-ins this week, and only two of them really involve Revelation at all. The others are pretty much stories that you could do in any near future timeline, at least from what we’ve seen so far. I have no problem with that; I don’t want to spend three months reading a vast array of takes on a very specific story. How well it’ll sell is another matter, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.
Unbreakable X-Men is Uncanny X-Men, and thus far it’s really a story about a near future Gambit who’s been in depressed semi-retirement since Rogue died fighting Galactus, coming back for one last mission. That’s a solid character-driven hook, and Lucas Werenck’s art sells it rather nicely, particularly the montage of the ageing Remy. It’s also another book that seems to be bidding for wider relevance, not by playing into “Age of Revelation” but by using the near future time frame to build on regular storylines. So this story also picks up on the Dark Artery plotline, which is maybe going to be a bigger sales draw than its marginal contribution to AoR. Anyway, it’s a pretty good issue which doesn’t really get drawn into the event.
ROGUE STORM #1. (Annotations here.) This is another book that seems to have nothing much of anything to do with “Age of Revelation”, beyond being set in the near future. Storm has seemingly gone mad and started doing things like covering deserts in ice. Rogue Red – a powerless copy of the real Rogue – tries to stop the friend who took her in when she was rejected as a duplicate. And all this happens a few years before the actual “Age of Revelation” storyline. There’s no apparent reason for the two Rogues to be red and green, so I can’t help wondering whether somebody got talked out of calling the flawed copy Rouge.
The duplicate Rogues are maybe a bit random, but it does seem like a character point for this Rogue, rather than just a continuity fix. Roland Boschi’s art has some pleasing grit to it, and the closing sequence with the hippo is nicely placid. The regular Storm title has made some very odd storytelling choices which have often made it a baffling read. In comparison, this book is remarkably straightforward – perhaps because it has to do its story in three issues rather than being able to drip feed exposition over ten – and it’s all the better for it. It’s still a bit wonky, though. The closing scene with Storm feels totally detached from the rest of the issue and doesn’t work as an ending. And Murewa Ayodele’s weird obsession with having sound effects for everything from LEAP to DODGE calls for an intervention. But… actually alright, for the most part.
IRON & FROST #1. By Cavan Scott, Ruairí Colemon, Roberto Poggi, Yen Nitro & Joe Sabino. I don’t know how many times I’d seen this title in promotion without noticing that ampersand. I think I liked the title better as Iron Frost, actually. Maybe it’s just me, but Iron & Frost sounds like it sells artisan bedsteads. Anyway: despite the title, this is really an Emma Frost story, with Iron Man on the margins. Emma’s been stuck in diamond form ever since having her heart injured a few years back – it’s presumably supposed to echo Iron Man’s original status quo, where he had to wear the armour to keep his heart beating. So now she returns to New York following some sort of trail of clues left for her by Iron Man, who’s been looking for a cure for the X-virus. Which… isn’t his thing, surely? Anyway, this one doesn’t do a great deal for me. It’s not bad and I suppose if you’re really invested in the Tony/Emma relationship then you might get something more out of it, but it doesn’t feel like there’s much going on here. It’s competent event filler, basically.
SINISTER’S SIX #1. By David Marquez, Rafael Loureiro, Alex Sinclair & Ariana Maher. That’s Marquez writing, not drawing, to be clear. This one is more closely interested in Revelation, but only up to a point. Despite what other books have said, mutants weren’t entirely immune from the X-virus, and the ones who were mutated by it have taken refuge in what used to be upstate New York with Mr Sinister. After all, he’s meant to be the expert in these things, and even if nobody quite trusts him, it’s not such a bad place to be if you don’t fancy your chances with Revelation. The title characters are basically the useful mutants that Sinister has on hand, with Havok as team leader since he needs to get his kid out of quarantine. Havok’s actually competent for a change, and there seems to be an element of him finally getting out of Scott’s shadow here. It’s a nice clean looking book, and it’s all quite upbeat considering the premise. It does suffer from having a cliffhanger reveal which was already offhandedly revealed in X-Men, the one book in the event that you can be pretty sure everyone’s read. That’s unfortunate, but otherwise this is fun.
I thought it was Iron Frost also. Everytime I see Iron & Frost, I am reminded of a Pohl science fiction story titled “Fermi & Frost”. It must be a marketing department decision about the allotment of a necessary number of ampersands for AoR. As it was left out of Rogue Storm, Marvel was contractually obligated to place it instead with the more sensical sounding Iron Frost title. That’s corporate America for you.
Iron and frost sounds like a 1970s cop show. Joe Iron is the world weary detective that’s seen it all. Susan Frost is his icy blonde new partner straight out of the academy.
Re: Sinister’s Six 1:
I wonder who the mother of Alex’s kid is.
One good thing about the cliffhanger is that it confirmed that Doug was responsible for the X-Virus. Yes, Magneto and Schwarzchild claimed Doug was responsbie for the virus but they lied to Scott about other things, so it’s nice to have some independent confirmation.
Re: Iron & Frost 1:
This book. like Sinister’s Six, shows that the virus is capable of affecting mutants. Firestar is a mutant and she’s affected.
It was confusing what happened to Firestar. War Machine coats her in foam to keeps her powers from going out of control, then we don’t see her for the rest of the issue except for one panel where Tony is flying what looks like her away. I assume she survived and we’ll find out more next issue but it’s still odd.
The X-Men appear in One World Under Doom 8 this week. Doom uses a more limited version of Wanda’s “No More Mutants” spell to rob them of their powers as long as they remain on the battlefield.
One interesting bit in One World Under Doom 8 is that the Thing is able to lift Stormbreaker. I’m not sure how I feel about that. The way most writers interpret it is that the worthiness enchantment on Stormbreaker is identical to the enchantment on Mjolnir. So it seems that Ben can lift Mjolnir. Although Kurt Busiek has suggested that the worthiness enchantment is relaxed in emergencies. I’m not sure that it’s a good idea for Ben to able to lift Mjolnir.
It was nice to see mutants included in One World Under Doom – there was a time when mutants were just left out of big marvel events (whether to push the Inhumans or whatever other reasons), and it’s a welcome change that they recognized that there’s an entire army of superhumans with useful powers and a stake in fighting for the world. They even mentioned Krakoa!
I liked Sinister Six more than anything else this week, and Iron Frost was also fine. Sinister seemed somehow more focused and serious than usual here. Maybe it was that he’s not being written by Gillian, but this even bordered on him being helpful. Of course, this could be another throwback to Age of Apocalypse, where his villainy in X-Man was somewhat contrasted with his betrayal of Apocalypse.
@Michael I think Ben isn’t a bad candidate to lift Mjonjir. You want to keep the list limited but in terms of Marvel characters who’ve had character arcs that imply them as pure of heart and a true hero, Ben seems like he’d be high on the list. I’d be skeptical if Reed or Johnny lifted it but Ben is a true mensch.
Unlimited – I liked this book in the early From the Ashes phase, I like the small Generation X reunion (why no Chamber, though?), but the last couple of story arcs were kinda nothing. If this is the big wrap up, it will probably be a little disappointing.
Still better then what Avengers Academy got – one issue to tease what would have been, immediately after setting up new plots.
Unbreakable – if Simone is uninterested in the wider Age of Doug, it’s probably for the best that she’s simply doing a dark flashforward to her own plots.
Could have used something to sell me on Ransom being this amazing leader, though. He’s upstaged by both Rogue and Gambit in that regard.
Rogue Storm – I’ve just praised Simone for doing her own thing, I can’t blame Ayodele for doing the same.
And yet I’d still like to.
The Rogue Green/Red stuff is some prime comic book nonsense, though, I have to appreciate it.
Iron & Frost – this is where the worldbuilding falls aparat between titles for me. Emma couldn’t find the other X-Men when the Uncanny team hasn’t changed their address in a decade?
Other than that – it’s fine, I guess.
Sinister’a Six – it doesn’t resemble Hellions in any way other than there’s Sinister and he’s got a team with Havok. But I miss Hellions and this made me remember it fondly.
And it’s pretty good. Has Marquez written before? If not, this is surprisingly good.
I could use a little convinving as to why Havok is okay with the situation, but I guess that’s where the sick hostage kid enters the picture.
It would be funny of Chris’s mom turns out to be Wasp.
It seems to me that the virus can affect mutants who have undergone further mutations in their lives or who already have “genetic defects”: Omega Red, who underwent Soviet experiments and the grafting of Carbonadio; Domino, one of the genetically engineered children of Project Armageddon (kudos to Marquez, Sharma or Shan for remembering this); Fantomex, a product of the Weapon Plus project, and Firestar, whose body lacked natural defenses against his own powers.
@Micheal: I don’t remember Stormbreaker ever having spells similar to Mjolnir’s. I think anyone can wield it without any problems.
Discussing who can or cannot lift Mjolnir or Stormbreak amounts to discussing who are the characters that ought not to have their worth (however that may be defined) questioned.
If it actually happens on-panel, the end result is a reason for the character to feel entitled and for others to defer to him for reasons that they are not actually privy to – and more likely than not, are not actually shown as part of the plot either.
I have never been a fan of those particular wasp’s nests, although I certainly have my own opinions and emotional attachment to them.
Suffice to say, there is no way a flag-wearer would ever be in my short list. Or perhaps in any form of the list. Reed probably would, although Ben would not. Miguel O’Hara, who _is_ canonically in the list has taken advantage of that fact for political expedience, makes no sense either.
At best, having a random character lift one of those hammers is lazy writing that causes problems further down the line.
I have no problem believing Ben is worthy to lift Mjolnir or Stormbreaker. It got me thinking, though: which other major Marvel characters could be? Obviously not the Hulk, Punisher, Ghost Rider, Elektra, or Moon Knight. Spider-Man: no, he’s a mess. Daredevil: ditto, and he’s done some dark stuff. Same with Iron Man, Dr. Strange, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Captain Marvel, most of the X-Men, Black Panther, Mr. Fantastic, Namor…. She-Hulk, Human Torch, Hercules might be too frivolous too often… Ms. Marvel and Miles Morales might be too young? The rules aren’t super clear.
We know Captain America, Storm, and (presumably, if the worthiness thing applies to Stormbreaker) Ben are worthy. Who else? Maybe Invisible Woman- I don’t recall any stain on her bravery or honor. Does being possessed by Malice make her less worthy? The Wasp led the Avengers through some dark times, she might be worthy. Shang Chi? He was brought up to be his evil father’s weapon, but broke free and dedicated his life to fighting for good while seeking inner peace.
For a genre predicated on its protagonists being brave and good, it’s weird that I can’t think of more than a handful of Marvel super-heroes who might be worthy to wield Thor’s hammer.
@Midnighter- Yeah, the worthiness thing has come up a few times with Stormbreaker. in Thor 412, Bill is fighting some alien slavers and when they try to lift Stormbreaker, they can’t. Which makes sense, since Odin wouldn’t want human traffickers, um, alien traffickers to be able to use such a dangerous weapon. And in the Beta Ray Bill: Godhunter series, Bill briefly loses the ability to lift Stormbreaker when he forces an alien race to leave their planet instead of engaging in a suicidal last stand against Galactus by infecting them with a biological weapon.
I didn’t remember the element of worthiness linked to Stormbreaker (and I’m pretty sure I read Godhunter not too long ago).
Come to think of it, I remember a sequence in a story where a whole bunch of Korbinites tried unsuccessfully to lift it up until someone (Sif?) asked Bill for help, who jumped the queue and resumed his role as hero… I wonder what story that was…
It is certainly not as strict as Mjolnir’s, given that during Secret Invasion, the Skrulls managed to split Stormbreaker into two “axes” and have a Superskrull wield them.
Ad ogni modo questo Stormbreaker è una sorta di copia dell’originale che è stato distrutto da Thor all’inizio della serie di Donny Cates, apparso “magicamente” nel momento in cui Beta Ray Bill ha sostituito Thor dopo la morte del Dio del Tuono e la scomparsa di Asgard dalla memoria collettiva. Fino a quel momento Bill impugnava la Twilight Sword negli ultimi anni.
Oops, I wrote the last part in Italian… Sometimes I get confused with languages! 🙂
In any case, this Stormbreaker is a sort of copy of the original that was destroyed by Thor at the beginning of Donny Cates’ series, appearing “magically” when Beta Ray Bill replaced Thor after the death of the God of Thunder and the disappearance of Asgard from collective memory. Until then, Bill had wielded the Twilight Sword in recent years.
Midnighter: Bill definitely loses the ability to lift Stormbreaker during the Godhunter mini-series. There are multiple panels of him straining to lift it and failing. He can’t use it during the entire climactic battle where he tries to keep Galactus from dying because the Surfer tells him Big G will wipe out everything for 42 light years when he dies (I guess Galactus explodes when he dies like a Power Ranger monster of the week?)
I have this vague, awful memory of Eddie Brock wielding Mjolnir during the climax of King in Black. Did he somehow make it into an enchanted sword? I really hope I’m wrong, but it sounds like the sort of nonsense Donny Cates would write.
Stormbreaker was broken, with visible cracks throughout. Powered by Richard and others. It may not have retained Odin’s enchantments. Even if that is not the case, Mjolnir was depicted as a sentient cosmic storm trapped by Odin into a hammer while Foster was wielding it. Mjolnir decided who was worthy based not only upon a person’s goodness but also according to the needs of situation. Even Odinson could only lift the hammer sometimes. The original Stormbreaker was supposed to have the same powers and Odin enchantments, but beyond being fickle over who could wield it didn’t seem to show any agency or intelligence.
@Midnighter- the scene with Bill, the Korbinites and SIf is from Thor 461.
Well, at the climax of King in Black, Eddie Brock wielded a sort of fusion of Mjolnir with Silver Surfer’s axe, all held together by the Enigma Force and the symbiote in the form of a huge double-headed axe.
And yes, that was the period when there was no fixed rule as to whether or not you could wield Mjolnir; the hammer itself decided on the spot. In fact we see Mjolnir spontaneously going into Venom’s hand (who at that moment possesses the Enigma Force), leaving even Thor astonished.
So, wait, why does Stormbreaker even exist? It was shattered (on a distant planet) in Cates’ Thor run, and since then he acquired some version of the Twilight Sword to use because the hammer was gone (and he couldn’t change back to his original form without it, amongst other things).
And before anyone points to the whole Mortal Thor thing… there’s a radio thing in #1 where they say Bill used to have a hammer seemingly inspired by the mythical Mjolnir.
Bleeding Cool’s Weekly Bestseller List is out. Unbreakable X-Men 1 came in 7th. Rogue Storm 1 came in 10th. Iron & Frost and Sinister’s Six didn’t make the list. On the one hand, this is probably the best Storm has done in a while. On the other hand, it’s not a good sign that a crossover issue of Unbreakable X-Men got beaten by Captain America 4.
@SanityorMadness- Bill was shown using Stormbreaker in Storm 11. And ever since that issue he’s using it in One World Under Doom.
(I’m not sure if Ayodele forgot that Stormbreaker was destroyed and then the editors ordered Bill to have Stormbreaker in One World Under Doom for consistency or if Ewing has some plan to explain it.)
In all the time they’ve now been published Miles and Kamala have shown NO flaws?
Shang Chi might be too peace-aspiring to be worthy of an Odin enchantment. And maybe not physically powerful enough? But I suppose he’s not far off Cap.
“So this story also picks up on the Dark Artery plotline, which is maybe going to be a bigger sales draw than its marginal contribution to AoR.”
If it only appeals to regular readers of Uncanny then it’s really not doing it’s job as part of the crossover, is it?
I liked Sinister’s Six. Partly because you can take it as actually doing the AoA-style thing of having a side quest that COULD tie in to the main plot.
I don’t think I knew the ‘experimented on’ part of Domino’s history.
@Michael
I think it’s more likely that Thor was intended to appear in OWUD, as he did in earlier issues, and then they Ctrl-H’d Bill in late in the day. So Thing was intended to pick up Mjolnir.
“Spider-Man: no, he’s a mess.”
It occurs to me that I would love to see a contrived story where Peter Parker needs to move Mjolnir and can *barely* do it. Like the famous Ditko story where he’s trapped under machinery and manages to get out mostly by focusing on the people who need him.
With regards to Mjolnir’s “worthy” clause, I’ve always felt like it’s one of those highly nebulous things which depends on the person, the moment, and the cause. Because Thor isn’t exactly a shining example of flawless morality. He’s a warrior god, after all.
So, just as with Beta Ray Bill, I figure there are a lot of heroes theoretically capable of wielding Mjolnir under the right circumstances–Kamala or Miles making a heroic last stand as the last Avenger standing against an endless horde of foes, in defense of innocent civilians? That’s probably the sort of thing which Mjolnir would go “yeah, okay, this time you get a pass.”
Of course, for all we know Mjolnir would never give Tony Stark or Emma Frost or Namor the time of day under any circumstances because it straight up thinks they suck.
@The Other Michael
What the “worthiness” clause means has changed a lot over the years. I mean, the first instance of someone else lifting it is not BRB. It’s Loki, in Thor #179 – after a bodyswap, Thor-as-Loki cannot lift it, but Loki-as-Thor can (“not only the evil— but now the strength as well is mine!“)
Hell, in Immortal Thor, it was explicitly “Thor himself flat-out decides if someone else can use it or not”.
@The Other Michael: The idea of “circumstantial worthiness” makes sense, given that Thor and BRB have both lost and regained the ability to use their respective hammers over the years. I think “worthiness” has to go beyond “goodness,” as Spider-Man has never been able to pick up Mjolnir. “Worthiness” might mean “good, brave, and both able and likely to use and control a thunder god’s power effectively.”
I don’t like the idea of the hammer denying a person the right to wield it because the hammer doesn’t like them. Thor or BRB being able to allow them to grant powers to others doesn’t make sense either, as they can be fooled. I like the idea that the spell is a neutral determinator.
Somewhat on the subject, I don’t think particularly like Hickman books, but Thor finding out he can’t lift the bizarro-Mjolnir when facing the Beyonders at the tail end of his Avengers, right before Secret Wars (because he stopped being unworthy), was the best thing anybody made of that whole ‘Thor is not worthy’ arc.
Definitely my favourite Hickman scene and one of the best Thor scenes.
And if there’s one thing I have against comic reset stories is that nobody knows about that. The Bridge of… let’s see… Galadriel… gets brought up ad infinitum, but Thor laughing in the face of death because he regained his worthiness… didn’t happen.
Cosmic reset. Thanks, phone.
Mike Loughlin> I don’t like the idea of the hammer denying a person the right to wield it because the hammer doesn’t like them. Thor or BRB being able to allow them to grant powers to others doesn’t make sense either, as they can be fooled. I like the idea that the spell is a neutral determinator.
Mjolnir’s been a mess since Aaron started messing with things. Skipping all that since the next part made it irrelevant, Cates “killed” the hammer’s corrupted spirit or whatever, and then had Angela stick it back together with a crazy paving pattern and note it was now “just” a hammer, but then looked at Thor and said “well, that depends on who wields it, isn’t it”.
Then Great Odin’s Ghost took up residence in it, and during that time Jane (again) and Hulk(?!) picked it up and got their Thor on in spite of “Just a Hammer” (the former one in a miniseries, the latter one because Cates thought it’d be really cool to have a Hulked out Thor vs. a Thored out Hulk).
Then Odin got evicted, and in a prelude to his Immortal Thor run, Ewing had Thor clean up the crazy paving with the Odinpower/All-Power. It was after that the “whoever Thor calls worthy is” thing started.
@Sanityormadness: that’s… wow. I know super-hero comics get convoluted and messy the longer they go, but sometimes I can’t fathom why anyone would sign off on some of these stories.
I haven’t read a ton of his work, but Donny Cates’s writing is not to my taste. I’ve read and liked Immortal Thor, but didn’t pick up on the whole “if Thor signs off on it, anyone can wield Mjolnir” part, maybe because I didn’t read Cates’s run. Incidentally, I think The Mortal Thor is the best arc Ewing has written for the character since he started on Thor. I hope it continues to be really good.
> I’ve read and liked Immortal Thor, but didn’t pick up on the whole “if Thor signs off on it, anyone can wield Mjolnir” part, maybe because I didn’t read Cates’s run
That part has nothing to do with Cates, it’s all Ewing. It was how Toranos was defeated
That series never did draw attention to the fact that pictures of Thor spinning his hammer are drawn to resemble Toranos’ spoked wheel. But I’d put money on it that it was Ewing’s intent.
But a bit of fridge logic about Astonishing X-Men. X-Cutioner is holding Skin by the throat. How? Surely the actual throat would just slip out of the way and leave him harmlessly gripping a big wattle of skin. It’s for the best I suppose, that would look pretty gross.
Imagining Deadpool trying to lift Mjolnir only for the hammer to get even heavier.
I’m picturing Deadpool lifting the hammer, only for Mjolnir to smack him in the face and then going back to being immovable on the ground. But that is perhaps a bit too slapstick for the hammer.
I’d have Deadpool shocking every other hero there to see it by lifting the hammer, then making a dumb joke that instantly removed his worthiness.
This is crazy, I’m enjoying all of this way more than almost everything in the line up to this point.