Previously on X-Men: Something Akin to Business As Usual in ‘X-Men’ #14, ‘Psylocke’ #6 & ‘Hellverine’ #5

In the wake of “X-Manhunt”, a pair of series kick off new stories, while in Hellverine the first arc comes to an end and Akihiro’s new life comes to a crossroads.

X-Men #14 by Jed MacKay and Ryan Stegman

When Piper Cobb goes missing, the X-Men get drawn into an attack by the mysterious 3K.

• After a few issues again, regular series artist Ryan Stegman returns this issue, and brings the overarching plot involving Cassandra Nova and the mysterious “3K” organization with him.
• Piper Cobb’s earlier encounter with the X-Men occurred in issue #6-7 of this issue, where she was determined to not be a mutant. Here, it’s revealed that while Piper is not, she apparently consumed a mutant twin in utero, who is now taking control of her body and wants to use the crashed Acanti ship from issue #12 to make their own body.
• Much of that sounds suspiciously like what happened with Cassandra Nova and Professor X (he also tried to kill her in the womb), which isn’t likely a coincidence.
• Beast pops up briefly to explain how Jen Starkey’s power works, referencing the way she switches between “taxonomic kingdoms”. Between that and the Taxonomist, the main villain of the first arc of Psylocke’s solo series, it makes one wonder if the X-office has a word of the day calendar and “taxonomy” was one of the words recently.
• Similar to the Hellfire Club, 3K seems to have titles for this members (and a comically-large table); Cassandra Nova is “the Zealot.”

• “The Means” turns out to be Wyre, a relatively minor character from Simon Furman’s Alpha Flight run (towards the end of that title’s first volume). There, he was an assassin given powers by the Secret Empire and had a connection to Wild Child’s backstory. He eventually turned on them and became a semi-ally of Alpha Flight.
• Here, he talks about being a better mutant killer than the Legacy Virus (the disease at the center of the 90s era AIDS-allegory plotline), which is why 3K made him a member; that isn’t really consistent with his (relatively minimal) backstory.
• Wyre is a deep enough cut, character-wise, that it seems kind of funny to give him a full page reveal.
• Cassandra Nova correctly claims no one has more mutant blood on her hands than her, a reference to the decimation of Genosha she triggered in New X-Men #114.

A strong issue, as the return of Stegman and the 3K plot kicks the book into the next gear.

Psylocke #6 by Alyssa Wong, Vincenzo Carratu & Moises Hidalgo

A haunted Psylocke enlists the aid of Magik and Deathdream to combat her ghosts.

• Following up on a plot thread from X-Men #4, this issue features Psylocke and Magik battling Orifice, one of the new “social media savvy” Upstarts.
• Their battle is set in Minneapolis, Minnesota; as a native Minnesotan living in suburban Minneapolis, I can say that the backgrounds seem to be mostly generic; nothing jumps out as specifically-Minneapolis.
• Tension existing with Rogue’s Uncanny X-Men team is mentioned, which has broadly been true for most of “From the Ashes”, but it sure seemed like the conclusion of “X-Manhunt” was meant to represent a cooling of those tensions. Maybe this story is meant to take place before that crossover, and closer to “Raid on Graymalkin?”
• Psylocke is being haunted by visions of her (deceased) daughter Himeko, introduced in the Krakoan Era Fallen Angels book, and later used by Mister Sinister to ensure Psylocke’s obedience in Hellions.
• Carratu & Hidalgo turn in some fantastic facial expressions during the cafeteria sequence between Psylocke & Magik.

• Magik takes Psylocke to see Deathdream, one of the Outliers from Uncanny X-Men, to help with her “ghost” problem. Psylocke thinks he’s a weird kid, though rightly acknowledges she has little leg to stand on in that department, having been trained as a child assassin.
• Whatever the weird shadow creature attacking everyone at the end is, I have no idea.

Psylocke #6 is a good example of what a solo series can (and should ) do – pick up and further subplots and arcs from the “main” book in the service of advancing its own plotlines and characters. This could have been a Psylocke-centric story in X-Men, which helps make the series feel like part of a larger whole (while also making both books feel “bigger”) while still maintaining its own focus & identity.

— Austin Gorton

Hellverine #5 by Benjamin Percy, Raffaele Ienco, and Bryan Valenza

The water demon haunting Genosha has killed Akihiro, and now he returns to hell to confront his re-maker, Mephisto!

• Mephisto is usually the Hell lord that bonds people to demons to make them spirits of vengeance. The exceptions are Danny Ketch and Robbie Reyes.
• You might think that it’s weird that Mephisto’s X-Men are just spiky leather X-Men when the Inferno X-Men designs exist, but it makes sense that Mephisto would have different designs for HIS possessed X-Men.
• Akihiro’s visions to rally against Mephisto shows Logan’s family, Akihiro and Logan, and Akihiro and his current paramour Aurora.
• The family monet shows Gabby Kinney for the first time in the FTA era and appears to reveal that Laura is canonically 21 now (although that hairstyle may be indicating that’s Aurora not Laura).
• Logan and Akihiro teaming up isn’t anything new, but as far as I can tell Logan has never worn the X-Force costume simultaneously to AKihiro wearing the Fang costume.
• Aurora and Akihiro have been together since the end of the Krakoan X-Factor era.
• The Dr. Strange appearances have paid off as Akihiro claims Bagra-ghul as his own with magic.
• Far as I can tell though, the Hell-Hulk final page tease is a totally new character. Curious to see where that goes.

Percy has a lot of fun with this issue, and he writes Mephisto incredibly well. Ienco’s art has loosened up for the best a lot this arc, and he plays with the weirdness of the situation extremely well (especially when it comes to Mephisto). I continue to enjoy the hell out of this series (pun intended).

-Tony Thornley