Such a great anniversary issue! We get two stories, one with the Uncanny X-Men, and the back up, an Outlier story.
Writer Gail Simone
Artists David Marquez & Luciano Vecchio
Color Artist Matthew Wilson
Letterer VC’s Clayton Cowles
This is Part 3 of 3 of the Where Monsters Dwell arc. Marcus St. Junior is wrapping up his bed time story.
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I love so much how Becca loves Ember. Her character in the story has a horse, and now she’s very excited.
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Such a cool page of the Outliers as Western characters.
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Seriously, I would buy an ongoing adventure of the Outliers as Western characters series.
We finally get the name reveal of our mystery villain. Agatha Timly, so it was Agatha All Along. It is very odd that we have two Agathas and two Lunas running around the Marvel Universe right now. But we also have multiple Spiders-Man, so these things happen.
Marcus is very brave trying to hold her off with a shotgun.
With the X-Men, Nightcrawler is being attacked by Frankenstein’s Monster, but he’s no longer taking the hits, he’s fighting back.
Morbius is trying to turn Jubilee, but she blasts his serum away.
Gambit is fighting off the Manphibian, until Sadurang eats Manphibian. Gambit willfully gives back the Left Eye of Agamotto. We’re getting close to a years worth of time since the first issue. Comics are very complicated when it comes to time passing.
Rogue fights off Wereverine.
Meanwhile, Waffles is fighting Salem, Agatha’s big wolf. We learn she is from Marvel Spotlight on Werewolf by Night 3, thanks Tom, from 1972. Fandom states her name is Andrea, but she must have changed it to Agatha when she become quasi-immortal.
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I have missed actual Ember so much!
I also really love that Becca has (hopefully) made peace with the fact that she isn’t a monster, she’s a mutant, and proud. And a hero.
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Calico & Ember attack Agatha.
I like Jitter has incorporated calling out her attack move from her Age of Revelation self. I’m not sure if she was given those memories.
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Such an awesome call back to their Western counterparts from mere pages ago (or seen above).
I thought we had lost a few pages, but we’re shown the next page how we got everybody back to Haven House.
Apparently, Agatha had every mesmerized. Logan’s healing factor cured him, and the “monsters” are back to their proper characterization.
Issue ends with Gambit keeping the left Eye of Agamotto, for some reason.
. . .
They Dwell Too in the Human Heart
Writer Gail Simone
David Messina
Color Artist Rachelle Rosenberg
Letterer VC’s Travis Lanham
Nice title hold over from the main story.
Willow is missing, and the police department was hoping the X-Men would help. They are unfortunately in either Alaska, Latveria, or who knows where. The Outliers are here, and they’ll help.
Jitter uses the skills of a French detective to become a human lie detector. Jordy Dukes’ cousin has Willow. The two of them have been killing young ladies for years now.
Deathdream scares the rest of the information out of Jordy.
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Calico, Ember, and Ransom immediately take off to the rescue.
I love Calitter so much! Them referring to each other as girlfriends is such a delight.
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They arrive at the cousin’s trailer, and see they have been buried their victims under slabs of concrete. Poor Becca, she’s not ready for the true horrors of the world.
Ransom goes full hero mode, and takes out the cousin, and save Willow.
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“Even Ember seems glad.” This struck me. Is he not usually a glad horse shaped spirit boy? I don’t like the idea that he’s usually down. I much prefer a mood neutral horse, if he’s going to be anything. Poor guy.
I love this issue so much! It just feels like a continuation of Exceptional X-Men, but on a larger scale.
Issue opens with Emma Frost inviting everyone to Graymatter Lane. We get a look at some of the mutants Emma invited – Gabby Kinney, Storm, 70s Beast, Gambit, Vulcan (maybe?), Jitter, Jubilee, Jamie Maddox, Oya, Shark Girl, Bishop, and Magneto.
Kitty Pryde and Nightcrawler talking, which I miss these two together so much! She’s explaining all of the virtues of Graymatter Lane.
I spotted Calico and Ember walking around!
We get Magik for the one panel she appears in.
Emma explains the goal of Graymatter Lane. Prodigy is the Dean of Curriculum, which is a nice continuation of his NYX plotline.
Kitty missed out on most of Emma’s speech, and Bobby gives her a playful hard time about it. These two are fun together.
Cyclops has a real jerk moment here, as he’s afraid of this many mutants being gathered together. It is NOT reassuring that this entire exercise is powered by Mister Sinister technology. Even though Emma and Axo have worked out all of the kinks with the technology. This is the part that does feel like we’re already building in the self-destruction of the concept. If they have to cancel the book early, this is how they’ll do it.
I do love and appreciate Kitty standing up to Scott, he’s not her leader anymore, they’re equals.
I really really like that Scott left the room, and Kitty followed him out, she’s not done talking to him.
We get the new Danger Room, which is awkward now that there’s an evil Danger Room, well, there’s a Robotic Danger, but also the MacKay Danger Room, and now this Danger Room. There’s some branding situation.
Aminalia and Ben Liu from X-MEN are being trained with the students, which the awkwardness of their age differences, them being practical adults, and them being teenagers, is addressed pretty quickly. They both do need training, and clearly Cyclops isn’t putting in the time.
Are we supposed to know Dryad, Flourish, Loolo, and Galura? They seem new to me. Woofer, we know from the Fall of X, Kate Pryde talked to him on Arrako. Loolo is also from Arrako.
I looked them up.
Dryad first appeared in New X-Men V2 1 (2004).
Flourish first appeared in Storm V3 1 (2014).
Loolo first appeared in X-Men Red V2 6 (2022).
Galura first appeared in Marvel Voices : Pride 2021. She’s the one who was dating Karma.
Nice mix of eras here.
I like how they have New Mutants inspired uniforms from the third volume, where the X goes pass their chests and onto their thighs. The Wolverines are teaching them. Loolo cuts Animalia with a knife, and the blood causes Wolf Club to just lose it. He’s full berserk mode here.
I do like how Bronze has a higher level of respect here, she’s one of Emma’s gals.
I just love that we get the Exceptional students together – Melee, Axo, Bronze, and Rift. They’re mornings could have started off nicer.
We’re introduced to the new Cerebro, it is an Empathy Engine, a cool name is probably incoming. It can detect mutants who have levels of unrest, depression, or isolation. It detects a French mutant, who is on the Luciano Vecchio variant cover that I bought (I’m getting four covers to this issue!). Mal is her name, or maybe it is short for something. Melee gives her an invitation. Mal has a white patch of hair against otherwise black hair. She also has a purple tail? I’m intrigued. Bronze welcomes her to Graymatter Lane.
So everyone has a role here. Axo’s machine detects a new mutant. Rift opens a . . . rift. Melee goes out. Bronze welcomes them in. I like that.
Bronze provides her full name, Mariama LaChance. Maybe Mal’s hair is black up top, and mostly white in the back? She has a very cute white cat plushie.
Some time later. Axo is definitely NOT moping. I like that we get the continuation of his friendship with Sophie that we first saw in the Hellfire Gala. Honestly, this comic just feels like the natural progression of everything that has come before it.
It also has that nice feeling any mutant can just appear here, that I loved so much from the Krakoa era.
Kitty arrives, she has a special mission for Axo. Sophie is coming along too. Axo is definitely not moping.
Verate Headquarters. Chicago, Illinois. Do I love this comic so much because Kitty is actually starring in it? Yes, I’m an easy guy to please, but how great is it that we’re getting a monthly comic with Kitty, after not seeing her since November of last year?!
Kitty is looking for parts. Axo doesn’t like being back to the place where he was tortured by Sinister, I don’t blame him. They hear a tapping.
Kitty introduces Bronze to . . . Marigold! A female clone of Lockheed. She has a gold splotch between her wings. I imagine Lockheed is out in space with his family, so Marigold is who we get to love on Earth. I can also only imagine we’ll get a scene of Marigold meeting Lockheed at some point. She seems aggressively fly over to Bronze, but then calms down.
But it does beg the question. Was that Lockheed we saw in Exceptional X-Men 10? They rescued him from a test chamber, then went back, and discovered Marigold? That must be the sequence of events, but how did they miss her the first time around?
They have to answer these questions, right?
I was worried the Lockheed they found, was a devious clone Sinister created to spy on Kitty, but turns out, that was Lockheed, and hopefully Marigold isn’t a devious clone Sinister created to spy on Kitty. I have some precautions so I don’t fall in love, but heck, Marigold is a cat size purple dragon shaped alien, I’m already built to love that type of dragon. I do appreciate that she has a physical distinction from Lockheed. I would rather it be something front facing so we know which is which on a cover, but also, I’m here for Marigold. Oh, and Kitty was going to name her Martin, for some reason, but Bronze went with Marigold. The only other Marigold I know is Midas’ daughter from Fortnite. Apparently, it is a flower.
Kitty catches up with 70s Beast, who is observing Wolf Club. Maybe the school based in an emotional prism is causing some big emotions? The Wolverines are here too.
The Factory. Merle, Alaska. X-MEN Headquarters. Glob is asking Cyclops about his reservations about Graymatter Lane. (Ideally, I’ll just learn the name of the school, it just feels very new). Cyclops is very against the school, and is burning it down, from what we can tell from the final page. It seems like he shouldn’t be able to have done that. Someone would have stopped him after the first blast, right? I think it is an artistic choice to show what he’s planning. Cyclops is being a real jerk here.
We’re getting Captain America next issue, in a fun time travel story involving Melee.
Graymatter Lane is a mental school, that you physically walk into, is how I’m understanding it. During the Danger Room, they mention how if you get hurt here, you are hurt there, so that’s interesting. We see people walking into the white doors, it isn’t like a place you think of, and then show up in. I think we need to see more of the transition.
Such a great first issue!
When it goes to second printing, and they combine the Stefano Caselli cover, I’m going to have to buy that.
Letterers VC’s Joe Sabino with VC’s Travis Lanham & VC’s Ariana Maher (yes, the VC is before each of their names)
This is a physical print of Luciano Vecchio’s Iceman Infinity comic. I really like how this is everything someone would want in an Iceman comic. I like how Bobby has to fight three generations of Ikthalon. We really into Bobby’s mindset this issue, with his reflections on his life.
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Including a picture of his favorite teammates, including Kate Pryde, I believe.
This comic was during the Krakoa age, so it is nice to get a comic from that era. He fights lava dudes, which is a fun visual contrast with his powers. PuriFire does seem set up to be is arch nemesis. Bobby saves a dude, and gets a smooch as a reward.
One of my favorite aspects of Krakoa was that anyone can appear in any comic without it feeling like approval had to be made first. They were all on the same island, so people could just show up whenever, and it wasn’t supposed to be a big deal. Bobby is having lunch with both Rictor and Northstar, which is pretty cool. Bobby reflects on his, and this gets a little complicated, his Inhuman boyfriend, Romeo, that his time displaced younger self dated. Then his Amazing Friend, Firestar, shows up. This is before she joined X-Men in Volume 6, she’s just here to use the gates. She’s not ready to abandon her non-mutant father (as flatscans weren’t allowed to live on Krakoa, which still feels messed up). No Spider-Man appearance, but I’m always happy to get Firestar. They rescue some folks. Some debris knocks Iceman out.
Iceman wakes up, to find an aged up Romeo! He’s been aged up due to Inhuman nonsense, but now they’re the same age! So that’s nice. They immediately start hooking up.
While out and about, they come across Julian from the 2021 Reptil series, thanks to a very helpful editorial box. Her favorite mutant is Rictor. Sure.
A giant beast shows up, Iceman attacks it, but Romeo has empathic powers (but uses them for good, unlike gross Empath), and turns out, the giant create woke up early from its hibernation, and was panicked. Iceman creates a nice cocoon for the big fella, and all is good again.
I like the idea the World Council would seek out Iceman to help with Earth’s climate problems, after he terraformed Mars. Earth is very much populated, so he can’t just turn deserts into gardens. So that answers why he doesn’t do that, for some folks out there.
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Iceman’s father is dying, and tries to get to him as fast as possible. On his way through a gate, we see Magik and the New Mutants, including Karma, who I love to see. Mr. Drake is so racist, he refuses to take the mutant medication (which is a good thing, as he would have ended up being a pawn of Sinister’s), and dies. Mr. Drake is the worst, so at least we’re done with him now.
In his grief, Bobby hooks up with Christian Frost. We get a fun Kate Pryde reference, as Bobby doesn’t want any adventures at this time, and any calls from Kate or Romeo can wait.
Iceman has a fun adventure with Teen Loki, who is a prisoner of the third Ikthalon, who is a cool edgy teenager. Loki has to deal with his frost giant of a father, Jotunheim. But since this is an Iceman comic, Ikthalon turns Jotunheim into Bobby’s father, so he does get to take his anger out on something he can hit.
Iceman goes on some other adventures, takes out Nuclear Man, then Abomination. He’s doing hero stuff.
He even assists the Avengers (Captains Marvel & America, Iron Man, and Black Panther). We get an awesome image of Silver Surer and Iceman together. Iceman uses too much of his omega power, and needs his friends, Northstar & Firestar to help calm him down. I like that it is Christian Frost and Romeo that get through to him. A nice mutant circuit there. Issue ends with Iceman just being great.
Then we get a reprints of Vecchio’s Pride pages, and short stories. The short story is a history of LGBTQ+ superheroes, told through Prodigy.
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Final page is a house ad promoting X-Men United, stating Iceman will appear, so Eve Ewing must also be a big Iceman fan. It is the Stefano Caselli image, surrounded by ice, so Lockheed barely is seen on the very right edge.
Such a great comic! Here is hoping many many people buy it, so that we can get Lovable Lockheed and Strange Tails printed.
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.
Shadow and Flame with Magik 