By Matt Fraction, Greg Land, Yanick Paquette, Terry Dodson, Jay Leisten, Karl Story & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4105-1 (TPB/Digital edition)
Ever since the spectacular “All-New” revival of 1975, Marvel’s Mutant franchise has always strongly featured powerful and often controversial female characters, and the balance has never rested solely on the side of light.
For every valiant woman – or indeed super-powered, cutely-conflicted teenage girl – fighting the good fight, there has been a shady lady playing for the dark side. This compendium – re-presenting Uncanny X-Men #508-512, and spanning cover-dates June to August 2009 – primarily features a colossal clash between the maligned, misunderstood mutant mavericks and a dastardly coterie of extremely wicked women warriors, whilst also offering a fascinating insight into the occluded history of one of the endangered species’ most enigmatic survivors…
At this point in time, the evolutionary offshoot dubbed Homo Sapiens Superior was at its lowest ebb. As seen in both House of M and Decimation storylines, Scarlet Witch Wanda Maximoff had been ravaged by madness and her own reality-warping powers and – with three simple words – “No More Mutants” – reduced Earth’s multi-million plus mutant population to a couple of hundred individuals…
Most of the remaining genetic outsiders accepted a generous and earnest offer to relocate to San Francisco but, of course, trouble was always happy to make long-distance house calls…
Scripted throughout by Matt Fraction, 4-part saga ‘Sisterhood’– illustrated by Greg Land, Jay Leisten & colourist Justin Ponsor – opens following the shocking news of a massacre in Cooperstown, Alaska. Terrorists have razed the isolated outpost to burning rubble thanks to reports that the first mutant baby since The Decimation had been born there…
Anti-mutant activist and passionate bigot Simon Trask is quick to stir the flames of panic and prejudice with his Humanity Now Coalition pushing the government to end the threat of mutants forever. As hysteria mounts, even previously neutral outcasts start making their way to the mutant enclave of the Greymalkin Industries Facility on the Marin Headlands. However, even with an ever-growing host of feared and despised genetic pariahs housed in her city and the entire population potentially at risk from fanatics and mutant-hunters, Mayor Sadie Sinclair stands firm on her offer of sanctuary…
The dark drama continues in a secluded private cemetery in Tokyo as the Sisterhood of Evil Mutants disinter a body. They are interrupted by probability-bending sometime X-ally Domino whose main talent seems to be landing in the wrong place at the right time.
Sadly, even her odds-altering powers and superspy training are not enough to stop the grave-robbing, and Regan and Martinique Wyngarde (daughters of malevolent illusion-caster Mastermind), psychic assassin Chimera, cyborg assassin Lady Deathstrike, extra-dimensional witch Spiral and the infernal spirit of Red Queen Madelyne Pryor escape with the corpse of legendary ninja Kwannon…
In San Francisco, Henry McCoy convenes his newly convened X-Club: a unique think tank comprising human geneticist Kavita Rao, mutant tech-savant Madison Jeffries, atomic mutation expert Dr. Yuriko Takiguchi and former Nazi-hunting mutant mystery man James Bradley – AKA Doctor Nemesis.
The Beast carefully outlines their goal: finding a means to reactivate and restore the millions of mutants “cured” by the Scarlet Witch. Their first session quickly concludes that she has somehow switched off the power-sparking “X-Gene” in the majority of the mutant population, but they must know more about the origin of their own species before they can turn them all on again…
Elsewhere in the city, the Sisterhood have resurrected the purloined corpse and filled the body with a former soul-host… or at least one of them…
Long ago (in Uncanny X-Men #256-258) priests of ninja cult The Hand mystically transposed the mind of telepath Betsy Braddock – AKA Psylocke – into the physical shell of a lethally effective adherent called Kwannon. The brainwashing/mystic body-swapping turned the English Rose into a sultry, sexy Chinese bodyguard/concubine/siren… and perfect gift for the undisputed overlord of the criminal Orient, The Mandarin.
After much ado, myriad battles and many years, both mind-moved incarnations died in combat, but now the Red Queen has successfully reunited the long-separated soul and form of the elite killer…
As the X-Men reach out – enlisting former Canadian mutant hero and media-savvy global Gay celebrity Jean-Paul Beaubier (former Alpha Flight operative Northstar), the sinister Sisterhood moves on to the next stage of Pryor’s convoluted game-plan…
With the enclave happily acclimatising and being welcomed by mellow Californians, demagogue Trask springs his latest nasty surprise from Washington DC. Proposition X demands legislation to ensure the mandatory sterilisation of mutants and all humans carrying the X-Gene…
The news drives Greymalkin’s younger mutants into a fury, whilst in the science labs cooler heads have devised a potential plan to study the origins of their kind: all they must do is travel back in time and secure blood samples from the first humans to conceive a mutant child…
Outmanoeuvred, the usually reticent and inspirationally obnoxious Bradley is forced to admit having been born in 1906, and that his own parents might well be the most likely prospects…
Before they can act, the Sisterhood attack, using a prisoner in the detention centre to deactivate all psychic security provisions. The devastating assault catches the heroes off guard, but Pryor’s big mistake is underestimating the sheer bloody-mindedness of student heroes X-23, Armor, Pixie and telepathic gestalt the Stepford Cuckoos…
Following that counterstrike, the swift recovery and retaliation of adult X-folk quickly drives the Sisterhood out, but Wolverine is forced to admit that the invaders got what they came for: a lock of hair from Jean Grey that he’s been treasuring since her death. The sample may provide the ghostly Pryor with genetic material needed to grow herself a new body – one with all the power of the nigh-omnipotent Phoenix…
The conclusion (with additional art from Terry & Rachel Dodson) sees desperate X-Men rush to foil the plot and spectacularly triumph, not only ending the terror of cosmic resurrection but incidentally reclaiming one of their own fallen from the grave…
Following that all-out cosmic clash ‘The Origin of the Species’ (limned by Yanick Paquette & Karl Story) offers steam-punk and tragedy as that deferred jaunt to the dawn of the Mutant Age finally gets underway.
Accompanied by restored Psylocke and Archangel, Beast’s “X-Club” of super science geeks pop back to San Francisco in 1906 on an extremely tight deadline to get blood samples from Dr. Nemesis’ parents but stumble into the birth of their worst nightmare…
Inventor Nicola Bradley and wife Catherine have been striving to complete a generator to provide free, unlimited broadcast power for humanity but are increasingly being threatened by thugs and brigands determined to steal it. Cornelius Shaw and his mentor Lord Molyneux are using the sybaritic Hellfire Club to fund Bradley’s experiments but they want his incredible engine for purposes far darker than lighting the world.
Molyneux has visions of mankind crushed under the monstrous heel of a new superior race – “Overmen” – and needs the battery to power his colossal mechanical Sentinel. Against that, even the aberrations-to-come will be helpless…
He’s also behind the attempted raids; hedging his bets in case Bradley cannot complete the job, so when the freakish X-Club show up he knows it’s time to act…
Thankfully – and perhaps instinctively inspired by his wife’s pregnancy – Bradley solves the final problem, but regrets his actions once the Hellfire lords take his device and unleash a marauding mechanical myrmidon upon the populace.
…And that’s when the strangers with wings, blue fur and other incredible abilities reveal themselves…
Concluding in calamity, catastrophe and cruel, heartbreaking irony, this smart slice of time-tampering neatly wraps up a superb sample of Mutant Mayhem: exciting, enthralling and exceptionally entertaining.
This slim, stirring, supremely sensuous Fights ‘n’ Tights tome also offers a selection of cover reproductions and variants by Land, Ponsor, Paquette, Edgar Delgado, Laura Martin, J. Scott Campbell & Stéphane Roux, delivering a treasure trove of treats for all.
© 2009 Marvel Characters In. All rights reserved.