I’m still on holiday, but time for a quick round-up of this week’s X-books anyway.

X-MEN UNLIMITED INFINITY COMIC #94. By Jason Loo and Antonio Fabela. Okay, I see where this is meant to be going. Madrox wants to impress Reed Richards by showing how far he’s come since his debut in Giant-Size Fantastic Four – he conspicuously doesn’t care that much about the rest of the FF – but finds himself in a storyline involving his own evil renegade dupes. And those dupes are part of him, and therefore that’s embarrassing. I kind of get that, but there’s something a bit odd about positioning Reed as the paragon family-man that Madrox aspires to be – aside from the fact that he’s never come up before, Reed has always been defined more by his awkwardness in that role. Still, he is the patriarch of the MU’s top family-themed superhero team and I guess you could see how Madrox aspires to that… ish? There’s something in that angle, but the A plot with the dupes and Blastaar really isn’t doing much for me at all.

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Okay, then – let’s take a quick run through this week’s X-books. As previously mentioned, no annotations this week or next, while I’m on holiday. But the next Incomplete Wolverine post will be up on Saturday.

X-MEN UNLIMITED INFINITY COMIC #93. By Jason Loo & Antonio Fabela. This is a sequel to the last “X-Friends” arc, in which a bunch of Madrox dupes went off and became space pirates. This time, they’re back and allied with, um, Blastaar – for no particularly obvious reason beyond the fact that the FF are guesting in this arc. Like the previous Jason Loo arcs, this one falls very much in the category of “Okay, I Guess?” There’s nothing especially wrong with it, the art is decent, there’s a theoretically decent hook (the pirate leader dupe still views Madrox’s daughter as his own child)… yet I can’t honestly say I find it very engaging. Lightweight is fine – the X-books could do with some of that, and this title is a good place for it. But this raises a gentle smile rather than being a fun romp, which doesn’t really feel enough.

X-MEN: BEFORE THE FALL – THE HERALDS OF APOCALYPSE #1. By Al Ewing, Luca Pizzari, Stefano Landini, Raphael Pimento & Ceci De La Cruz. To all intents and purposes this is an extra issue of X-Men Red, though the branding gives it added justification for ignoring the regular cast entirely in favour of filling in some of the back story of Genesis. What it isn’t is a story about the Heralds of Apocalypse, despite the Horsemen’s prominence of the cover – but the actual story content matches the solicitation, so presumably plans didn’t change that much.

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Well, all this week’s regular titles got annotations posts already, so we can take this one fairly quickly. Oh, hold on, there’s also…

X-MEN UNLIMITED INFINITY COMIC #92. By Jason Loo and Antonio Fabela. This is the start of a new arc, with the Madrox family and the Fantastic Four. If that seems random… well, it is, but Madrox did make his first appearance in an issue of Giant-Size Fantastic Four, which is something. It’s okay, I guess. It’s mostly inconsequential slice of life stuff, which isn’t especially gripping, though there’s a nice idea of X-Corp scientist-version Madrox looking for the approval of Reed Richards. And then a completely random villain shows up at the end, which is… choppy pacing, at least. But it’s fine.

X-FORCE #41. (Annotations here.) The previous issue seemed to set up one of those “jump after jump through time” stories, but it seems we’re just doing two. Which is cutting to the chase, I guess. I suppose the point of this arc is to give the rest of the X-Force cast their own showdown with Beast, in the form of alternate timeline versions, while Wolverine gets to deal with the real deal in his own book… but it does feel a bit secondary. There doesn’t seem to be much going on here beyond some time travel shenanigans, but there are a couple of likeably absurd ideas, like Beast concealing his clones in major world heritage sites so that nobody will disturb them. Mainly, though, it all feels a bit inconsequential to me.

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As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.

NEW MUTANTS: LETHAL LEGION #4
“When I Was A Lad”
Writer: Charlie Jane Anders
Penciler: Enid Balám
Inker: Elisabetta D’Amico
Colourist: Matt Milla
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Design: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen
Editor: Sarah Brunstad

COVER / PAGE 1. The New Mutants face off against Nefaria and his Lethal Legion.

PAGES 2-5. The New Mutants fail to escape and make their stand.

The Voluptuous Cherry Orchard is not real, as far as I can tell. But residents of Westchester County who are looking for cherry blossom next spring can find a list of recommended locations here.

Moonstone. Escapade describes her as “the chaotic-neutral version of Captain Marvel”, admittedly with some uncertainty. Traditionally, I wouldn’t really describe her as chaotic – she’s a meticulous planner and manipulator, if anything – though “neutral” may be fair enough when looking at her career in the round. Karla is more interested in her own personal comfort than in power or wealth as ends in themselves. She is, however, comparably powerful to Captain Marvel, and served as the Captain Marvel stand-in in a version of the Dark Avengers. As Carol’s standing has risen over the last few years, Moonstone maybe gets some spillover credibility boost as a result.

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