Previously On X-Men: ‘Uncanny X-Men’ #17 Is Here To Break The X-Cosplay World

In the present, this week’s X-books feature a trio of titles launching new storylines, while in the past, Chris Claremont is up to his old tricks.

Laura Kinney: Wolverine #8 by Erica Schultz and Giada Belviso

Haymaker returns as Laura confronts the threat of MGH.

• Haymaker is a character from the X-23: Deadly Regenesis retro mini from 2023, setting during Laura’s time working as an assassin (it was also written by Schultz). An MMA fighter who took MGH to get revenge on Laura for killing their criminal brother before realizing they were on the wrong side of things.
• Though never outright stated, Haymaker is presumably a transmasculine non-binary person, based on their use of they/them pronouns here and throughout Deadly Regenesis as well as top surgery scars visible in that series.
• They’re is apparently dating Polly, the mutant from issue #1 who setup a mutant refuge in Dubai. She’s in New York doing the same, but it’s not clear how she and Haymaker crossed paths.
• Emery and Ivan, the mutant siblings from issue #1, are on hand for the opening of the refuge; they discuss seeing Murder Me Mutina, the movie with a mutant as the villain that is at the center of this week’s Uncanny X-Men.
• MGH or “mutant growth hormone”, is a drug that uses mutant DNA to temporarily gives regular people powers. Psylocke’s solo series opened with her busting up an attempt to sell mutant children to be harvested for MGH creation.
• When setting out to track down the MGH dealers, Laura dons her original X-Force costume from the Utopia era, saying sometimes she needs to do things more stealthily.
• Laura’s sister Gabby aka Scout aka Honey Badger pops up at the end of the issue (along with her pet wolverine Jonathan), her first “real” appearance after being in the dream reality created by Tommy in the previous arc. One half of her face has somehow been disfigured (though it appears normal looking when she and Laura make a cameo appearance in Uncanny discussing Murder Me Mutina).

Yeah, Gabby! With all due respect to Haymaker, that’s the return in this issue to get excited about. In part because it hopefully represents a chance for this series to do something more specific to the title character than fight some generic drug dealers.

Magik #7 by Ashley Allen and Germán Peralta – Book of the Week

Illyana busts into the headquarters of the Society of the Eternal Dawn in search of Cal.

• Having offered himself up as a seal to contain Liminal, Cal is now completely possessed by him; at this point, it’s basically Liminal in Cal’s body, something Illyana is none too pleased about.
• Dani lets Illyana into the headquarters of the Society on the grounds that they couldn’t really keep her out, and generally stands up for her. But Dani’s devotion to the Society still seems oddly-intense.
• Illyana is now carrying both her own Soulsword and the Wraithsword from last issue.
• We see that the Society’s headquarters is a tower out in the Badlands (though it’s quite conspicuous; presumably it’s magically protected against detection). The Society also has access to the “Library of Fates” which contain prophecies, allowing them to act proactively, though Illyana tells them that didn’t allow them to stop the fall of Krakoa, Limbo’s invasion of Earth (either “Inferno” or “Dark Web” or both) or the events of “Blood Hunt.”
• More on the Society: their leader is the Embodiment (she says she formed the society, but also references actions taken before she was put in charge), and her top lieutenants are the Exemplar of Weaponry (the one with the “two sticks”), the Exemplar of Prophecy (the male one) and the Exemplar of Recruitment (the one with the smiley face mask).

• Illyana suggests bringing in Doctor Strange to help, but it’s said that he’s not in the realm — presumably a reference to the Doctor Strange of Asgard series. No mention is made of Doctor Doom, the current Sorcerer Supreme/ruler of the world.

Allen reveals more info about the Society of the Eternal Dawn in an exposition-heavy issue that still manages to keep its title character at its center.

Uncanny X-Men #17 by Gail Simone and Luciano Vecchio

A new horror movie with a mutant named Mutina as its villain has the X-Men — and the Outliers — concerned.

• This is the debut of Luciano Vecchio as the book’s “second” regular penciler, spelling David Marquez given the series’ 18-issues-a-year cadence. The whole thing looks absolutely gorgeous.
• The opening pages of this issue involve the disparate groups of X-characters (the two X-Men teams, Kitty Pryde, Laura Kinney) discussing the imminent release of Murder Me, Mutina and musing on how its going to be bad for mutants. Not only is this a refreshing example in the “From the Ashes” era of the characters talking directly with each other instead of sniping during crossovers, but they all do it via telephone, an astonishing turn given how badly the X-Men were at using the phone during the Claremont/Byrne “World Tour” arc where they thought Phoenix and Beast were dead and Phoenix, Beast and Professor X thought they were dead.
• It’s not quite clear WHY everyone is so concerned; having a mutant be a horror villain may not be great for human/mutant relations but it’s not like people hate janitors or camp counselors because of the Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th movies.
• Jubilee mentions that the X-Men need a PR person; they did hire Kate Kildare to that end back during the Utopia era.
• After the comic’s credits, we get a “talking heads” segment featuring a mix of Marvel characters (Blade, Elsa Bloodstone, Magik) and real life people (Black Phone short story and screenplay co-writers Joe Hill (son of Stephen King) and C. Robert Cargill, Wynona Earp TV writer Emily Andras and novelist Nancy Collins) discussing the movie.
• The Outliers sneak out to see the movie but don’t like it. Calico in particular gets freaked out and wonders if mutants are monsters, continuing her backslide regarding her feelings towards mutant begun in the previous issue.
• The Outliers get accosted by some bullies and use their powers to fight back; given what we see of the movie itself involves the evil Mutina killing someone who bullied her, this parallel sequence of events seems like its trying to say something, but unless Simone is trying to equate the Outliers with Mutina, I’m not sure what.
• The reformed cyborg Sentinel dog is named Waffles. Adorbs.
• The boy who offers to help Jitter clear anti-mutant graffiti off her locker is Tommy Edwards, who was the bully in issue #6.
• Ultimately, it turns out that Mutina is superpowered in some way and hates mutants, though its not terribly clear what her deal is. Her real name (at least based on the movie poster at the beginning of the issue) is Leticia Leech.
• Simone has said on social media that she wants to do more with Nightcrawler and Jubilee; Nightcrawler is still mostly just here, but Jubilee does get a key moment in the fight with Mutina, which is nice to see.

• That said, her overall look ensures the character will soon be the darling of the cosplay scene.

Everything looks really good; the jury is still out on Mutina as a new threat and character.

Wolverine and Kitty Pryde #4 by Chris Claremont and Damian Couceiro

Kitty and Ziggy Trask fight to save their souls from the rogue Sentinel AI Domina.

• It’s still not entirely clear (at least to me) what the hell Domina is or where she/it came from (other than…Sentinel energy?) but this issue — despite once again being essentially one big fight — moves things along briskly, given Domina control over Kitty and Ziggy’s bodies before their souls reclaim them, but whoopsie, they swapped bodies! Which is, of course, one of Claremont’s favorite tropes. (Ed. Note: Domina is a name Claremont used previously for the leader of the Neo. No relation.)
• Ziggy also goes through a remarkably fast face-turn in the course of the issue, starting out in typical “argh, down with mutants!” fashion at the start before being embraced by Kitty as a sister by the end.

• It’s helped along by the reveal that Ziggy is established as only being 14, making her more of peer to Kitty.
• The back-to-back issue-long fights underscores one of the limitations of these modern retro continuity series: because they’re set in the past and designed as finite stories, there’s really no reason/way to ever cut away from the main action to develop subplots. It sticks out more here, given that scattering narrative seeds, tending to them, and then harvesting them months or even years after they started was always one of Claremont’s strengths as a writer.
• The cliffhanger leading into the final issue pivots away from Domina back to the fantasy elements of the story (with the snowy ancient Japan tableau that exists in Mariko’s bedroom), and it’ll be interesting to see if and how Claremont reconciles both the Domina and the Snow Samurai conflicts in one issue.

Quibbles — and somewhat repetitious action — aside, I continue to enjoy this more than I probably should. That said, Claremont’s got a lot of story to land — Domina, the Kitty/Ziggy body swap, the ancient Japan stuff, and packing everything up to deliver Kitty and Wolverine to where “regular” continuity picks them up — and not much runway left to land it.