The X-Axis – 18 March 2026
X-MEN #27. (Annotations here.) Part 2 of “Danger Room” is an issue devoted to introducing the members of Maxine Danger’s think tank – the X-Men themselves don’t get that much to do, since a lot of the issue is flashbacks setting up their back story and recruitment. They’re unusual villains to get so much time, since none of them actually has any particular interest in the X-Men or even in mutants in general – they’re just psychos who have been enlisted by Maxine Danger, who herself doesn’t actually have an obvious interest in the X-Men beyond charging for her services. I’m in two minds about this arc, right now – they all get a nice enough introduction, and Diaz’s art gives them a neat contrast with Maxine’s lunatic office manager. Colton and Jackson are rather similar characters, too, though I do like the other two being (likely) delusional killers who are convinced that they’re Skrulls trapped in human form. But as an X-Men story it does feel at the moment like we’re just chucking random stuff at the team for them to fight. Still, Jed MacKay gets the benefit of doubt that this is heading somewhere more than that, since it wouldn’t be his style.
CYCLOPS #2. By Alex Paknadel, Rogê Antônio, Fer Sifuentes-Sujo & Joe Caramagna. Well, this is fun. Sure, having Cyclops lose his visor and have to work around his uncontrollable powers is a well established routine, but it’s one we haven’t done in a good long while, and Paknadel and Antônio do it rather well. The plot may hinge on a massive coincidence of Cyclops stumbling upon the new Reavers’ scheme, but now that we’re here, we’ve got an escaped mutant who was never that keen on Krakoa and isn’t immediately in awe of Scott, which gives him someone to win over. Mostly, though, we’ve got the new Reavers squabbling among themselves as Donald Pierce tries to keep them all in line, and they’re turning out to be quite entertaining. We’re not dealing with professional soldiers any more, just wide-eyed cultists who’ve signed up for dubious cyborg conversion. They’ve got the equipment but they have no real idea what they’re doing, and Pierce seems to be making do with a bunch of underlings who have been powered up to the point where they can at least shove some non-combatants about. Paknadel gives him a sort of weary disdain that somehow feels a bit more developed to me than he has in a while. It’s a good take on the character.
X-MEN OF APOCALYPSE #3. By Jeph Loeb, Simone Di Meo, Richard Starkings & Comicraft. I really cannot rouse myself to care about this. There’s nothing to the story beyond an excuse to lurch from fight scene to fight scene, unless you count AoA Gambit getting excited to meet a past version of mainstream Rogue. Except… that depends on Gambit still being in love with Rogue. And while he did have a back story that involved her choosing Magneto over him, and a storyline about him still being in love her, didn’t that get resolved in Gambit & The X-Ternals? Doesn’t he surrender his love for Rogue in exchange for a shard of the M’Kraan Crystal, or something like that? Oh well. As with previous issues, it’s pretty on an individual panel level, though it struggles with flow and doesn’t do a great job with atmosphere – Di Meo is awfully keen on motion-blurring his backgrounds, which doesn’t help. But mostly, it’s Just Stuff Happening.
Paknadel’s Cyclops is an unexpected and refreshingly solid story so far. I want more of this.
“Doesn’t he surrender his love for Rogue in exchange for a shard of the M’Kraan Crystal, or something like that?”
To be fair I remember thinking that didn’t make a lick of sense when I first read it thirty years ago, and I was a HUGE AoA geek.
Re: Cyclops 2- Why doesn’t Scott has a spare set of glasses or spare visor in his costume? I know it’s mentioned that he has a spare set in the plane but why not keep one in his pockets?There’s multiple pouches on his costume that seem to be intact after the fall.
I have a feeling that Paknadel might have been thinking of Uncanny X-Men 176. Scott and Maddie’s plane crashes, Maddie goes outside to fix the plane, gets attacked, Scott goes to rescue her wearing shorts and no shirt, loses his glasses and Maddie has to guide him back to the plane where his visor is stored. But that worked because Scott wasn’t fully dressed- one could assume that if Scott had been fully dressed he would have put a spare pair of glasses in his clothing.
@New kid- I was confused too. I thought he put his staff in the M’Kraan Crystal. I wasn’t sure why his staff would be such a big sacrifice.
I’ve long said that if Cyclops had any responsibility, his visor should be like the Man in The Iron Mask, bolted on and indestructible. Or maybe little cybernetic lenses that pop out from under his eyebrows or something.
I mean, I get the real reason he gets about with nothing but a set of Oakleys, because it would look stupid otherwise, but it’s still fun to laugh at his lack of preparedness.
The June solicitations are out. Apparently, Wolverine got his claws broken in his encounter with the Adamantine. Wolverine getting his claws broken, How original! 🙂
in other news, the preview for the Armageddon Free Comic Book Day issue is out. Apparently, Ross gets his hand on the technology that Doom was using to reset the timeline in One World Under Doom and use it against the heroes. Which is annoying, since that means we basically have to sit through the same plot we saw in Ryan North’s Fantastic Four done again.
In non-X-news, Sorcerer Supreme 4 came out this week. And Orlando is really shilling Wanda. He establishes that if she dies she will come back to life, although she will lose the Sorcerer Supreme title if she does. (I have to wonder if this is Orlando trying to explain a contradiction in his own writing. In issue 2, the Vsihanti tell Agatha that Wanda must live to see the error of her ways. In issue 3, Maddie seems to be trying to destroy Wanda’s body at Agatha’s behest and the Vsihanti don’t seem bothered.) Wanda actually defeats omnipotent Oshtur.
The most ridiculous scene is this. Wanda realizes that Agatha attacked her under a spell of compulsion. And Wong claims that Strange would have never realized that a former ally was attacking him under a spell of compulsion. Strange’s allies attacked him under the influence of magic every alternate Tuesday. And Strange always figured it out and helped them. Wong might just as logically said that Storm is a better Avenger than the Wasp since the Wasp can’t; fly.
Not much poppin over at the June solicitations. I’d like to get around to Ryan North’s Fantastic Four and Stephanie Phillip’s Daredevil eventually. So pretty much what I say every month.
So, I realize this is completely off-topic, since Uncanny isn’t even out this week and Exiles has seemingly been cancelled, what with Imperial not panning out as expected, BUT:
I’ve been wondering for the longest time: did that bizarre bit about Xavier being a goddess-knows what, an Avian or something, along with the Gramalkin telepath, ever get resolved at all? Is it *we’re acting like nothing* territory?
Also, what *is* the deal with Danger Room? Plenty of folks have pointed out the brokenness of the concept, but I’m sensing more the brokenness of the arc: this feels like a very decision to make time until *something* comes back into the foreground – but what, exactly?
Is there any central conflict keeping the Alaskan X-Men there, especially with Douggy-Lation out and about?
Derek Kirk Kim is back with a new comic at Image in June. That’s all I need to make June a goodly month for comic books.
Jim Lee and Rob Liefield kept putting all those pouches on superheroes for the express purpose of having Scott and any teammates he might be out in the field keep as many extra ruby visors and glasses on them at all times as possible, but the writers kept ignoring their intent.
“Why doesn’t Scott has a spare set of glasses or spare visor in his costume?”
Spare glasses, spare visor, spare set of those flimsy shades they give you after you get your eyes dilated at the eye doctor… heck, IIRC in the Morrison era Scott had emergency ruby quartz contact lenses.
It seems implausible that a guy as obsessively prepared as Scott, whose entire personality revolves around his uncontrollable powers, wouldn’t have five contingencies on him at all times. Including something sewn into the lining of his underwear. I mean, even if most of the emergency options aren’t ideal, they beat running around with your eyes closed.
Yes, as the original story goes, Gambit sacrificed his love for Rogue as an offering to the crystal. He then used his staff to lop off a piece of it. Maybe that represented the value of his “payment” in cosmic terms, but regardless, he didn’t need the entire crystal anyway (which looked impractically large for transport). It’s one of those plot devices that sounds very flowery and profound on the page, yet is hard to wrap your head around for all practical purposes. What’s the cost here? Does it mean Gambit just… feels nothing for Rogue going forward? Wouldn’t that be more freeing than anything? It doesn’t sound like much of a sacrifice to have the burden of your oppressive, unrequited love for someone suddenly wiped away. Normally, that kind of thing takes a lot of self-reflection, therapy, and time. He didn’t even have to do the work!
But I guess the story errs on the side of the audience believing this kind of yearning is deeply romantic and good. Call me an unfeeling monster, but I guess I just don’t see the tragedy in losing that.
Without having read X-Men of Apocalypse #3, I can forgive this oversight since the implications of Gambit’s sacrifice were never altogether clear in the first place. And besides, we’ve already seen lots of deviations from AoA’s conclusion (and subsequent sequels) starting from the first issue. Has any explanation been offered as to why that is (beyond “this is what Jeph Loeb wanted to write about”)? The thing every editor and creator seems to forget is that the Age of Apocalypse was NOT conceived as an alternate timeline; it was a wholesale rewrite of reality due to the nature of Legion’s actions in the past. Which was itself then reversed. There shouldn’t BE any sequels or revisits since it’s a reality that doesn’t exist anymore. But in a world of infinite timelines, I guess we can accept that there’s at least one out there that coincidentally very closely resembles the AoA as we knew it, with little differences here and there. Which really doesn’t make it the same thing at all. (See also: why I hate the multiverse. It’s everything and nothing all at once.)
Yes, Cyke68. You have a way of articulated things I’ve been thinking lately. Gambit got what he needed and gets to get over his ex immediately? Sound nifty. Sign me up.
I never really understood what Nicieza was going for there. If Reed Richards needed a shard, would he have to give up his love for his wife? His kids? Who would buy that? Does the love live on in the crystal, leaving Gambit hallowed out? I have no idea.
As for the AoA itself, Even if you can wrangle out some technical way the AoA continued… thematically its still a bad idea. The whole point was that it was a doomed world. That’s what made the story work in the first place.
I would never accuse that AoA story (“Gambit and the X-Ternals”) of being very clear, but IIRC it was implied that Gambit perceived using the M’Kraan crystal to reset the timeline as a duty that he would have to fulfill, while also resenting that doing so would mean letting go of his affective memories regarding Rogue.
Maybe he just felt that it would be like being rule out of the dispute. It really wasn’t very clear.
@Salomé: I don’t think we had any further news about that odd plot point since Xavier left Earth and was apparently healed from that condition by surgery by Lilandra inside their ship. I don’t think we have even seen or heard of Scurvy since “Raid on Graymalkin”, over a year ago. Last we saw Corina Ellis was Uncanny #20, just before “Age of Revelation”. So I would call that a parked plot.
Scott used to have spare glasses around in the 1980s. In Claremont’s first run’s Uncanny #150 he actually expects the X-Men to have a spare visor conveniently at hand at their emergency pack, and indeed it is there (despite he not even being in the active roster of the time). Must be a pretty good emergency pack, since it is apparently invisible yet Scott can take his visor from the inside instantly. Two years later, in #174, we find out that he usually carries a spare set shaped after swimmer goggles in his pocket.
On the other hand, the Joss Whedon run (2004-2008) had Scott develop a measure of conscious control over his optical blasts. It was a significant plot point of his second year in “Astonishing X-Men”, particularly #14, #23-24 and the last issue, “Giant-Size Astonishing X-Men #1”. Those issues pretty much tell us that Scott has full control over his powers now, but it is psychologically taxing to exert it constantly.
Of course, we _are_ consistently shown that somehow the optic blasts can also be fully contained by simply keeping his eyes closed. I don’t think that is ever truly explained. Maybe Whedon took that as a clue that the lack of control is psychological in nature.
“Does it mean Gambit just… feels nothing for Rogue going forward? Wouldn’t that be more freeing than anything?”
Eternal Sunshine Of De Spotless Mind, Non?
You can write volumes about Cyclops’ control issues and his attraction to telepaths. And I have written a couple of blog posts myself. Then there’s young Cyclops in Champions who was heavily coded as autistic. But of course not all writers are as deft at nuance, and most don’t bother to follow what came before. Best to leave it as bumped his noggin, wears goggles.
Judging by the June solicitations, it seems that Storm: Earth’s Mightiest Mutant will conclude with the fifth issue, but the story will continue into a third act—at least according to the issue’s synopsis. (If there’s a battle eve, I expect the battle to follow.)
@Salomé: Yes and no – all things Graymalkin are apparently Gail Simone’s purview, so I’m guessing that’ll pick up whenever she gets back around to it. The Xavier thing specifically seems more a product of editorial mishaps, I doubt they’ll refer to it again.
The Danger Room “stalling tactic” is essentially for the same reason we’ve got a bunch of 5-issue minis marking time across the line right now: summer crossover event incoming.
MacKay has justified (within the logic of his own book) why Scott’s team is in Alaska; whether that position stays unchanged by year’s end, who can say.
Wait, so are some of ya’ll interpreting Gambit’s sacrifice as forgetting he had feelings for Rogue completely (or even his entire relationship with her)? I’m not sure that’s supported by subsequent issues, but I don’t recall well enough off the top of my head. That would definitely be less desirable and invite some unintended consequences. Either way, part of the inherent limitations with this kind of development taking place in a self-cancelling story is that it doesn’t allow for a lot of room to explore the impact.
@New kid The whole point was that it was a doomed world. That’s what made the story work in the first place.
Absolutely, and it is unfortunately another pretty important distinction that gets forgotten or discarded by sequel stories. Magneto’s motivation in resetting reality wasn’t borne of purehearted altruism on his part or even the opportunity to save Charles; he acknowledges, for all the good that would be gained, the heroes of his world still have a lot to lose. He’s looking at the prospect of wiping out their very existence, including his wife and son. Existing in the Age of Apocalypse might suck, but at least it’s… an existence. WE know better, but the characters don’t; it’s the only existence they’ve ever known, so it realistically wouldn’t be discarded lightly. What makes the case for this alternative is the certainty that they’re all staring down inevitable annihilation ANYWAY. If oblivion is their fate, than at least it can be replaced with something good. Otherwise, Magneto looks like a callous bastard or total lunatic shrugging his shoulders and throwing his whole family away.
It’s why I found the opening to that 2005 10th anniversary sequel miniseries unintentionally hilarious. Jean is randomly resurrected as Phoenix and stops the bombs or whatever. And things just… carry on from there. What are we supposed to make of this, in light of the original conclusion?
Magneto: Oh well, the plan didn’t work LOL. Buuuuut at least we didn’t blow up! Even-Stevens, right guys? Guys?
I don’t think he forgot he had feeling for Rogue… I think he keeps all his memories. I think he was somewhat numbed out.
Kinda like my memories of watching LOST. I know was in love with the show once. I have memories of of loving it. But I’ve moved on years ago. I’ve learned to love other shows.
Anyway, it was bad flowery writing so if Loeb wants to ignore that, good for him. It’s the part where he’s doing a sequel at all that’s weird. He understood the original idea –that it was a doomed world. He was there thirty years ago when the original came out. I guess the paycheck is good enough to forget the point. I can scream and yell about the original intent of that storyline all day, I’ve clearly lost the argument as Marvel and fans are very keen to revisit AoA in sequals.
Yes, but Marvel has long since moved on by this point. Marvel long ago ret-conned the idea that the AoA was anything other than another alternate universe. Much like someday nostalgia for HoX/PoX will lead to Moira’s past lives becoming her lives on alternate Marvel Earths so that Marvel heroes can revisit those universes, even though that was not Hickman’s intent. Loeb’s main concern doesn’t seem to be artistic integrity. His concern is the fact that his comics tend to sell relatively well (for whatever reason), regardless of what he writes.
That doesn’t seem to be much of a trade-off. “In return for the M’Kraan crystal, I will accomplish something that will happen naturally within a year or two.” Maybe Remy is an incel though. He’ll never get over one woman spurning and hate all women forevermore, unless a sexy model will date him or something.
The idea that all his feelings/memories of Rogue would be (somehow) taken makes more sense as a sacrifice. Any long-lasting relationship, even a bad one, allows a person to change and grow (or it should), perhaps learning mistakes they shouldn’t make again, so removing the feelings/memories he had for Rogue could have major repercussions for Remy, as an individual.
I’ve just seen Gail Simone post that in two months she will have written the third most issues of Uncanny X-Men after Claremont and Lobdell and I’m having trouble believing that.
Obviously ‘Uncanny’ means we don’t count runs on adjectiveless or New X-Men, but still. In two months time she’ll be on UXM#28. That’s the third longest running run on Uncanny? How many issues did Fraction write? Gillen?
Unless she literally means scripts she’s written and not published issues…
Anyway, I didn’t check the numbers, it just seemed weird.
There are some unintentional incel vibes to AoA Gambit, come to think about it. Maybe that’s why we’re struggling with that scene so much. We don’t romanticize unrequited love as much as we did in the 90s.
Rogue had left Gambit years ago. She had a kid who looked around four or five. For christ’s sake, Remy, move on already. It’s unhealthy.
Yeah, I get that it’s considered to be romantic when done in fiction (ah, it’s their one, true love); seeing it in real-life, it’s obsessive, creepy or (at best) sad. It’s Fatal Attraction.
Hmm…Uncanny, so no Mike Carey…let’s see Chuck Austen wrote Uncanny for 33 issues (which felt like 500), so that beats Simone. I doubt Simone is that far ahead in scripting. Looking online, Fraction was on the book for 34 issues. I’m not sure what she means.
Let’s see.
Outside of Claremont’s very lengthy runs, notables include:
John Byrne: approx 35
Lobdell: approx 70
Seagle: 15
Alan Davis: 14
Joe Casey: 13
Chuck Austen: 33
Brubaker: 28
Fraction: 34
Gillen: 14 (v1) 20 (v2)
Bendis: 35 (v3)
Cullen Bunn: 19 (v4)
Rosenberg: 22 (v5)
I could be off, this was based off a quick Wiki dive, and Fraction’s era seems like it might have some gaps thanks to co-writers and crossovers. But even so, Gail has surpassed a lot of Uncanny writers (also, it doesn’t help that most tenures are only a few years anyway.)
So… my gut says that Gail may have some ways to go before she overtakes Brubaker, Austen, Bendis and Fraction?
ALTHOUGH she simply says “written” and is looking to topple Bendis at 36, so maybe we’re counting ahead to issues in the can and not actually on the shelves. So if she’s, say, 12 issues ahead already by the time 2 months rolls around, and #25 comes out this month… at least we know she’s hopefully on for the long haul and not going to be abruptly cancelled?
I do so love running the numbers.
It does definitely look like she is going to set the record for third longest run though, which is very hard to believe. I doubt they are going to relaunch Uncanny within the remainder of this year. It’s simply that no one has stayed on Uncanny X-Men for a lengthy run outside of Claremont and Lobdell. Close to three years seems to be the norm post-Casey.
Hang on. What about pre-relaunch issues? Because if you include those, Roy Thomas is at 36 issues, not counting any of the reprints.
Wow, Austen only did 33 issues? It felt a lot longer. He delivered so many different awful stories during that period, and it was when “decompressed” writing was en vogue so plots would be padded out to 5-6 issues.
“She Lies With Angels” alone felt like it lasted a year and a half
Taibak-Well, it depends if you add up all of their writing credits on the title or if his run being divided into two parts means that he wrote the book for 15 issues, then came back and wrote the book for a ten issue run (I think Thomas wrote Uncanny for 35 individual issues, as there was a fill-in by O’Neil during the Thomas/Adams period). Regardless, that’s three years worth of comics and Simone will top that number within nine months.
*That is obviously meant to be 25, not 15 issues.
Technically Roy Thomas, like Stan Lee and Grant Morrison, never wrote a book called “Uncanny” X-Men.
It’s all semantics. We’re ignoring a lot of runs that were really the same book with different names.
Some spoilers regarding the Magik and Colossus series, apparently the immortal is not Rasputin but Koschei the Deathless, a figure from Russian mythology. Although I wonder if Allen is going to link him to Rasputin.
@yrzhe- The reason why it seems longer is because Austen wrote an additional 10 issues of New X-Men, which changed its name back to X-Men shortly after Austen started writing it.
New Kid-But Morrison (unlike Roy the Boy) really, truly never did write a book ever called “Uncanny X-Men” at any point, as they took over X-Men (vol. 2), aka adjectiveless X-Men, which became New X-Men under Morrison. X-Men (vol. 1) would eventually become what we know as Uncanny X-Men during the Claremont run. It’s based on Legacy numbering.
Michael-That wasn’t the reason Austen’s run seemed to last longer. It was because everyone kept hoping it would end, but it kept going for 33 veerrryy looonnngg issues.
I’m aware of all that. My point is they are all X-Men comics at the end of the day. Adjective or no adjective.
It’s become an arbitrary distinction at this point. Like counting left handed and right handed X-Men writers.
Without having read the issue, I would like to make the joke that AoA Gambit is showing that he believes in life after love. He’ll show AoA Rogue that he doesn’t need her anymore!
(Making a Believe joke in 2026, I’m as topical and current as AoA!)
“Some spoilers regarding the Magik and Colossus series, apparently the immortal is not Rasputin but Koschei the Deathless, a figure from Russian mythology.”
As a folklore nerd, this doesn’t surprise me at all. I hear Immortal and Russian, my mind leaps to good ol’ “I put my heart somewhere very safe so I can’t die.” And it makes sense since Allen is doing a Slavic myth theme.
Also, the star of an immortal Hellboy Universe story (Mignola was, of course, using Russian folklore). Special shout-out to, even though far less authentic usage, James Branch Cabell’s Jurgen.
Has Ilyana ever met Rasputin? If no, and she someday does, I expect her to have done her homework on him. If I was a magic-user in the Marvel Universe, and there was a famous namesake who was also an alleged magician, I would assume that I wou;d run across them eventually.
Short answer: No.
The Marvel Rasputin’s history is a mess. You can choose a.)Rasputin died as he did in our world, but he had made a deal with Sinister who created a plan to resurrect Rasputin in the body of either Piotr or Mikhail Rasputin, b.)Rasputin survived and has been secretly directing global events as part of a cabal of immortals, until recently being killed by Venom, or c.)Rasputin is somehow still alive and pulling the strings of the post-Communist Russian government.
So, Illyana has only had the chance to meet the final version of Rasputin, but that version of Rasputin has only appeared in Captain America. I’m sure Illyana would be prepared if she met Gregori due to everything her brother learned about their ancestor.
Making Earth-Prime Rasputin a mutant would make so much sense, with his hypnosis powers, being hard to kill and being a love machine. He’s Wolverine + Purple Man/Starfox.
RIP Sam Kieth.
Damn. Sad to hear that one of my favorite cartoonists ever is no longer with us. 63 is too young. At least his suffering is over.
Bleeding Cool’s Weekly Bestseller List is out. NONE of the X-Books made the list. This makes sense with Cyclops and X-Men of Apocalypse- they’re minis. But X-Men 27 is a flagship. Yes, this was a tough week but Captain America 8 made the list.
Oh man, I hadn’t even heard Sam Kieth had been so badly ill. He will be missed.
@TheOtherMichael, @LuisDantas
No-prize theory : if the popular fanon theory that the “Punch Dimension” whose exotic energies Scott’s* body channels 24-7 is either actually the Crimson Cosmos or adjacent to it (in the same way that the “Brimstone Dimension” of Nightcrawler and his Neyaphem kinfolk is an extension of the DarkForce Dimension [Kurt channels it through his body so he can become shadow-invisible and solid-surfaces-sticking]) then Scott can never be able to completely control his optic blasts** no matter what , even if both his childhood’s physiological and psychological damage from the plane jump is already fully healed .
* which makes Claremont’s retcon that his Xmen The End AU counterpart of Gambit having his Xgene be inherited from Scott Summers be as TVTropes says , “fridge brilliant”. , as it explains Remy’s own biokinetic channeling/generating powers which reflect in his own personal set of red eyes just like Scott , and which also like Scott , manifest in red energy too
** other fans have also theorized over the years that 616-Scott can actually channel plasma , just like Alex , which he can use as heat rays (explaining the occasional times in official stories/art that he even cooks food with them) , since his primary mutation as a Summers brother is to be an energy sponge (not just solar radiation) except that the plasma component of the optic blasts gets usually by the kinetic energy component which is channeled from the PD
@thenewkid
Well, it’s Marvel Comics own current EIC Akira Yoshida who wrote the 2005 10th year anniversary mini-series that officially resurrected Earth-295, the OG AoA , so original continuity be X-pendable LOL