Previously On X-Men: Boom-Boom Shines In The Spotlight Of ‘Inglorious X-Force’ #3

It’s a rough week for the continuity-minded, as both the current retro miniseries make some notable flubs. Thankfully, Inglorious X-Force continues to cook, and a few other series turn in solid outings.

Generation X-23 #2

By Jody Houser & Jacopo Camagni

Laura and Gabby meet the Generated.

• The brief flashback of Laura being held at gunpoint by Zelda, Bellona and Gabby is from All-New Wolverine #2 (Gabby’s first appearance).
• Introducing a bunch of characters only by a numerical designation (and just two digit ones at that) is a bit overwhelming. For the record, the Generated are:
  • X-66: bird girl with telepathic powers
  • X-73: metal kid who explodes at the end of the issue
  • X-74: girl with white hair and energy powers
  • X-92: Nightcrawler-esque kid who only appears briefly, is said to be shy.
  • X-99: The Husk-like shapeshifter who seems to get the most page time.
  • X-Infinite: the prickly de facto leader.
• The word isn’t used here, but the way the Generated appear to feature a variety of superpowers and are said to be created from multiple mutants’ DNA effectively makes them Chimeras, which were a big deal in the Krakoa Era, particularly in its future-set stories.
• Sadly, artist Jacopo Camagni passed away on March 1st; I believe next issue will feature the last of his work on this book.

On the one hand, not much happens this issue — it’s literally just a bunch of introductions and exposition. On the other hand, Houser uses the lack of plot to spend time defining the new characters, something which is especially important given their lack of distinctive names. On the other other hand, do we really need another book with another cast of brand new characters? Will this book last longer than NYX or Laura Kinney: Wolverine for us to find out if any of them have any sticking power? I guess time will tell.

Inglorious X-Force #3 – Book of the Week

by Tim Seeley & Michael Sta. Maria

X-Force is drawn into conflict with Dirk Anger and HATE.

• Boom-Boom being from Roanoke, VA was established back in her original Marvel Handbook profile in the ’89 Update series.
• That’s Maxine Danger who Archangel is meeting with at the beginning of the issue, the same person attacking the Alaskan X-Men over in X-Men. And while that’s fine — the character is an established CEO and Archangel is trying to hack her files — it seems weird to not reference it at all. It nothing else, an editorial footnote could theoretically lead to some cross title sales. Seems like the sort of thing an overall editor should be managing.
• Web-Head is a character introduced in the Spider-Man Infinity comics; this is her first appearance in a print comic.
• Nextwave is a mid-2000s series originally presented as an out-of-continuity story but, as these things go, eventually got canonized. The official idea is that the original masters of the Beyond Corportation abducted the members of Nextwave, altered their memories and personalities, and dropped them into an alternate reality where the events of that series took place.
• Dirk Anger was the Nick Fury (get it?) stand-in leading Nextwave.
• The “Broccolis” he mentions were the Beyond Corporation’s henchmen in Nextwave (not the aliens on the planet Dark Phoenix destroyed).
• I’m pretty sure all the UWMDS are new characters/creatures, though one is a reference to Spider-Man villain Fancy Dan.
• Archangel’s death seed is from Uncanny X-Force, though as of Uncanny X-Force #18, it was meant to have been removed. Archangel seems surprised by what it does here, so maybe Seeley is going to explore this more next issue in his spotlight.
• I guess Akihiro isn’t dating Aurora anymore, given he’s now sleeping with Boom-Boom.

I don’t know if it’s just the presence of Nextwave elements, but this issue has the darker, more absurdist tone that I think Mark Russell was going for in his X-Factor series, and it works much better here — at least for an issue (I am definitely not a “Nextwave should be in-continuity” partisan). The pacing continues to be a highlight here as well; we’re two of three suspects down and Domino’s involvement has progressed. We all know that nearly every series these days lives and dies by five issue arcs; it’s nice to a writer structuring their story accordingly.

Psylocke: Ninja #3

By Tim Seeley & Nico Leon

An un-brainwashed Psylocke tries to settle into her new circumstances, just as Elektra returns.

• Between last issue and this one, the events of Uncanny X-Men #256-#258 have happened, which means Psylocke is now free of the Hand’s brainwashing and hanging out with Wolverine and Jubilee in Madripoor.
• Curiously, Wolverine talks about trying to send Psylocke back to the X-Men, which she resists on the grounds that she forced them all through the Siege Perilous (in Uncanny X-Men #251), so they probably aren’t happy with her. Except, there are no X-Men to send her to, precisely because she sent them all into the Siege Perilous. Uncanny X-Men #256-258 is smack dab in the middle of the book’s “non-team” era in which there isn’t a core group of X-Men, with the series instead following various character combos and plot threads, including Forge & Banshee looking for the X-Men, the adventures of the post-Siege Outback X-Men, and the adventures of the Wolverine/Psylocke/Jubilee trio. There won’t be a proper team of X-Men again until after “X-Tinction Agenda.”
• Similarly, when Wolverine leaves Psylocke and Jubilee for his own adventure in his Patch identity, a footnote cites Wolverine #26. While Wolverine was often sneaking off for his own adventures in his solo series during this time, Wolverine #26 is a fairly random done-in-on story and chronologically speaking, is considered to come at the end of a trio of solo issues (#24-26) which all takes place well after Uncanny X-Men #258 – as well as Uncanny X-Men #262 and #268, other Wolverine-led issues of Uncanny X-Men.
• Both Captain Tai and Tyger Tiger are recurring Madripoorian characters from Wolverine’s solo series.
• “McBurgers” is Marvel’s in-universe McDonald’s stand-in.
• Psylocke references “Ladies Night” from Uncanny X-Men #244 as a rare example of interacting with Jubilee, but the two didn’t directly interact in that issue (Jubilee’s first appearance, and the issue in which she followed the female X-Men home to their Outback base). Jubilee spent most of her early appearances explicitly hiding from the X-Men until revealing herself to a grievously-injured Wolverine in Uncanny X-Men #251, at which point the other X-Men (including Psylocke) were already gone (through the Siege Perilous).
• Psylocke directly addresses the dysphoria caused by being in a new body, something the original ’80s stories featuring her never really addressed.
• Jubilee does indeed have a history of hiding and moving through various tunnels and vents, both at malls and in the X-Men’s base.
• Her use of a flip phone works in the context of this story being set in the past of a “present” that is meant to be 2026, but makes me feel old. There’s a lot of that going around this week.
• Aardworlf is, believe it or not, an existing character from Madripoor with two prior appearances under his belt: his first appearance in the third appearance of the Night Thrasher miniseries in 1993, and the fourth issue of that series.
• Lord Daito, leader of Snakeroot is from the Daredevil storyline that saw the return of Elektra back in the 90s.

There is definitely room for a story that addresses the dysphoria surrounding the fusion of Psylocke and Kwannon, though properly doing so requires more attention than its brief acknowledgement here (as well as the on-the-nose exchange with the Symbolically Important British Tourist), and I’m not sure Seeley is the best writer to try and tackle it, given that awful “Age of Revelation” Illyana Infinity story. Especially now that we’re back to this being an Elektra continuity implant series as well as a Psylocke one.

Rogue #3

By Erica Schultz & Luigi Zagaria

Rogue confronts Constrictor.

• A footnote points us to She-Hulk #9 as an explanation of where Constrictor’s money came from. That would be She-Hulk vol. 1, the mid ’00s series by Dan Slott, in which Constrictor sued Hercules and won a bunch of money. There are a lot of things that happened to Constrictor between then and this issue, notably when he lost most of that money back to Hercules in Thing (vol. 2) #8 and when he, you know, died, something that we’re apparently still meant to believe he faked based on Gambit’s comment last issue.
• Also, Constrictor references being a member of the Serpent Society; he never was, explicitly refusing membership (his son, however, was a member).
• In the flashback, Sabretooth quotes the lyrics to Carly Simon‘s “You’re So Vain.”
• Zagaria depicts Rogue’s use of Mystique’s shapeshifting power via the sort of “rippling feathers” look used in the movies.

Continuity issues with Constrictor aside (seriously, what are the editors doing?), this is a fairly straightforward “Rogue fights Constrictor” issue, which gets a little added juice from the fact that she isn’t her usual powerhouse self. Nothing terribly exciting, but in its straightforwardness, an improvement over last issue.

Uncanny X-Men #25

By Gail Simone, David Marquez, Luciano Vecchio & David Messina

The X-Men and Outliers defeat Agatha Timly, master of the Legion of Monsters.

• This is the 25th issue of the series (and the 725th based on the dubious math that led to the Krakoa Era concluding with Uncanny X-Men #700), so it gets an extra five pages.
• The master of the Legion of Monsters is revealed to be not Agatha Harkness but Agatha Timly, a deeply obscure character who first appeared (and died in) a Werewolf by Night story in Marvel Spotlight #3 from 1971. In that story, she is alternately referred to as “Agatha” and “Andrea;” a mid ’00s Marvel Handbook established her full name is “Andrea Agatha Timly” in classic “Robert Bruce Banner” manner.
• Agatha says the Darkhold “lives through” her; presumably she means a copy of it, as the actual Darkhold is currently fused with Scarlet Witch
• Marcus’ story Western story concludes in a way that offers no explanation for the obvious parallels between the story he’s telling and the events earlier in the story between the X-Men and the monsters. I guess it was all just a coincidence.
• For what it’s worth, Marcus knows about Chelsea’s powers in this issue — something she was keeping from him earlier.
• Rogue briefly considering turning Agatha over to Graymalkin — the anti-mutant prison currently pressganging fellow X-Men into service — is bonkers. It’s bonkers that none of the X-Teams have bothered to shut it down, let alone continue to consider working with it.
• The second story is an inoffensive Outliers’ tale with some nice art. It would be more novel if they weren’t also the effective leads of the series at this point.
• Jitter mentions reading about a French detective; this could be Hercule Poirot (who is technically Belgian, a detail I can easily imagine Jitter and/or Simone getting wrong) or C. Auguste Dupin.

This concludes the “Where Monsters Dwell” arc with a bit of thud. I was enjoying both the Outliers’ Western tale and the “X-Men fight monsters” stuff, but the failure to tie them together in anyway feels like a big whiff, the X-Men’s victory mostly happens off-panel, and the impetus for the whole thing in the first place — the X-Men confronting Gambit about his turn towards monsterism — gets handwaved away in a manner that effectively leaves the status quo ante in place (Gambit still has the Eye, but will fight harder the monstrous urges it generates) at no real cost or development, all of which begs the question of what the point of any of this is.

Wolverine: Weapons of Armageddon #2

By Chip Zdarsky & Luca Maresca

Nuke closes in on Wolverine.

• I know that Nuke and Wolverine having a past together inside the Weapon Plus project is well-established, but I think the flashback scene here of Wolverine bringing in a pre-Nuke Frank Simpson specifically is new (ie I don’t think we’ve seen it as presented here, beat-for-beat, before).
• I don’t really appreciate this issue reminding me 9/11 was “a long time ago.” What is time?

Other than this being written by Zdarsky and the cover branding, it’s still not clear how this ties into/sets up the Armageddon event. Instead, it’s a mostly straightforward Wolverine story, and while it’s hardly groundbreaking, I’m enjoying this in that context more than what’s happening in the contemporaneous Wolverine book.