Such a great issue! I was surprised that we got Marcus continuing the bedtime story, but it makes sense that he is, as last issue wasn’t a done in one story.
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I’m so happy that Marcus knows enough about Calico to make her in-story horse, Ember.
I also like how he may not know Jitter enough that, to him, it makes sense that she announces the character’s name that she is going to mimic. In case this case, that’ll be Hawkeye.
Meanwhile, the Uncanny X-Men are facing off against Elsa Bloodstone, Manphiban, The Living Mummy, Frankenstein’s Monster, Morbius, and Werewolf by Night. I always appreciate narration boxes naming characters.
In classic X-Men fashion, AND horror trope, the team splits up, and we get some fun combinations.
Nightcrawler teleports himself and Logan to Sweet Water Park. We get a reminder that Hurricane Katrina devastated the park, and they still haven’t recovered fully. We should remember that Louisiana still carries the scar of that disaster.
Logan fights Werewolf by Night, who bites Logan.
We are introduced to Elsa’s boss, a charming lady, who has a white wolf for a pet, Salem.
Nightcrawler has to confront German literary hero (?), Frankenstein’s Monster. He rather just talk it out.
Jubilee is confronted by Dr. Morbius, they have a nice chat about how freeing it is to be a vampire, but Jubilee rather not go back.
Gambit fights Manphiban.
I like Logan having such medical knowledge that makes sense. I start having the thought that it is nice that Logan is healing from the bite, and not turning into a were-wolverine. That would be troublesome.
I also like that we see a young Rogue, pre adoption, who really enjoyed horror movies. Scared out of her wits, but enjoys the thrill. Rogue has to deal with both Living Mummy, and Elsa Bloodstone. Elsa informs Rogue that her boss is on her way to Haven House. At least the Outliers are there.
Issue ends with Rogue having to deal with a new threat – Wereverine! So, turns out, not as nice as I thought. Ruh oh.
So rare for a modern comic to reach issue 25! Though Uncanny will be doing it with its next issue. Just to get it out of the way, here is your Fenris trigger warning. I treated myself to the Luciano Vecchio variant cover. We weren’t given this theme cover for Exceptional X-Men, which I would have gladly bough the Kitty Pryde, Emma Frost, and Melee covers. Actually, I probably would have gotten all of them, as I do love the format. Maybe with X-Men United we’ll finally get them? I’m still waiting for the Russell Dauterman Kitty Pryde costume gallery cover.
Issue opens with Cyclops telling the team about the Age of Revelation. I do like the idea that you can just skip AoR, and what you really need to know, you’ll be told through X-MEN dialogue. Future bad because of Doug Ramsey, and 3K (more about them later).
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Scott’s new goal in life? Fix the Present, Save the Future. Such a good team shot here.
Arizona, three miles from Rio Verde. Which is three and a half hours away from Yuma. When I was growing up, there was a popular blue shirt that had, “Yuma, four hours from everywhere else” that is burned into my mind.
We catch up to Fenris, who are eternally gross. Now, they’re super prideful of being white mutants, so they have a new lower level to their grossness.
I do love how out Jed MacKay is with calling the Strucker twins and Fenris (the name of their hate group) Nazis. Why hide behind code words? Also a good time to mention I was wrong about 3K being a clever way of not writing KKK, which makes sense now that we know Krakoa Beast is the Chairman of the Board.
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Then. Cyclops really needs to find Doug.
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Now. Cyclops sends Magik and Psylocke to join the fight. Once we’re done with the Psylocke retro series (which apparently is selling quite well), I would love to get a Magik & Psylocke miniseries.
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These two are great together!
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Then. I love the X-Men sharing a meal together, this team is very close.
Cyclops reveals that AoR had never heard of R-LDS. 70s Beast let’s out a “retrocausality” which sounds very fun to say aloud. I wonder what that would have looked like as a Mortal Kombat finisher?
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Magik telling Psylocke that her sword is sharper, and Kwannon calling Magik a brat. These two are the best.
Again, I just love Juggernaut and Magik being besties. This series has been great with showing Illyana being actual friends with people. I love to see it.
Juggernaut throws a car at Fenris, he’s so upset that they blasted Magik. Taking her out of the fight for the rest of the issue, which one has to do as she can end a fight rather easily.
Psylocke fights Andreas, and Oya fights Andrea.
Quenten Quire, who also can end a fight easily, has been holding back, as he really doesn’t want to enter a white supremacist’s mind – completely understandable.
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Juggernaut helping Magik up, they’re the best!
We finally learn who the mutant is who is in charge of O*N*E* . . . The Crimson Commando, who I barely remember. He’s on the cover of Uncanny X-Men 215, with Stonewall and Super Sabre. I mostly only remember Stonewall because of the historical event, and the cool flight helmet. He’s a WWII veteran, with the mutant power of peach physical health. I own his first appearance, so that’s cool. He is a Claremont / Davis creation.
The Crimson Commando arrived with a crew, and a press conference, announcing O*N*E*, and Cyclops’ X-Men are working together, then immediately has them stop recording, so mutants everywhere should have some distrust of Cyclops now. Which seems silly, as all it’ll take is for him to reach out to Rogue and Emma, and clear the whole thing up – he’ll probably do that in-between issues.
Cyclops references how the last time he fight Crimson Commando, he died, in Uncanny X-Men 529. Which was the issue Kitty Pryde and Emma Frost with Fantomex were searching for Sebastian Shaw, so I only remember that plot from the issue, but I owned his first and last appearance (until this issue, which I also own, so that’s nice).
We do get a reference to how Cyclops hadn’t realized Crimson Commando was resurrected on Krakoa, so that’s nice that era exists so any mutant can be brought back with ease. As long as they didn’t die in Fall of X (or Rise of X).
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Crimson Commando leaves, knowing he’ll win the long battle.
We get a back up where 70s Beast chats with Animalia, who likes the codename, another legacy of AoR.
70s Beast figures out 3K is actually 3000, otherwise written in Latin, MMM, Make More Mutants, and learns the Chairman of 3K is . . . Krakoa Beast! So, everyone knows what they are up against.
I do love a Villian issue! We see that 3K’s alliance is on very shaky grounds. Chairman Beast of Krakoa has been gone a week, giving Cassandra Nova and Astra (with Joseph) time to plot the other’s death. Cassandra Nova has her own Pixie, Myraid. Wyre and his X-Men just want to see who wants leadership more. Cassandra Nova puts the leadership to a vote. Joseph dons his helmet, but Myraid takes off the helmet, and Cassandra Nova is on the verge of winning, when Beast shows up! He is full Beast mode, but all white to match his Age of Revelation body. He was in a synthetic body, which I still feel like wasn’t fair for the home audience’s guessing game. He reveals the plot of Age of Revelation. We get one splash page of the events, so if anyone is interested, they can check out Amazing X-Men V3 for Cyclops’ journey, The Last Wolverine for Logan Death, and Laura Kinney Sabretooth for her adventure. We get this page, and earlier, we get a few panels of him and Animalia .
They are going to use a virus to turn all humans into mutants, succeed where Doug got the job mostly done.
Beast also knows one other thing, that Schwarzschild will eventually join Cyclops, so he has Wyre’s X-Men kill him, and they don’t even hesitate, so we have successfully splintered from the AoR future.
Issue ends with us seeing their base, which is a cool looking flying saucer above a nice mountain range. Are they near Alaska?
No Magik, but I’m getting the Clayton Crain variant cover, so this issue is a keeper.
It also feels like a big step in the direction this series is going in. Maybe not the franchise as I don’t see X-Men United dealing with this, but maybe? They have Armageddon to hopefully dodge, and whatever the 2026 Comic Giveaway issue is. (so silly of a name)
We’re back! Issue opens with MacKenzie and Kurt, who I really like together. In a lot of relationships, that first kiss is something to really anticipate. But imagine waiting to be bamfed? And four times?! She wasn’t ready for that.
Kurt wasn’t ready for his surprise birthday! I have to remember this issue come November 11, Kurt and Dave Cockrum’s birthday. That splash page is perfect for that post.
I like all of the love Kurt gets this issue.
Logan notices someone at the door, it is Mutina, who wants to join the X-Men. Logan isn’t having it, and they fight. He thinks she is all talk, that she hasn’t killed anyone, but even if that is true, she’s getting closer to finally killing. She has definitely cut some fools, as she gets two clean hits on Logan. Does she have a Nightcrawler like shadow power? She keeps fading into the darkness. Was she born in the darkness, molded by it? Or has she merely adopted the dark? Do the shadows belong to her?
Mutina has done her homework on the Uncanny X-Men.
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As Logan is confronting her, nearly the full cast of The X-Pets comes out. Ember, the dog shaped Sentinel, all of Gambit’s cats. Mutina tries to feed good boy, Ember, but he doesn’t want her food. The cats literally eat up the cat food she brought for them.
Mutina discloses information about The Outliers. She implies Calico burned her family home down, but I feel like that was heavily implied before.
Ransom threw four kidnappers out a window, which we also knew.
Jitter hurt a girl so badly, she can barely walk. I feel like this may have been a bully, which you shouldn’t beat a bully until they can’t walk, but you have to stand up to bullies. Or tell someone at your school, as there should be zero tolerance for that. Or she hurt someone who shouldn’t have been hurt, and there’s a story there.
Where there is a story is Deathdream. He apparently has a brother, and the story is awful. We do know that he is almost on the verge of tears whenever Ransom calls him, brother, so there’s a story there that I want to be told about.
What was in her box? Cupcake or thumbs? It was cupcake!
So, I’m liking Mutina, until I don’t. Logan goes inside, and we see she has a knife up to MacKenzie’s throat. Poor MacKenzie is in tears. Kurt talks Mutina into a duel. Mutina gets a cut on Kurt. He tells her she’ll never be an X-Man, but there is a path, which is odd. So, she could be an X-Man?
Future Scott swaps minds with Present Day Scott. He does optic blast Doug, BUT! Doesn’t even cause him a concussion. He figures out pretty quickly that Future Beast didn’t swap with him. I guess the plan was that Future Beast was supposed to deliver the death blow? Seems not like Cyclops to train for X years, just to fail at this crucial moment. I do like how he had a plan to attack the X-Men, and he succeeds at that rather well. He takes out Quentin Quire first, then Psylocke, who he was most concern about.
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He dodges Juggernaut, realizes how he must succeed, optic blasts Magik, takes her soulsword, rude!,
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He knocks down Glob Herman, and Beast tackles Future Scott.
In prison, and I like how this was teased in Age of Revelation Finale, so we think this is the end of the story, Future Scott is in The Brig. He explains the situation, but no one wants to kill Doug, as there must be a better way.
I really love that Doug and Bei the Blood Moon are creating their own sign language, that’s very cute. Oya reminds Doug of her time on Krakoa, which I appreciate that we haven’t forgotten she was a prisoner during that time.
Future Scott breaks out, and chats with Magneto, who sticks to his story that he is powerless, so which is it? Is he faking it? Is Age of Revelation already a splintered timeline that will be shredded from memory?
Psylocke shows up, and Future Scott is back in The Brig. Doug goes to talk to him, and dumb Future Scott just tells Doug how he’s going to take over the world by simply telling people to obey him, and geez Scott, just give him the directions to rule? This isn’t the Scott I know, which of all of the AoR characters, he is the one character we don’t know.
Issue ends with Doug, Bei, and Warlock simply leaving.
I like how Magik clearly had the thought that she wasn’t going to fight Scott, and after his attack, she grabs her soulsword, and leaves the issue. My head cannon is that she got attacked by him, and decided to go hang out with her brother, Colossus.
I also really like how this issue doesn’t try to sell you on the Age of Revelation crossover. There’s not even an editor box to tell you to read the crossover. Are you interested in where this Future Scott is from? Go check out Age of Revelation. He’s simply a Cyclops from the FUTURE! If you are interested, you can look it up. That is very new reader friendly.
and it is going to be very hard to beat this comic this year for Comic of the Year!
Gerry Duggan, Phil Noto, and Clayton Cowles finally reunites the Shadow, the Flame, and the Magik!
Plus, Joshua Cassara and Marte Gracia treated us to such a fantastic cover.
I thought it was two years since Kate and Lockheed were together, but it has been a full year to the month since Marauders Volume 2 Issue 12. Which is still way too long for my taste.
Then immediately after the third Hellfire Gala, in X-Men V6 25, we get Kate Pryde’s concern for Lockheed :
Which clearly was Duggan setting up that we as Lockheed fans, can expect Lockheed to return . . . eventually.
Well, that eventually, turned out to be seven long long months.
Issue 32 has my favorite cast of characters :
So much so that I’m reorganizing my top ten X-Men to move Emma way up the list.
Kate Pryde with Lockheed
Magik
Nightcrawler
Emma Frost
Storm
Rachel Summers
Cyclops
ForgetMeNot
Wolverine
Rogue
Which I’m still not too thrilled with my last three there, but I think its a solid list. I almost had Emma at three, but I still have to keep my love for Kurt pretty high. Thankfully Uncanny Spider-Man was a delight.
Emma was at a solid six, then I swapped Storm and Rachel around.
Issue opens with exactly where Lockheed has been staying safe :
Lighthouse Keeper Bill (as I’ve been referring to him as) makes a terrific stealth Excalibur reference which I adored.
Next, we catch up with Magik who is invading an Orchis stronghold, looking for a scientist that infected her with nannobots which prevent her from using her powers. Which I did not read X-Men 24, but I read all of Realm of X, including those datapages / lore journals, and not once did they referenced Magik having nannobots inside her – they implied it was the Asgardian land / Saturnyne’s doing that was preventing Magik from using her powers. So I guess it was both?
So Magik finds the scientist, who wants to just kill her instead of helping so. Magik looks exhausted and in so much pain, so she isn’t quick enough to stop him.
Thankfully someone else is!
We get the first of two hugs, which I share twitter friend @GraysonMaximoff’s desire for the Katyana ship to move up to the kissing phase, but that hug is so well earned. The two of them have been separated since the Hellfire Gala.
Polaris comes in for the grand rescue, she removes the nannobots from Magik, and a Stark Sentinel arrives, and the trio has to destroy it.
Emma Frost arrives, and tells them that there is so much to do, but first, she has a gift for Kate :
Which I adore not only this page, and I would love a poster of this page as well, but that Lockheed was able to find Emma, or that he sought her out first, as she would know where Kate is – as they grew extremely close during Marauders Volume One – by far my favorite ongoing series of the Krakoan Era. X-Men Volume Six would probably be my second favorite, I’ll have to think about that, but I can’t think of what would come close.
So that would be the second hug of the issue as well.
There isn’t enough hugging in comics.
I also covered this on the podcast, if you want to hear how much I loved this comic :
Thank you, dear reader, for reading, and listening, and for watching.
I started playing Midnight Suns, and been uploading my progress, as of this writing, I have 13 episodes to be enjoyed.
It has been such an enjoyable game, and I’ve been loving hanging out with Illyana, and she even considers my Hunter to be friends, which thrills me beyond belief.
This comic is filled with one page origin stories, which were actually used in some trades in 2010. The following characters get origins –
Captain America, Steve Rogers
Fantastic Four
Doctor Doom
Amazing Spider-Man
Green Goblin
Thor
Loki
Invincible Iron Man
Incredible Hulk
Avengers
X-Men
Writer Fred Van Lente
Art Leinil Francis Yu
Colors Dave McCaig
Letters VC’s Clayton Cowles
So great that Kitty makes it to the cast of characters.
Daredevil
Doctor Strange Writer Fred Van Lente
Artist Butch Guice
Color Artist Val Staples
Letterer Blambot’s Nate Piekos
Black Panther
Nick Fury
Wolverine
Hawkeye
Mockingbird, sometimes the two facing pages relate to each other and sometimes they do.
Black Widow
Punisher
Black Cat
Ms. Marvel, Carol
Hercules
Luke Cage
Immortal Iron Fist
Moon Knight
Ares
Spider-Woman, Jessica Drew
Ghost Rider
Skaar, Son of Hulk (whatever happened to this guy?)
Iron Man 2 is clearly coming out as there are ads for it and various merchandise.
Pet Avengers Writer Chris Eliopoulos
Artist Ig Guara
Color Chris Sotomayor
Letter Blambot’s Nate Piekos
Lockheed! I miss that purple dragon,, he needs to show up in a comic again!
Deadpool
Power Pack gets a very generous two pages
The Hood
Sentry
Captain America, Bucky Barnes – I like how they start and end with Captain America. It at least gives a reason for not starting with the Fantastic Four – though Cap (both of them) predate the first family by twenty years.
This is the Iron Man title wherein he is trying to figure out who his birth parents are. Tony has caught up to childhood friend and current arms dealer, Cassandra Gillespie. Apparently, her dad may have told her who Tony’s father really was. Are there any golden age characters that could benefit from being placed back in the spotlight as Tony’s parents? They will have to be, right? Also, is Bendis’ reveal going to be who Kieron Gillan had in mind?
One Week Ago. But First! We have to do with the little matter of Tony trying to deal with the fallout of Civil War II’s first issue. Yesterday was the Celestial attack and the after party. Friday is his lady holographic assistant. I like that Magik is getting some good press there, being on multiple news feeds. Really, it was the magic empowered heroes who saved that day.
Tony wants Friday to do a search for who his biological parents are.
She’s been working on this search since Tony found out he was adopted – which would have been nice to have an editorial note stating which issue or trade I can find that information in. A quick Google search reveals that was in Iron Man 17, that way way back in October 2013! Such a long time to not pick up on that again.
Magik continues to be seen on the news coverage.
Tony asks Friday what she has discovered.
Bulgaria. Iron Man lands in the country, on a playground it looks like. I’m not sure why he didn’t go to the American Embassy. Which is in Sofia, Bulgaria.
Iron Man has a fun little exchange with Anna, a nice elderly lady. She can’t believe Tony Stark is in front of her, he asks what her name is and she says “Iron Man” as she is still processing it. He makes a joke about how he’s been called Iron Man, as well, for years. I like those little moments of levity.
He has come to the place where he was adopted from. Does that mean he is Bulgarian? That’s a big get for that country! He had to personally come here as their files have not been digitized. Tony is pretty sure someone took his file, most likely Howard Stark. Which makes complete sense, he’s rich and doesn’t want people to know he is adopting a kid – for business reasons, I’m sure.
Tony mentions how only Howard would know about the adoption. Anna corrects him, his birth parents knew as well. Tony isn’t thinking clearly with this matter.
Auckland, New Zealand. Twenty Years Ago. I imagine that the beginning of this flashback was in the previous issue. Cassandra and Tony are having a fight. Hydra apparently attacked her family, Tony suspects to get at him. Tony is running away from his parents, he thought she was running from her parents but they know where she is. Always good to check in with your parents. Cassandra wanted information about Howard, Tony doesn’t believe he ever mentioned him. Cassandra corrects him, that’s all he ever talked about.
Cassandra, again, tells Tony that she loves him. He doesn’t believe it. Howard shows up in SHIELD flying cars of that era. He doesn’t want the kids talking as Cassandra is a terrorist. Howard brought good ol’ Dum Dum Dugan, who has a sniper rifle pointed at her head. Howard is having SHIELD arrest her. Tony keeps trying to get a word in but classic Howard is shutting Tony down.
Hydra planes fly in and start firing on the SHIELD cars and the Starks. Cassandra runs away. Hydra agents land and grabs Cassandra. They open fire but Howard has a force field, so they are okay.
Bucharest. Gillespie Compound. Today. We see current day Cassandra, who has an eye patch over her left eye. Tony asks her who his biological father is. She has a gun pointing at his head. She reveals that her parents are dead, which surprises Tony. I take it, he didn’t do any research on his old friend.
Cassandra can’t believe Tony isn’t asking her how she is still alive. He goes right into the explanation of how clearly if she’s alive, she’s been working with Hydra. He’s been in the costume slash armor business for a long time now. He didn’t ask as it has nothing to do with the information he seeks.
Tony also knows that Cassandra has summoned Mandroids to their location. Tony originally created Mandroids for SHIELD, I had to look it up. I would have sworn they were AIM created and I was going to write how odd it is that a former Hydra agent now has AIM technology but that isn’t the case. In three minutes, the Mandroids should be arriving.
Cassandra didn’t know Tony was adopted, I imagine most don’t. She’s watched Tony’s superhero career unfold, expecting to run across him at any moment. It never happened.
Cassandra explains how silly it is that both Hydra and AIM are loud about their business practices. She has carved out a corner of the arms market that her clients appreciate is very discrete.
Tony asks if she thinks about him as he thinks about her all the time. I suspect he doesn’t but it is a nice thing to say. Cassandra wonders if Tony really is adopted or if this is some bad intel that he has been given. Which is a good point, I’m not sure of the actual story that revealed that he was adopted. How did that information come out?
Issue ends with the Mandriods arriving. Cassandra can’t let Tony leave as it will hurt her reputation. I suspect he makes it out of there alive.
Shadow and Flame with Magik 