X-Men: Bloodline


By Brian Wood, Matteo Buffagni, Phil Briones, Clay Mann, Gerardo Sandoval,Seth Mann, Paco Diaz & various (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-622-9

Since its revival in 1975 Marvel’s Mutant franchise has always strongly featured powerful and often controversial female characters, so when the fourth volume of the adjectiveless X-Men launched it was no real surprise to see that the leading line-up comprised exclusively women warriors.

This third collected chronicle, scripted by Brian Wood, re-presents issues #13-17 (from April to July 2014) – a spectacular, all-action five-part thriller ‘Bloodlines’ lavishly illustrated by Matteo Buffagni, Clay & Seth Mann, Gerardo Sandoval and Paco Diaz.

In recent times vampire mutant Jubilation Lee turned up at the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning as a devoted new mother to mystery baby Shogo.

A littler later, in a clash with mutants from the future, Storm’s teenaged daughter appeared, apparently deeply involved with a grown-up Shogo and after the time-bending clash concluded, Kymera opted to stay in our time-period for unspecified reasons of her own.

Now a few of that wonder baby’s secrets are revealed when, in a distant land, the most dangerous man on Earth slaughters his way out of an inescapable jail and heads for America, determined at all costs to reclaim his baby boy…

At the Jean Grey School Jubilee is attending her baby’s latest check-up with resident mutant medical savant Henry McCoy. The Beast has good news about Shogo but is concerned over the foster mother’s state of mind…

The quiet times then end suddenly when one of the students playing in the school grounds is shot by a sniper…

As the facility goes into immediate lock-down and McCoy begins operating to save Primal‘s life, another student – Sprite – is suddenly struck down by a mystery toxin and Jubilee receives a text message threatening death for everyone unless she surrenders Shogo. It is signed “The Future”…

The first three issues also contained a supplementary back-up tale illustrated by Wood & Phil Briones.

Eager to help, a band of older boys head for the Danger Room to prove to combat tutor Psylocke that they are ready to graduate to the big leagues and front lines during this current crisis. However, the ‘Bromo-Superior’ squad of Hellion, Rockslide, Broo and Anole find they may have bitten off more than they can chew against an army of orcs and monsters after Psylocke turns off all the safeguards and makes the test “pass or die”…

Back at the main event wonder woman Monet St. Croix and Marvel Girl Rachel Grey (the alternate Earth daughter of Cyclops and Jean Grey) have tracked down and captured the shooter even as The Beast, out of safe options, opts to use denatured genetic material from ancient alien meteor-borne infection and über-predator Arkea (see X-Men: Primer) to repair the damage done to Sprite and Primal.

It is not a decision he makes lightly…

In a quiet alcove Storm presses the stranger who will be her daughter for information and learns that the threat of The Future is the reason she stayed in this fluid time before her birth. Knowing what the child-obsessed assassin will do, she has gambled everything on changing the past – even if it means committing murder and suicide.

As Kymera’s plan begins, however, the school shudders to a wave of cataclysmic explosions…

In the wake of the destruction the girl from tomorrow briefs Storm and her team on the exact nature of what she’s resolved to prevent and fateful plans are laid to end that fate, whatever the cost…

Unfortunately it all seems futile as, when the seemingly unbeatable assassin makes his move, he cuts through the defenders like a scythe through ripe wheat and casually makes off with Jubilee: a perfect hostage to trade for his boy…

With their testing over, the battered but unbowed Bromo-Superior squad break the fully recovered Primal and Sprite out of the infirmary and – with Psylocke surprisingly backing them – convince Storm to let them all join the pursuit team. The undisputed leader of this latest band of mutant warriors is determined that the future she has heard described will never occur, and if that means blooding the next generation under full combat conditions, then that’s what has to happen…

The trail leads deep into the Adirondack Mountains where The Future and his slavish cult of killers have initiated a deadly prototype techno-organic defence-system. “Bloodline” uses the maniac’s own ichor to animate and turn the environment into a savagely hostile geological attack-dog which psychically renders most of the mutants helpless, but when the fanatical father demands his “property” back in return for Jubilee, Kymera uses little Shogo to pull a supremely risky masterstroke…

With a gallery of covers by Terry & Rachel Dodson, Briones and Paul Renaud, this fast and furious adventure offers clever characterisation, wry laughs, taut tension and a colossal amount of comicbook carnage in a no-nonsense rollercoaster romp of Fights ‘n’ Tights fun mutant mavens and Costumed Drama addicts will adore.
™ & © 2014 Marvel & Subs. Licensed by Marvel Characters B.V. through Panini S.p.A. All rights reserved. A British Edition published by Panini Publishing, a division of Panini UK, Ltd.