Fearless

“Fearless”
X-Men #1-9
Written by Gerry Duggan
Art by Pepe Larraz with Javier Pina (#4-5, 8) and C.F. Villa (#9)
Color art by Marte Gracia

X-Men is a series with a huge built-in advantage in that it’s primarily illustrated by Pepe Larraz, one of the best artists working in the medium today and one of the three people (along with Jonathan Hickman and R.B. Silva) who created and defined the Krakoa era of X-Men. Gerry Duggan is also one of the crucial foundational authors of this era as well, and it makes sense that he would be the one to be passed the baton of the main X-Men series from Hickman. Unlike Hickman’s run, which mainly served as a hub for general top level X-stories and had no particular team called the X-Men, Duggan is actually writing a clearly defined superhero team. This plays to Duggan’s strengths as established in Marauders – he’s very adept at writing old school superhero stories with an emphasis on Claremontian character development while working within Hickman’s sci-fi framework. His style is a well-balanced compromise, traditional in its structures but forward-thinking in its substance. 

Duggan and Larraz, who have worked together previously on Uncanny Avengers, made their Krakoa-era debut together on Planet Size X-Men. That issue, in which the mutants terraform Mars and establish it as the planet Arakko, was very bold and easily the biggest narrative move that was not set in motion by Hickman himself. From a post-Hickman perspective it was an important move in proving the other writers had it in them to make huge, clever creative swings that were not dependent on following his plans. Particular to Duggan, it seems like the first step in asserting himself as a primary author rather than a second banana, and his X-Men run has moved along with other contributions to the macro plot that have made the series seem vital rather than a more trad continuation of Hickman’s project. 

Duggan’s primary interest has been in further developing Orchis by introducing new characters and collaborators rather than focus on Hickman’s core Orchis cast of Director Devo, Doctor Gregor, Nimrod, and Omega Sentinel. The first issue introduces Feilong, the quasi-Elon Musk Chinese scientist who is embittered by the mutants usurping his plans to colonize Mars and spitefully creates an outpost for Orchis on Phobos, the moon of Mars. There’s also Doctor Stasis, a mysterious scientist with Doctor Moreau-ish tendencies and a Boba Fett-ish helmet who is intent on cracking the mysteries of mutant resurrection, and classic Marvel villain M.O.D.O.K., who is brought into the Orchis ranks on a contingent basis. The story is still in motion as of #9, but I appreciate the potential here – Feilong represents a logical response to the hubris of creating Arakko, while Doctor Stasis just… looks cool on account of Larraz’s design. As we all know, just looking really cool can take a villain very far. But it makes sense to expand the scope of Orchis’ membership, particularly as we’re meant to understand that this is a growing coalition of powers moving against the mutants. It can’t just be the same four characters working on all fronts

Duggan and Larraz’s X-Men is a tight team of 7 elected members – Cyclops and Jean Grey as the leaders and mainstays with Rogue, Polaris, Sunfire, Synch, and X-23 as Wolverine. (As a matter of site-wide clarity, I default to identifying that character as X-23 - no implied disrespect to her using that codename.) Duggan’s story structure is episodic with mostly done-in-one superhero plots that give space to spotlight a particular character. This has worked out pretty well, though it has been frustrating in the sense that it can give short shrift to characters who seem to linger in the wings before getting some story focus. The best example of this is Rogue, a major X-Men character who has had a fairly minor through the Krakoa era. It seemed at first that Rogue would finally get some time to shine in this series, but she’s barely around for issues on end before getting her spotlight in #9. In retrospect this was clearly a matter of scheduling – her scenes were focused on reuniting with her foster mother Destiny and that clearly had to be published on the other side of Inferno – but it nevertheless tests the patience in a monthly publication. 

The two characters who’ve been best served by appearing in this series are perennial third-stringers Polaris and Sunfire. Polaris has largely suffered through the years for being written with such wildly varying characterizations that more recent writers like Leah Williams have had to settle on making this volatility a feature rather than a bug, and Sunfire has been used so sporadically that he was rather undeveloped until Rick Remender and Duggan gave him a little more interiority in Uncanny Avengers. The Polaris situation was largely resolved by Larraz, who presented her in early X-Men art as a somewhat haughty cool girl carrying a Starbucks cup into battle. This is such a clever spin on where the character is in this era – she’s the daughter of Magneto and is giving off some Big Heiress Energy while still retaining the just-barely-concealed insecurities of Williams’ characterization of her in X-Factor. Duggan has simply followed Larraz’s lead here, and presents her as someone who’s juggled a lot of potential life directions and imposter syndrome issues and is finding herself by merging all her competencies as a superhero. 

As for Sunfire, it’s more a matter of this classic loner finding a sense of self-worth in service to his new nation but gradually realizing there’s other options for doing so that provide him the solitude he craves. It’s not easy to convey introversion in a superhero comic without showing an interior monologue through captions and thought balloons, but Duggan pulls this off in small gestures through the run. I can’t imagine Sunfire will be sticking around once the second team is voted in, but I do hope Duggan continues to follow the character as he gets increasingly involved in Arakko and cosmic matters, and I’m looking forward to his mission resolving a X of Swords dangling plot I’d assumed would be picked up in Tini Howard’s series.

The rest of the ongoing threads range from very engaging, like Cyclops being forced to conceal his resurrection in the guise of Captain Krakoa after dying publicly at the hands of Doctor Stasis or Duggan running with the tragic romance of Synch and X-23 as established by Hickman in The Vault issues, or are in a wait-and-see limbo like the Gameworld subplot that apparently comes to a head in the next few issues. The latter is a fairly thin concept that gains a lot from Larraz’s world building and draftsmanship, which gives a somewhat mundane notion a genuinely alien appearance and some necessary razzle dazzle. 

Larraz’ art is typically excellent in his issues, but thankfully he has very good understudies on this series. Javier Pina, a fellow Spaniard, has a style that merges a lot of Larraz’s aesthetics with a touch of George Perez and Phil Jiminez. It meshes well in a collection, particularly as Pina has nudged his art towards more overt Larraz mimicry in #8. C.F. Villa, who illustrated #9, also works within a similar stylistic framework, though his linework comes closer to that of Valerio Schiti. Given that some of the other X-series have suffered some lackluster fill-in artists the consistency on X-Men is to be commended, particularly as Larraz is a very difficult act to follow. 

Fireworks

“Fireworks”
Planet Size X-Men #1
Written by Gerry Duggan
Art by Pepe Larraz
Color art by Marte Gracia

• Is there life on Mars? Well, now there is. It was clear enough to anyone paying attention that this issue would be about the X-Men terraforming Mars, so going into the issue it was more about discovering exactly how and why this was being done. There were some things we already knew coming in – a need to replace their pharmaceutical facilities in the Savage Land to meet production goals, the pressure of learning that Nimrod was online and they couldn’t wait much longer on this part of the long-term plan of expansion – but in this story we learn that above all else, claiming Mars was about giving the Arakkii a proper home and getting around the problem of Earth suddenly being the host of millions of powerful, warlike mutants with no respect for humanity. 

• The miracle of a circuit of omega mutants transforming a dead world into a planet that can permanently support life is remarkable and quite a thing to behold on the page – oh man, look at those X-Men go! It’s the freakiest show – but the real flex on display in this issue comes at the end in a text page in which Mars is renamed Arakko, humans are forbidden to go anywhere besides one particular zone devoted to diplomacy, and the planet is declared the capital of the solar system. Oh, right, and Arakko is the “first” mutant world, implying an empire to come. Well, I sure hope someone – like, say, the lead writer of the franchise who developed most of these ideas and only has four scheduled comic issues for the rest of the year – writes more about all of this! 

• Pepe Larraz continues to dazzle with the sheer scope of his artwork and his gift for designing evocative new characters and settings. I don’t think there’s a lot of other artists who could’ve pulled this issue off with as much cinematic grandeur, but I say “cinematic” as though anyone working in cinema has approached some of the feats depicted so gracefully on these pages. The issue is full of things he’s designing from scratch that will become the basis of who knows how many other artists’ work – the Lake Hellas Diplomatic Ring, Port Prometheus, and the key Arrako leaders Xilo, Sobunar, and Lactuca – but the most incredible spectacle is how he manages to depict the transportation of millions of Arakkii mutants to their new planet. Every one of these pages is worth staring at and dissecting, the guy is just outstanding. The work he accomplished here cements him as one of the top tier definitive/transformative X-Men artists along with John Byrne, Arthur Adams, Jim Lee, Joe Madureira, and Frank Quitely.

• It feels a little strange that this issue wasn’t written by Jonathan Hickman but Gerry Duggan delivers here in a big way, conveying the grandeur of this moment while keeping it grounded in the characters, most especially Magneto and Jean Grey. Duggan pulls off a balancing act of writing in his own voice while matching Hickman’s tone, certainly much more so than any other writer in the stable. Some of this comes down to both of them understanding what they have in Larraz, an artist who thrives most when asked to do very narratively ambitious things. Duggan and Larraz have previously worked together on Uncanny Avengers and the two have real chemisty, so this issue sets the bar high for what they’ll be doing together soon on X-Men. 

• Magneto is the star of this issue and the prime mover on the project to transform Mars into Arakko, and in this act he cements himself as a savior to his people on par with Xavier leading the creation of the Resurrection Protocols. And of course, there’s Apocalypse, who rescued the Arakkii from Amenth in the first place. The Great Men of mutantdom have in fact done miraculous deeds for their kind – why wouldn’t people follow them? Also, I don’t know if this is something Hickman and Duggan had in mind, but Magneto essentially giving “Lebensraum” to his liberated brethren is quite a thing for a Holocaust survivor. 

• Absalon Mercator is the only omega mutant of Earth who does not participate in this very literal act of world-building, though we do see Magneto turned away from his mysterious realm in Otherworld. Clearly something is planned for Mercator, so the question is…when? 

• I am not a scientist by any stretch, but the science in this issue seems fairly legit! The final text page gets into more details from the perspective of NASA and is attributed to Thom DiRocco, who turns out to be a real scientist that Duggan follows on Twitter, so it’s a reasonable to assume he was consulted on how to do this story as correctly as possible. 

• It’s hard to fathom what it would be like to respond to the events of this issue as a human being. The notion of Mars suddenly being an inhabitable world full of powerful mutants with a totally alien society is wild, but living in a reality in which mutants are capable of doing these godlike feats would be a lot to process even if you’re already used to the idea of mutants and superheroes. I understand why a lot of people would feel frightened, but I feel like a lot of people would be awed and probably process this in religious terms of miracles and acts on behalf of God. 

• It would seem the great error in all of this is the declaration of Arakko as the capital of the solar system when Arakko is definitely NOT on the same page as Krakoa and we know from X of Swords that this is a society that up until a few weeks ago was on a path of brutal conquest. Now, sure, some of that was due to the influence of Annihilation, but c’mon. Magneto, with his goal focused on expansion, is taking a massive leap of faith here – or, really, he’s just blinded by hubris. Also, it’s more than a little condescending to force Planet Arakko into a diplomacy role to teach them a better way of existing. And Storm rather bluntly speaks to greatest benefit of having the Arakkii on Mars – it’s basically a whole planet of incredibly powerful randos who can be a cannon fodder defense one planet away from Earth.

• The Arakkii being pushed into a diplomatic role is also not the best move given that they know almost nothing about Earth, much less the Shi’ar or any of the other Marvel alien societies. Maybe their lack of history with anyone besides the Krakoan mutants makes them theoretically neutral?

• It’s worth noting that the Arakkii precognitive mutant Idyll’s prophecy from X-Men #14 was clearly referencing what would eventually happen on Mars, the red planet.

A Losing Battle

“X of Swords Chapter 17”
X-Force #14
Written by Benjamin Percy and Gerry Duggan
Art by Joshua Cassara
Color art by Guru-eFX

“X of Swords Chapter 18”
Hellions #6
Written by Zeb Wells
Art by Carmen Carnero
Color art by David Curiel

“X of Swords Chapter 19”
Cable #7
Written by Gerry Duggan
Art by Phil Noto

• The last seven pages of X-Force #14 is, as far as I’m concerned, the best Storm story published in over 30 years. The plot echoes a few classic motifs – she’s stripped of her powers and is forced to rely on her wits and fighting skills in a duel – but the weight of it feels different, like we’re seeing something new in her that reinforces important elements that have been there all along. Storm and Death, who had an odd sort of courtship dance earlier in the story, are forced to duel in Sevalith, a realm of vampires. Death is courteous but condescending, and even in a powerless and inebriated state Storm takes advantage of his arrogance and reflects his death gaze back on him before stabbing him in the heart. She leaves him bleeding out, and invites the vampires of Sevalith to feast on his blood. This move sums up the Storm of 2020 – as brutal as she is regal, and a woman who has now conquered literal and figurative death twice in the past three months of publishing. 

It’s worth noting Storm has a history with vampires, Dracula in particular, and that Death is an ancient Egyptian man who dresses as Anubis, which connects to her childhood in Cairo. Storm’s sword Skybreaker – the sacred blade which she stole from Black Panther in the first act – is established as a conduit that can convert small amounts of energy back as larger amounts, which explains how she could reflect Death’s death gaze back on him in such a devastating way. The sword is also explained as a weapon passed down through Wakanda through generations to protect the fledgling nation. And of course, that purpose carries over here, but in defense of Krakoa. 

• The two issues of Hellions in X of Swords are essentially a side quest that can easily be read out of context, particularly as the issues do more to advance the plot of that series than that of the crossover. As we see in this issue, the group’s mission as established last month is not only a total failure, but nothing but a ruse for Mister Sinister to collect the genetic materials of mutants in Arakko. And of course that’s what he’d do! It’s his whole deal. But the plot hits a snag as Sinister meets his opposite number – Tarn the Uncaring, a mutant from Amenth who can warp the mutations of others and has become a deranged cross between an artist and a cult leader. His horrific creations the Locus Vile tear through the Hellions with ease, and before Sinister can make it back to Krakoa with his genetic data, Tarn does…something…to his body. It should be interesting to see what happens to this Sinister body, which we already know is a duplicate. 

We will surely be seeing Tarn and the Locus Vile again in this series – you definitely don’t go out of your way to create characters this disturbing unless you plan on making the most of a crew that’s a dark mirror of your exceedingly warped and broken cast of protagonists. I like that Tarn and Sinister have the same sort of cavaliar god complex, but the difference between them essentially comes down to art/religion vs science. Wells’ text page describing the Locus Vile is excellent in selling the characters’ unnerving premises, from Sick Bird’s fascination with invading the “sacred cord” of the spine to truly “know” her prey to the unexplained but clearly dire consequences of what happens when Amino Fetus eats. 

• The duel between Gorgon and The White Sword in Cable #6 is another instant classic fight scene, as one of the great Captains of Krakoa dies with honor after slaughtering over a dozen of the ancient mutant’s slave warriors, which evens the score in Saturnyne’s contest after several issues of the X-Men getting demolished by the Arakki. Phil Noto sells the drama of this scene very well with clean, uncluttered pages that convey Gorgon’s exceptional grace as a warrior.

Gorgon was introduced as a Wolverine villain by Mark Millar and John Romita Jr in the 2000s, and since then has mainly appeared in two of Jonathan Hickman’s more obscure Marvel works, Secret Warriors and Avengers World. Up until very recently he was played as vicious criminal genius affiliated with The Hand, Hydra, and HAMMER. Aside from X-Men #4, in which we see him act as a bodyguard for Xavier, Magneto, and Apocalypse, X of Swords is his first big moment as a protagonist in an X-Men story. This scene does two major things for the character – it gives him a set piece that proves his nobility, bravery, and extraordinary fighting skills, and it hits a reset button that allows him to be resurrected without the baggage of his worst deeds. I imagine that when we meet the new Gorgon, with his old self overwritten by a composite of his many selves throughout the multiverse, we’ll be meeting someone who isn’t far off from the man we see in this issue. 

• Nanny, Orphan Maker, and Wild Child also die in Otherworld, which essentially means that Zeb Wells gets an opportunity to define those characters going forward on his terms. This should be fascinating for Nanny and the Orphan Maker, who were already very undeveloped and enigmatic characters. Will they even be able to recognize one another on the other side? 

Edit: I’ve been corrected in the comments that they actually died in Arakko/Amenth, so presumably the Otherworld death scramble effect won’t apply to them. This makes sense given that Wells has established a Nanny subplot in previous issues and he probably wouldn’t just throw that away.

• Some very good funny bits in these issues, from the silliness of some of the competitions to the reveal that Pogg Ur-Pogg is just a little troll hiding inside a big alligator monster, and the bit where Cable explains to his very confused parents that he was just beaten by “Doug’s large wife.” 

For Your Life

“X of Swords: Chapter 14”
Marauders #15
Written by Gerry Duggan and Benjamin Percy
Art by Stefano Caselli
Color art by Edgar Delgado

“X of Swords: Chapter 15”
Excalibur #14
Written by Tini Howard 
Art by Phil Noto

“X of Swords: Chapter 16”
Wolverine #7
Written by Benjamin Percy and Gerry Duggan
Art by Joshua Cassara
Color art by Guru-eFX

And now the story gets a little weird! But of course, “weird” is a human word…

• Marauders picks up on last week’s cliffhanger in the most jarring way possible, zooming ahead to the aftermath of Wolverine murdering Saturnyne – the inevitable conquest of Krakoa and the rest of Earth by the forces of Arakko and Amenth. But of course Saturnyne is seemingly omnipotent in her realm, and so she’s only just messing with Wolverine and showing him the actual stakes of the situation. This all supports the notion that it’s in Saturnyne’s interest to defeat the Arakkii and flush the influence of Amenth out of Otherworld lest they inevitably conquer the rest of her domain, but Saturnyne’s actions over the course of three issues complicate matters further by capriciously rigging the contests against the Krakoan swordbearers in increasingly absurd ways. She’s playing a game, but it’s hard to tell exactly what it is. 

• Marauders #15 continues on from last week’s issue in further developing the characters from Arakko at the banquet before the contest. The White Sword’s tension with the family of Apocalypse and Genesis is highlighted by his utter disgust for War attempting to poison her opponents at the parley, while Redroot and Death ponder the ways living in a far less horrific world has made the X-Men “weak and soft.” It’s remarkable how familiar these characters and their milieu have become over the past few weeks – it’s all so rich that it would be a shame to see some of them go at the end of this story. 

• We get our first glimpse of Death’s mutant power as he murders a servant with a glare at the banquet. This scene is handled very well by Stefano Caselli, who paces it very nicely and conveys how effortless and meaningless this gesture is for Death. It’s interesting that this power is only a minor variation on that of Gorgon, who also hides his eyes to hold back his own version of a death gaze. (And of course this carries over to Cyclops, though he’s not in this story.) 

• Isca the Unbeaten is further developed in both Marauders and Excalibur, in both cases suggesting that she’s a decent person who feels inclined to spare her opponents the inevitability of her victory. It’s increasingly obvious Isca is going to be hanging around the X-Men for a while after this, and I welcome it. She has so much potential, and the concept and design of her is so strong.

• Excalibur #14 begins the contest phase of the storyline and immediately upends all expectations by giving us an abrupt anticlimax in the duel of Betsy Braddock and Isca and then a forced marriage rather than a battle. Betsy’s apparent death in her fight with Isca is strange and abstract, and also unrelated to any power we know Isca to possess besides that she wins any battle she’s in, so it seems very likely whatever happened to her is the intervention of Saturnyne’s magic or perhaps her brother Jamie’s reality-warping power. 

• The forced marriage of Cypher and Bei the Blood Moon is a wild curveball, but makes sense if Saturnyne’s true goal is to weed out the Amenthi influence on the Arakkii and get the Krakoans and Arrakkii on the same page – i.e., purging Amenth from Otherworld. This sequence is a lot of fun, and I love that Bei is able to “speak” in a way that is intuitively comprehensible to everyone else but is by technicality indecipherable to him as a result of his power. So of course he’s fascinated by Bei, and though Bei’s thoughts on the matter are opaque she seems pretty enthusiastic about marrying – and violently protecting – this cute little golden-hearted dork. But still, as amusing as it is for this tall warrior woman to embrace the notion of marrying him, it’s hard to grasp why given the limited information we have about her life. 

• The Wolverine issue pushes the absurdity of Saturnyne’s competition to another level, first by making Magik’s battle against the monstrous Pogg Ur-Pogg an arm wrestling match she cannot possibly win, and then by having Wolverine kill Summoner in the surreal realm of Blightspoke and having the point go to Arakko because they were told it was a fight to the death and Summoner was the one to die. Then Wolverine is roped into another duel as a result of the agreement he made with Solem off-panel earlier in the story, and when Wolverine defeats War in battle, the point also goes to Arakko. Saturnyne is plainly rigging the contest against Krakoa… but why exactly? It makes sense for her to want to mess with Wolverine and Betsy specifically, but what is she actually up to? I suppose we’ll get that reveal next week. 

Truth

“X of Swords: Chapter 12”
X-Men #14
Written by Jonathan Hickman
Art by Leinil Francis Yu with Mahmud Asrar
Color art by Sunny Gho

“X of Swords: Chapter 13”
Marauders #14
Written by Gerry Duggan and Benjamin Percy
Art by Stefano Caselli
Color art by Edgar Delgado

• I was wondering how Mahmud Asrar was handling the deadline crunch of seemingly getting put on a third of last week’s Stasis special while being assigned to draw four other issues in the crossover, but now we know the answer: He only drew the framing sequences of this issue, and the majority of the issue is made up of repurposed Leinil Francis Yu pages from X-Men #12. Jonathan Hickman has made use of the old “reuse the art” trick before, but this is a particularly bold move, reframing the history of the mutants of Arakko as told to Apocalypse by Summoner from the perspective of Genesis. Whereas Summoner was trying to mislead and trap Apocalypse, Genesis is telling him the hard truth of things. It’s like hearing the same song played in a different, far more melancholy key. 

This creative decision is as artful as it probably was quite pragmatic, though it does make you wonder what the compensation deal was like for Yu in this situation.

• It’s interesting to see where Summoner and Genesis’ accounts differ and converge, with some bits of their stories perfectly aligning on particular panels. The most blatant deviations come towards the end of the story, with Genesis revealing that the demons of Amenth had bred captured mutants to create a hybrid warrior race and the demon conjuring Summoners, and that Genesis indeed killed the prior host of Annihilation and was obligated to wear the Golden Helm of Amenth and command its armies. And though she put this fate off for many years, she eventually gave in and all of Arakko succumbed to Amenth. This led to the conquest of Dryador, and onward to the next goal of taking Krakoa. The final text page of this issue is heartbreaking, spelling out the truth of Arakko: The mutants there are “prisoners in their own land,” oppressed by the Amenthi hybrids, the Summoners, and the Golden Helm. What was previously implied is now very clear – Arakko must be liberated from Amenth and the mutants loyal to Amenth. 

• Isca the Unbeaten plays an interesting role in this story – her power to never lose compels her to side with inevitable victors, which directly led to her sister Genesis being corrupted by Annihilation and Arakko falling to Amenth. She’s a narrative echo of Cylobel from Powers of X, who was bred by Nimrod to betray her fellow mutants, but the notion of people who are genetically compelled to turn against their own is an odd and potentially contentious theme for Hickman’s macro story. However, just as Cylobel turns against Nimrod, it seems very likely that Isca will side with Krakoa by the end of this story. But whereas this is a redemptive act for Cylobel, wouldn’t this just be another convenient turn of events for Isca? And besides, how exactly is surrendering one’s loyalties not a form of being beaten? 

• The “vile schools” of mutant-Amenthi hybrid warriors is another echo of a plot point from Powers of X – the breeding of chimera as a warrior class of mutants by Mister Sinister. And what’s going to be the comic in this storyline to really engage with the vile schools? Hellions, the series featuring Mister Sinister as the lead.

• There’s such a sad poetry in Apocalypse having to face this brutal survivalist ethos he’s been living with for centuries from the perspective of now having Krakoa, and seeing in Krakoa a real possibility of true mutant culture and prosperity that is entirely alien to these Arakki people who can only see a zero sum game of survival or destruction. Genesis sees only softness and weakness in Apocalypse and Krakoa, but she has lost all context for true civilization. The Arakki fight merely to conquer and survive in their miserable lives, but the people of Krakoa have something to truly treasure and protect.  Genesis is blind to the power of that motivation. 

• Marauders #14 is a welcome tonal shift from X-Men #14, reorienting the story back to the perspective of the X-Men swordbearers as they meet their counterparts from Arakko for the first time at a banquet hosted by Saturnyne. Much of the story focuses in on Storm, who carries herself with absolute confidence as she rebuffs the romantic advances of Death, and on Wolverine, who is openly contemptuous of Brian Braddock for not taking advantage of Saturnyne’s love for him to prevent the tournament. There’s also a fantastic little scene in which the Krakoan captains Magik and Gorgon look for weaknesses in their opponents and test Isca, who manages to spook even them. 

• Stefano Caselli noticeably steps up his game for this issue, and really outdoes himself in drawing the surreal banquet hall of the Starlight Citadel. He does some stellar work with body language and facial expressions through the issue, and is particularly impressive in how he conveys so many distinct personalities and interpersonal dynamics in the party scenes. He was very well cast for this sequence of the story. 

• Since starting this site I’ve paid a lot more attention to X-Men comics fandom, and doing that can be like stepping into a weird alternate universe in which everyone dislikes Wolverine and finds him boring. I can’t relate. But this issue, as with most Wolverine comics written by Benjamin Percy, makes a great case for why he’s such a widely beloved character. His brutish no-bullshit attitude is a necessary contrast with the pomp and circumstance of Saturnyne’s banquet and the absurd formality of her contest. When he stabs her on the last page it is a genuinely cathartic moment, even though it’s quite clear there’s no way he’s successful in this tactic. 

Subterfuge

“X of Swords” Chapter 6
Hellions #6
Written by Zeb Wells
Art by Carmen Carnero 
Color art by David Curiel

“X of Swords” Chapter 7
Written by Ed Brisson
Art by Rod Reis

“X of Swords” Chapter 8
Written by Gerry Duggan
Art by Phil Noto

• This set of X of Swords chapters restore some of the plot momentum that had slowed for the digressions into Wolverine and Storm solo stories last week. Thankfully the writing staff appreciates that there’s a hard limit on how many “quest for sword” plots that could be included without derailing the story entirely, and so this week we get a digression introducing a new plot thread centered on Mister Sinister and spend some time with designated swordbearers of Krakoa who already have their blades – Cypher, Magik, and Cable. 

• It was unclear what role the Hellions would play in this story, but Zeb Wells offers up a clever curveball: Mister Sinister offers the services of his Hellions to go to Otherworld and seek to sabotage the Arraki swordbearers, forcing them into forfeit and thus preventing any Krakoan from permanently dying in Saturnyne’s tournament. Exodus forces Sinister to lead the mission, largely out of his barely concealed contempt for the man. Wells plays it all as dark comedy, particularly as the vain and peevish Sinister brings his ragtag group of maniacs to Otherworld and only manages to make it through Avalon thanks to the artificial charms of Empath, who only agrees to cooperating if he’s permitted to make Greycrow his “pet.” Their mission seems doomed to fail if just by the narrative logic of the story, so this plot thread is more a question of what the result of their intervention might actually be. 

Carmen Carnero’s art on this issue is quite good, and a step up from her previous work on Miles Morales and Captain Marvel – a bit less “Marvel house style,” a bit closer to the aesthetics of Pepe Larraz and R.B. Silva. She clearly had a lot of fun drawing Sinister in particular, and does a fine job of conveying his grandiose bitchiness. 

• Ed Brisson’s final issue of New Mutants is focused entirely on the plight of Cypher, who has been drafted into the tournament despite having minimal experience or natural aptitude for combat. Cypher has mixed emotions – he’s scared that he will die, he wants to prove himself, he’s trying to figure out why Saturnyne chose him, he feels he must do it to spare any other mutant’s life. Everyone else, most especially Krakoa itself, is actively trying to get Cypher out of the tournament altogether since his presence is crucial as he is the only one who can communicate with Krakoa. Brisson acknowledges Cypher’s anxiety but emphasizes his nobility and selflessness – he’s an unambiguously good guy, and even if he’s overcompensating he’s still quite brave. 

Cypher’s foil in this story is his old friend Magik, who does her best to teach him how to fight though she has very low hopes for his potential of surviving in combat against any of the Arraki swordbearers. Cypher and Magik have a history of being played for contrast. They’re total opposites in most respects – a sweet gentle boy and a warrior sorceress raised in a literal hell – but they are both outsiders in terms of their perspective on everyone else. Magik leans into the “tough love” approach to giving him a crash course in combat techniques, but she can’t fully obscure her concern for him and fear that he will not make it. The tenderness comes through, particularly in Rod Reis’ thoughtful body language and facial expressions. 

• Exodus shows up again in New Mutants, this time to intimidate Cypher into following through with his plan to murder him on Krakoa to be resurrected later, with him stepping in as a replacement in the tournament. Krakoa and Warlock intervene, and Exodus leaves with the offer standing. It’s a good plot beat for Cypher’s story in this issue, but between this and the scene in which he forces Sinister into going to Otherworld, it’s more interesting to me as part of Exodus’ ongoing development. Exodus is essentially an unyielding zealot, but thus far he’s mostly been presented as a voice of reason in Quiet Council scenes and serves as a swing vote in a lot of situations. He’s got honor and good intentions, but he’s also ruthless and seems to have far better political instincts than most members of the Council. He’s willing to use the rules to undermine his enemies, as with Sinister, but also understands he must slowly gain favor with the other blocs. I can see him gradually become the Mitch McConnell of the Quiet Council. 

• The Cable issue shifts focus back to the S.W.O.R.D subplot from the ending of Creation, in which Cable, Cyclops, and Jean Grey discover that the crew of The Peak have been massacred. Even at the end of this issue it’s still very unclear how this plot thread connects to Saturnyne and the Tournament, though the introduction of the destructive hordes of aliens called the Vescora suggests that part of her endgame may be manipulating the X-Men into unleashing these creatures on the Arraki. (And maybe they’re from the Hothive?) That’s as good as I’ve got for speculation, but I appreciate there being this wild card element in the mix. This chapter isn’t quite as entertaining or moving as the Hellions or New Mutants chapters, but there’s some good horror and action beats in the plot and Phil Noto’s art is quite good and evocative. 

X-Book Mini-Reviews: Marauders, Cable, Wolverine, X-Men + Fantastic Four

Marauders #8-12
Written by Gerry Duggan
Art by Stefano Caselli (8, 10, 11)  and Matteo Lolli (9, 12)
Color art by Edgar Delgado

Gerry Duggan was just beginning to hit his stride where I left off with this series and with these issues he’s fully in the zone. The magic of this book is in how deftly he balances his exploration of the new Krakoa status quo and a firm grasp of characterization and character history. He does excellent work in restoring Callisto to her Claremont-era greatness as a queer punk anti-hero with a strict code of honor, and pulls off a minor miracle in reinventing Jason Aaron’s absolutely horrible kid Hellfire Club as a legitimate threat under the name Verendi. I love the way he writes the fraught character dynamics of his central cast of Storm, Emma Frost, and Kate Pryde with all the nuance of years of publishing without requiring a reader to have actually read any of those comics. And bless him, he’s even doing his best to acknowledge years of Kate being written as a bisexual woman, though it doesn’t seem as though he’s allowed to state this in the text.

These issues keep up a strong Claremontian momentum even with a significant break in the publishing schedule as a result of the pandemic, though the issue in which Kate is finally resurrected is oddly anticlimactic given how much the question of whether or not she even could be resurrected is positioned as a major plot point. But Kate’s actual return in issue #12 makes up for this bum note – Duggan and Matto Lolli present her with a renewed swagger, and set up the next phase of the plot so enticingly that it actually feels disappointing we have to move away from this story for three issues to get through X of Swords. 

Cable #1-4
Written by Gerry Duggan
Art by Phil Noto

Whereas Duggan’s Marauders is centered on political intrigue and the nuanced relationship of its trio of leading women, his Cable solo book is positioned as more of a light-hearted wish fulfillment story for boys. Duggan is working with the teenage version of Cable established by Ed Brisson in Extermination – a young man who’s killed the older version of himself we’ve known for decades for the crime of not being good enough at his job. On a macro level, Duggan’s story is about this boy gradually and inevitably becoming the old man, but in these issues it’s mostly just presenting Cable as an adventurer and establishing his five-way romance with the entire Stepford Cuckoos hive-mind. This is clever – the Cuckoos are established as clone/daughters of Emma Frost, and Cable is the time-lost child of Cyclops and a clone of Jean Grey, so it’s a play on their dynamic while also just depicting Cable as this ultra-stud. (We also see that Armor has a crush on him – mutant ladies sure love a Summers man.) 

Phil Noto’s art is typically fantastic in these issues, with his usual flair for clean design, vivid colors, and expressive faces. He’s very well-suited to Duggan’s writing style, adept at both action scenes and conveying his humor. He does a particularly good job in giving the five Cuckoos distinct expressions and body language, and in playing off the odd dynamic of the teen Cable meeting Deadpool for the first time while Deadpool was friends with his older self for many years. 

Wolverine #1-5
Written by Benjamin Percy
Art by Adam Kubert (1-3) and Viktor Bogdanovic (1, 4, 5)
Color art by Frank Martin (1-3) and Matthew Wilson (1, 4, 5)

In all my years of reading X-Men comics I have rarely regularly followed a Wolverine solo title, largely because those series seem rather inconsequential and I prefer the character as part of a team dynamic. It’s like how I love cinnamon in an apple pie, but wouldn’t really want to eat cinnamon by itself straight out of the spice rack. Benjamin Percy, however, is a guy who just wants as much Wolverine as he can get and is obviously having the time of his life as the primary author of the character in both his solo series and X-Force. Percy has a firm grasp on exactly what makes Wolverine work and is fluent in the particular cadences of his dialogue, and his enthusiasm for the character is infectious, so much so that the two narrative arcs in this run of five issues are only so-so in plot terms but are nevertheless very enjoyable just for all the great character moments. 

I’m particularly fond of Wolverine’s interactions with Magneto, a man who has caused him great agony over the years that he’s now forced to answer to as one of the leaders of Krakoa. Percy is very interested in the nuances of how these old men who are very set in their ways adapt to an entirely new status quo – they are both going about it in good faith, but there’s only so much of the past you can ignore while working for a better future. 

This mix of “same old” and “totally new” seems to be the narrative crux of this series, and that extends to the art as well, as classic Wolverine artist Adam Kubert is trading off arcs with relative newcomer Viktor Bogdanovic. Kubert’s art is solid as ever, though his tendency towards unusual page layouts is kicked into high gear with these issues. He’s very good at drawing Krakoan landscapes and biotech, and it’s apparent he’s excited by the challenge of working with Pepe Larraz and R.B. Silva’s designs. Bogdanovic’s art is extremely similar to that of Batman artist Greg Capullo, to the point where you could just pretend it’s actually Capullo drawing the book. This is fine, though I’d like to see him evolve more into his own style as he clearly has the raw skills down. 

X-Men + Fantastic Four #1-4
Written by Chip Zdarsky
Art by Terry Dodson and Rachel Dodson
Color art by Laura Martin

Chip Zdarsky is a writer that leads with humor and delight, but always grounds his stories in compelling dramatic questions. To some extent that’s the job of a superhero comic writer, but it’s not tremendously common for people to actually achieve that balance, particularly when Marvel comics that lean humorous are nearly always full of unfunny soy jokes with no narrative stakes. This miniseries, in which the X-Men and Fantastic Four clash over the question of whether or not Reed and Sue Richards’ omega-level mutant son Franklin belongs on Krakoa, presents as a high-stakes story, even if the actual resolution of the Franklin question feels like a shruggy compromise. But even if the ending feels a bit inconsequential, the philosophical clashes are handled thoughtfully and Zdarsky’s handle on the personalities and voices of all the core characters is impressive. Terry and Rachel Dodson, no strangers to either the X-Men or Fantastic Four, do typically excellent work in their ultra-clean and dynamic style. The ending of the story hints at a further conflict between Reed Richards and Charles Xavier down the line, but even without that thread this miniseries leaves me with the feeling that I’d be happy to get more X-Men and/or Fantastic Four comics written by Zdarsky in the future.

The Red Coronation

“I’m On A Boat” / “The Red Coronation” / “The Bishop In Black” / 
“The Red Bishop” / “A Time to Sow” / “A Time to Reap” / “From Emma, With Love”
Marauders #1-7
Written by Gerry Duggan
Art by Matteo Lolli, Lucas Wernick, Michele Bandini, and Stefano Caselli
Color art by Federico Blee with Erick Arciniega and Edgar Delgado

Marauders is a peculiar series, both the most radical of the new Dawn of X series in concept and the most traditional in its storytelling. Gerry Duggan is enthusiastically exploring the possibilities of the new ideas Jonathan Hickman introduced in House of X/Powers of X – the issues of trade and diplomacy that come from both Krakoan sovereignty and the miracle drugs that drive its economy, the rebranding of the Hellfire Club as the Hellfire Trading Company, the quirks of Krakoan gates, the utility of the resurrection protocols – and is doing it, in of all things, a pirate comic. I was initially wary of the clean, direct “house style” art and emphasis on humor and action/adventure, but seven issues into the series it’s clear to me that Duggan is playing to his strengths as a writer while taking Hickman’s concepts very seriously. 

This is an ensemble series, but the star is clearly Kitty Pryde. Pryde, who now wishes to be called Kate rather than Kitty, is mysteriously unable to pass through the Krakoan gates and can only get to the living island by boat. In the first issue Emma Frost, the White Queen of the Hellfire Club, offers Pryde a seat on the Quiet Council of Krakoa in exchange for becoming the Red Queen of the Hellfire Club and heading up both the distribution of Krakoan drugs and missions to rescue mutants around the world who cannot find a way to Krakoa. Pryde is accompanied by her close friends Iceman and Storm, the mutant cop Bishop, and the newly resurrected and reformed villain Pyro. Sebastian Shaw, the Black King of the Hellfire Club, is the book’s primary antagonist and is actively scheming against Frost and Pryde. 

Each lead character in Marauders gets some fun moments, but it’s pretty obvious that Duggan is invested in Pryde above all else, and is doing what he can to push the character forward after a few decades of stagnation. The usual problem with the depiction of Pryde is that she’s often written in an overtly nostalgic way by authors who grew up in the early 80s, and that she’s frequently presented as a moralist scold. The latter bit doesn’t have to be a bad thing – it is a legitimate personality flaw that’s been with her since the beginning and it can be genuinely interesting – but Duggan seems rather pointed in steering clear of all that and emphasizing the ways she’s become willing to make ethical compromises. Duggan’s Kate Pryde comes across as a young woman who is so sick of her usual goody-goody patterns that she’s becoming reckless in search of a new identity – she’s more ruthlessly violent, drinking heavily, getting tattoos, and leaning hard into the whole pirate aesthetic. She also seems very depressed and lonely, and I trust Duggan to dig deeper into that as he goes along. 

It doesn’t always work, particularly in the first few issues. There’s a text page in the debut issue in which Wolverine sends a message to Kate asking for a list of goods, foods, and beverages to bring to Krakoa that is both wildly unfunny and nonsensical given that he’s a person who can freely teleport anywhere he wants, and she’s a person who is stuck taking long boat rides everywhere. Duggan fumbles some early story beats by delivering things we’ve already accepted as the high concept of the series, such as Pryde becoming the Red Queen, as big issue-ending reveals. Storm, a Quiet Council member and second to only Cyclops in the chain of command of the X-Men, doesn’t quite make sense as a subordinate supporting character in this series despite her close relationship with Pryde and only seems to be in the book because Duggan called dibs on her very early. 

Duggan’s greatest strength in writing Marauders is that while the circumstances of the story are exploring new ground, the relationships and motives of the characters are firmly rooted in continuity without getting bogged down in rehashing old stories. Frost and Pryde, introduced in the same issue back in the Claremont/Byrne era, have a long and complicated history together, and Duggan pushes them into a new phase of mutual respect and collaboration after too often being written as petty rivals who cruelly condescend to one another. Storm and Iceman are two of Pryde’s closest friends in the X-Men, but are also two people who’ve had very painful histories with Emma Frost. When Callisto is reintroduced in the seventh issue, Duggan gracefully acknowledges her contentious relationship with Storm, her past with the Morlocks, and her brief career as a model. I particularly like when Callisto shows a grudging respect for Pryde taking the name of the Marauders, the kill crew who slaughtered the Morlocks and nearly ended Pryde’s life in the “Mutant Massacre.”

Marauders has been illustrated by four different artists in the span of seven issues, and while they’ve all been somewhat bland and functional, they’ve all matched up stylistically so the series at least has a consistent visual aesthetic. It feels somewhat churlish to complain about the strong draftsmanship of Matteo Lolli, Lucas Wernick, Michele Bandini, and Stefano Caselli, but I do wish they had a bit more flair. They’re not exactly miscast for the tone or subject matter of the book, and Lolli is particularly good at drawing some of Duggan’s most imaginative action sequences, but it looks like it could be any mid-list Marvel book as opposed to what is effectively one of the flagships of the newly ascendant X-Men franchise. I just wish it looked more fresh. 

All told, I’m glad I held off in writing about this series because it’s been better with each passing issue, with Duggan deepening his characterization and steadily heightening the stakes. He’s even managed to make Jason Aaron’s Hellfire Kids characters from his dreadfully goofy Wolverine and the X-Men run a worthwhile set of antagonists in this, which is borderline miraculous. (That said, why does he take these awful little kids more seriously than Donald Pierce, a character who was presented as one of the more unhinged and terrifying villains of Chris Claremont’s original run?) But despite minor quibbles, I feel like Duggan is headed in the right direction and am grateful for his efforts in evolving Kate Pryde as a character.