Previously On X-Men: ‘X-Men’ #20 Goes For Three And More

A solid batch this week, including the inauguration of Astonishing X-Men coverage thanks to the return of a Silver Age darling (well, darling to me). Also, Kamala Khan’s jaunt through X-Men history finally comes to an end.

Astonishing X-Men #32 by Tim Seeley & Edoardo Audino

Banshee, Husk and Skin take on Changeling.

• Changeling is an old Silver Age villain who worked for the Mutant Master as part of Factor Three (a relatively random assortment of mutants working to pit the US and the Soviets against each other so their “third factor” could rule the Earth) in one of the first sprawling multi-part stories in X-Men history.
• As Banshee details here, Changeling coerced him into super-villainy, which is how Banshee was introduced in X-Men #28.
• Changeling was the vehicle of one of the earliest X-Men retcons, revealed in X-Men #65 (right before the the book went on hiatus prior to the launch of the “All New, All Different” X-Men) to have taken the place of Professor X in order to make amends for his criminal past shortly before “Professor X” died in X-Men #42.
• From there, Changeling stayed mostly dead, though this story posits sensibly enough he was resurrected on Krakoa; less sensibly, he’s gone back to his “pro-mutant to the point of super-villainy” ways.

• One indirect way Changeling continued to exist on the fringes of the X-Men universe despite his off-panel death is serving as the ostensible inspiration for Morph, the beloved shapeshifter first introduced in “Age of Apocalypse” as the AoA version of Changeling. Thanks to the reality-hopping series Exiles, Morph had a decent run in the spotlight in the early to mid 2000s even after “Age of Apocalypse” ended, and the big reveal of this issue is that Morph — at least, a version separate from Changeling and looking like the AoA version — is back.
• Banshee has to get bested by Changeling in order to setup the last-page reveal of Morph as he steps in to save Banshee, but it’s pretty hard to believe Changeling — who is just a shapeshifter, with no established fighting abilities — got the best of him.

I’m a sucker for the oft-shaggy dog Silver Age X-Men stories, and the “Factor Three” story is one of the best of those, so I get a kick out of seeing Changeling back (even if I don’t love his apparent return to villainy). Plus, the return of Morph is an intriguing twist.

Giant-Size X-Men #2 by Jackson Lanzing, Collin Kelly & Adam Kubert

A greatest hits of X-Men team-up with Ms. Marvel to defeat Legion.

• The issue opens with Legion stealing the M-Day energy before it can hit Michael Pointer, making this the first appearance of Pointer since X-Men: Legacy #300 in 2014.

• Adam Kubert is back to bookend the series-of-one-shots, which means the art is both quite nice and filled with a number of vertical double page splashes that are nice but a pain to read digitally.
• Kamala’s Inhuman morphing abilities combing with her mutant … crystal making abilities to transform her into a Krakoan gate is both clever and kind of gross.
• The X-Men who come to help Kamala are Cyclops, Rogue, Kate Pryde, Phoenix and Wolverine. These are the characters she interacted with the most in each of the previous issues (and Wolverine).
• Concluding with Legion peacefully reunited with David Haller on Krakoa is a nice way of concluding the story while also putting Legion back in the box, so to speak.
• The image of Legion and David reuniting is lovely.
• In the end, the general idea behind Kamala’s time-travel shenanigans is that everything happened the way it did in the original stories, but the characters she interacted with in them still remember the “alternate” versions with Kamala.
• How exactly this gels with the fact that Kamala’s interactions with Rogue were with her “Age of Apocalypse” alternate (an event which, unlike “House of M”, didn’t transfer the minds/memories of the altered X-Men to their “prime” counterparts in the end) is not explained.
• Magik grumbling about being used as a taxi by Cyclops is cute.
• As predicted, the issue ends with Kamala coming out as a mutant to her family.
• The backup story stars Mystique and Destiny, and is largely setup for “Age of Revelation”. It’s notable for acknowledging Mystique’s state after her recent miniseries, something the Hellfire Vigil oneshot did not.

As expected, the payoff to all this is Kamala revealing herself as a mutant to her family. Beyond that, the efforts to integrate Kamala into X-Men history feel half-hearted given the “nothing changed but you’re still retroactively important to the X-Men” ending. I don’t *want* Kamala to have retconned all these big X-Men stories, but if she didn’t, then what was even the point? Ultimately, the problem is with the general concept of making Kamala a mutant and forcing her into the X-Men’s world in the first place (which dilutes the character significantly), which means this series is ultimately trying to justify a poor decision and, quite simply, it doesn’t.

Laura Kinney: Wolverine #9 by Erica Schultz & Giada Belviso

Laura recruits Clea, Mistress of the Mystic Arts, to help her sister Gabby.

• Great cover on this one. Not just Gabby, but the expression on Laura’s face in the background is priceless.
• This issue offers an explanation for Gabby’s absence post-Krakoa, saying she’s been off doing superhero stuff with Xarus in the wake of the X-Men: Blood Hunt – Laura Kinney The Wolverine one-shot, while letting her sister do a whole “living independently” thing, which is as good an explanation as any.
• Xarus is the son of Dracula, who was rescued from the more-evil vampires by Laura and Gabby in the aforementioned “Blood Hunt” one-shot. His history with the X-Men dates back to when he was the chief villain of the “Curse of the Mutants” storyline in 2010 (which is the story which resulted in Jubilee being a vampire for a surprisingly-long time). Apparently the “Blood Hunt” one-shot has resulted in complete face-turn for the character.
• Feels like as good a time as any to point out that I’ve never been a big fan of all the X-Men/vampire stuff, aside from the occasional “Dracula thinks Storm is hot” story.
• The villain of this story, Strega, is seemingly a new character. “Strega” is Italian for “witch”.
• In other lexical notes, an ossuary is a container or room where bones are kept.
• Zelda and Bellona are Gabby’s sisters and fellow clones of Laura. Zelda died in All-New Wolverine #5, but I believe Bellona is still around.
• Clea and Laura are on “the Avengers” together in the current New Avengers book (though the group is, functionally, more like a new Thunderbolts). At this point in that book, Laura and Clea aren’t quite as close as their relationship here would suggest.

• Doctor Strange is stuck in Asgard, as seen in Doctor Strange of Asgard.

Between Xarus and Clea, I like the way this is using the characters’ recent history to drive story, though Strega is pretty much a non-entity as a villain at this point.

Magik #8 by Ashley Allen & Matt Horak – Book of the Week

Illyana and Dani’s hunt for a MacGuffin gets complicated by the Society of the Eternal Dawn.

• Matt Horak fills in on art, and turns in some solid work that is distinctive yet still consistent with the visual aesthetic of the series. In particular, there’s a bravura action sequence involving Illyana’s stepping discs that is top-notch.

• The Scarlet Eye (the issue’s magically-enhanced drug dealers, who turn out to also be defectors from the Society) are new. Zosimos’ Quill, the MacGuffin for the issue, is also new, as are the Aendret Worms that Illyana says eats minds.
• The “other deal” with Liminal that Illyana references is from issue #3, which she struck to get out of his realm.
• Dani is able to use her mutant power to manifest someone’s fears against the Scarlet Eye by using Liminal’s fear of being trapped in his prison realm again, which is fun twist on her power I don’t think has been used before.
• Illyana and Dani seem to reconcile the tension that’s been simmering between them since issue #5 as of this issue.
• The society member who shows up at the end of is the Exemplar of Recruitment (who can create golems). She is sans the smiley face half mask she wore last issue, revealing an energy effect around her mouth.

The tension between the fact that Liminal is right about the society but still up to no good makes the issue crackle. This remains quietly one of the best books in the line.

Spider-Man & Wolverine #4 by Marc Guggenheim & Gerardo Sandoval

Spider-Man and Wolverine continue to get tossed around the globe as more about Dreadshadow’s motivations are revealed.

• Despite this series being a showcase for Kaare Andrews and it only being the 4th issue and the book’s first story, Gerardo Sandoval has to fill in for Andrews. He’s a decent enough mimic, but the difference is telling, particularly in the way he does tighter, more zoomed in panels where Andrews tends to keep things big and wide.
• More is revealed about Dreadshadow in this issue (aside from being a collection of cliches): he’s targeting Spider-Man and Wolverine because of his belief that they cause the deaths of good people.
• Dreadshadow also knows who Spider-Man is (or at least that his first name is “Peter”), but Spider-Man has no idea who is doing the whole, “rips off his mask but still has no idea who the person is” routine.

• Peter’s sister Teresa shows up at the end of the issue. Introduced in a 2014 graphic novel, Teresa’s birth was kept a secret by her and Peter’s secret agent parents and she was adopted after their deaths, eventually getting pulled into the world of espionage by Nick Fury. She is mad at Wolverine for presumably killing her parents; hopefully, this isn’t setup for another issue of “an angry Parker attacks Wolverine” after we just moved past that plot point with Peter

This issue asks the question, “what happens when a series whose entire schtick is built around being an artist showcase has to run an issue drawn by a fill-in artist?” The answer is … nothing good.

X-Men #20 by Jed MacKay & Netho Diaz

Agent Lundqvist attacks Cyclops in the wake of 3K’s proclamation at the Hellfire Vigil.

• The setup for this issue follows similar meet-ups between Cyclops and Lundqvist in issues #3 and #10, though Lundqvist is much more aggressive here.
• The reveal of 3K to the world was shown in the Hellfire Vigil one-shot; Lundqvist reveals here they followed it up with a press release/manifesto, which apparently contained information about their role in creating “new” mutants out of humans. It is what has set Lundqvist off here, as he’s (rightly) concluded the X-Men have known about this for awhile and kept it from him.

• It’s not clear how Lundqvist has figured out the X-Men are sheltering Ben Liu, but Cyclops seems genuinely surprised by his reveal of that knowledge.
• Lundqvist cites Battle Royale as a key element of his approach to mutants (basically, that he’s fine with the “regular” mutants but worries about the super-powerful ones who take the law into their own hands, which is, relatively speaking, an understandable distinction). It seems like an odd pop culture touchstone for him, the kind of thing that fits the writer more than the character.
• The background on the Marauder that Kid Omega cites here was established in Marauders #24.
• Temper and Psylocke talk about their respective romantic relationships (as well as Beast and Jen Starkey’s), in one of those downtime/interpersonal scenes that make the X-Men so fun.
• In another such scene, Ben and Glob play Horse. The evil school Glob references is is the Hellfire Academy, which he attended in Wolverine and the X-Men #20-23. The teacher in question was Taskmaster.
• Lundqvist reveals that the director of ONE is a mutant. There’s a ONE Director Talyn over in Deadpool & Wolverine, but she can’t be the director (who Lundqvist also refers to as a “he”). Any guesses?

After the long multi-part “3K X-Men” story, we’ve now received a string of mostly standalone ones, which is nice. In addition to the “quiet” scenes in this one, I appreciate how relatively measured the Cyclops/Lundqvist confrontation is — Lundqvist is no frothing anti-mutant zealot, and seemingly gets a leg up on Cyclops here.