Just Outside of New Orleans, Louisiana. Sarah Gaunt, who apparently can transform back into her regular human body. She pays a couple millions of dollars for their house, as she wants to move in with her four new adopted children, who went through the Wolverine progress. One of their names is Polyphemus.
She wants them to pick their rooms, and a car, and once settled, they’ll murder a mutant.
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Graymalkin Prison. Formerly the X-Mansion. Deep Storage. Those jerks just threw all of the X-Men’s personal belongings into a storage room. That has to be Kitty Pryde’s purple mask from her iconic roller skate costume. Also, I believe that’s a painting of Illyana that Colossus painted.
Dazzler is not impressed with this development. Nor am I!
We get the official names of Gaunt’s characters – Curare, Polyphemus, Fawn (who we already knew), and Jet.
Gaunt’s plan is to become Xavier, to have her own school. Gaunt has a deck of cards with mutant names, and now I’m curious to see who is on that list.
Dazzler called Monet and Rogue. The three of them start wrecking the school.
Dazzler admits to winning a Daytime Emmy for Promising Newcomer, so time to update the wikis.
A giant spider appearing Sentinel comes from the ground to attack the ladies.
Touro Neightborhood, New Orelans. Mutina’s card was drawn. She hates the house her now former agent picked for her. They are getting ready to make the sequel to her horror movie.
We learn Mutina is immune to poisons.
Just when Mutina is about to kill Fawn, Gaunt shows up, and puts her long fingers through Mutina’s body.
Mutina refuses to join Gaunt’s team, and is hung up for the X-Men to see.
X Years from Now. The Age of Revelation. Moments before the Transformation of the World. We establish that the Beast that went back to the present, was the 70s Beast, in the wrong body. That’s good to establish. We are establishing why Magneto was chosen to get the virus code.
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Now. The Baxter Building. 70s Beast and Reed Richards are explaining to Magik and the X-Men, and the Fantastic Four, the plot they need to know.
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(Is this Magik’s arm?)
With the code, the doctors are working on a cure for the 3K virus.
Juniper, Pennsylvania. Ground Zero of the X-Virus Strike. Chairman Beast is quite pleased with his results. Until he sees someone who is literally melting due to the x-gene not being compatible.
Office of National Emergency Forward Staging Base. Just beyond Juniper, PA. Director Bohannan is trying to get control over the situation, establishing a perimeter. An O*N*E* Agent reminds him that Agent Lundqvist was in Juniper. Bohannan wants Lundqvist’s dismissal to be back dated to yesterday. Covering all of his tracks. This is so gross. But also, are we going to get a new mutant out of Lundqvist?
Chairman Beast is confused why the mutations didn’t take. He wanted to Make More Mutants (as per Krakoa Law), but all he did, was create monsters. He will try to create a new X-Virus, but doesn’t want the embarrassment of this failure as a reminder, so he is going to vaporize his mistake.
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I love that the Fantastic Four, and Juggernaut, have to suit up for the mission, they are flatscans, so are subjectable to the virus. That’s a good detail.
I love so much that Cyclops is the field leader, who else would it be?
The X-Men will deploy Richards’ organism to stop the X-Virus.
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Poor Scott, he’s also expecting to see fully realized mutants.
I love the artistic choice to show Magik in Cyclops’ visor, giving us a bit of a Darkchild look in red.
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You can just see Scott’s heart break as he sees what the new mutants look like.
I guess the flatscans don’t need special helmets? Maybe they are invisible?
Referencing Sue Richards, they arrive, and Chairman Beast has put a force field around Juniper.
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Magik, because she’s awesome, placed a teleport shield around them.
I love how Scott immediately starts talking to Chairman Beast, while 70s Beast has to just stand around, trying to catch up.
Chairman Beast is going to set off a fusion bomb to get rid of all of the evidence.
Scott starts pleading to let him in, to appeal to Chairman Beast’s better nature. I do like how this entire event is centered about Hank and Scott’s history.
Chairman Beast does make a good point. He already committed mass murder, now he’s just trying to get rid of the bodies.
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Lives are at stake.
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Cyclops is going to kill Beast, that’s his plan. It has all been leading to this.
I had to buy the David Messina cover through eBay, as I had to have the Kitty Pryde, Magik, and Xenomorph cover, and hadn’t seen it until the week before this comic came out.
I had preordered the German Peralta cover, as in Peralta, I trust (and was hoping it’ll be a Magik cover).
Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. Upstate New York.
Storm, still completely bald, still throwing me off. Storm is showing Gambit, Nightcrawler, Hope Summers, Jubilee, Psylocke, and Xavier, the message Beast sent.
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Cyclops was the first victim of the face hugger.
He was able to blast it off, taking off his own head, so that’s why we don’t see a Xenomorph blasting dudes.
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While Kitty was unconscious, is how she got her face hugged.
Emma also got got.
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I love Beast carrying Kitty and Emma’s bodies. He’s still hoping he can fix whatever happened here.
Plus, it makes sense that Logan will be on stabbing duty.
Logan put up a good fight, but the acid, the acid was too much. Also, he got his face hugged as well.
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Aw, Beast went back, and grabbed Logan.
Beast does comment that if Kitty was awake, she would have been fine.
I did want Kitty to be in the first story, but not like this. Not like this.
Logan’s face hugger comes off, so Beast can learn that that is possible.
Orbis did have a Phoenix Egg, so they would have had a successful mission.
Logan gets his chest bursted, and Beast, as of course he’ll do this, goes off to find the little critter. Turns out, the little critter, turned big, pretty quickly. Plus, he has claws. They do appear to be very shiny claws, but maybe that’s just the Xenomorph bones being shiny?
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Beast in his recording hopes Kitty and Emma are dead, which seems harsh, but also, that’ll be the merciful route.
Xavier is quick to say that Multiple Man is a lost cause, as Xavier is a jerk.
Cable walks into the room with his crew – Agent Brand, Bishop, and Deadpool.
I do love that we get a moment for Cable and Hope Summers to reunite. That’s nice.
Agent Brand says they are from the future where the X-Men failed to stop the Aliens.
We get a scene of Logan, who is just a Xenomorph baby factory at this point, he’s so mother right now. He sees Emma’s Xenomorph, as it figures out her diamond powers.
Storm shouts for everyone to use the Red Triangle Protocol, this where we really benefit from Gillen writing this. The Emam Xenomorph has telepathy, but not in diamond form, and it is learning how all of that works.
Agent Brand informs us of the rules. Logan Xenomophs take four hours to create themselves, but with Madrox, they can go from 24 to 30,000 in 72 minutes.
Deadpool (literally) gives us the tag line, in space, no one can hear you scream. But you can eat popcorn.
Cable’s team, minus Agent Brand, combines with Psylocke (which makes sense with this not X-Force team), Rogue, Sage (who must be part of Cable’s team), Nightcrawler (who doesn’t get a cool suit), and Hope Summers.
Jubilee and Gambit are on rescue duty.
We get a few cool pages of the X-Men burning Xenomorphs.
Kurt finds Logan, which is always sweet.
Cable wants to deploy the cure.
Turns out, the cure is killing X-Men, as Cable kills Hope (wha?!), and Agent Brand kills Xavier (I’m okay with this).
Storm kills Agent Brand, well, a robot version of her. Not a robot version, a Sentinel version.
This was such a great story!
Belles of Hell, Part 2
Writer Chris Claremont
Artist David Messina
Colorist Rain Beredo
Letterer VC’s Travis Lanham
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I do love that Kitty and Magik are talking in Russian, so you know this is intense.
Poor Rachel Summers, and Logan having to just stand by for all of this.
Even worst, is poor sweet Lockheed, being a gauntlet for Illyana. So she doesn’t have to directly touch the face hugger?
Kitty is begging for her life here, which is heart breaking.
I do like Illyana saying these creatures are some sort of “Alien,” that’s silly and fun.
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Ugh, Kitty’s description of her face being hugged! So gross, and far too intimate.
Illyana does call Kitty her girlfriend, so that’s nice.
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Kitty is apparently the Brood Queen’s daughter, so uses that link to become a humanized Brood thing. This gives Kitty the strength back the Xenomorph baby, so that’s pretty rad.
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Kitty is able to fight off the face hugger, and maintain her human body – which is what I was worried about.
Now Kitty has the same lines on her face that Illyana has, so . . . is Illyana infected with a Broodling? I thought Illyana was at least being an Alien Mother.
Kitty gets Snikt-ed for her troubles. Which makes sense, Logan was hanging right next to Rachel, and he only has the one move.
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I hadn’t noticed, but the first page of this back up does show that Magik put Kitty into her training uniform, but was slowly turning that outfit to mirror Magik’s own Bachalo designed look. Including the head piece thingie.
Kitty calls Illyana “girlfriend,” but you can just tell there was a very sarcastic tone to it.
Looks like Rachel is still hanged up, but Logan is free, but still having his face hugged.
So, Kitty must have only been snikt-ed, just a little bit. A mere flesh wound. Or more likely, the Brood connection is giving her an extra life.
I would probably say the first issue’s back up was my favorite, but mostly as it had Lockheed actively in the story, but I’ll take what I can.
But the second issue’s main story, was better than the first.
Dazzler and agents of O*N*E, SHIELD, and SWORD, are here at Graymalkin Prison to finally dismantle it. Before they can, Sarah Graunt has located the mutants who were given the Wolverine treatment. I do like how the O*N*E agent apologized to Dazzler, she’ s a fan.
Repent tells Rogue that Gambit can only be healed by love, so she takes him Maison Blue Petit Paris in New Orleans. Apparently they have come here before to get all romantic.
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Look how cute Ember is, with Gambit’s cats on his back!
Dazzler calls Logan to tell him Sarah Graunt is on her way.
Logan asks for volunteers, and Monet & Quicksilver will stay behind with the New Mutants.
Rogue and Gambit go to a fancy restaurant, and Gambit refers to the waitress as a nighttime friend, a sweet-cream lady, and that seems all types of gross. But Rogue reminds him to remember who keeps his bed warm, and steals the covers.
Sarah Graunt and her squad are heading straight to Rogue & Gambit, I must have missed that. Logan, Jubilee, and Kurt are outside to combat them.
A few pages after I had the thought of, how has Rogue and Gambit NOT heard all of this fighting, Rogue and Gambit come out in their underwear. Gambit is wearing X-Branded underwear.
Sarah Graunt says, “to me, my Scavenged,” so I guess that’s the name of these mutants.
Graunt will be back in seven days, so that sets up the next issue pretty nicely.
I got the Gurihiru regular cover, as it had Magikhot on it, but I would have gladly bought the Jhony Caballero variant if I knew it was the cover that really featured Magikhot, and Kate-Locke, and Jeff.
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Great team face cards, especially Magikhot!
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Dazzlestorm gives the big locker room pep talk. Jeff Coast Avengers will rescue Ken, escape the facility, reveal the truth of Mojo’s plan, AND watch their angles, as this rebellion will be televised.
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So gross that Mojo has been watching everything through Kate-Locke’s cybernetic eye.
NYC Earth. Just so us readers know, no one is going to come rescue Jeff, as Gwenpoole, Kate Biship, and Johnny (who loves tacos) are on their way to confront MODOK. Thankfully, before they get too far, Gwenpoole finds Jeff’s drawing of Spiral abducting him, so they know Mojo is behind this.
I had forgotten that Mojo has taken MODOK to be his in-house inventor. MODOK does like the idea of creating his own all new all better Jeff the Land Shark.
Wolveirne-Man, an Iron Man through a Wolverine lens, has connected the cameras so everyone can see what the Jeff Coast Avengers are up to.
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Magikhot and the Jeff Coast Avengers show up an hour late to see Mojo, and he’s a real jerk about it.
They are ready to mess Mojo up!
Mojo immediately knows this is being broadcast, and wants the feed cut.
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Magikhot, Kate-Locke, and Rambit do a great job of distracting Mojo and his goons.
Dazzlestorm and Jeff rescue Ken in a very cute cartoony way.
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Spiral is defeated as she was having a change of heart to let them escape.
Wolverine-Man arrives with their getaway car.
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Toady-6 wants to escape with them.
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They are escaping in style!
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The Freeman are excited to see the Jeff Coast Avengers free! Mojo, on the other hand, is not.
Issue ends with the reveal that MODOK may have created a giant Jeff the Land Shark.
I’m taking a chance with Star Wars Marvel Hope Assembles 1, written by Kevin Smith. I’ve seen on covers that Logan, Storm, and Emma Frost are seen, so I’m really hoping we get Kitty Pryde (a known Star Wars fan), and maybe at least Magik will be in this? This is already available to order on DCBS. I picked the Andrews film cover.
. . .
Midnight X-Men 4, hopefully Kitty or Magik are on one of the variant covers.
. . .
I’ve given up any interest in Midnight Fantastic Four.
Midnight Spider-Man 4, I wish the art style within the comic matched the main cover. I’m at least giving the second issue a chance.
Avengers 3, Logan being on this team at least gets me reading it every month. Interesting to have Spider-Man going up against Mephisto.
Immortal Soldiers 1, I want to say I have zero interest in any Armageddon fallout, but I am interested in Avengers and Maximum X-Men, but a title with Nick Fury and Bucky Barnes? This feels like a pass for me.
Marvel SFX : Thwip!, wake me up when they do Bamf!
. . .
Maximum X-Men 2, will Colossus keep thinking about his sister, Magik? That’s what got me to buy the first issue, seeing Magik in the preview pages. Let’s see how expensive January gets.
. . .
Fugitive X-Force 2, I guess it makes sense Cable will still be in this series. For some reason, I thought he’ll be gone, and we’ll be getting Boom Boom as the main focus. Cool that Domino is also sticking around.
. . .
Jean Grey 3, takes place in Merle, Alaska, so I can only imagine we’re getting Magik in a few scenes. I’m definitely buying the Dauterman cover.
. . .
Gambit Gone 5 finally ends.
. . .
Ya’ll, I’m buying two covers of X-Men United 11! Lockheed is on the Jones cover, and Kitty is on the main cover with Daredevil and Emma Frost! That’s how you get me to buy two covers! There is a second variant cover, are we going to get nuts?! I’m going to consider the Romy Jones variant cover as Marvel’s birthday gift to me.
. . .
X-Orcists 3, Magik is on the main cover, so I’ll get that one, but there is a second variant cover, which I wonder might feature her more on? I do like Elsa Bloodstone joining this title.
. . .
Uncanny X-Men 41, Nightcrawler is the only thing standing between Sarah Graunt and the Outliers / New Mutants.
Uncanny X-Men 42, and we’re still double shipping in 2027!
. . .
X-Men 44, we’re getting Magik on the Perez variant cover, so that’s the one I’m getting. Doug Ramsey vs Jean Grey, maybe? Interesting that X-Men isn’t double shipping. Maybe because we’re considering Jean Grey as the other issue?
. . .
Wolverine 31, Logan is going feral, even with his adamantium? I guess we haven’t done that story yet.
Challenges of Doom : Magneto 1, the solicit references Magneto being an ally and leader of the X-Men, but someone online explained to me that these Challenges of Doom one shots are all retelling Doctor Doom’s first interactions with the named character, so this is a pass for me, but I’m tracking it.
Doomquest 7 references the X-Men, and I had to immediately go to fandom to see which X-Men appeared. Logan, Storm, Cyclops, and Iceman have appeared in the first issue. A pretty decent lineup.
Wolverine : Origin III – Dark Ages 2, Logan in the 50s? That’s still a pass for me.
Avengers Incursions 1, still odd to me they put Incursions second for all of these. Original Marvel Avengers vs Thanos and his Black Order, sounds interesting. I’m just not much of a Silver Age guy.
. . .
X-Men 92 Incursions 1, which is already available to preorder on DCBS. I’m getting the main cover, with Evolution Rogue. I really want Gordon’s Giant Size X-Men homage cover, but DCBS has it listed for $35, which is way out of my price range. I’ll Wishlist it, and see if I can get it cheap on eBay. We still have the Phil Noto variant to look forward to. I do love the Guirhiru variant with the two Rogues. That is a very fun cover.
. . .
I am tempted to take a chance with What The 1, as I do like Chip Zdarsky, but will Kitty, Lockheed, or Magik be in this? They sure weren’t in Muppets Take Marvel.
. . .
Friendly Neighborhood Mary Jane 3, I do love Ashley Allen writing this series, AND it has Black Cat, and Mary Jane vs Chameleon.
Spider-Woman 3, I keep forgetting she’s the current host for Carnage.
. . .
Black Cat 18, now I’m not nervous about preordering this comics with Magik on the main cover. Black Cat is still in Merle, Alaska, so we can all relax. I do like the Dauterman (and I’m happy he’s drawing X-Men variant covers again, hopefully he does that Kitty Pryde costume gallery cover sometime this year) variant cover with Black Cat, Gambit, and his cats.
. . .
Amazing Venom 5, I do like how the solicit asks the same question I did, how can Boomerang AND Amazing Venom be on the cover together?
Venom 4, Yelena is dating Venom? What an odd choice.
Jessica Jones Alias 2, she’s in Latveria, that’s interesting.
Iron Man double ships, and even number issues are Tony, and odd number issues are War Machines. Seems very silly. Carmen Carnero and Nolan Woodard are the even numbers, but just typing these sentences is making me lose all interest.
Wade Wilson Deadpool 12, he’s going to Colorado.
Captain America 19, one of Cap’s foes rewrote history? And this comic has Cap, Iron Man, and a child clone of Doom? Okay.
Marvel Zombies War Zone 5 ends the mini, as Gorgon’s Zombies, including Thor, are the threat Punisher and Luke Cage face off against.
Dang, I was really hoping to see Lovable Lockheed in physical format this month.
. . .
I will be buying :
Star Wars Marvel Hope Assembles 1, which is already part of my December order.
Midnight X-Men 4, one of the variant covers.
Maximum X-Men 2, maybe.
Jean Grey 3, the Dauterman cover.
X-Men United 11, BOTH the regular cover and the Lockheed Jones varaint cover.
X-Orcists 3, the main cover for sure.
X-Men 44, the Perez variant cover.
X-Men 92 Incursions, the Evolution Rogue cover, which is already part of my December preorder.
What The 1, I guess I can buy this as two of these comics are already ordered.
I would have bought the ACO variant cover if I had saw it in time to preorder it.
Issue opens with O*N*E* Agent, Abbie Bennett, wanting to take a splinter group of officers to attack the Alaskan X-Men’s base, while they are away. Doug killed her husband in issue 18, thanks Tom. This cell hates mutants. I do appreciate calling them a cell.
The Factory. Merle, Alaska. Xorn is listening to John Greycrow, who wants to be where the fight is. Just wait, bud.
The way Greycrow talks, one would think he’s on the X-Men, but he isn’t, so he doesn’t get a say in the missions. Kwannon asked him to stay behind, and she’s an executive officer of the X-Men, do they all have official titles? That’s what I’m interested in.
Then the power goes off in the Factory. The Cell has tampered with the Shi’ar stardrive.
Xorn properly gives us the stakes, if the stardrive isn’t returned in time, the reactor core will explode, taking the base, and Merle with it. Greycrow has his mission. Greycrow takes out two of the cell members. Then more, and more of them.
Xorn was on keeping Glob Herman save, so this before Infernal Hulk 7, I guess? Xorn has knocked out the cell members who came for Glob.
We get confirmation that Greycrow killed everyone who came for them, and Xorn picks up on his word choices, Greycrow wants on the X-Men.
Greycrow congratulates Xorn on his deadly approach, but he never made it to Medical. Ruh oh.
Then. Glob Herman woke up, and dealt with his assailants. Bennett went running into the snow. Glob killed all of these folks, and treated himself to a nap as the issue ends.
No Magik appearance, outside of the ACO variant cover.
