UNCANNY X-MEN #35. (Annotations here.) Just this one, then? Well, Marvel would say no – there’s also an issue of Deadpool and something from X-Men ’97 – but I don’t regard either of those as falling within our remit. And apparently even this issue was released digitally by mistake, and won’t be released physically for another two weeks. So that’s weird.

This isn’t really an ideal book to write about in isolation, either, because it’s a middle chapter of a storyline that still leaves me a little puzzled. The basic story is perfectly straightforward: Rogue and Gambit looking for the help of Marvel Universe exorcists to free Gambit from the influence of the Eye of Agamotto. Quite what demon is involved is left intentionally vague, and instead of the usual Marvel Universe magical trappings, we have more conventional Christian exorcist material. So we’ve got the obscure Devil-Hunter character from the 1970s, who was Marvel’s attempt to cash in on the Exorcist, and a guy called Repent who’s more of a Marvel Universe exorcist, but still very much in the Christian vein. It certainly makes things feel less familiar than they normally do, and there’s something of a problem in Marvel magic with the standard elements being so well established that they no longer even feel particularly odd. This arc is doing a fairly good job of getting around that problem, though I’m not entirely sure the art matches the effect.

At the same time, I do find myself wondering whether I’m actually interested in Christian exorcist material, and what the ultimate hook here is. I like the way Gambit is played as mostly retaining his normal personality even when under influence, but I find the arc more intriguing than outright compelling.

In the B-plot, we have the X-Men investigating where Howler came from, and discovering that he was being held prisoner by a Word of Strength camp in Louisiana. I can see the point that this is a bit too similar to the Graymalkin arc, but it’s evidently meant to provide some thematic link with the main story, since the guy in charge seems to believe that he’s a stern religious disciplinarian rather than an abuser. At the same time, I don’t really follow what this has to do with the first Word of Strength arc, which involved a personality cult in Argentina. This doesn’t seem to be a cult at all – the guards look like hired guns, so there don’t seem to be any actual cult members. Mind you, we never did really find out what Word of Strength was trying to achieve, so maybe it’ll come together – but if I’m honest, I don’t really get what we’re doing with these guys.

Generally, I can’t quite see where this is all heading, or what it’s really saying about religion. Maybe the final part of the arc will pull it all together but it’s not clicking for me right now.