Previously On X-Men: It’s Brood Trouble In The Big Easy Part 3 In ‘Uncanny X-Men’ #31

It’s another middling week, with three books that are fine, but flawed. 

Uncanny X-Men #31 – Book of the Week

By Gail Simone, Jim Towe, David Baldeón, Matthew Wilson & Clayton Cowles

The alien attack on Earth continues as a Brood nest is discovered beneath the Outliers’ school.

• “They Came From Beyond!” is presumably a reference to the 1967 sci-fi movie, “They Came from Beyond Space” which, in turn, based on a novel by Joseph Millard The Gods Hate Kansas (tough, but fair).
• Perhaps it’s because of all the talk of En Sabah Nur in X-Men ’97 right now, but the aliens being called the Nur keeps getting my attention.
• The whole “make more Wolverines” idea isn’t any more dumb now that it’s been explained (how does taping two knives to Siryn’s hands make her more powerful?), with Monet and company’s rage at the idea being on the level I would have liked to see all the X-Men show toward Graymalkin in general from the start.
• For what it’s worth, the group of Avengers being fought in the “conceptual” panel are the recently-disbanded Jed MacKay Avengers.
• Quicksilver’s dialogue seems very out of character (“That can’t be, can it?” doesn’t really sound like something the haughty, superior Quicksilver would say).
• Nightcrawler cites intergalactic diplomatic immunity thanks to the X-Men’s special relatationship with Lilandra, though her and Xavier’s daughter Xandra was in power before her cousin Ror’ak Neramani most recently took the title in Imperial War: Exile #1. Maybe Nightcrawler isn’t keep up with galactic affairs.
• I am not 100% sure what Nightcrawler did or figured out that enabled him to escape the cages the Nur placed him and MacKenzie in.
• The Brood have lost the guns they were wielding at the end of the previous issue.
• Is the Vig … dead?
• Mutina just sort of randomly shows up (she can’t possibly attend the Outliers’ school). She also somehow knows Jubilee’s background as a former mallrat (based on Mutina’s nicknames for her); I guess maybe that’s due to her vague telepathic powers?
• The Brood having a nest under the school is presumably (or fortunately) prompted by the X-Men/Ghost Rider/Brood story from X-Men (vol. 2) #8-9 and Ghost Rider (vol. 3) #26-27 and/or it’s follow-up story “Brood Trouble in the Big Easy” — “Brood Feud II.” from Ghost Rider (vol. 3) #67-68. If it doesn’t make sense that they’re be Brood underground in the famously-doesn’t-have-much-underground city of New Orleans, well, that’s a problem inherited from the original stories, at least.
• Wolverine calling the aliens “Battlefield Earth,” is a reference to the L. Rob Hubbard book/Scientology propaganda later adapted into a terrible John Travolta movie.
• This issue includes the second part of a five part Marvel Voices story celebrating Disability Pride Month. It’s not X-Men related (and I have no idea how Marvel chose which books to run in it; the first part is in Amazing Spider-Man #32), but definitely worth mentioning.

As an advancement of the “aliens attack” plot this is all fine, if typically riddled with vague plotting and continuity errors. But the prison storytelling really needs to just end, already.

Wolverine #23

By Saladin Ahmed, Julius Ohta, Jesus Aburtov & Cory Petit

Wolverine tracks down the source of the healing factor-stealing nanites. 

• Both Wolverine and Taskmaster talk about having history together, yet as far as I can recall or can research, they’ve never actually fought on panel before. Of course, it’s certainly reasonable to assume they’ve crossed paths through the years, just seems like an odd thing to hammer home when it’s not really true.  
• Taskmaster using a pair of sai as makeshift Wolverine claws is pretty cute. 
• When Cecilia Reyes joins the fight, she’s wearing the traditional X-Men training uniform, which also happens to be more or less her defeat superhero look. 
• The S.H.I.E.L.D. sky cycles are a staple of Marvel Comics (though Ohta’s depiction of if it here is a bit off-model). 
• Post was one of those villains who popped up in the 90s with a look and not much backstory (he was tied to Onslaught, as one of his heralds, initially). He later got a backstory connected loosely to Cable, but is pretty thoroughly Z-list. He basically looks like Mor does at the end of the issue. 
• I don’t think I’ve ever heard the techno-organic virus described as different strains (ie the “Post variant”) as here, but Post was indeed infected with a strain of the virus. 
• There’s a tribute to editor/writer Ralph Macchio (not the Karate Kid) in this issue, that briefly made me think he’d died and I’d somehow missed but instead it’s honoring the 50th anniversary of his coming to Marvel. 

The turn in the development of the story makes the Taskmaster business feel more nonsensical (why did Mor hire him?) and tacked-on, but I generally like the the fact that it’s not some random super-villain targeting Wolverine. 

X-Men ’97 Season 2 #2 

By Steve Foxe, Salva Espin, Matt Milla & Joe Sabino

X-Force searches for Caliban. 

• This issue seems to be set between the cold open of the second episode of season 2 (“A Force To Be Reckoned With”) and the rests of the episode. 
• Jubilee’s past encounter with Caliban references the original series episode “Fifth Horseman;” the panel of her on Caliban’s back is recreated from that episode. 
• In the comics, Ahab and the hounds hail from a different alternate future than Cable’s, the earlier “Days of Future Past” timeline from which Rachel Summers also originates. 
• Annalee appeared in the previous Morlock episodes (she’s the one who famously made Wolverine think he was “covered in scorpions.”
• The Morlocks the Acolytes are trying to recruit are Thornn (the one with stripes), Berserker (Mr. Mohawk), Glow Worm and Mellencamp (who in the comics, debuts as an Acolyte). Not sure who the Beast Man-looking guy is supposed to be.  
• Caliban’s transition from bulky to thin is the opposite direction as in the comics. 

I had wondered by they didn’t release an issue of this series the same week as the second season launched, but now I understand why: whereas the first issue took place before the start of the series, this one is set during it. The downside of that is that it’s largely redundant; this more or less follows the same arc as the second episode, with Jubilee pushing Cable to moderate his methods for the greater good.