Previously On X-Men: The Outliers Become The New Mutants In A Twisty-Turny ‘Uncanny X-Men’ #26

It’s a double Uncanny X-Men week, with both issues playing around in the past, while an annoying Wolverine baddie (hopefully) meets his end, and more!

Moonstar #2

By Ashley Allen & Edoardo Audino

Dani & Kian must reluctantly work together to stop Kyron.

• The Demon Bear is the mystical bear-like creature which haunted Dani after it seemingly killed her parents. As mentioned here, it was eventually revealed that the Demon Bear WAS her parents (that they were transformed into it, not killed by it) and was later linked to Forge’s archenemy the Adversary.

As evidenced by the dearth of annotations, there’s not a lot going on in this issue. It’s all competently done – Audino in particular turns in some nice sequences, and Allen balances the will they/won’t they tension between Dani and Kino well. But there’s not much going on beneath the surface – no cutaways to other plotlines, no shifts in perspective, no hints towards any additional complications or twists – which is really my only concern about Allen’s writing at this point.

Psylocke: Ninja #4

By Tim Seeley & Nico Leon

Psylocke battles Elektra while trying to rescue Jubilee.

• Everything involving Jubilee revealing Patch’s identity to Aardwolf and his reaction to that news is fantastic. I am pro anything that points out the hilarity of Wolverine wearing an eyepatch and it somehow being a sufficient disguise (including when Claremont himself did it back in the day).

As setup last issue, this folds Elektra back into the mix, bringing along with her all the questions about what she’s doing in this Psylocke-focused miniseries – if anything, seems more like a distraction from the things Seeley could be exploring with Psylocke in this period of her history, especially when the non-Elektra material (the X-Men hallucinations, everything with Jubilee) is the best material in the issue.

Uncanny X-Men #26 – Book of the Week

By Gail Simone & Luciano Vecchio

• The conversation between Rogue and Gambit involving adopting the Outliers is effectively an extension of similar conversations they had about parenthood in Mr. and Mrs. X and the Krakoa Era Excalibur.
• Gambit still seems to be feeling the impacts of the Left Eye of Agamotto (or at least the T’ieves Guild members think he is), so that’s presumably not resolved.
• MacKenize showing up out of the blue after ghosting Nightcrawler since their aborted date in issue #22 at the same time as the Outliers start having nightmares sure seems suspicious.
• Nightcrawler is apparently a briefs guy.
• Ransom dreams about his kidnapping as a child, established in issue #3 and revisited in #20.
• Before her nightmare, Jitter is dreaming about (and has memorabilia related to) Brute Force, a four issue miniseries about cyborg animals Marvel released in 1990. It seems to be presented here as in-universe fictional story (Jitter is dreaming about a theme song related to a Brute Force cartoon), but Brute Force was canonized in Deadpool Bi-annual #1 and established as part of the Weapon Plus project in Wolverine & Captain America: Weapon Plus.
• It turns out Deathdreams given real name – Hotoru – is actually the mispronunciation of his name (“Hotaru”) by his baby brother, who died. He also has a poster and stuffy from the Otter Party movie referenced in issue #17.
• Calico is sleeping with the plushy given to her by Chelsea St. Marcus in issue #6.
• After their nightmares, each of the Outliers finds themselves sucked into the events of Marvel Graphic Novel #4, the first appearance of the New Mutants (it’s listed on Marvel Unlimited as “The New Mutants Graphic Novel”); in each case, actual dialogue and scene construction is recreated from that issue, prompting the credit to Chris Claremont & Bob McLeod (who did the original grapahic novel) in the credits.
• Jitter takes the place of Wolfsbane (who was also found by Moira MacTaggert).
• Ransom, appropriately enough, subs in for his cousin, Sunspot. The players of the other team in the football match are wearing uniforms that call to mind the original Hellions.
• Calico is in the Cannonball role.
• Deathdream is captured by Hellfire mercenaries (wearing the red uniforms of future Reavers Cole, Macon and Reese, suggesting it may be them as in the original story); he also seems to be recreating a Sunspot sequence from the original story.
• He is being asked about Perimeter, which is the name of the AI in Graymalkin Prison.
• Mutina showing up without an origin sequence presumably slots her into the Karma role (whose origin was told in her first appearance in Marvel Team-Up #100, and thus similarly didn’t get an intro in the graphic novel).
• This means, for whatever reason, that no one is doubling Dani Moonstar.
• Seemingly random X-Men appear in each of the modified scenes (Cyclops at the football game, Wolverine and Beast enroute to Calico, and Nightcrawler rescuing Deathdream) even though, at the time of the original New Mutants story, the X-Men were fighting the Brood in deep space and considered dead by Xavier (and Beast wasn’t amongst them; he was with the Avengers at the time). That, plus the expanded role of Moira (who was in the original story, but less involved than she is here), especially given all the Krakoa Era retcons involving here, suggests there is more to this than the Outliers reliving past events.

First of all, the art in this issue is gorgeous. Vecchio’s figures are great, and he’s doing a lot of fun stuff with layouts in the dream sequences. I almost prefer him to David Marquez at this point. Secondly, Simone has mentioned that she’s going to be dipping into more classic X-Men stuff in response to criticism that her run has been lacking that; this sure seems like an effort in that direction, and it works well specifically because she’s not just dropping the Outliers into past events, but warping those events around them in some way such that they’re both impressively faithful to and wildly different from Marvel Graphic Novel #4.

Uncanny X-Men Annual #1

By Gail Simone, Mikki Kendall & Francesco Mortarino

The Regulators team up with Wolverine in the wake of Henrietta’s arrival at Haven House.

• I would love to know what metrics, if any, Marvel has to suggest that releasing this the same week as a regular issue of Uncanny X-Men would make for better sales than releasing it in its “own” week, essentially adding an extra “Uncanny” week to the schedule (apparently, it slipped from its initial release date, but seems like they could have held it another week).
• The cover is an homage to the cover of the first issue of this volume of Uncanny X-Men.
• Co-writer Mikki Kendall is a Black essayist who wrote the book Hood Feminism.
• The present day framing sequence is essentially another “Wolverine is saved by someone in the distant past, is paying it forward in the present” story (not unlike the recent “Wolverine was a mobster” story in Wolverine).
• The Regulators (a term used in the story but not directly adopted by the characters, one with some meaning inside the real world history of the Old West) all appeared previously in the flashback sequences to Uncanny X-Men #15-16, during the “Dark Artery” story.
• This also establishes that Wolverine was present at Haven House during those events, which is how he knew Henrietta in the “Dark Artery” present day.
• It seems weird that Mother Witchfire is both a healer and has prophetic visions; I wonder if the later is meant to be unrelated to her mutant powers.

I’d like this more without the framing sequence that effectively makes it another “Wolverine makes amends in the present for events in the past” story, but it’s plenty fine as is. Mortarino’s art isn’t on the level of Vecchio (or Marquez) but gets the job done, and this little slice of new mutant history is one of Simone’s best contributions to the mythos.

Wolverine #18

By Saladin Ahmed & Martín Cóccolo

Wolverine battles an Adamantine-possessed Hercules.

• Turns out the Adamantine has killed Romulus by ripping him in half. Hopefully, it sticks.
• Hercules is, of course, a Greek god and longtime (if occasional) Avenger. A handful of Exiles stories set in an alternate universe in the 2010s featured versions of Wolverine and Hercules who were married, which can give this confrontation a little extra oomph if you’d like. Also, Hercules’ mace has long been described as being made of “adamantine” so its fits as a vehicle for the Adamantine to possess him.
• Cóccolo is back on art, and it seems clear he got saved for the big action issue, which has really been his strong suit on the book (though it seems odd that Wolverine seems able to hold his own against Herc strength-wise).
• The art also continues to be confused as to whether or not the New Morlocks are meant to be passing as human or not. Most of them are drawn like they can, but Wolverine’s narration keeps talking about how they can’t blend in.
• Hercules’ half-sister Athena turns up at the end. I believe her last appearance was in Mortal Thor #8 on Asgard, which should mean she’s unable to leave Asgard (similar to Doctor Strange currently). Curious to see if Ahmed addresses this next issue (I suspect he will not).

A pretty straightforward action issue, but hey, I like Hercules, and Romulus is dead (for now, at least) so I’m not gonna complain about that.

X-Men Infinity Comic #12

By Steve Orlando & Minkyu Jung

Apocalypse completes the creation of the Durasphinx.

• Rachel Summers, as Mother Askani, is viewing events through history, presumably using her chrono-skimming powers (which is technically her mutant power, with the telepathy/telekinesis coming from her connection to the Phoenix Force).
• Ozymandias is a former priest of Rama-Tut (AKA Kang the Conqueror) whom Apocalypse enslaved when he chased Rama-Tut out of Egypt in the Rise of Apocalypse miniseries. His flesh has been transformed into stone and he’s been imbued with the knowledge of future events.
• The Eye is a catalog of history created by Kang the Conqueror and acquired by Apocalypse when he rose up against Kang while Kang was living as the pharaoh Rama-Tut in ancient Egypt.
• Apparently the answer to the riddle is not “evolution” (or some version thereof).
• Clan Akkaba is a secret society of Apocalypse followers and descendants.
• The presence of Mother Askani as a kind of omniscient narrator in this issue makes me wonder if we’re heading towards her being responsible for assembling the team of X-Men we saw last issue by plucking them from various points in time.

Given this is entirely self-contained and set in the past, serving essentially as the origin of the Durisphinx, it doesn’t have the same continuity issues as the previous issues. I do like the twist that the answer to the riddle isn’t the obvious one, and that even Apocalypse gets it wrong.