X-MEN #24. (Annotations here.) This is billed as a second epilogue issue to “Age of Revelation”, though I’m not sure that’s the best way of framing it. As I’ve said before, “Age of Revelation” really works best if you think of it as a middle phase in Jed MacKay’s overarching X-Men storyline. And these two issues aren’t really epilogues, so much as characters in the present day changing direction in light of what they’ve learned from that future timeline. This is the villain issue, focussing on 3K – half of it is the remaining members of 3K’s inner circle squabbling for power in the Beast’s absence, and the other half is him returning and announcing that he knows how to create the X-virus. It’s a pretty good issue, at its best with the individual character work – although the 3K X-Men get shortchanged a bit, and I’m still not quite sure I buy the Beast having quite so much influence over this otherwise murderous assortment. Tony Daniel does a rather good take on the snow-white Beast design from “Age of Revelation”, which the Krakoan Beast has evidently decided to adopt without explaining why – we seem to be heading towards a romantic triangle with Jen Starkey and two Hanks, which is cute – and I really like the final page of the 3K base hanging serenely over a mountain landscape, with the tiniest little dot showing Schwarzchild’s body being dumped over the side.

INGLORIOUS X-FORCE #1. (Annotations here.) Last year’s X-Force didn’t really work out, being cancelled after ten issues and rushed to a conclusion. It also didn’t have much to do with the X-Force name at all. This time, Tim Seeley and Michael Sta. Maria take the more conventional route with Cable landing back in the present day and prompting recruiting Archangel, Hellverine and Boom Boom as a new version of X-Force. Despite Archangel and Hellverine being in the book, Seeley isn’t a grimdark writer, and seems much keener on the early 90s version of X-Force, which was more of a sugar rush than anything else. And I quite like the way that Cable seems to be trading on X-Force’s history and reputation as a way of encouraging the rest of the cast to stay with him (for ulterior motives); if nothing else, it provides a legitimate reason to brand this as an X-Force title.

Bringing Ms Marvel into an X-Force book sounds dubious, but in fact that seems to be the point. She doesn’t belong in an X-Force title, but rather than hang around looking uncomfortable about the whole thing, she simply refuses to play ball, insists on her neighbourhood hero role, and demands that the book change for her instead of vice versa. I like that, and I can see it working. On the other hand, the basic premise that everyone thinks they’re defending her now against an assassination attempt in, what, 15 years time, is hard to make sense of. I know Cable’s got other motives, but what do the rest of the team think they’re achieving here? And I’m not really sold on Hellverine’s inclusion either – I can see the angle that justifies everyone else being here, but Akihiro feels like he’s been chucked in because he was available.

The art is solid, with a pleasingly old school yet run-down Cable, and Tabitha nicely positioned as a true believer to lighten the mood. I quite liked it, all told. But at the same time it does feel like the X-books playing it safe compared to last year; that’s probably the biggest point where it still needs to convince me.

SPIDER-MAN & WOLVERINE #9. By Marc Guggenheim, Gerardo Sandoval, Victor Nava, Brian Reber & Travis Lanham. Yes, once again it’s an issue of the Kaare Andrews art showcase book without Kaare Andrews – aside from the cover, which isn’t his best work anyway. At least this arc has a more functional story than the first one, which makes it easier for it to carry an issue without him. The book is cancelled with the next issue, and while it’s certainly improved, it remains eminently skippable.

X-MEN OF APOCALYPSE #2. By Jeph Loeb, Simone Di Meo & Comicraft. So what we’re doing here is the Age of Apocalypse X-Men jumping through the past of the mainstream timeline in the vague hope that something will turn up that might explain what’s wrong with time. In practice, that’s an excuse for an extended fight scene in the margins of 1963’s X-Men #1, which then gets erased from history anyway. The one vague sign that Jeph Loeb might be awake is the idea that the young Jean can be used as a way to contact Phoenix – since later retcons mean that she was always Phoenix – although in practice this just results in everyone being sent to have more fights next issue to get some macguffins. On art, Simone Di Meo is actually putting in some effort; it doesn’t always flow, but some of the individual images look great. Loeb, on the other hand, might as well have written “PAGES 2-12: THEY FIGHT”.

ROGUE #1. By Erica Schultz, Luigi Zagaria, Espen Grundetjern & Ariana Maher. This is a 4-issue miniseries. I wasn’t keen on Schultz’s work on Laura Kinney: Wolverine, but this is quite decent. After rescuing a bystander who she might have crossed paths with before, Rogue starts having flashbacks about a Brotherhood of Evil Mutants mission that she doesn’t remember, with Sabretooth being involved somewhere. So she heads out to investigate, and starts by dropping in on Destiny and Mystique. (By the way, Mystique is still emaciated after her solo miniseries last year, so apparently we should just ignore her cameo in Hellfire Vigil as a continuity error.) Schultz has the character’s voice well; it wouldn’t feel out of place as a Rogue spotlight story in Uncanny X-Men. Zagaria draws a really good giant monster – he’s quite a conventional artist but he’s good with scale – and his Deathdream is rather good too, though his Rogue can be a little wide-eyed for my taste. All round, though, this is quite promising.

PSYLOCKE: NINJA #1. By Tim Seeley, Nico Leon, Dono Sánchez-Almara & Ariana Maher. Another miniseries, but this time it’s a continuity implant. It’s basically a Psylocke vs Elektra book shoehorned into a narrow gap in continuity between Uncanny X-Men #256 and #257, when she’s been brainwashed by the Hand but hasn’t yet started calling herself Lady Mandarin. And Elektra is meant to be recovering after the events of, I take it, Elektra: Assassin. An awful lot of this first issue is devoted to explaining this convoluted thicket of late 1980s continuity, which on one level is fair enough – it’s ancient history, and because it’s making a bona fide attempt to expand on the original material, it requires you to know (1) how Psylocke ended up here, (2) what Matsu’o Tsurayaba’s interest in her is, and (3) how the Hand link to both Matsu’o and Elektra. Spiral and the Mandarin aren’t relevant to the story  so they just don’t get mentioned.

None of this is exactly done badly, aside from an utterly pointless fight between Matsu’o and some ninjas near the start. It looks good, in fact (the dreadful cover is by a different artist and can be ignored). But is there really a story to be told here that’s worth all this effort, particularly given how Very Dubious Indeed the Psylocke body-swap angle seems from a 2020s viewpoint? Well, maybe – Seeley obviously wants the emotional hook to be the Matsu’o/Kwannon romance which was a later retcon, and sits awkwardly with the way Matsu’o actually behaves in the original story. Maybe there’s something you can do with that? I’m not altogether convinced, but I’ll give it another issue to make the case.