Uncanny X-Men #22 annotations
UNCANNY X-MEN vol 6 #22
“No Clean Hands”
Writer: Gail Simone
Artist: David Marquez
Colour artist: Matthew Wilson
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Tom Brevoort
COVER: Mutina cuts through the cover of issue #1. The issue has the “Shadows of Tomorrow” branding, though this story doesn’t really have much to do with anything from “Age of Revelation”.
THE X-MEN:
Nightcrawler. He goes on what seems to be his first date with Mackenzie DeNeer, and shows up for it in a tuxedo. In the near-future “Age of Revelation” timeline, we saw them as a married couple in Last Wolverine #1. While attempting to talk Mutina down, Kurt sings Mackenzie’s praises as having “the kindest heart I’ve ever known”, so he seems serious.
It’s his birthday, and the X-Men and Outliers throw him a surprise party when he gets home (still referring to him as “fuzzy elf”, as Kitty used to back in the 1980s). Naturally, everyone’s very nice about him – Rogue claims that there’s no X-Men team without him, and Ransom claims that he’s everyone’s favourite X-Man.
Kurt’s instinctive reaction to Mutina is to try to talk her round, though he also accepts her challenge to face her in a “test”. He regards her as a bully and sadist, and clearly unfit for X-Men membership, but makes a dutiful attempt anyway to talk her into pursuing salvation. He insists on rejecting her persona (which, after all, is a contrived attempt to intimidate rather than a regular mutant codename), and consistently addresses her by her real name.
Wolverine. As usual, his instinct is to try and deal with Mutina himself in order to shield the rest of the team from her. He seems genuinely unaware that she’s used her powers to get into Haven and harass Calico before (in issue #18), which would imply that he didn’t pick up her scent on that occasion. That would suggest that Mutina is telling the truth when she claims that he can only smell her in this story “because I let you”.
He finds Mutina “chill[ing]”, more for her psychopathic tendencies than for the actual level of physical threat that she presents to him.
Rogue, Gambit and Jubilee are also at the party.
SUPPORTING CAST:
Mackenzie Deneer. Her first date with Kurt seems to go well. She’s apparently in on the surprise party – Kurt certainly assumes so, though it was actually him who offered to take her back to Haven. Still, she doesn’t seem at all surprised by what’s waiting.
There’s a slightly odd exchange about who’s looking after Mackenzie’s children, with Mackenzie replying “Oh, I found someone” with enough prominence to make me wonder if it’s meant to be significant. They’re not at the party, which would be the obvious solution. The St Juniors aren’t seen at the party, so maybe they’re looking after Mackenzie’s kids.
She finds being teleported by Kurt extremely enjoyable (which Jubilee treats as a fairly normal reaction). If we’re going to be boring and ignore the gag, this is actually a little odd, since traditionally teleportation used to be portrayed as disorienting and unpleasant to people who weren’t used to it.
When Mutina threatens to slit her throat, her understandable reaction is to whimper that she has kids, and cry. We don’t really see her reaction once Mutina is driven off, but this isn’t a great ending to her first date.
The Outliers (Deathdream, Jitter, Ransom and Calico) are at the party, but don’t get a huge amount to do. Mutina spells out for us that Jitter, Ransom and Calico have all killed or seriously injured people – which we’ve basically known since issue #3 – but hints at some unpleasant story involving Deathdream and his brother. I think this is the first mention we’ve had of a brother. (Edited to add: This might also explain why Deathdream has attached quite so much significance in previous issues to being accepted as a “little brother” by Ransom.)
Joining Wolverine when he confronts Mutina outside Haven are Ember (Calico’s horse), Waffles (Deathdream’s cyborg dog) and Figaro, Oliver and Lucifer (Gambit’s cats). Ember rejects her entreaties, but the cats seem to be easily charmed.
Chelsea St Juniors doesn’t appear in this story, but Mutina claims to Wolverine that she’s the Endling – the prophecied last mutant on Earth, as first mentioned back in issue #1. In Unbreakable X-Men #2, the near future Gambit also said he had “been told she will be the last mutant”.
VILLAINS:
Mutina. She claims that some mutant kids have been beaten up “by normies” after seeing her film – which is precisely what the X-Men were worried about in issue #17 – and that she wants to join the X-Men in order to improve her image. She attributes this plan to “my people”, though if she’s telling the truth, it seems unlikely that they expected her to petition for membership by showing up and threatening people.
Generally, her behaviour seems weird and conflicted throughout this issue. On the one hand, her sadistic and terrorising impulses seem to be in full effect. Wolverine seems clear that she’s fighting to kill and appears to know what she’s doing. On the other hand, her bid for membership of the X-Men is bizarre, and Kurt’s speech to her about the damage that she’s causing to mutants actually prompts some hesitation before she falls back on declaring “I hate mutants.” She reacts very badly to Kurt refusing to honour her persona and calling her Leticia, at least the first time, but lets it go on subsequent occasions. The suggestion in issue #17 was that she was a self-loathing mutant and all of this could be read as glimpses of the person underneath the persona.
Although she isn’t a good enough fighter to beat Kurt in a straight fight, she’s good enough to hold her own for breif periods against Kurt and even Logan. As she points out, with her power to teleport through shadows, she’s a stealth attacker, so this is really much better at combat than she needs to be.
She has a remarkable amount of knowledge about the Outliers, which she attributes to “research”. She knows that it’s Kurt’s birthday – and it can’t just be because she’s seen the party, because she’s brought him a cake. She also claims to know that Chelsea is the Endling; it’s impressive enough that she’s heard of the Endling concept, and we know from Unbreakable that her claim is at least plausible. She clearly has sources of information that go beyond the public domain, and she’s advertising the fact. Possibly she’s using her powers to sneak into places.
CONTINUITY REFERENCES:
- Mutina’s movie came out in issue #17.
- Mutina says that Jitter “beat one girl so bad she can’t walk.” Jitter already told the X-Men this in issue #3; it seemed to be the incident that led to her leaving home.
- Mutina refers to the fire that killed Calico’s mother, and says that Calico “walked away, let it burn”. This is what we saw in the flashback in issue #3, but it’s not what she actually told the X-Men in terms.
- Mutina refers to Ransom’s kidnapping (again, a flashback in issue #3) and says that “all four kidnappers went out the window somehow”. We saw that with one of the kidnappers in issue #3; the expanded version of the flashback, in issue #21, strongly implies that Ransom kills all of them.
- Mutina says that she’s already been inside Haven; that would be when she stalked Calico in issue #18.
- Mutina’s “catchphrase” would be “Murder me, Mutina,” from issue #17 (which is why she wants Mackenzie to say it).
I can see how Mutina’s such a dangerous enemy for them to fight – it’s not like this team has someone who could generate enough light to banish shadows.
” If we’re going to be boring and ignore the gag, this is actually a little odd, since traditionally teleportation used to be portrayed as disorienting and unpleasant to people who weren’t used to it.”
There’s definitely been a tendency recently to downplay how painful Kurt’s teleporting is to passengers. In the Last Wolverine Kurt teleports Heather and Leonard multiple times to rescue Logan and neither of them seems bothered at all. (Maybe Leonard’s powers and Heather’s battlesuit protected them?) In the 80s Mackenzie would have been unconscious after teleporting four times- both Callisto and Vertigo were knocked out by multiple teleports.
It’s nice to get confirmation that Becca’s mother did die in the fire and that was just Becca’s imagination in Raid on Graymalkin. Note Mutina’s wording, though. “The fire inspector says the fire that killed li’l Becca’s own mother was arson. She walked away, let it all burn.” Mutina does NOT explicitly say that Becca killed her mother.
“She also claims to know that Chelsea is the Endling; it’s impressive enough that she’s heard of the Endling concept, and we know from Unbreakable that her claim is at least plausible. ”
This seems contrived- Sadurang, who’s a powerful sorcerer/ dragon, didn’t know which of the kids was the Endling. I wonder if Gail will come up with a good explanation.
Breevort seems to be in a hurry to reveal some of the outstanding mysteries lately- the Chairman, the Endling. I wonder if this is due to reader discontent.
It’s nice to know Mutina can threaten a normie with a knife without having to worry about criminal charges.
Kurt says Mutina will never be an X-Man. Why? Magneto tried to nuke New York City. Emma was a child abuser. Quentin started a riot just to impress a girl. Marrow killed everyone in a nightclub. What’s so special about Mutina’s evil?
I definitely appreciate Kurt getting some attention and that he has his swords back. His comment to Ransom in the first arc implied he’d hung them up for good intentionally. Swords obviously have non-lethal applications, like blocking, parrying and cutting outside of combat. I do wonder why he said that in the first place if he was going to pick them up/get new ones without comment. I’ll always be a bit miffed about the HOPESWORD disappearing – it might have been useful here.
I’m not sure his voice is quite right though, aside from overrepresenting the religious (and very GERMAN) bit. He feels, I don’t know, passive? Flat? He was moody and moping the one time we got his POV – not wanting to be an X-Man – what’s going on there? It seemed like he and Rogue might explore the family relationship but they haven’t.
For a second I thought the test was going to be like ‘yeah cool, head into the Dark Artery. That’s the test.’ I’m glad they didn’t though, because I find Shuvahrak dull.
Not sure if I just find Mutina lame or my bias against this book colours everything. Probably not the time for it but I’d like Logan to be like ‘Silver Sable says hi btw.’
This use of Mutina is giving me flashbacks to Marrow joining the X-Men.
My theory is the real Mutina is sitting in a hot tub in Hollywood, oblivious to what the X-Men are doing, and this is a construct made by Caluco’s subconscious fears. It would potentially know everything Calico knows, and maybe Calico has now added a scent because she heard Wolverine say Mutina didn’t have one.
Calico shouldn’t know the identity of the Endling either, unless her powers are something more than has been revealed.
Oh, I misread the above as Mutina saying that she herself was the endling (probably because she murdered all the other mutants or something). Never mind then.
I’m just not sold on Mutina as a particularly compelling character. Probably because she’s like the overlap between “social media influencer” and “serial killer” and tries too hard to be edgy. Maybe she’ll grow on me if we get more in depth with her personality and whatnot. But… we’ll see.
Getting “bamf’d” as a pleasurable experience is weird for those of us who remember when it was one of Kurt’s signature attacks on enemies who weren’t prepared for the disorientation.
I really feel like Mutina needs a new publicist. She should be doubling down, going on Rogan and Theo Von, not trying to hang out with the X-Men to improve her image. Or maybe the publicist was trying to help, “Do you want me to set up a Zoom with you and Rogue, and you can…? No, you’re just going to go fight them on some random night and hope it convinces them to let you hang with them? Hey, it’s your five grand, kid, go nuts.”
@Andy: That’s part of the problem with her character – she seems to genuinely believe the anti-mutant line, it’s not performative on her part. So even if her PR people told her to make nice with the minority she hates, she wouldn’t do it – she’d lose the bigoted audience she’s trying to cultivate in the first place.
I don’t get the “gag” that Paul mentions, but maybe it illustrates the idea that come to my mind. Which is that MacKenzie is meant to like being bamf’d for reasons that are not all that mysterious.
However, Kurt’s powers have been extended and being overused with no comment for quite some time now. A few years ago he carried Captain America for what appeared to be a very long distance without even a very clear need.
I don’t find anything strange about Kurt’s bamfing being a pleasurable experience today. He’s older now and he’s had plenty of bamfing experience over the years. So, it’s not “wam-bamf-thank-you-ma’am” like it used to be when he was a young fella. He knows what he’s doing now.
Another possibility is that Mackenzie was faking. A lot of women do (not with me, of course).
What a waste of paper and time.
@Thiago: Harsh, but not wrong. This isn’t at all what I was hoping for from a Gail Simone run on X-Men.
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So, it wasn’t only me who felt this story was lacking in coherency. Gail Simone knows how to write, and sometimes quality writing can hide flaws in plotting, but if you pare this story down simply based on the plot, this is on Howard Mackie levels of incompetence.
Mutina explicitly admits that she wants to join the X-Men solely for publicity purposes. Diana and Andy already pointed out why this sounds stupid, but I’ll leave that aside. So, then when the X-Men logically decide they don’t want to help Mutina’s career, she decides that threatening to kill multiple people is the way to get the X-Men to want to help her.
Isn’t the simpler solution simply to lie? Yes, she did try for about twenty seconds, but she made it obvious she had ulterior motives, and when Logan called her bluff, she admitted the truth. That’s…an unusual tactic. Just double-down on the lies.
Which is going along with the idea that Mutina was ever an interesting character warranting the return issue after the big event. She’s not.
This is why I think there’s more to Mutina. It seems to be messing with the trope of a loose cannon joining the team, as well as the trope of the new pet character being super awesome at everything. Gail Simone knows how to mess with tropes. I’d be shocked if this really is just a bundle of bad writing habits.
I get the impression that Leticia had come intending more good will, given the cake and treats. But had gotten upset during the meeting with Logan and escalated things from there in a rage, despite that not helping her goals.
Also I think she’s been confirmed to have mind reading telepathy in addition to shadow teleporting.
“I’d be shocked if this really is just a bundle of bad writing habits.”
I think this whole series has been a bundle of bad writing habits, and I am indeed shocked every month.
That said, I am also on Team “Nightcrawler has been doing this for decades so it makes perfect sense he’s learned to control the effect teleporting has on others.”
Mackenzie’s mutant power is her uncommon reaction to being bamfed.
Leticia’s mutant powers are shadow teleportation and telepathy specific to mutants only – which explains her hatred of mutants above and beyond the human flatscanners.