Previously On X-Men: ‘Cyclops’ #3 Outpaces The Pack

It’s another solo-heavy week of X-books, in which Cyclops once again sets a standard none of the other solo books manages to meet.

Cyclops #3 – Book of the Week

By Alex Paknadel & Rogê Antônio

Cyclops and Mei reach Cyclop’s quinjet only to find the Reavers waiting.

• Kitty Pryde has a similar “can’t breathe while she’s phasing” limitation as the young mutant who dies in this issue/
• Like Mei, I too have questions about the mechanics of Krakoa.
• The psychic defense Cyclops teaches Mei is the Red Triangle Protocol, first introduced by Al Ewing in US Avengers #6 and used to notable effect in Hellfire Gala 2023 (the one when Orchis launched their attack and it was used to keep some of the X-Men from being forced off Earth by Xavier).
• Recontextualizing it here as a way to defend your mind from your own fear and self-doubt is fun and very Claremontian.
• Cyclops blowing away the mountain was pretty great. Nice job from Antônio on that sequence.
• “You’re thinking of the one with the claws” immediately enters the conversation for top Cyclops moments of all time.

This continues to be a fairly straightforward story — Cyclops has to survive after being stripped of his resources – but the little details on the margins — like Mei being too late for Krakoa or freaking out about killing someone, or the squabbling amongst the Reavers that gives Blitz Temp just a touch of relatability (we all have that one coworker…) or the way Cyclops is just done with adhering to the superhero conventions everyone expects him to still be following – elevate it into something special.

Rogue #4

By Erica Schultz & Jim Towe

Rogue remembers what she did to John Stelton as a member of the Brotherhood.

• The whole subplot in this issue with Rogue grappling with media attention of mutants and winning over a reporter is odd, given that the mayor of New Orleans is currently building a Disneyland-esque tourist attraction built on the fame of the X-Men – specifically, the group which Rogue currently leads. Feels like a tacked on bit to stretch the series, and another example of these books existing less under a cohesive editorial aegis and more just each doing their own thing.
• Putting aside the fact that the big reveal – Rogue absorbed Sabretooth’s powers and psyche, which led to savagely main Stelton – is pretty much exactly what you would have expected, and the fact that it doesn’t really explain why Mystique wouldn’t just tell her this at the start of the series, it also seems weird that she figures out via meditation. Like, okay, but why not just do that from the start? How did anything in the preceding three issues impact the means by which she learned the truth here?
• In terms of the meditation, Rogue namechecks Psylocke, Rachel Summers, and Emma Frost as having taught her the technique.
• Given her invulnerability returns this issue, I’m not sure the image of Stelton waiting for Rogue with a shotgun is the ominous cliffhanger Schultz thinks it is.

This is starting to feel really stretched out – the whole bit with the reporter is utterly tacked on, like Schultz just needed to fill out another issue. The big secret being the most obvious thing in the world also begs the question of what the point of this even is; Rogue atoning for her villainous past has been done, and this just adds an extra layer of removal to her culpability.

Wade Wilson: Deadpool #3

By Benjamin Percy & Geoff Shaw

Deadpool is captured by Hammerhead, who wants to his prophetic messages for his own gain.

• I’m still not quite vibing with Shaw’s art (it has a loose, unfinished quality to it I don’t love), but the panel of Deadpool getting his brains blown out is pretty great.

• I’m *pretty* sure all the mercs on the plane are new characters. At the very least, I didn’t immediately recognize any of them.
• The old “threaten someone the invulnerable character cares about as leverage” trope is a classic, but it works particularly well here since it adds just a touch of much needed humanity to Deadpool.

I wish this had slightly more polished art, and as we get closer to the reveal of what happened to Ellie, I’m really hoping it’s more than just a standard fridging, but otherwise, I’m continuing to enjoy this more than most Deadpool stories.

Wolverine #19

By Saladin Ahmed & Martín Cóccolo

Wolverine and Hercules team-up against the Adamantine.

• This issue does not offer any explanation as to how Athena could be appearing on Earth despite events in Mortal Thor blocking anyone in Asgard (where she was last seen) from coming to Earth. Nor is it explained why she’s intervening against the Adamantine now, versus when it manifested on Earth back in issue #1 (maybe targeting her family, in Hercules, made her aware of it?).
• Wolverine more or less gets chased out of New Morlock town on the grounds that his fight with Hercules wrecked shit, though no one mentions the mutant who could fix things from issue #16.
• I do appreciate that Athena tells Hercules he’ll be useless against the Adamantine, he says she’s just being a Negative Nelly and goes along anyway, then…is useless against the Adamantine.
• Wolverine seems to be trying the same move with the Adamantine he did with Romulus in issue #9 though in that case, he stabbed Romulus in the (unarmored) mouth, whereas now, the Adamantine is just animated armor with nothing inside it.
• So this is the issue where Wolverine’s claws get broken, something that’s been teased in the solicits for a few months. While this is the first time his adamantium claws have been broken, he had his bone claws (from the time when he’d had the adamantium stripped from his bones by Magneto) broken by Cyber previously, in Wolverine #79 (they eventually grew back; presumably, we’ll eventually see little bone stubs growing out of the remnants of his broken claws here).

I still really don’t get what the Adamantine’s whole deal is, and all the Athena exposition in this issue did nothing to clarify it.

X-Men Infinity Comic #14

By Steve Orlando & Phillip Sevy

The Durisphinx battles X-Force.

• The Underground Mutant Theater is from the 1984 Beauty and the Beast miniseries, and I continue to struggle with the notion that Orlando can make a deepcut reference like that yet still whiff on so many timeline things.
• To wit, the Durisphinx dialogue on the opening pages seems to suggest that the events of the previous issues did indeed involve the X-Men of the past, except there’s simply no way to square the circle of Graduation uniform Beast and the All New, All Different X-Men – to say nothing of the Dani Moonstar of it all.
• And even if we’re meant to ignore the costumes and that encounter didn’t involve the X-Men of the past, here Cannonball says he recognizes the Durisphinx from Dani’s description of him, which absolutely makes no sense in the context of New Mutants history and its transition into X-Force.
• Unless the idea is supposed to be that the X-Force characters here are all present day and just dressing like they did back when they were a team, but it’s not like this particular group of characters is routinely seen hanging out together (and that assumes we ignore the current status quo of X-Force in Inglorious X-Force).
• Factor Three are the villains of one of the first multi-part X-Men sagas, in X-Men #37-39 (with a number of mentions before that). They are composed of Vanisher, Blob, Mastermind, Unus the Untouchable, the Changeling, and Mutant Master (actually an alien who wants to conquer the world)
• Mutant Force is the name of a collection of mutants first assembled by Magneto in a Jack Kirby-penned Captain America annual, then later led by Mandrill. Peepers is arguably their most famous member.
• If X-Force is meant to be from the early issues of their series, then Warpath shouldn’t have his knives; they were given to him in the 00s.
• All else aside, Sevy’s art is appealing. His Cannonball face in particular is a lot of fun.

The original X-Force lineup is a fun group (in retrospect, at least) that actually didn’t last very long in the comics (basically like nine issues once it fully formed) so it’s nice to see them again – assuming you can turn off your brain as to the where and when of it all.