Variant Artist Rod Reis, I had to get the Magik cover.
Krakoa Beast, the 3K Chairman, wants Magneto on his side, and he can restore Magneto’s powers to sway him.
Meanwhile, Joseph, in Magneto’s purple boots, is leading the 3K X-Men – Timebomb, Psychovore, Juice, and Galatea.
The 3K X-Men do NOT care for Joseph.
Cyclops and the Alaskan X-Men (I’m going to try to be as clear as possible with this) are immediately ready for a fight.
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70s Beast and Magik are making their way back to the Factory.
I like how Chairman Beast fumbles his pitch with Magneto. Magneto is Right, we all know this. Magneto’s current state is because it is a message from the future.
Quintin Quire is taken out, so the X-Men have to fight old school.
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Constellation, I’m so happy Magik name checked this guy, as I wouldn’t have known.
I do love Cyclops fighting Joseph, and saying how the 3K X-Men are still unknown to them, but he’s fought Magneto for years.
This entire attack was a distraction as Chairman Beast only needed Magneto’s DNA, and no interference, and he gets what he wants.
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Magik tells her X-Men that she took Magneto to town, which Cyclops immediately knows what the goal was.
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Krakoa Beast has really went to town on Magneto!
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Epilogue. Scott is telling the X-Men how important it was that 3K didn’t get all of their objectives completed.
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Cyclops has a plan, they are going to data mine everything Schwarzchild knows.
The graphic novel follows Neesha Sparks and Gabby Graciana on their respected first days of school at Durham Western High School, probably named after a racist.
Neesha is black, lesbian, activist, costume designer, and has spastic diplegia cerebral palsy. Formerly from New York.
Gabby is a bisexual, Puerto Rican -Mexican surfer, who has PTSD, and incredible shoulders. Formerly from Florida.
Both of them find themselves in North Carolina, Ric Flair country, even though I’ve met several people from North Carolina, and none of them have known who Ric Flair is.
They find each other, and find a way to navigate through the junior year of high school.
This is one of those graphic novels you read, then reread, then think about for a full week, and then feel compelled to tell other people about it.
I love the characters so much, I love the art, and the lettering makes it so easy to read.
Neesha is a defender of all, especially of herself and her friends. She immediately starts the book off confronting her principal about his misconceptions of her disability.
Gabby has a mysterious past that once we find out what happened one stormy night, we completely get her on a different level.
These ladies really enjoy manga, especially Super Navigator Nozomi by Hiromu Takeuchi. Don’t worry dear reader, we are treated to pages of Super Navigator Nozomi that may or may not tie into what the ladies are experiencing in their current lives. There are seven volumes of Super Navigator Nozomi, that they are determined to seek out all seven volumes.
Neesha’s parents are divorced, she is currently living with her mother, Holly, and her father still lives in New York City.
Gabby’s father is a widower, and she lives with him, and her two younger brothers, Ian and Alexander, who are not twins.
I adore seeing how Gabby softens Neesha, who didn’t want any new friends, but gets a great one in Gabby.
I really appreciate how supportive their families are with their daughters, and their friends.
At first, I didn’t like Gabby’s father, Gabriel, who came off extremely intense, but then we get more of an understanding of why that is.
We learn about Neesha and Gabby’s romantic pasts. Gabby starts the novel with her boyfriend, Josh, who is a jerk. She’s dated a Caridad, who kissed Gabby, then broke up with her over text a week later.
Neesha has dated Star, who introduced her to anime and manga, and then dated another gal who . . . didn’t have great intentions.
How they receive the seventh volume, had my eyes start tearing up. Such a lovely moment.
There is also a second volume coming out in November, that you have to read!
Issue opens with Jeff versus Street Sharks, which is very fun.
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We are treated to a great team shot of the Jeff Coast Avengers with Magikhot.
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I can only hope the JCA attack with honor.
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I love so much that we are treated to Jeff figuring out who at least half the Amalgam characters are. He knows who Magik is, but not necessarily who Longshot is.
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This is a very cute comic.
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Jeff destroyed the set, so now everyone has to stop acting.
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Mojo shows up to yell at Jeff, as Mojo is a jerk.
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Magikhot, Jeff, and the rest of the Jeff Coast Avengers are banished to the green room, which is a fancy breakroom.
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Like Kate Bishop, Kate-Locke (a combination with Psylocke), can understand Jeff, so now she’s deputy leader.
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So cute how Magikhot doesn’t want any part of this nonsense.
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Kate-Locke finally gets around to naming everyone for Jeff’s sake. We are also introduced to Wolvie-Kawaii. Who is also super cute.
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Aw, Wolvie-Kawaii is sad that his entire team was scrapped.
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Jeff is immediately taking by Wolvie-Kawaii, and truly, who isn’t?! And now the team has a new mission, keep the little guy super safe.
Issue ends with Spiral picking up Ken, Jeff’s other cute friend who is a squid or octopus. One of those. Maybe. He’s a Septapus.
Variant Cover Alexander Lozano, as soon as I saw that plush Lockheed, I had to have this 80s Magik variant cover.
This was such a great comic!
It looks gorgeous too, Daniel, Morales, and Hesli really brought it this issue.
I really appreciate that we got to see how Magik interacts with this 70s Beast, as I don’t feel like they have too much character history together. She hung out with Teen Beast during Brian Michael Bendis’ All New X-Men / Uncanny X-Men tenure. Nothing else really comes to mind.
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I really love Magik bringing Magneto to a temple in Merle, Alaska. That was very kind of her.
Maybe a reference to Kitty Pryde would have been too much to ask for?
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Magik is such a great character, that we can establish where everyone is with her portals, Such a clever use of her power, and we get a quick glimpse of how she interacts with her team, as she’s looking for 70s Beast.
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70s Beast is still unraveling his interaction with Krakoa Beast, the Chairman of 3K. He’s not used to seeing a personification of his inner darkness, so who else to ask but Magik, who has her own personal Darkchild.
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Is this Magik learning about Krakoa Beast’s involvement in 3K?
No, Cyclops must have told them when he updated them on the Age of Revelation.
But always good to reestablish plot points.
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Age of Revelation Darkchild did look cool, and I love that her and Juggernaut are Best Friends Forever.
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Apparently, Cyclops has kept the Krakoa Beast a secret, and only Beast, Animalia, and now Magik know who they are truly up against.
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70s Beast is so vulnerable here.
And I just love the softness of the colors here.
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Magik tells 70s Beast that seeing her darkness personified is a gift.
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It is interesting how living in a comic book universe, that one is treated to seeing what their worst selves look like. That must be such a trippy experience.
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Magik must give the best hugs. The absolute rarest of gifts is a hug from Magik.
The panel of her saying she’s a big softy, and just thinks spikes and swords are cool is a panel that will live on forever. It is a shame she’s not seen saying it inside the panel, but might as well include the hug and the quote when reposting it.
There, I did it for you. You are so welcome.
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Issue ends with an explosion at The Factory.
This probably is my favorite issue of this series thus far. It is so great!
Wild Ride, Part One, guest starring Gabriel, Devil-Hunter
Gabriel is very Nick Fury coded.
I don’t love him explaining what Rogue means to Rogue. Okay guy.
Did he deserve to be bitten by Gambit? Yes.
Once Gambit bit Gabriel, he got a vision of Gambit slaying everybody, with Rogue being the last to fall.
Haven House, Louisiana. Calico is both sleeping, and crying. Becca is still sleep walking.
Monet and Quicksilver finally make it to the St. Juniors house. Which the X-Men really need to repair.
I like Monet and Jubilee chatting, even if it is about Monet mistaking the St. Juniors as the X-Men’s housekeepers.
I love so much Quicksilver helping Becca back to her bed. That’s one way to make me really like Quicksilver. Unfortunately, Becca wakes up, and immediately tells him he isn’t even a mutant. She probably didn’t want to be carried by him either.
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Monet wants to see The New New Mutants in action. Even Ember got a new suit! I love this so much!!
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Calico falls of Ember, and Quicksilver catches her. She continues to be upset with him, but really, she’s upset that she’s never going to see Gambit again. Quicksilver will never be Gambit. Which I’m pretty sure Quicksilver does not want to be Gambit either.
We cut back to Gabriel and a giant lesser demon who is a giant fly.
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Quicksilver way oversteps, and makes a negative comment about Gambit. Calico was not far enough away, and she has Ember use his Rabies attack. Quicksilver is immediately defeated by Ember, and Monet has to get involved before Ember kills Quicksilver.
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This is all very intense. Calico and Ember could have killed Quicksilver, and Calico may still do it. All she wanted to be was sad for a minute, which she’s used to. Oh Becca, you break my heart. At least we saw in Unbreakable X-Men, that Rogue and Gambit do adopt her as their daughter, so we know the weight of their love.
The lesser demon’s name is Thenasseil, the Tormentor of Thieves. As Rogue has to fight him away from Gambit, or Wyvern now.
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Haven’s Non-Mutant Cemetery. Becca is having a cry, as Ember is nearby. Becca keeps breaking my heart with her quoting her horrible mother’s words. If she ever got outside, she’ll end up hurting people. She was the worst.
Deathdream has to put Sabretooth’s spirt away, as we see Feral, and two others I don’t recognize. A blonde male with a head sock, and an Iceman faced guy.
Logan finds Kurt in a chapel, as he’s prayer for his brother-in-law, Gambit.
Issue ends with Gabriel telling Rogue and Wyvern that they have to leave, and meet their next character in this RPG.
Odd the Next Issue box is still referring to them as The Outliers, and Gail Simone called them that on BluSky recently. Outlier is definitely more marketable for this grouping of characters.
Issue opens with Mojo being pitched a new show, Murder Television, by his Major Domo.
I recognized three of the four famous Marvel murders. Jean dying on the moon, Bullseye killing Elektra, someone being straight shot from behind, and Bucky knocking Steve out of a plane, before it explodes.
BluSky friend, and terrific follow, Jonathan Loves X-Men, hipped me to the third one is Doug Ramsey saving Wolfsbane in New Mutants V1 60. Of course that is what it is. I saw a wolf, but was thrown off by the giant green person, and I’ll admit, I thought Doug was a yellow cape of the green person. So clear once someone explained it. Thanks Jonathan Loves X-Men.
Meanwhile, in the Outback, Colossus and Betsy are enjoying a run, fun how they are both armored here.
Rogue and Dazzler are being very catty about Longshot, as he wrestles an alligator.
I really like Storm’s remark after Logan points out how people shouldn’t crush on teammates, it never ends well, and she comments about how he would know.
Havok checks in with Madelyne Pryor. I love so much him telling her that she doesn’t have to keep earing her spot on the team, she has it. She hears it, but wants the distraction of trying to hack into the Reavers’ computer. Unfortunately, she’s able to hack in, setting off the Godshreddar program.
Turns out, when Logan clawed his way through three Hellfire Goons during that segment of the Dark Phoenix Saga, he actually tore into a fourth one pretty badly, leaving only his head and hand. So, the Reavers put what was left inside of the Godshreddar, and the Godshreddar was able to take over the bodies of the X-Men. Which gives us an awesome sequence of Logan having to single handedly defeat the X-Men, and not hurt them, too badly.
Now that we have a Godshreddar, can we get god turtles to fight him? That’ll be pretty cool.
Is there a rule about Marvel created their own set of turtles? As a fun homage? Seriously, just give me TMNT / X-Men already. I would want TMNT / Daredevil first, but then X-Men immediately after.
Such a great issue! Saladin Ahmed really has Bishop, and Shard’s voices down. Mario Santoro & Reese Hannigan are amazing artists. We meet Skipping Stone in his issue, and I really noticed how great Federico Blee’s coloring is. And of course, VC’s Travis Lanham’s lettering is top notch.
Bishop spends most of the issue in shock that Shard is really here, and I love how he just knows in his heart that this is actually his sister. I have a head canon that Bishop being in the present, is changing his future, and that’s how Shard is alive. They defeat Flamequake, a mix of Pyro and Avalanche, but not before she sends out a distress signal. Skipping Stone arrives, a guy dressed as Toad, but with Fred Dukes’ powers, so he can jump far and high, but also land heavy, like a bomb, a great power set. He reveals that he has to focus on an attack to stop an attack, which felt like a very old school delivery, which I loved.
Bishop was just about to warn Shard about the trap that gets her killed, but is attacked by Skipping Stone.
I also really loved that Shard is not impressed that Bishop joined the legendary X-Men, and just went by his last name. Silly Bishop.
Issue ends with Shard about to be killed by Skipping Stone. Bishop really has to get his head in the game.
Wolverine has gotten all of the Generates to Logan’s safehouse. X-99 wants to go by X-6-7, so she has been quick to Google things. X-97 thinks the name change is a disgrace to X-67, but X-6-7 points out it is two different number / names. X-6-7 is sleeping in the room with Gabby and Jonathan, the most real of Wolverines. X-6-7 calls X-97 mid, and Gabby finally steps in, and tells X-6-7 that she can’t use her phone anymore. X-74 is going around, portaling into neighbors’ rooms, which seems to go against the very idea of hiding out. Jonathan startles X-74, and he almost loses concentration as he falls into one of the rooms, but gets himself back in time, unnoticed. Except he lands on Jonathan, so he very much notices him, and begins an attack. X-97 destroys the toilet, and X-6-7 says both cringe, and the Skibidi Toilet War is real, so even I’m losing the joy here.
Wolverine takes them all, in costume, to pay respects at the Krakoa Treehouse in Central Park. X-6-7 uses the word, rizz, when Wolverine finds a secret note. A man and his very much mutant presenting family are being harassed, and the Kinney sisters and the Generates head to Jackson Heights to help the family out. I like that the Generates are not very good at the whole rescue thing. X-74 teleported the family to safety, but X-97 threw too many, and too big of, time bombs everywhere. X-6-7 took too long trying to figure out what she should shift into. She finally settled on a giant cat, which was pretty cute.
They all get a great post-battle dinner, a Number 25, with Chicken, which does sound amazing. At dinner, they pick their mutant names.
X-6-7 will be Surprise!, don’t forget the explanation mark, just like Bling!.
X-97 will be Time Bomb.
X-74 will be Point.
Wolverine provides her origin story. Gabby mentions how you can change your codename, she’s already been Badger, and now Scout. She’s still open to a name change.
Issue ends with a thud, as in, Logan collapsed at the safe house, and we finally see his broken right claws, as I’ve been curious if other titles would reflect it. He only popped the left claws in Hellfire Murder, which I needed pointed out to me.
Such a great issue here. Giving the Generates their non-number name shows that these are characters worth investing attention into.
I got the Marvel Snap Magik Beach variant cover, but resisted paying the $25 for the card in the game itself.
Magik is part of the cast list, so I can just relax and enjoy the comic.
Greg Land doing interior art, feels like forever since he did an X-Men comic.
This is the Juggernaut issue.
Juniper, Pennsylvania. Someone jerks put up a Bolivar Trask statue. So gross.
O*N*E Agent Lundqvist is back! Possibly not by popular demand, but I like what he brings out of Cyclops.
Juggernaut is also there, in a very nice brown suit. He definitely shops at a Big & Tall store.
I like Juggernaut not missing a step to comment on how Lundqvist used to be on the big X-Men assignment, and now he’s watching a statue. I mean, it makes sense, he wasn’t very good at the X-Men issue, getting Cyclops’ to reveal his Hellions team, and wrecking several Sentinel factories.
Juggernaut tells Lundqvist that he can go home early today, as he’s going to wreck the statue, except . . . he can’t. It is being protected somehow.
Two hours later, it is still not wrecked. I would have stopped after the second attempt. Not only are there cameras seeing Juggernaut be literally stopped from his mission, but also, two hours is such a long time to fail at one activity.
I sort of wished this entire issue was just Juggernaut and Lundqvist chatting, as what were they talking about during the last two hours. They are getting real here. Lundqvist knows he’s at a transition in his career, but is confident he’ll get his career back on track. Juggernaut recognizes, sadly, that he can’t trust his judgment anymore, and is just trusting Cyclops to make all of the right decisions for him.
Three more hours later. This is just getting silly, as Juggernaut keeps trying to wreck the statue. This is hard to watch. Not entertaining like the end to Tin Cup. I love that movie.
Chris Coleman, a human who wants the statue down, is now Juggernaut’s pal to chat with. Juggernaut is the human ally who is also on the X-Men, which is good to point out for new readers who may think the Juggernaut is a mutant. Sometimes he is in other media.
It is around now, that I’m wondering when Magik is going to be seen, or even mentioned.
Juggernaut promised Cyclops he’ll handle the statue, and he’s not happy with himself.
Juggernaut can wobble the statue, so shouldn’t he just lift the thing and take it somewhere else?
Coleman lets us in on the fact that Trask lived in Juniper, so he’s unfortunately their local celebrity.
Two more hours later, so five total from the beginning of this awkwardness. Angela Harmon, the free speech advocate is now Juggernaut’s pal. So now we have to “both sides” the issue.
Angie, as she prefers over Trask fan, gets to say, “Magneto was right.” Which is always nice to hear.
Aw, Juggernaut mentioning how he eats dinner with Magneto, that’s cute. Imagine Magneto, Juggeranut, and Magik all sharing a meal? I want to see that page.
Dang, Angela, we’re no longer friends, calls Juggernaut out. Magneto is a dog, and Juggernaut is the X-Men’s pet sapien.
Juggernaut as since removed his helmet, so any telepath could be giving him better direction at this point.
He doesn’t care for Angela’s “points”. She has a real them vs us, and he’s one of us.
One hour later. This is getting beyond sad. Now the statue is talking to Juggernaut.
I apparently can’t spell Juggernaut, I keep swapping the “a” and the “n”.
The statue claims it is actually a mirror, reflecting Coleman’s shame, Harmon’s fear, and Marko’s weakness. It goes on to claim it is the Mark of Cain (get it?), the Stain of Sin, all sins.
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His best bud, Magik, finally checks in with him, and has brought Cyclops along as well.
I love so much that she’s quick to try to comfort him.
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Juggernaut is muttering to himself how much of a failure he is.
I appreciate so much Cyclops calling him an X-Man. That’s nice, especially after the nonsense he’s had to hear.
Cyclops thought it was a simple mission, but turns out, it is a puzzle. Magik says they’ll figure it out together. I really like these three together.
Magik makes a Godzilla in Ginza reference, which is odd, as she’s battled Godzilla. Did they make a Godzilla attacks Ginza, a district of Tokyo, after Godzilla attempted to destroy the Marvel Universe? That must be it.
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Dang, Juggernaut is still taking the “lost” hard.
Cyclops is such a great leader, the mission wasn’t a failure, the parameters were changed. Juggernaut gave more than anyone can expect, which is why Cyclops’ can count on him, that’s what makes him an X-Man.
But also, punching it the fifth time, clearly, nothing was going to happen, he wasn’t weakening the force field. He did waste six hours, but also, waste it instead of doing what? I guess enjoying himself, but if he wanted to spend six hours doing this, sure. His manager clearly was okay with it.
Next issue is a Beast spotlight, which I feel like we just got with the Science arc, but also, we have to now set up DNX, as we compare and contrast the Tale of Two Beasts.
