Previously On X-Men: ‘Cyclops’ #2 Makes The Grade

It’s a relatively quiet week, at least in terms of annotations, though Cyclops continues to be a pleasant success, and I even found myself enjoying a Deadpool comic!

Cyclops #2 – Book of the Week

By Alex Paknadel & Rogê Antônio

Hampered by his lack of visor, a blind Cyclops teams up with a young mutant against the opening salvo of the Reavers.

• Cyclops uses the “resist” technique for avoiding mental control introduced during “Fall of X” when he believes Mei is trying to attack him.
• The description of Pierce who looks like someone constantly asking to see the manager is spot on.

Paknadel does two smart things here as we get a bit more info on Mei and the Reavers: making Mei a mutant who doesn’t really buy into the whole “mutant and proud” mentality and doesn’t view Krakoa as a lost gift (and thus, doesn’t venerate Cyclops) and making it clear that Pierce has cultivated his new Reavers from ignorant rubes as opposed to former mercenaries, bank robbers and/or anti-mutant zealots. Both add a necessary spin to what is otherwise a fairly straightforward Cyclops survival story, giving the whole thing a little extra juice.

Wade Wilson: Deadpool #2

By Benjamin Percy & Geoff Shaw

Deadpool acts on the guidance of someone slipping him prophetic messages.

• Tip of the hat to editor Mark Basso‘s footnotes throughout this issue, which are legitimately funny.
• Another tip of the hat to the Shaw’s bravura horizontal page that depicts Deadpool fighting his way through a subway train, with the doors/windows of the train serving as the panels.

• Deadpool’s love of pancakes is indeed an established part of his characterization.

This works a lot better than the first issue, largely because Deadpool is less maudlin (and also because the train sequence is a much better signature visual than issue #1’s “Deadpool emerging from inside a cow”). It’s also nice to see Percy juggling and intersecting multiple plotlines (Deadpool’s malaise, the prophetic messages, Hammerhead’s deal).

X-Men #27

By Jed MacKay & Netho Diaz

Maxine Danger’s “Danger Room” operatives detail their roles in the attack on the X-Men.

• This is one of those “pause the story, rewind, introduce the villains” kind of deals (not unlike, most recently, issue #24). MacKay seems to like this device – he used it several times with the Twilight Court in Avengers as well.
• All of Maxine Danger’s recruits, who comprise her Danger Room, are new characters. They are the prison releasees mentioned by Crimson Commando last issue.
• It’s also confirmed here that the attack on Greycrow last issue was part of the Danger Room’s attack plan.
• “Danger Room” seems like a dumb name for a team of villains. Like … Danger, sure, I get it, but why “room”? Even in the context of the X-Men’s Danger Room (assuming that public-ish knowledge), it doesn’t make sure.
• I like how Charlene Jackson, the sociopathic former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, refers to all the X-Men as “Codename: Psylocke” and the like, as if she’s reading off G.I. Joe-style file cards.
• Mister Fantastic, at this point somewhat famously, hypnotized a group of Skrull agents into transforming into and believing themselves to be cows in Fantastic Four #2. It doesn’t seem like Grigos and Marquez are meant to be those Skrulls, but rather, Skrulls who befelled a similar fate in the wake of the “Secret Invasion” event.

On the one hand, I appreciate MacKay introducing some new villains, especially given the way he’s done the “let’s dust off some old obscure villains” trick a few times already. I also like the idea of them being non-superpowered people who have landed some hits on the X-Men. On the other hand, I’m not convinced there’s enough there here for these characters to stick around much past this story, even with the dedicated focus here (it’s telling that the most exciting moment in it is at the very end, when Cyclops basically says, “oh, I know it looked like we were cooked, but actually we’ve got this, no biggie”), which makes this issue feel like filler.

X-Men of Apocalypse #3

By Jeph Loeb & Simone Di Meo

The X-Men of the Age of Apocalypse battle two different groups of X-Men across two different times in the Savage Land.

• It’s suggested in this issue that 616 Magneto is aware of who 616 Gambit is even though they haven’t encountered each other on page yet (that would come in X-Men (vol. 2) #1). That’s a reasonable enough assertion (certainly the least egregious bit of continuity tampering Loeb does in this issue).
• At one point AoA Forge seems to be trying to use his power — to intuitively understand how things work and invent new things to — control Wolverine through his adamantium skeleton? That makes zero sense, but also, the art doesn’t make it clear whether or not it actually works, so maybe AoA Forge is just an idiot.
• The Wolverine/Storm/Garrok portion of the issue takes place amidst X-Men #116.
• The Rogue/Magneto portion takes place after the Savage Land portions of Uncanny X-Men #274-275, after Zaladane’s defeat (and after Rogue gets her powers back) but before Rogue has left the Savage Land.
• Carol Danvers is referred to by the characters as both Captain Marvel and Ms. Marvel, which doesn’t make much sense given she didn’t adopt the “Captain Marvel” moniker until well after both of the time periods of this story.

Sure, whatever. This is basically just a pair of issue-long fights, which is fine. Except Di Meo seems to be strugging with the sequential storytelling, so it’s not even very enjoyable to look at.