The X-Axis – 5 August 2026
UNCANNY X-MEN #33. (Annotations here.) Well, this is certainly a quiet week. To be fair, I think Midnight X-Men #1 may have originally been scheduled for this week before they decided to launch the whole line in October. But as it is, we have just the two books.
First up, we have Rogue and Gambit looking for an exorcist. And Gail Simone continues to dust off unlikely genre characters for the purpose, with an improbable guest-starring role for Devil-Hunter. It doesn’t really matter whether you recognise him or not (you almost certainly don’t, he had a vanishingly short run in a horror anthology in the mid-seventies), since he’s basically serving here as an all-purpose grumpy exorcist. There’s a nagging question about why they’re going to this guy at all. Isn’t Magik the obvious first port of call? I know there’s a limit to how far you can take the consequences of a shared universe, because that way lies “why doesn’t everyone just call the Avengers”, to which the answer is “because it would be boring”. But Magik’s in the other X-Men book.
Still, the idea here is obviously to have Rogue and Gambit on a tour of people who are out of their comfort zone, and Magik is way too familiar to work in this role. Gabriel does bring something a little off-kilter to the proceedings, and I do like the weirdly insectoid demon that Vecchio draws, which is quite far off Marvel Universe norms. It works, mostly, I think?
The B-plot sees Monet and Pietro show up at Haven, where despite their best efforts, they’re entirely unsuited to fit seamlessly into the warm, family-themed X-book. I like the idea in broad terms, though the Outliers … sorry, the New Mutants seem a little too hostile to them. Admittedly, it’s most obviously coming from Calico, and she’s crazy. But Gambit and Rogue going off on a solo mission just doesn’t seem to warrant the reaction we’re getting here, and that’s a problem for the story – it feels like the characters are reacting to some sort of impending finality that hasn’t actually happened yet.
X-MEN OF APOCALYPSE OMEGA #1. By Jeph Loeb, Simone Di Meo & Tyler Smith. In practical terms, this is issue #6 of a 6-issue miniseries. Because it’s a quiet week, I re-read the thing to see if it hangs together any better as a whole.
And to be fair, it does, in some ways. If you go back to issue #1, Loeb certainly is laying the groundwork for the reveal about what the villains are really up to. And it’s clear enough too what he thinks this story is really about. He thinks it’s about Age of Apocalypse Gambit, unable to bear separation from his world’s Rogue, grasping at the opportunity to travel to another world where they could be together. The ending involves our Gambit apparently agreeing to swap places with the AoA Gambit so that he can spend some time in our world… or something… without actually telling anyone. That, it seems, is the plot of next month’s Gambit: Gone miniseries, by Steve Orlando and Eduardo Audino.
So… yes, if you read it through, it does at least answer the question “what is the point of any of this”. But it’s still not good. As an Age of Apocalypse nostalgia trip, it fails by getting the continuity of the original series wrong, not to mention ignoring the fact that sequels have taken place already. We’ve had years of stories in Exiles with AoA Blink and Sabretooth, for god’s sake. As a story in its own right, it doesn’t feel like any of the elements other than Gambit’s plot have been thought through. Why does Sinister want Nate Grey back? If Forge is an impostor, how did two telepaths fail to notice? What exactly were the AoA X-Men trying to achieve on Earth in the first place? Something about setting the timeline right but… what? I realise it’s all a ruse and in that sense it doesn’t matter, but I ought to at least understand what the characters’ motivations are, shouldn’t I? Why in the name of god would our Gambit spontaneously agree to go on an exchange trip to the Age of Apocalypse without telling his wife? (If you’re feeling really generous you could maybe rationalise this in terms of his current demonic possession problems.) Has he even checked how he’s going to get back?
The art is a problem too. Simone Di Meo’s art is often lovely to look at on the level of individual images, but the flow is choppy in the extreme. It’s often very hard to follow, in a way that makes the story look even more confusing than it actually is. Backgrounds are generally vague to non-existent, and there’s no real sense of place or atmosphere. It’s kinetic, to be sure, but it doesn’t tell a story.
All told, it does benefit from a re-read, but only in the sense that some sort of coherent intention does emerge. It’s still a mess, and still one to steer clear of.
Re: X-Men of Apocalypse: Omega 1:
The ending was horrible beyond words. Why would Gambit agree to let someone he just met a few minutes ago rape Rogue?
Also. if Wolverine can tell the difference between the AoA Sabretooth and “his” Sabretooth, shouldn’t he be able to tell the difference between the two Gambits?
If Nate Grey is from the past and Storm is from the present, why does she act like she has no clue who Nate is?
I guess another reason for this miniseries was to bring the AoA Sabretooth and the AoA Wild Child to 616 while Sabretooth stays dead. The AoA Sabretooth can be used as a hero while the 616 one can’t.
That’s hilarious. Storm can act surprised at everything around her, only to be reminded that she’s not the one from the past, so she should know about all these things.
Storm:“You mean he’s the president?”
X-Man: “I guess so. You live in this time. You’d probably know better than me.”
Storm: “Electric cars are a thing?”
X-Man: “Again, you should know about this.”
The solicits for the final issues of DNX are out. DNX 5 will feature Scott vs. the Chairman- to the death. The crossover will result in a major shakeup for MacKay’s X-Men and a new solo series will launch in its aftermath.
So assuming the solicits are telling the truth this time ( *cough*, Betsy-as-Psylocke,*cough* ) who do we think will die? The obvious solution would be for the Chairman to die and his memories get downloaded to Factory Beast giving us a heroic Beast will all his memories. However, another possibility is Scott dies. MacKay had Scott tell Lundqvist how dangerous Jean could be if he dies and the recent Spider-Man: Brand New Day film featured an out-of-control Jean, so this might be Marvel’s idea of synergy.
So who do we think the solo series will be? One possibility could be Jean. Another possibility could be Scott,. although that might be difficult if he’s the one who dies. Or would it?
Deathdream is out, Corpse Scott Summers is in.
The solo is probably Jean, although it seems a bit odd trying to get another Phoenix book to work after the last one failed so spectacularly. I mean, yes, they could fix it by removing an obscure space supporting cast and setting it on Earth, but an all-powerful Phoenix out of control after Scott’s death doesn’t sound like it would provide a lot more room for growth (it could work well as a mini, sure).
I’m absolutely baffled by the end of X-Men of Apocalypse Omega Prime. Does Gail know that Gambit is taking a side trip to another universe? Will this mess up her story, or will we all just ignore it outside of Gambit Gone Wild? Was anyone asking for the return of AoA at all?
I mean sure, we can have a heroic Sabretooth but do we need one? I’d rather get a new Exiles series instead of seeing duplicates of the same character roaming the 616 because they never do anything with the other leftovers.
I hope the new series is a Juggernaut solo where he takes side missions to do heroism by smashing things. A big, dumb, fun story where he becomes a wrestler under a thin disguise as part of his secret identity, perhaps.
I’m not a comic book publisher. Is it considered good practice to run two Gambit miniseries at the same time?
Considering there was one point no so very long ago when Marvel passed an edict that they should no longer publish comics starring Gambit because the character was damaged…I’d say that answer is a resounding “no”. The X-office is desperate for content though.
Good lord. Gambit is switching places with his duplicate without telling his wife? Did nobody involved with publishing the plot consider the implications?
@Chris V- Was there ever an edict? I found one interview where PAD says “it’ll probably be a long time before he gets to star in another book” but the fact that PAD used the term “probably” seems to suggest it wasn’t an official edict.
I wish I could remember where I read it. It was a long time ago. I tend to make things up in my head based on snippets I read years ago though. It may have simply been that David quote that my memory has blown out of proportions. It was after the All-New X-Factor series was cancelled I remember reading it (whatever it actually read).
>Deathdream is out, Corpse Scott Summers is in.<
Weekend At Scott's series, you heard it here first.
Superhero deaths are all just brief pauses, but if Scott dies it wouldn’t exactly be brand synergy for him to be gone for for long, since the actor for Cyclops in the 2028 X-Men film has just been announced.
The new Spider-Man film will probably end up being the highest grossing movie starring an X-Men character, so it would make sense to get a Jean solo series on the stands, especially if they can make it have anything to do with the version of the character in the film.
Watching the film, I wondered if the last Phoenix series was given an editorial mandate to bring back Sarah Grey in some way, perhaps to renew the copyright on her, or just to bring a very minor character back into the public consciousness.
SPOILERS for Spider-man: Brand New Day:
A couple of things I noticed about Sarah Grey in the movie: she’s more powerful than Jean, and we never see her body after she’s supposedly dead.
Are they setting her up as a Dark Phoenix replacement (or similar)? Does Marvel Studios not want to repeat the mistakes of the past two attempts to tell that story? I mean, why go through all the trouble to develop Jean — again — if you’re just going to kill her — again?
Complete conjecture on my part, but it could explain why there’s suddenly all this focus on Sarah.
Man, that Gambit storyline sounds so bad (from a continuity standpoint, considering Gail’s plots with him and more so from a sexual assault standpoint).
If I remember correctly from when I watched it 15ish years ago, the TV show Fringe had a character get replaced -not by choice – by their alt universe counterpart and his girlfriend was understandably traumatized after he came back and she found out the truth. This seems like a plot that shouldn’t have flown decades ago, let alone now.
Also, does Loeb do anything now besides returning to hits of his? AoA is clearly not all his doing, but he was involved, and I’m also thinking of things like The Long Halloween and Hush sequels.
It’s possible that’s really only where the money for him is, much like many Marvel creators returning to an era they were involved in for these nostalgia minis (that are sometimes good, if not always making sense in the continuity of that era). I’m not necessarily trying to denigrate them with that name, just not sure what else to call them.
@CJ Standal- Not quite. The Fringe plot had Peter’s girlfriend be kidnapped and replaced by a doppelgänger from another universe. And then when Peter finds out instead of Peter being treated like someone who was horribly victimized, Peter not realizing she was an impostor is something he has to APOLOGIZE for.
@Michael, how right you are. My memory was even more off than I thought.
I just reread the old Legion of Superheroes storyline where Shrinking Violet was kidnapped and replaced by a Durlan actress for a while. In the meantime, Colossal Boy fell in love with the imposter… and even after Violet was rescued, CB -married- the imposter and kept her around, much to Violet’s annoyance. Can’t blame her; being replaced and someone using your body to romance someone you’d previously rejected?
Later, they even inducted the imposter into the Legion as Chameleon Girl. All of this felt rather dubious to me.
Oh and hey. Alicia Masters, Lyja, Johnny Storm.
Evil Hyperion, real Hyperion, Power Princess.
Need I go on?
So hey, what’s a little Gambit Swap between friends, right?
@The Other Michael- In fairness, the Evil Hyperion was treated like a pure villain, unlike the other two examples.
This used to be very common in popular fiction, until recently when people realized it constituted rape. Not the exact same scenario, but involving the same type of behaviour, there was an issue of Iron Man from the late-1980s where Tony Stark and the Crimson Dynamo found themselves switching bodies. Tony decided it would be a good time to sleep with CD’s significant other. He was very skeevy about it too, but the reader was meant to think that Tony was being cool.
On the other hand, it does seem to fit Tony Stark’s character that he would act exactly in that manner, but then again, Iron Man is supposed to be heroic.
Oh is that why Diana did that thing in Wonder Woman 1984? Was the movie meant to feel like it was actually made in 1984 right down to the casual ignorance of consent?