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!
Pages 9-10, 19-20, 33 Jed MacKay, Tony S. Daniel & Mark Morales
Pages 14-15, 26-27, 48 Eve L. Ewing & Federica Mancin
Pages 18, 21-25, 28-32 Saladin Ahmed & Federica Mancin
Pages 36-46, 49 Saladin Ahmed, Cory Smith & Oren Junior
I got the RB Silva variant cover, as Kitty is spotlighted on it.
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Sebastian Shaw is attempting to take back the Hellfire Gala name, and is going to do it in high fashion with a masquerade ball.
I was hoping we’ll get a final page with all of the characters with their new costumes, and their names above their heads.
I don’t think Magik attended this, or I completely missed her.
Rogue takes time to chat with Cyclops.
Oya wasn’t supposed to be here, she just happened to be in town.
Mister Sinister, dressed as an angel, is bored with Shaw, who is dressed as a king. #NoKings
Angel, dressed as a devil, is also there. The mansion’s AI programmed everyone’s costumes, besides Shaw’s.
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We get to see Storm for a panel, and establish Kitty Pryde’s Cat outfit. She looks great here.
Hellion gets a moment.
Cyclops and Psylocke get a dance, and they are very flirty. The dialogue implies she’s going to cheat on Greycrow, but actually, they have a devious other plan. To murder either 3K member, Astra or Joseph, or ideally, both.
These two have intense chemistry though. Does remind me of the Jim Lee X-MEN run, where Betsy, in Kwannon’s body, was flirty with Scott, but he was able to resist, oil licking good as Betsy was. So I like the idea that now that Kwannon is in her proper body, he’s actually attracted to the right mind in the right body.
I also love that it was Emma who insisted on Scott learning to dance. Scemma was truly the best.
Oya and Ransom find each other, and I really like these two. I wish they were not separated by 4,371 miles.
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Page 13, the Kitty & Martinique dance, which is by Saladin Ahmed & Joelle Jones.
The Kitty Pryde subreddit spoiled these images, so I sort of know to expect this, and knowing there was an illusionist, that maybe Shaw wasn’t actually murdered. I kept waiting for a reveal.
I like how Kitty doesn’t recognize Martinique, she recognized everyone else, but it makes sense she wouldn’t know Martinique.
I wouldn’t want Kitty to cheat on Nina, please break up with someone before you cheat on them, that’s just gross.
I would have said I was always more of a Regan Wyngarde / Lady Mastermind fan, of the two sisters, as she’s just pure fun, and Regan is the more serious of the two, which is usually the one I’m more drawn to, but Regan has more page time, and been in more stories that I’ve read. BUT! Martinique Wyngarde having crazy chemistry with Kitty, well now, I have a great reason to love Martinique. You best know that I’m going to be listening to that Cerebro episode again with Alex Abad-Santos.
Cross referencing my League of Comic Geeks with Travis Starnes’ Complete Marvel Reading Order, I’m only missing Emprye X-Men issues 2 & 3 of the issues she’s in that I want for my collection. For whatever reason, I own issue 4, but not issue 1 either, so I should try to buy those first three issues once I’m back in the back issue buying game.
Emma Frost and Namor meet up, and talk about the Seven Virtues and Sins. These two are always a joy.
Logan and Jubilee are the stars of the issue, as they investigate the murder. The Murder of Sebastian Shaw, dun dun DUN!
Shaw was killed by a nerve gas.
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With Shaw’s death, the mansion’s black market security kicks in, and Kitty helps stop some of the defenses.
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So silly having Kitty be the one to say “X-Men aren’t murders.” Frank Bohannan, Director of O*N*E*, is very quick to point out that Kitty herself has killed people.
Toad points to Emma as a prime suspect, as she’s always willing to kill Shaw.
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Kitty and the mutants finally get to see Shaw’s dead body, so we know he’s actually dead. I still, at this point, think this is all an illusion, and Shaw is grinning somewhere.
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I love so much Kitty shipping Emma and Namor. They need a ship name, but I can’t think of one immediately. White Fish, Imperial Frost, something.
Emma doesn’t want Katherine to be crass. I love these two together.
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Emma is already looking forward to never having to think about Shaw ever again.
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So silly Doop up in the sky with his costume. I wish we got a look at his front.
Shaw murdered Kitty, way back in Marauders V1 11, so naturally, she is also a prime suspect, but she was dancing with someone extremely hot wearing a lily mask.
Shame Lockheed wasn’t in this issue, as he was left to drown by Shaw.
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Hellion is quick to accuse 3K’s Astra and Joseph of killing Shaw. Astra mentioned the black market security system, which gives Logan a lead. He tells Jubilee she’s on her own to maintain control of the room.
I hope I captured all of Kitty’s scenes, as I look for her in every panel.
I like that we get a moment with Cyclops, he cancels the mission to kill Astra and Joseph, as the attention is on them, and Shaw is dead, and he doesn’t care about his death, he was scum.
Rogue and Gambit are cute this issue, and maybe bored with the plot? Gambit offers to make her soup or gumbo. Either sounds good to me.
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I love Rogue taking the time to make an Ember reference, as he is a ghost horse.
Logan follows his nose, to Toad, but he assures us, that it isn’t what it looks like. “Jubilee” who looks like what she looks like, but isn’t her, shots Logan.
Turns out we have a new grouping of mutants . . . The Hellfire Brotherhood!
Mystique, who still has some facial scarring, so that’s nice continuity. Destiny, always looking great. Toad. Empath, who is the absolute worst. And . . . Mastermind herself, Martinque! Wha?!
Kitty would work so well in this group.
Mystique explains everything. She was aware of the mansion defenses. She convinced it that she was the real Shaw, and the mansion killed Shaw with the defense nerve gas. He was going to rally the mutants, and the ones who wouldn’t work with him, he was going to use Forge’s perma mutant power gun / technology, and remove any mutants who wouldn’t work with Shaw.
Poor Forge, that gun is his true legacy.
And being one of Storm’s exes.
I was really really hoping Martinque would have interjected with some comment about how she was dancing with a real hottie, and found out who Kitty was. As we don’t ever get them learning about the other. Which is a real shame.
Also, Shaw is super dead.
The mansion defenses finally stop, and the doors open. The room suspects 3K was behind Shaw’s murder.
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Emma and Namor leave as friends.
I like Emma telepathically calling for Rift to get her and Katherine out of here.
Rogue has a nice chat with Oya, telling her that Ransom isn’t as tough as he looks, so please don’t hurt him. Oya was going to have the same conversation with Rogue, which seems odd, she was going to ask Rogue to not have Ransom hurt her? But sure, dialogue is complicated, and I fumble more times than I’m proud of.
I’m really liking this silly new trend of putting the credit page at the end, so that we can have a legit post credit scene.
Turns out, Emma DID kill Shaw, she just overloaded his brain, which would have had the same signs as a nerve gas, so she got lucky there. Logan will keep this a secret, just like how he kept the Hellfire Brotherhood a secret from Jubilee.
This was a lot of fun, and Kitty actually got to do stuff in this issue, so I love that.
Christopher Yost and Tony S. Daniel is bringing us a new Post-Armageddon title, MaXimum X-Men, yes, with the X in Maximum emphasized. Storm is leading Bishop, Iceman, Colossus, Psylocke, though the image makes me think it is actually Betsy Braddock, Logan, and Firestar and Justice. A pretty great cast actually. I like how the cast isn’t gutting any of the current lineups, and I’m pretty sure this is only Logan’s second team since we relaunched with From the Ashes.
Justice is finally an X-Man, and I’m sure he’s going to be whining to Firestar all of the time, but at least she has her amazing friend, Iceman. Iceman being reunited with former Marauders Storm and Bishop.
A pretty great cast.
I keep wanting to type “MaXimum Carnage” as I love that storyline, but I’ll work on that.
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)
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.
Shadow and Flame with Magik 