Previously On X-Men: ‘X-Manhunt Omega’ #1 Leads This Week’s X-Books…Somewhere!

In this week’s “Previously On X-Men“, the hunt for Charles Xavier ends in X-Manhunt Omega #1 as the rest of the X-books move into the post-“X-Manhunt” era with the pleasantly lowkey Uncanny X-Men #12, Rogue: Savage Land #3, another installment of the continuity insert series, a Winter Soldier team-up in Laura Kinney: Wolverine #4, and more Deadpool & Wolverine shenanigans in Weapon X-Men #2!

X-Manhunt Omega #1 by Murewa Ayodele, Gail Simone, Gleb Melnikov, Federica Mancin & Enid Balam

The hunt for Xavier concludes with a Kaiju fight, a panic attack, some light disemboweling, and another exile in space.

• The opening pages of this issue, set after the last crossover but before this one, seems like an attempt to retroactively provide “From the Ashes” with a narrative spine, the idea being that all the disparate series are each examples of mutants trying to find a new dream in the wake of the Krakoan dream’s demise, which on paper seems fine but doesn’t really fit X-Factor (government sponsored) or X-Force (Forge has very specific motivations), for example. It also would have been nice to have this scene come earlier in the “From the Ashes” era.
• Cyclops has gone full assimilationist, arguing that Xavier needs to stay locked up essentially to placate humanity, a far cry from the “Cyclops Was Right” Cyclops of the 2010s and the “Did You Honestly Think We Were Going to Sit Around Forever and Just Take It?” Cyclops of House of X #1. If the idea is that the trauma Cyclops experienced during “Fall of X” has led him to this point, that needs to be made clearer.
• Storm has a giant battle mech now, I guess.
• Illyana says she always has a longer sword. Not sure if that’s meant to be a joke about the differing artistic interpretations of her Soulsword or not, but Illyana just has the one sword.
• The recently-resurrected Lilandra is apparently a brain surgeon now, and removes the tumor that was causing Xavier’s powers to go nuts.
• Later, Xavier says post-surgery that, “I haven’t been myself for a long time” and “for the first time in an age, I feel clarity”, both of which feel like groundwork-laying to excuse some of Xavier’s more questionable actions (which really go back to the Silver Age, but which the current editorial office probably just thinks of as “Krakoa”), which wouldn’t really work anyway unless this tumor has been replicated across all Xavier’s various cloned bodies/unconventional healings through the years.
• Big robot and giant demon fight good.

• While the Xavier’s Secret oneshot/Infinity comic does indeed establish that the people Xavier killed on the Agnew during Fall of the House of X #4 were clones(ish) created by him, it’s still not terribly clear if they were just empty meat puppets Xavier was constantly animating from afar, or something more akin to “typical” clones. The closer they were to the latter, the more what Xavier did was still murder (as plenty of X-Men can attest, clones are people, too).
• Also, this is the first time *Cyclops* is learning about the ruse, and the comic provides no reaction to that news, how it might impact his assimilationist views, whether it changes his perspective on Xavier being locked up, or if we agrees with the hair-splitting Xavier is doing to exonerate himself.
• When Xavier leaves Earth, Cyclops has a panic attack that escalates into a full on optic blast explosion, leading Wolverine to have to stab him in the gut to calm him down. Presumably this is an homage to previous times Wolverine has done this (like New X-Men, X-Men: The Last Stand or Uncanny X-Men #207), but in those cases, Wolverine was the only person present capable of doing what he did. Here, the invulnerable Rogue could have easily absorbed Cyclops power, Quentin Quire could have telepathically put him to sleep, Nightcrawler or Gambit (via the Eye of Agamotto, which he uses to bring the Uncanny team to the fight) could have teleported him away, etc.
• It’s all moot because ten hours later Xavier comes back to Earth to say goodbye and Cyclops is fine (his costume isn’t even torn), despite the lack of any superpowered healers being present, and that’s not how stabbing works.
• This marks the third time Professor X has been written out of the X-Men by having him go off into space with Lilandra, following X-Men #114 (when he believed the X-Men were dead) and Uncanny X-Men #200 (when he was dying and asked Magneto to take over for him).
• Unlike the last time, Magneto shares no words with Xavier this time, despite being there for the goodbye and having been fairly close with Xavier during the whole Krakoa Era.
• Forge is there too, presumably leaving mid-battle per X-Force #9 to be there.
• Included amongst the “people being sad Xavier is leaving Earth” montage are Bronze and Melee from Exceptional X-Men, despite the fact that the whole point of Exceptional X-Men’s tie-in to this crossover was about how the kids didn’t know or care about Xavier.
• Mystique is also in that montage, showing no signs of her injured state from the end of her recent miniseries, while Thunderbird is wearing his Krakoa Era costume rather than the more traditional look he sports in Weapon X-Men.
• Per a text page, Professor X will return in Imperial, the recently-announced, Jonathan Hickman-penned miniseries intended to shakeup Marvel’s “cosmic” setting.
• Xandra, Xavier and Lilandra’s daughter who’s kidnapping kicked off this whole story, does not appear in the crossover outside of that first issue.

A suitably messy end for a messy crossover, which deeply mischaracterizes several key characters (Assimilationist Cyclops, everyone who is super sad about Xavier leaving) and never makes it clear what we’re supposed to care about in it/the crossover: Xavier going free? Xavier being punished? The tumor? His kidnapped daughter?

That it all ends up just being in service to the setup of another miniseries is both disappointing and extremely apt.

Uncanny X-Men #12 by Gail Simone & Gavin Guidry

Gambit deals with a figure from his past, the Vig, as Rogue continues to grapple with the responsibilities of training the Outliers.

• Webster’s Dictiondary defines a vig as, “a charge taken (as by a bookie or a gambling house) on bets” and “interest paid to a moneylender.”
• The Vig is a new character, yet another shady villain inserted into Gambit’s past. A vaguely Solomon Grundy-like figure (with a wider vocabulary), the Vig helped Gambit fend off some bullies as a kid and in the present comes to collect his reward (or vig) in the form of one of the Outliers (Gambit’s choice). Gambit responds by whomping the Vig and declaring that, since he’s learned the Vig setup the bullies to attack him in the first place all those years ago, he owes him nothing.

• The “Jean-Luc” Lil’ Gambit references in the flashback is Jean-Luc LaBeau, his adoptive father. Tante Mattie, whom Lil’Gambit says first told him about Haven House, is a shaman-like figure who served both the Thieves and Assassins Guilds. Both she and Jean-Luc first appearance in Gambit’s first miniseries back in 1993.
• In X-Men Forever, Chris Claremont’s alt reality “what if I kept writing X-Men instead of leaving with issue #3?” series, Gambit’s real name is Remy Picard.
• Rogue is still angsting over having ordered Gambit to knock Jitter down during their training session last issue. However, Jitter and the rest of the Outliers have responded by becoming even more motivated to train, with Deathdream asking Ransom to teach him some hand-to-hand combat stuff, suggesting Rogue might need to chill the eff out.
• MacKenzie Deneer, the woman whose daughter Nightcrawler rescued in issue #6 and then brought Nightcrawler a bunch of cakes at Haven House to thank him, shows up on the final page, telling the mayor of New Orleans they need to do something about the mutants. It’s presented very much as a “mutants are bad and we need to do something about them” kind of thing, but MacKenzie was very pro-mutant (or at least pro-Nightcrawler) last we saw her.

I’m not sure Gambit’s past needed ANOTHER mysterious shady figure in it (especially not Dapper Killer Croc), but on the whole, this largely done-in-one issue is one of the better issues of the series to date — or at least one of the least aggravating ones. As per usual (regardless of the artist), the art remains a standout.

Rogue: Savage Land #3 by Tim Seely & Zulema Scotto Lavina

Tensions between Ka-Zar and Magneto simmer over as Zaladane’s incursion into the Savage Land deepens.

• Most of the tension between Ka-Zar and Magneto stems from Magneto’s actions way back in X-Men #62-63, when he created the Savage Land Mutates (that was also the first story to show Magneto without his helmet). Magneto basically apologizes (after resisting it), and that seems to bury the hatchet, setting them up to work together as seen in Uncanny X-Men #274-275.
• In a deeply cringe scene, the powerless Rogue tries to get Ka-Zar to make out with her. It represents a deep misunderstanding of Rogue’s character and her relationship with physical intimacy for the sake of a cheap laugh.

• Rogue, Ka-Zar and Magneto meet with a tribe of Man-Apes, descendants of proto-humans who are some of the earliest residents of the Savage Land.
• The various zombie animals the heroes have encountered (which are being risen by Zaladane) are attributed to the power of Sheesa the Witch Woman, a member of the Lizard People who fought Ka-Zar with a zombie army back in his 1970s series. She is in turn resurrected in this issue, before Rogue gets her trampled by a hoard of zombie dinosaurs.
• Rogue gets the dinosaurs to follow her on the grounds that they’re bothered by life force and try to stamp it out, and she has more life force than most because of all the memories she’s absorbed through the years, which seems like…shaky logic.

This series continues to be a mixed bag, with some awkward characterization and “too-cute” dialogue, but the further away from Jim Lee references they get, the better Lavina’s art is. And “fights zombie dinosaurs” is a tough premise not to have SOME fun with.

Laura Kinney: Wolverine #4 by Erica Schultz & Giada Belviso

Wolverine teams up with the former Winter Soldier for a road trip west in order to locate a Hydra scientist.

• Writer Erica Schultz continues the pleasant trend of teaming Laura up with characters from the wider Marvel Universe in this book.
• Bucky Barnes aka Bucky aka the Winter Soldier is currently using the name “The Revolution”, which he adopted in Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty (vol. 2) #6, during current NYX writers Colin Kelly & Jackson Lanzing‘s Cap run.
• As of Thunderbolts (vol. 3) #9, his cybernetic arm contains a hidden blade, which is deployed in this issue.
• Henrik Schneider, the Hydra scientist Bucky is after, is new as of this issue, as far as I can tell.
• The bulk of this issue is a confrontation between Laura, Bucky and a group of anti-mutant (and one mutant) bystanders and a gas station. It is, in its way, pleasantly lowkey for being the centerpiece of the issue, but the magnitude of the anti-mutant sentiment seems pitched a bit higher than we usually see, even in this post-Krakoa era.

• If the reason Bucky emphatically doesn’t want to stop in Indiana is something already established in another story, I don’t know what it is. (Ed. Note: Me neither, but comics Bucky is a Hoosier, so it might be a “can never go home again” thing.)
• It’s legit hilarious that Henrik waits til Laura and Bucky suit-up to attack them in the lead-up to the issue’s concluding cliffhanger.

I’m still wrapping my head around the art in this series — the action sequences are well-executed, while the figures often end up with grotesquely long limbs to a distracting degree. But the old school vibes of the book — clear mission statement for the title character, short little multi-part stories, superhero team-ups — make it consistently entertaining.

— Austin

Weapon X-Men by Joe Casey & Chriscross

Cable’s new team (which is barely a team) is immediately put to the test as Deadpool betrays them all and turns Wolverine over to Baron Strucker. What does Strucker plan to do with Logan? Clone him into a Wolverine of Mass Destruction!

• Wolverine’s history with Hydra is typically with Madame Hydra/Viper, AKA Logan’s ex-wife.
• Most notably, Baron Wolfgang Von Strucker was the head of Hydra and main antagonist of Wolverine: Enemy of the State, in which Hydra and the Hand brainwashed Logan into a killing machine.
• Thunderbird officially joined the X-Men in Giant-Size X-Men #1. Cable joined in Uncanny X-Men #381. Chamber joined in Uncanny X-Men #395. None of their original tenures overlapped, but Cable and Thunderbird co-starred in X-Men Red v2 and had an antagonistic relationship the whole time.
• Though hiding a Blackbird just outside of Latveria wasn’t ever shown on page as far as I can tell, Cable saying that Cyclops hid it doing one of his more militant phases implies it was likely hidden around the same time as All-New X-Men V1.
• Life Model Decoys first appeared in Strange Tales #135 in May of 1965. As far as I can tell, this is the first time Strucker has used them (they’re usually a SHIELD thing), but the guy has a long history.
• Crashing the Blackbird has a long long X-Men history. I couldn’t even begin to get into it.
• Wade not truly betraying someone for money but instead setting up a double cross is a pleasant subversion of the mercenary trope.

This issue was significantly better than the debut. The art was cleaner, the storytelling was stronger. Really, my biggest complaint was that Chamber was written as a cockney stereotype, which no one really has before.

-Tony Thornley

Deadpool Vs. Wolverine: Slash ‘Em Up by Christos Gage & Alan Robinson

So instead of going point by point I’m just going to give a single paragraph review here. This was a good comic. This shows how good a writer Chris Gage is when he’s just unleashed to do his own thing. The time period is a bit undefined but implied to be in the past but not too far in the past, which does release the story a bit from continuity. Robinson and color artist Carlos Lopez just have a blast with the toys Gage gives them. And this is the one case I’ve seen when the lettering stands out, but in good ways that really enhance the story.

This is a Looney Tunes style crazy beat-em-up where Logan and Deadpool first compete for a MacGuffin, then team up to get through a bunch of insane traps and foes to get it, then compete for it again. It’s fun, it’s funny, and I actually enjoyed it a ton.

-Tony

For more X-Men-adjacent content, check out Scott Redmond’s review of Ultimate Wolverine #3!