Writer Brian Michael Bendis
Artist Mike Del Mundo
Colorists Mike Del Mundo and Marco D’Alfonso
Letterer VC’s Cory Petit
Let’s get this out of the way, for preservation sake. For whatever reason, this was a giant scheduling fuck up.
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2015/02/06/new-x-men-37-published-39/
It isn’t just an issue that 37 was so far behind, that it had to come out the same week as 39, but it wasn’t even the original story –
http://marvel.wikia.com/All-New_X-Men_Vol_1_37
Solicit Synopsis:
• You know your friends from growing up? The ones you went to high school with, and are to-this-day some of the people who know you best?
• Well, imagine there are only five kids in your high school, and you’re all hated and feared by the world around you.
• Sometimes, it’s nice to take a step back and realize that what you’ve been told is your “team” is really something much better—your best friends.
I don’t want to harp on it too much, as I do adore Sarah Pichelli, and she had a death in the family so Bendis was able to pull this story together.
So that is why it came out when 39 came out, and I wanted to do the Black Vortex issues as a group so I also am writing this after 37. I imagine that the story that was hinted above, will probably show up in issue 600. There is 40 pages of that issue, but I reckon that if she didn’t get any pages done, the story above is never going to be seen. Not that I was all that excited to read a Bobby and Hank buddy book, especially as they have barely hung out for 37 issues prior to this. Instead, we got a Jean and Emma story.
Madripoor. Magik has teleporrted Jean and Emma, so that Emma can give Jean some in the filed training. Magik doesn’t want to leave the ladies behind. I don’t blame Illyana for not wanting to go back to the school. What is there for her to do that will trump this adventure. Illyana leaves and the issue suffers for it.
Jean talks about how Illyana is getting tired of being a taxi service, which more people need to talk about that. She has so much potential but instead, she ends up bookending stories.
Emma gives a brief history of Madripoor. It was a Hydra Terrority, a Ninja Assassin Terrority and then Mystique’s attempt at a mutant paradise. Jean also learns about MGH, Mutant Growth Hormone, which apparently has been around forever now. I thought it was something that came along in the 90s with the Legacy Virus but it has been around since 1972, with Amazing Adventures 11,which is the first appearance of Grey Furry Beast. That’s two things!
Emma shuts off Jean’s telepathy, she can do that. I like Emma implication that Xavier was putting blocks on Jean’s mind since their first sessions together. Jean can’t believe it but if she just researched Xavier’s deeds, she would find out that he has done so much worst.
Emma’s powers have come back as she has been earning them back, with the assistance of the Cuckoos.
Emma’s goal for Jean, today, is to practice her telekinesis. Jean claims she uses her telekinesis but she isn’t flying about.
Jean finds her target, the Blob, who is both in charge of Madripoor and extremely addicted to MGH. Bob is confused as Jean looks so much smaller here than how he remembers her. Which I like, the existence of the Original Five is not a known detail to the public at large. Though Mystique knows but she must not have told Blog about that.
Jean throws Blob across the room, along with everyone else but he gets right back up and charges at her. Something I wouldn’t want done to me. He flings Jean across the island. Jean is littler and Blog is much larger. Like Kitty, I enjoy seeing Jean use a gun, of course, bullets have no effect on the unmovable object.
That could make a decent What If, the Blob did join the X-Men, way back in Uncanny X-Men 3.
Jean and Blob end up floating about in the sky. He calls her bluff and she drops him to the ground. The fall doesn’t kill him but he is knocked out. Emma approves of the session and gives Jean back her telepathy.
Issue ends with Emma wanting Jean to be better. Magik isn’t coming to pick them up but how does someone leave an island? I imagine Emma keeps a credit card on her for these circumstances.
Shadow and Flame with Magik 