The X-Axis – 19 August 2026
UNCANNY X-MEN #34. (Annotations here.) This is an odd arc, but then magic ought to be out of the X-Men’s regular wheelhouse (Illyana being the exception that proves the rule). One thing that’s worked quite well for be in Gail Simone’s run, and your mileage may vary here, is that its magical elements haven’t quite made sense, or felt fully explained, but in a way that seems appropriate for them – magic shouldn’t make sense to these characters. And I’m intrigued to see those organic Sentinels from a previous arc showing up again, even though it doesn’t actually make any logical sense for them to do so – they seemed random in that story, so perhaps it’s going to get tied together in this one. They’re the highlight of the art in this issue, too, which makes them nicely creepy. Now, whether I’m particularly invested in Gambit’s whole possession arc… I’m not so sure about that, since it doesn’t really feel to me like it grows organically from the character, even though I quite like the way he remains mostly himself as Wyvern. And I can’t say I’m that interested in Devil-Hunter, who’s a bit one-note from what we’ve seen on the page so far, though you can read between the lines of his back story and wonder how he got back to this point if you want. As for the material back at Haven, Howler himself doesn’t seem like anything terribly new, but the art makes him endearingly pitiful. And I do like Monet’s attempts to put herself forward as a substitute mother figure, particularly when there are such obviously better candidates right there. It plays as her having something to prove to assert her status, and that works for me with her character.
INGLORIOUS X-FORCE #8. (Annotations here.) X-Force finally take down Kali, who is indeed just an extremist streamer in a shed – though the story complicates matters a bit by giving her access to actual super-tech so that there can be a fight scene. That bit’s all rather odd, since it both cuts against the idea that she’s secretly dull and mundane, and it also requires her to know a lot of things that she shouldn’t obviously know about, such as Boom-Boom’s vanishingly brief connection with the Beyonder. Maybe that’s a plot point, maybe not. Even so, I do enjoy this book and its tendency to hurl ideas at the wall or dig up unlikely backwaters of continuity. Nobody’s gone near the Clan Chosen in years, probably because the Askani future timeline isn’t actually all that interesting as a setting for stories, but Cable’s family do seem like they’ve deserved a little more attention. Resonant gets some good moments as the disillusioned MLF member who seems to mean well. And Luca Maresca’s art keeps the energy levels up. It’s nice, really, to have a run of X-Force that isn’t grimdark and just wants to have fun.
BISHOP #3. By Saladin Ahmed, Mario Santoro, Reese Hannigan, Federico Blee & Travis Lanham. This really feels padded out to get to five issues. The first half of this issue is a continuation of the same fight scene that took up seven pages of the previous one. So that’s seventeen pages total just to get past a Blob/Toad mash-up. Admittedly, the art’s pretty good, and the bulk of this guy comes across a lot better this time than he did last issue. I don’t mind Shard refusing to listen to Bishop’s warnings about her future, either, since it makes sense that she’s going to be more concerned about preserving the timeline than he is. But this issue really does mostly feel like it’s killing time before it gets to the main villain.
Monet’s character arc is a refreshing take, a highlight for me as well.
As another commenter noted early on, the (possessed) Cable eliminated Boom Boom on vibes, she is still sitting there as a Checkov’s gun. I am invested in this run, and looking forward to see what happens.
*Walter not Leonard…
Avengers Armageddon 3, where Wolverine plays a major role, is out today.
Carol’s objection to Wolverine’s giving Colton powers in order to save his life seems misplaced. The problem is that Logan did it against his wishes, not that Logan chose to give him powers when there was no other way to save his life.
So. Colton’s plan is to destroy all the nuclear weapons in the world. What an original plot. How can it go wrong? Maybe his archenemy creates a nuclear powered clone of him. No, maybe it turns out Colton is only doing this because he has nuclear weapons that are unaffected and Cloak and Dagger are the only ones that can stop him. No. maybe the Russians send someone to kill him and they get merged together in a nuclear explosion. No, maybe Colton’s actions result in a major war and then it turns out Colton killed his best friend and brought him back as a twisted version of himself. No, maybe Colton decides to eliminate dangerous nuclear power plants instead of nuclear weapons and he makes the mistake of telling a disturbed woman that his powers work by moving energy and she uses this knowledge to try to kill him and when he tries to project himself he winds up creating a black hole.
So do we think Bucky is genuine in allying himself with Colton or is it some kind of trick? He should be smart enough to realize that two American superheroes trying to destroy Russia’s nuclear weapons will result in the Russians panicking and launching their weapons. If it is a ruse, it’s not going to look good that an Avengers helped to start a nuclear war.
Either way, the previews have said that someone will die during Armageddon. Bucky is my guess.
So Doom’s :”What If” machine works by creating a new universe. So in other words,. it’s a Moira Engine.
I’m not liking that T’Challa realized Fury Jr. was evil just because he gave the United Nations weapons that could kill Ross. Considering Ross put Steve in a coma, tried to kill a kid and then conquered Latveria and tried to conquer Symarkia, Fury Jr. was entirely justified. I know, the solicits says that Fury Jr. will try to kidnap a clone of Doom. but at this point in the story he hasn’t done anything wrong yet.
So I guess Storm and Rogue will be trying to stop the nukes next issue.
According to the solicits, Armageddon will result in Jonah turning on Peter again. We’ll have to see how it plays out but right now, all Peter has done is skip the Symarkia mission to protect New York and Jonah hasn’t appeared at all We’ll have to see how it plays out but it seems like it’s going to be contrived.
Judging from the preview images, it looks like Miracleman is joining the Avengers.
Several X-characters appeared in the Queen in Black crossover this week. It seems like this storyline is attempting to rehabilitate Erik Josten and Darkstar. Erik apologizes for trusting Doom in One World Under Doom and helps the heroes against Knull and Hela. And Darkstar explains that her actions in X-Factor were a result of disillusionment after the fall of Krakoa, apologizes and agrees to help the heroes against Knull and Hela.
The solicitations for November are out.
Generation X-23 is being cancelled with its tenth issue.
The solicits for X-Men United 9 make it clear that this storyline IS about Justina Laguadia vs. Emma. It’s actually impressive how bad this story is. A story pitting Emma against a woman whose power is to be better than anyone nearby should be entertaining but this isn’t.
We’re going to see the experiments from Graymalkin in Uncanny X-Men 38-39- four mutants have been made into twisted versions of Wolverine and Wolverine has to stop them. I was hoping we were done with Graymalkin. Gail still doesn’t seem to get how badly the audience hated that plot. And Wolverine is still going to be appearing in this book, as well as Avengers and Maximum X-Men! Wolverine is ridiculously overexposed. (See more on that below.)
There’s no X-Force issue in November. Since the issue in October was X-Force 10. X-Force appears to be cancelled. (But again, see below.) Tim Seeley has hinted on Bluesky that the series might be relaunched.
Wolverine 29 by Saladin Ahmed will be coming out in November. So Ahmed’s run is continuing. NOOOO! I thought we were free. I wonder why there was no issue in October.
Wolverine is definitely overexposed. So in addition to his regular series, a miniseries by Dan Panosian will run starting in October. And to make matters worse, a new Origin III miniseries by Paul Jenkins featuring Wolverine in the 1950s will star in December. So to sum up, in December, Wolverine will be appearing in his own series, TWO miniseries, Uncanny X-Men, Maximum X-Men and Avengers. This is insane. Wolverine is nowhere near as popular as he was in the 90s.
I have an idea for the Colton plot. He hears about a number of people who will one day be responsible for causing a nuclear war and goes about murdering them to stop the looming nuclear war. At the end, it’s revealed that Colton will be the one who starts the nuclear war, and he was only alerted to the identity of the people he killed in order that the Avengers will come to stop Colton, thereby preventing the nuclear war.
Harlan Ellison will sue Marvel from beyond the grave.
@ChrisV, I thought you were referencing the Inglorious X-Force premise for a second
X-Force has been the pleasant surprise for me from this batch if books. It’s not quite the Hellions of it’s era, but I am enjoying it hope it lasts longer than 10 issues.
Bleeding Cool’s Weekly Bestseller List is out. Uncanny X-Men 34 came in 7th. Inglorious X-Force 8 and Bishop 3 didn’t make the top 10.
One interesting thing to note. Daredevil 5 came in 2nd. Avenger Armageddon came in 3rd.
Dardevil’s current author is the exact same that gave us one of the most insulting endings with Phoenix. Rainbow Rowell’s She Hulk’s guillotine end was one of the best I have read recently, and Ayodele’s was comfortably in beteeen.
Judging from the preview images, it looks like Miracleman is joining the Avengers.
Oh dear.
It’s been coming for a while. It’s what Marvel has wanted to do for years, but they were awaiting Neil finishing the story first, which kept getting delayed. Now, with a Chuck Austen return apparently being the only hope of the Miracleman saga ever being finished, they’ve decided to go ahead with the inevitable. Brevoort once wrote that it was only a matter of time before we saw Miracleman/Marvelman hanging around the Avengers. The preview for Avengers #1 now lists a “redacted” character as one of the new members. I can’t think of anyone else that would warrant being kept a secret right now.
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