Previously On X-Men: NYX #10 Concludes The Series As Another X-Book Bites The Dust

It’s a relatively light week for the X-Books, with just one regular series, along with three mini-series installments: NYX #10, Rogue: Savage Land #10, Wolverine and Kitty Pryde #1 and Weapon X-Men #3.

NYX #10 by Jackson Lanzing, Collin Kelly and Fransesco Mortarino

Another “From the Ashes” title concludes as the young mutants of NYX team-up to stop Mojo.

• Sophie points out that she doesn’t have a family in the same way as Kamala; X-Men: Phoenix — Warsong established that the Cuckoos are all clones of Emma Frost, who generally (if ironically, as Sophie asserts here) views them as her daughters to some degree.
• Kamala toys with the idea of telling her family her secret identity, but ultimately decides against it (she does tell her anti-mutant cousin Bilal, who says not to tell her family). At one point, her family did know she was Ms. Marvel, but that changed in X-Men (vol. 6) #25 (shortly after her resurrection and the revelation that she’s part mutant), when Emma Frost monkeyed with everyone’s mind and removed that info from her family’s memory.
• The mechanics of Mojo’s scheme here is a little wonky; even if we accept this series’ premise that Mojo is powered by belief (in him), the line from that to “growing a bunch of Krakoa fauna makes him a super powerful gestalt being powered by the people of New York” seems a little unclear. One wonders if this would have played out differently if the book wasn’t getting cancelled.
• The idea of defeating him by having Sophie channel mutants’ belief in their own culture is very much in this book’s wheelhouse, though.

• Though this is the final issue of this series, Laura’s own series, Laura Kinny: Wolverine continues (for now), while Lanzing and Kelly will continue the adventures of Ms. Marvel in the upcoming series of Giant-Size X-Men celebratory one-shots.
• Ms. Marvel taking a break from superheroing seems a little out of character, though that’s presumably here to setup those oneshots (when she’ll travel through the X-Men’s history and presumably get reinspired).

NYX #10 is, like X-Force #10, a rushed conclusion to the ongoing plot, but this has also never been a book where the plot matters as much as the character work, so its less egregious here. This has also been one of the consistently better “From the Ashes” series, and one of the few to truly tackle the new post-Krakoa status quo instead of just pretending Krakoa never happened or cherry-picking elements for plot purposes, and it will be missed.

Rogue: Savage Land #4 by Tim Seely & Von Randal

The war for the Savage Land escalates as Magneto confronts Zaladane and his own issues with his powers are revealed to Rogue and Ka-Zar.

• Von Randal fills in for Zulema Scotto Lavina; it’s fine, if a little overly-stylized at times, though Lavina’s style was growing on me and it’s rarely a good thing when a five issue mini needs to bring in a second artist.
• The big reveal of this issue is the fact that at least some elements of the warring Savage Land tribes (including X-Men-friendly Nereel of the Fall People) are being controlled by Worm, the Savage Land mutate who can possess people once he’s coated them in his slime.
• Both Worm and Whiteout, another of the Savage Land mutates working with Zaladane, debuted in the Savage Land story that ran in Uncanny X-Men #249-250 (which is also when Zaladane absorbed Polaris’ magnetic abilities, referenced here as well), which creates a bit of a continuity error, as Rogue says she recognizes Whiteout from having earlier absorbed Colossus’ memories (who was present for that story, while Rogue was not). Except that, Rogue wasn’t in that story because she’d already entered the Siege Perilous (in Uncanny X-Men #247), from which she emerged at the start of this miniseries, so there wouldn’t have been a chance for her to have absorbed Colossus’ memory of his encounter (unless Seely is trying to suggest that Whiteout was around, off-panel, in one of the X-Men’s earlier Savage Land adventures, which is when Colossus first encountered her).

Mostly an issue-long fight, which flirts briefly with setting up Magneto’s characterization in Uncanny X-Men #274 (which follows on from the end of this miniseries) by having Rogue call out his lack of sympathy for the different warring factions.

Wolverine and Kitty Pryde #1 by Chris Claremont and Damian Couciero

The beginning of another continuity insert miniseries, this one set after the events of Kitty Pryde and Wolverine, penned by that series’ writer, Chris Claremont.

• Whether intentional or just a quirk of modern marketing, the order of the character names in this series are flipped respective to the original.
• The original Kitty Pryde and Wolverine miniseries involved Kitty being possessed by Ogun, Wolverine’s evil former sensei, which led to her essentially becoming a ninja. This picks up immediately thereafter, with Wolverine and Yukio (and to a lesser extent, her father Carmen) working to help her control/master her newfound martial abilities.
• Kitty is, generally, written as far more petulant and child-like than Claremont wrote her in this era originally; it remans to be seen if that’s a plot point or just a quirk of the writing.
• Claremont’s Wolverine voice remains on point, however.
• Everyone is hanging out with Mariko, Wolverine’s on-again, off-again girlfriend at the time, and their foster daughter Amiko (whom Wolverine took in after her mother died in a dragon attack during Uncanny X-Men #181), in a rare bit of domesticity for Wolverine/Mariko/Amiko that Claremont never really had a chance to show back in the day.
• Claremont also references his later retcon that Kitty’s dad Carmen and Professor X were old army buddies here, even though he hadn’t yet established that on-page at the time of the original Kitty Pryde and Wolverine miniseries.
• Kill, Snare and Getaway are all new characters.
• Amiko gets protective armor (which is new), while Kitty is given a new superhero look that evokes her blue and yellow garb from the original miniseries (which eventually evolves into her classic Shadowcat look) as well as her later ninja-inspired “Fall of The House of X” look.
• Damian Couciero’s art seems to be channeling Al Milgrom‘s work from the original miniseries too much for my taste.

A perfectly fine start to the latest Claremont-penned retro series. This hooks me less than his similar efforts in Wolverine: Madripoor Knights and Deep Cut, but then, I’ve never been a huge of the original mini this is following on from.

Weapon X-Men #3 by Joe Casey and ChrisCross

The Baron Von Strucker plot turns out to be just the first — and not the only — plot of this series, as the newly-christened Weapon X-Men finish the mission and decide to stick around for more.

• Casey shows off his vintage chops by working a recap of the story into the dialogue of the opening pages, which essentially rehashes everything stated in the non-story title page.
• Baron Von Strucker wields a pair of adamantium Satan Claws, a weapon which first debuted all the way back in Strange Tales #157 in 1967.
• This issue seems to suggest that the original, 1940s-era Von Strucker body is still alive, its consciousness being fed into, first, a Strucker Life Model Decoy and then one of the adamantium Wolverine drones, which is largely inconsistent with the fact that Strucker has died and been resurrected several times in his history, so his body is hardly original at this point.
• In the end, Strucker-as-Wolverine-drone dubs himself “Weapon Exile”; what are the odds this ever gets referenced anywhere outside this series?
• Thunderbird has a bit of a freakout during battle, referencing the long time he spent dead, which Chamber later calls a “personal exorcism.” It’s at least something to help underscore the fact that it is John Proudstar, not James, in this book.

• Chamber’s presence, meanwhile, still seems to come down to “Casey likes him.”
• Cable references the Facade Virus, from the 2000s-era Cable & Deadpool series.
• At the end of the issue, Wolverine checks in with Rogue, establishing that this taking place at least somewhat contemporaneously with Uncanny X-Men (vs. Wolverine’s solo book, which is currently still set before it).
• He announces this group of characters is going to stay together as “Weapon X-Men”, which once against begs the question: why isn’t this just X-Force?

Casey writes a good (and less annoying) Deadpool and isn’t afraid to lean into the absurdist concept at the heart of the series. The art makes for good popcorn comics. Even if this lasts just a couple more issues, it’s also nice to see it try to tell more than one story in that time.