Previously On X-Men: ‘Deadpool April Pool’s Day’ #1 Is A Pleasant Surprise

We welcome a series back into the mix, plus a Very Special April’s Fools Day issue of Deadpool, and more, in this week’s Previously on X-Men!

Deadpool: April Pool’s Day #1 – Book of the Week

By Gail Simone, CF Villa, Robert Gill, & Ig Guara

Deadpool tries to save the “Genre-verse”, but struggles to get anyone to believe him on account of it being April Fool’s Day.

• Deadpool saying that Lockjaw is not actually a dog is reference to John Byrne’s retcon in Thing #3 that Lockjaw is actually a fully-intelligent Inhuman mutated by the Terrigen Mists to look like a dog, which was later re-retconned by Peter David in X-Factor #71, when Quicksilver revealed that was all a prank Karnak and Gorgon played on Thing. It’s a clever offhand reference that ties into this isssue’s use of pranks.
• Being a Gail Simone-penned Deadpool story, Outlaw makes an appearance.
• Starr the Slayer is a little-used proto-Conan created by Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor Smith (the original team on Marvel’s Conan series) before Marvel acquired the rights to Conan.
• Wally is the young apprentice of “Marlin” the Magician and the main character of Marvel’s Star Comics series Wally the Wizard.
• Wally also references Planet Terry, another geared-towards-a-younger-audience Star Comic, albeit one with a sci-fi bent.
• Buzz Baxter aka Mad Dog is the one-time husband of Patsy Walker aka the Avenger Hellcat. Both Patsy and Buzz were characters in pre-Fantastic Four #1 romance comics published by Marvel who were later brought into the Marvel Universe.
• Sgt. Storm appears to be a new character, an homage to Nick Fury’s days as Sgt. Fury of the Howling Commandoes and a stand-in for War comics.

Grading on the curve of Deadpool stories, this is actually kind of fun. The concept of saving other comic book genres is perhaps too cute (it would work better in an era where it didn’t also feel like superhero comics as a form were dying, too) but I have to tip my cap to references/cameos like Wally the Wizard and Starr the Slayer, and the gag of no one believing Deadpool because it’s A. Deadpool and B. April Fool’s Day is a better use of the “holiday” than just having Deadpool pranking people. Similarly smart – and nicely subtle – is the use of the Thing – a character involved in various semi-famous pranks through the years – as the one person willing to believe Deadpool.

Logan: Black, White & Blood #4

By Ethan Sacks, Garry Brown, Giuseppe Camuncoli, Phillip Kennedy Johnson & Piotr Kowalski.

Wolverine battles a vampire in the 1910s and Mystique in Japan, then gets discovered by an alien race far in Earth’s future.

• The reveal in the second story that the Wolverine the story has been following is actually Mystique masquerading as Wolverine is well done.
• That said, the story seems to break the convention of the series that it features stories from before Wolverine becomes Wolverine (ie “Logan”) as has his adamantium skeleton (he references his adamantium skull at one point).
• The last story break the convention as well, of course, but is more forgivable given its the last story and takes place so far in the future.
• This is the final issue of the series.

The Wolverine/Mystique story has the best art of the three, but the final one is my favorite (even though its more of a vignette/anecdote than a proper story), the kind of outside-the-box thing I wish these anthology series did more often instead of just telling routine ones. That said, I don’t think any of the stories from this four issue miniseries are going to linger in my memory.

X-Men #28

By Jed MacKay & Netho Diaz

• The cover shows Psylocke and Greycrow in action, which sure seems like something that will be happening in the next issue, based on the conclusion of this one (it certainly doesn’t happen here).
• I like that Magneto correctly clocks the attack on Glob as an attempt to provoke the X-Men.
• The referenced attack on Idie before she joined the X-Men was depicted in Uncanny X-Men #528 (which is also her first appearance).
• Idie, Quentin and Glob were indeed all students at the Jean Grey School together in the two volumes of the post-Schism Wolverine and the X-Men.
• The dynamic here where Quentin is the more outwardly-aggressive one while Idie is the one more willing to take drastic action is well done, and speaks well to Idie’s development.
• I don’t love how last issue ended with the X-Men on the living ship rallying and basically saying, “now that we’ve got out bearings, we’ve got this” only to have everyone but Beast dispatched pretty easily in this issue – even if the idea of putting Beast in a position to save the day in parallel to the Chairman is a clever way to keep that story simmering while the focus is on something different.

This seems like the classic “villains gloat” issue, where it appears they’ve won the day only for the tide to turn in the next issue, signaled by final page – with Psylocke turning up alive akin to the famous “now it’s MY turn!” shot of Wolverine emerging from the sewer ahead of X-Men #133 during “Dark Phoenix Saga.” Which is good, because following their spotlight last issue, this one doesn’t add much to the Danger Room group, so the sooner we turn the tide and move on, the better.

X-Men Infinity Comic #11

By Steve Orlando & Minkyu Jung

The X-Men are confronted by the Durisphinx, who poses them a riddle they must answer, or die!

• This kicks off a new arc of the X-Men Infinity comic, with the initial Omega Red story having concluded in issue #10. I’m putting it back into the “Previously on X-Men” rotation because, according to Orlando in a recent AiPT interview, these Infinity comics are meant to be happening in-continuity (albeit in various, changing, past eras), not in their own little corner of continuity or in the animated series continuity.
• That seems like a dubious idea, and the start of this next arc does little to dissuade me of that notion, given it starts in an all-mutant town named Skull Mesa, which first appeared in a series four episode of the animated series (“Secret, Not Long Buried”) and has never appeared in the comics. Dani Moonstar is the sheriff of the town, with Blink as her second command, and I can’t wrap my head around a way to reconcile that in any era.
• Similarly, the X-Men team which is called into action is composed of Cyclops, Jean Grey, Wolverine, Storm and Beast. Cyclops, Jean and Beast are wearing their mid 60s “Graduation” costumes (so Jean as the green minidress, Beast the red-and-blue and with skullcap), Wolverine is in his post-“Dark Phoenix” orange-and-tan suit, and Storm is wearing her Giant-Size X-Men era two-piece suit. Orlando does also say in that AiPT interview that he’s following the established Krakoa Era tradition of the X-Men rotating through different looks, so, after putting aside the fact that idea only came about during the Krakoa Era and wasn’t something the characters did BEFORE that, we can’t necessarily use the costumes as a signifier of the era. That said, Beast here is in non-furry form, and I can’t think of any time in X-Men history in which these five characters in these forms (regardless of which costume they’re wearing) would be on a team of X-Men together.
• There’s a character in the background of the panel just before the Durisphinx appears who might be the animated version of Mole.
• The Durisphinx is a new character.
• I do appreciate that Jean suggests they could just answer the Durisphinx’ riddle before Wolverine cuts her off and attacks.
• Pretty sure the answer to the riddle is either “time” or (given the book) “evolution.”

Look, I would absolutely read a book where Dani Moonstar and Blink are the sheriffs of an all-mutant town, and I’m a sucker for a good “cosmic riddle” plotline, but I simply see no way to fit this story into any previous era of X-Men storytelling.