Category: X-Men

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Wolverine: Killable


By Paul Cornell, Alan Davis, Mirco Pierfederici, Mark Farmer & Karl Kesel (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-541-3

Perennially punching-above-his-weight, feral fury James Howlett, AKA Logan, AKA Wolverine has been many things in his very long life, but some of the most significant changes have only occurred in recent years.

Possibly the most significant new deal comes in this cruelly cutting collection written by Paul Cornell which was originally released as issues #7-13 of Wolverine volume 5 (cover-dated September 2013 to March 2014) and presaged a new look, new title and potentially new character to come…

At the conclusion of the previous saga the Canadian Crusader and a desperate coterie of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents had repulsed an invasion by a sentient virus from an incredible alien “microverse” which almost united humanity under one all-dominant intellect.

However, although Wolverine’s astounding healing factor had proven crucial in defeating the infective invasion, the defeated pathogenic plunderer had managed to turn off his mutant healing ability in the final encounter, leaving the formerly immortal warrior little more than a tough old guy with enhanced senses and really heavy metal bones…

Before this transformative  unfolds, ‘Mortal’ (illustrated by Mirco Pierfederici & Karl Kesel) describes how the barely recuperating James Howlett adapts to his new normal and realises for the first time just how much of his previous moment-to-moment existence revolved around instantly healing from everything ranging from a shaving cut to jumping off a building.

Now aging and feeling constant and protracted niggling pain, he realises he has to unlearn all the instincts and reactions of at least one lifetime. He simply cannot fathom how to continue as a hero and hunter, no matter how much advice is offered by the likes of sympathetic comrade warriors Nick Fury Jr., the Beast, Thor and Storm…

Rattled, unsure and perhaps afraid for the first time in his life, he doesn’t need the call to arms that comes when the news arrives that mutants and metahumans who can control viruses are being systematically murdered all over the planet…

Alan Davis & Mark Farmer return to illustrate the 6-part ‘Killable’ which begins as Wolverine sneaks a hand-picked team into African world power Wakanda, seeking to steal crazed criminal The Host from custody.

She is the last remaining being with the power to affect micro-organisms…

S.H.I.E.L.D. needs to confirm that the recently repulsed Virus has returned and may be controlling one of the most technologically advanced and paranoid nations on Earth but as Storm, Fury and unflappable surgeon Victoria Frankenstein (she pronounces it “Fronken-schteen”) spring the incarcerated metahuman, Wolverine is inevitably confronted by the lethally efficient Black Panther and is soon in a ferocious fight he can’t win.

With some relief he accepts a truce when the Feline Avenger offers it. It seems the Panther was well aware of the viral threat and was simply using the infiltration to make it tip its communal hand…

However even as the mission winds down Wolverine receives a shocking communication. Murderous mutant Mystique has invaded his home at the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning and threatened the students under his care…

By the time he reaches America it’s all over, but instead of killing kids the spitefully manipulative witch has simply trashed all his possessions and stolen his most treasured memento – an ancient Katana.

It doesn’t take much to deduce her motives. She’s messing with his head whilst issuing a challenge on behalf of her new boss Sabertooth…

Victor Creed is Wolverine’s most despised and tenacious foe, possessed of the same powers and skills he once boasted but now leader of a manic deviant sect of ninja cult The Hand…

Promising the assembled X-Men not to do anything stupid, Wolverine nevertheless sneaks off to track down Creed and his sword. He hasn’t fooled Kitty Pryde however and she follows him, even as elsewhere S.H.I.E.L.D. technos attempt to weaponise the furiously unstable Host in their plan to destroy the Virus which is slowly taking over the planet…

It’s clearly open season on Wolverine. En route to his rendezvous with Mystique his aircraft is blasted out of the sky by mercenary Batroc the Leaper who sees an easy chance to enhance his rep by killing the most infamous mutant on Earth. Instead the blistering battle only inspires Logan to some semblance of his former combative self. He and Kitty continue their pursuit of Creed’s creatures to Montana where another ambush – by acupuncture assassin Fiber – is narrowly circumvented, but not without more long-term damage to Wolverine’s ailing body…

The world is falling city by city to the Virus as The Host’s power slowly builds, and as she marshals her expanding resources she lets slip that only the microversial microbe monster could restore Wolverine’s healing factor…

Mystique’s trail leads to Alberta, Canada and a shopping mall built on the site of the estate where James Howlett was born in the 18th century. Wolverine’s birthplace seems like a suitably poetic venue for a final showdown, but the innocent bystanders still inside only add distraction and potential disaster to the mix.

Reluctantly enlisting the aid of local cops, Pryde and Wolverine search the near-deserted complex and are not surprised when the building goes into lockdown, trapping them in the dark with fanatical ninjas and a gauntlet of aggrieved old enemies including Lord Deathstrike and Silver Samurai.

The embattled mutants are also keenly aware that shapeshifting Mystique could be any one of their enemies… or allies…

And in the greater world S.H.I.E.L.D.’s latest data indicates that the Virus is only thirty minutes away from infecting the entire world’s population…

As Kitty and Wolverine battle for their lives in Canada, the hyper-energised Host is deployed to attack the Virus, but that means little to exhausted, punch-drunk, pushed beyond his limits Logan who abandons every vestige of humanity in his struggle to survive.

And when he is at his lowest ebb, Sabertooth attacks…

Beaten, crushed and demoralised, Wolverine lies bleeding on the floor as one of the bystanders approaches him.

The body is the last host of the defeated and globally retreating Virus. With no chance of victory it offers to restore his healing powers and return him to all he was if he will only offer it sanctuary…

As Wolverine sees another bizarre vision of the cosmic observer known as The Watcher (indicating that whatever is going on it’s of significance to the entire universe), he croaks “No”…

To Be Continued…

Non-stop visceral action and shocking suspense carry this explosive yarn from high-octane start to explosive finish and this gripping yarn also includes a beautiful gallery of covers and variants by Davis & Farmer, Matthew Waite, Leinil Francis Yu and David Lopez. Also upping the entertainment ante are the now-standard added extras provided by of AR icon sections (Marvel Augmented Reality App) which give access to story bonuses once you download the code – for free – from marvel.com onto your smart-phone or Android-enabled tablet.

™ & © 2013 and 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.

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House of M Ultimate Edition


By Brian Michael Bendis, Olivier Coipel, Tim Townsend & various (Marvel/ Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-0-184653-582-6

Once upon a time the mutant Scarlet Witch married the android Vision and they had – through the agency of magic and Wanda Maximoff‘s undiagnosed ability to reshape reality – twin boys. Over the course of time it was revealed that her sons were not real, and as the years passed the shock of that revelation drove her insane.

After tipping completely over the edge Wanda engineered the destruction of her other family – the vast and varied assemblage of superheroes called the Avengers – and even caused the death of former husband and some of her oldest friends.

The World’s Mightiest Heroes were shut down and rebooted in a highly controversial storyline known as Avengers Disassembled, which resulted in the formation of both The New and Young Avengers. The publishing event also spilled over into the solo titles of team members and affiliated comicbooks such as the Fantastic Four and Spectacular Spider-Man, which all ran parallel story-arcs to accompany the Big Show.

Said Show consisted of the worst day in the team’s history as the Witch manipulated people and events: betraying her oldest, closest companions and causing the destruction of everything they held dear. The chaos-storm was only ended when mystic master Doctor Strange and mutant patriarch Charles Xavier took the dazed and crazed Wandainto their personal care.

This follow-up company crossover conjunction – released originally and primarily as an 8-issue miniseries from August to November 2005 – saw reality rewritten again as Wanda apparently had another major lapse in concentration; rejigging history such that mutants now dominated a society where normal humans (“sapiens”) were an acknowledged evolutionary dead-end living out their lives and destined for extinction within two generations. Moreover her true father Magneto ruled the mutants, head of a glorious dynasty which exerted political control over the entire planet.

It took a dedicated band of heroes and a great deal of luck to put that genie back in a bottle, but in the aftermath almost no mutants were left…

Re-presenting the core fortnightly miniseries House of M this Ultimate Edition also contains covers and variants by Esad Ribic, Joe Quesada, Terry Dodson, John Cassaday, Brandon Peterson, Mike McKone, Greg Land, Salvador Larocca, Chris Bachalo and Joe Madureira, as well as a critical overview of the tale and its attendant spin-off miniseries entitled ‘The Legacy of the House of M’, but annoyingly only a quarter of The Pulse – an inspired 12 page faux issue of that world’s top mutant gossip mag, which offered engaging and pertinent snippets of congruent stories in other titles…

Following a handy scene-setting recap page the drama begins in devastated former mutant homeland Genosha, where Xavier frustratedly admits that his psychic surgeries are not helping Wanda.

The desire to restore her non-existent children is too strong and she constantly tinkers with reality to make her whims real. After much impassioned debate with her despondent father Magneto and brother Quicksilver, Professor X finally admits defeat and considers other options…

Meanwhile in New York Wonder Man, Ms. Marvel and The Falcon visit the New Avengers at Stark Tower preparatory to the latest iteration of the team going public. Thus they are on hand when the X-Men come calling: summoned by Xavier to discuss the final fate and disposition of the Scarlet Witch.

In Genosha her father and brother argue on: one seeing no option but the final sanction and the other determined that Wanda must not die.

Opinion is just as divided amongst Avengers and X-Men. Unable to reach a decision, the assemblage opt to visit Wanda and try to get through to her one last time, but by the time they reach Genosha she is gone.

Fearing the world might end at any second they frantically search until they are all consumed by a blinding light…

The second chapter begins in a very different New York, where decrepit nonagenarian war hero Steve Rogers draws a well deserved pension, millionaire celebrity Peter Parker, his wife Gwen and their son Richie as well as May and Ben Parker all live in lofty luxury and teeming billions of mutants run the world, all safeguarded and policed by colossal robotic Sentinels…

All the heroes who sought out the Witch now live perfect lives that match their deepest, most secret hearts’ desires, but there is a painful undercurrent of tension amongst the rapidly declining, soon to be extinct Homo Sapiens…

Wolverine awakes screaming. His greatest desire has always been to recover his lost memories: destroyed and discarded by more than a century of brainwashing, mind-wiping and intervention by a succession of sinister enemies. As consciousness returns he remembers everything.

Especially how a moment ago the world was completely different…

In this new universe he is leader of an elite team of mutant peacekeepers. The Red Guard are the prime enforcers of the House of M and agents of the Royal Family of Magneto: de facto rulers of Earth.

Appalled, he leaps from the ominous floating aircraft carrier dominating New York and plunges to Earth…

Healing factor in overdrive he then lurches through the streets of the city searching for Xavier and a solution to this insurmountable problem. Hard on his heels are his former subordinates in the Red Guard, all convinced their ruthless commander has gone crazy.

In his frantic flight, the desperate fugitive stumbles into old comrade Luke Cage who is, in this world, a cunning gangster leading a band of human rebels fighting mutant oppression. Shockingly, amongst his motley crew is masked archer Hawkeye – one of the cruellest casualties of the Scarlet Witch’s first killing spree…

Playing with his grandchild in the idyllic paradise of Genosha, Magneto is unaccountably troubled at the perfection of his existence even as, in New York, Sentinels track and attack Cage’s “Human Avengers”. Thanks to teleporter Cloak, Wolverine and a few of the gang escape, taking with them a strange little girl named Layla Miller.

She is a mutant and amongst her arcane and undisclosed power-set is the ability to reawaken a person’s memories of the world Wanda overwrote…

Convinced Magneto had used his crazy daughter to remake the world to his advantage, Wolverine is exultant to have a weapon that can offset all the dictator’s advantages, and with Cage begins tracking down and restoring his former allies. The game plan remains unchanged: find Xavier and use his telepathic powers to force the Witch to restore the real world.

In Genosha, meanwhile, Magneto again finds himself drawn to the simple tomb of his greatest friend and occasional enemy Charles…

The next stage in Wolverine’s campaign is to use his now restored and grimly determined Avenger and X-Men allies to take control of the helicarrier above New York, piloting it to Genosha and engaging the House of  M’s forces whilst Layla works her own special mutant magic and reawakened mystic master Stephen Strange deals with Wanda…

Throughout the horrifying ordeal everybody involved has assumed that Magneto made his daughter reorder reality to suit his dark ambitions, but the Doctor’s confrontation shockingly reveals a different hand and motive behind the grand change and, as the universe begins to unravel once more, the appalled and furious Master of Magnetism unleashes his own power against the traitor who betrayed his friends, family, species and planet…

…And at the heart of the chaos and carnage Wanda Maximoff, whether at the peak of her madness or in a chilling moment of clarity, utters three little words.

“No more Mutants”…

Dawn breaks on New York City and all the battered participants at the centre of the apocalyptic struggle awake in their own – as far as they know – proper beds. For those that remember, the world seems back to its true state, but after gathering together the shell-shocked protagonists compare notes and realise some things don’t jibe.

Wolverine still has all the memories of his long and previously clouded life; Wanda has vanished; there is evidence that Hawkeye might be alive again and, most unbelievable of all, the almost one million members of the mutant sub-species are now only human.

Across the Earth less than 200 super-powered Homo Superior remain. Governments are scrabbling to process the fact and form policies whilst the pedagogues of the religious right claim God has smitten the unclean and exhort decent – human – men and women to finish the good work…

Scientist Henry Pym has an even more chilling warning. Reminding us of Einstein’s dictum “Energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only be changed from one form to another”, he ominously ponders on where all the powers, radiations and assorted exotic energies formerly wielded by the ex-mutant population have gone…

To Be Continued…

Although Marvel continuity was skilfully interwoven throughout the event, this particular tale stands alone perfectly without any need to refer to the many attendant miniseries: offering an engaging, fast-paced thriller by Brian Michael Bendis, Olivier Coipel & Tim Townsend, brimming with tension and stuffed with bombastic action

House of M is an action-packed, spectacular adventure that will delight lovers of epic Fights ‘n’ Tights fantasy and beguile casual readers looking for an easy entry into the madcap world of Costumed Dramas.

™ & © 2005 and 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.

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X-Factor volume 6: Secret Invasion


By Peter David, Larry Stroman, Valentine De Landro, Nelson, Vincenzo Cucca & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-2865-6

Since its debut in 1982, X-Factor has been the irresistibly cool and perfect umbrella title for all manner of Marvel mutant teams. Arguably the most impressive and enduring was created by writer Peter David in 2006; blending stark action, cool mystery, laugh-out-loud comedy, fantastic Fights ‘n’ Tights action and even social issues into a regular riot of smart and clever Costumed Drama.

The core premise saw Jamie Madrox, the Multiple Man – a former member of the Federally controlled iteration of the team – appropriating the name for his metahuman detective agency: X-Factor Investigations. Setting up shop in the wake of “The Decimation”, he and his perpetually fluctuating team began by trying to discover why most of the world’s mutants had become normal humans overnight…

What We All Knew: Marvel crossover event House of M saw reality overwritten when mutant Avenger Scarlet Witch had a mental breakdown, changing history and reality so that “Homo Superior” out-competed base-line humans and drove the “sapiens” to the brink of extinction.

It took every hero on Earth, a huge helping of luck and a strange little girl named Layla Miller to correct the situation, but in the aftermath, less than 200 super-powered mutants remained on Earth…

This alien-infested endeavour gathers X-Factor volume 3, #33-38 (spanning September 2008-March 2009) plus a crossover from She-Hulk volume 2 #31, and finds Madrox and Co. relocated to scenic Detroit (hoping to avoid Government interference from old boss and current Office of National Emergency supremo Valerie Cooper) and about to walk into a world of trouble…

Scripted throughout by David, the adventure opens with the extended saga ‘He Loves You’ and ‘The Darwin Awards’ – illustrated by Larry Stroman & John Sibal – wherein ultra-adaptive mutant Armando Muñoz and his obnoxious new friend Longshot are chilling in the streets and getting into trouble.

In truth, the luck-bending former X-Man is causing the trouble by provoking a fight with a street gang, in order to see how his new pal Armando can handle himself…

Across town XF Investigations – consisting of Jamie, Guido “Strong Guy” Carosella, Theresa “Siryn” Rourke, de-powered mutant Rictor and multi-powered super-woman Monet St. Croix (AKA “M”) are talking to their latest client.

Hector Muñoz isn’t the best dad in the world but after too long apart he wants to be reunited with his estranged son. The firm are his last hope of seeing his little Armando again…

They take the case and soon realise their client’s son is one of Earth’s few remaining empowered mutants. They know him as Darwin…

Even as they start tracking him down, Madrox is confronted by Valerie Cooper. Not only has she tracked them to Detroit but she threatens to tell the rest of his team of truth about the XFI’s relationship to O*N*E unless they drop the case immediately and take on a mission for her…

Out on the streets Darwin has escaped the incensed thugs and reunites with Longshot. Although his gift is to instantly evolve to survive any threat, his power is non-selective and he has no idea his companion is actually a shape-shifting Skrull, part of an advance force targeting Earth’s metahuman protectors…

Since Fantastic Four #2 the Skrulls have been a pernicious cornerstone of the Marvel Universe. After decades of use and misuse the insidious infiltrators were made the stars of a colossal braided mega-crossover event beginning in April 2008 and running through all the company’s titles until Christmas.

The premise of Secret Invasion was simple: the former intergalactic empire had been crippled and scourged by a devastating catastrophe which destroyed much of their power, and subsequently underwent a mass fundamentalist religious conversion. They became utterly resolved and dedicated to make Earth their new homeworld – just as their ancient scriptures foretold.

To this end they gradually replaced a number of key Earth denizens – most notably superheroes and villains. When the plot was first uncovered no defender of the Earth truly knew who was on their side…

Moreover the Skrulls had also unravelled the secrets of Earth magic and humanity’s unique genetics, creating amped-up equivalents to Earth’s mightiest heroes. During this period they hid amongst us, primed and able to destroy the world’s champions in head to head confrontations.

Not all Skrulls were fanatics however. Earth unknowingly harboured a few dissidents opposed to the new regime and one of them – Jazinda – had been befriended by former Avenger Jennifer Walters.

In She-Hulk volume 2 #31 ‘The Darwin Awards’ continued (with art by Vincenzo Cucca & Vincenzo Acunza) as the jade giantess and her alien assistant hit Detroit looking for a Skrull scout called Talisman and stumble into an ill-tempered clash with X-Factor just as the bizarre gumshoes locate Darwin.

The evolutionary dupe has no idea She-Hulk and Jazinda’s prey is actually his new best buddy Longshot…

As the battle inevitable escalates in X-Factor #34, Talisman is forced to reveal himself and explain that he was trying to get the baffled Darwin to convert to the Skrull cause, but he has seriously overestimated Armando’s sense of isolation and underestimated She-Hulk’s determination to kick his alien ass…

With the invader in captivity, #35 slows the pace with ‘Best Intentions’ (Stroman & Sibal) as Armando is reunited with his father and Madrox goes home happy with a cheque.

Soon after, however, Madrox, Rictor and Monet are called to a hospital where Hector Muñoz is fighting for his life. With no other option, Jamie has M use her psionic powers to probe the comatose man’s memories to find out what happened to him and the missing mutant…

Back at the office Guido opens the door to find Longshot and goes ballistic. It takes a hilarious while to convince him that this lucky star is the real deal, unerringly drawn to Detroit by his mercurial probability-altering gifts…

And in a hidden lab facility a very nasty gentleman named Mr. Maru and his Karma Project biologists are performing extremely unpleasant experiments on a subject who agonisingly adapts and evolves to each and every invasive procedure and torturous test…

Longshot is a creature from another reality and his most annoying power – for guys at least – is that all women find him irresistible.

A more welcome talent is his psychometric vision which allows him to view past scenes. With it he backtracks Hector’s movements to the moment when Darwin was abducted and sees with horror how the senior Muñoz sold his son to the Karma Project and got a bullet for his troubles…

Valentine De Landro & Craig Yeung assume the artistic duties for ‘The Big Bang’ as the incensed detectives trail Darwin, whilst in Maru’s facility the terrible trials are rapidly pushing the ever-evolving captive into more dangerous and unmanageable adaptations. When Madrox and Co. arrive, their rescue of Darwin takes a typically violent turn…

Back at the office, Theresa, heavily pregnant with Jamie’s baby, has been on light duties. The last thing she needs is a confrontation with Cooper, who threatens to confiscate her unborn child for government use…

The story continues in #37, with the team wading through Maru’s paramilitary forces and successfully liberating Darwin.

Usually Jamie’s duplicates are obedient even whilst displaying some degree of autonomy. The frequently personify some of his own characteristics, but these days are increasingly going their own way.

When one of them severely oversteps the mark and sadistically executes a Karma soldier, the detective knows there’s more trouble in store…

First though, having fought their way in, the heroes have to fight their way back out, a problem exacerbated by the Karma Project’s latest innovation: hordes of once-human cannon fodder genetically altered to employ Darwin’s adaptation ability…

Back at the ranch, Theresa and Val’s “civil” conversation goes seriously bad, culminating in a crisis when her waters break…

The drama concludes for now with ‘Smart Business’, illustrated by Nelson, Stroman & Sibal, as the battle in the rogue lab is ended in a most unconventional manner whilst Rictor and Theresa’s dash for the hospital is misinterpreted by the amassed Feds from O*N*E and results in a manic gunfight and a shocking casualty…

To Be Continued…

Brash, thrilling, compulsive and always maturely hilarious in a way most adult comics just aren’t, X-Factor is a splendid of Fights ‘n’ Tights fantasy for everyone who loves superhero soap operas, and this volume comes with a covers-&-variants gallery by Boo Cook, Mike Mayhew & Andy Troy and Mike Deodato Jr. & Rain Berado.
© 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Uncanny X-Men: Breaking Point


By Kieron Gillen, Terry & Rachel Dodson, Carlos Pacheco, Ibraim Roberson, Cam Smith, Dan Green & Nathan Lee (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-5226-2

Most people who read comics have a passing familiarity with Marvel’s fluidly fluctuating X-Men franchise so even newcomers or occasional consumers won’t have too much trouble following this particularly well-crafted jumping-on tome.

At this juncture, the evolutionary offshoot dubbed Homo Superior was at its lowest ebb. This followed the House of M and Decimation storylines wherein Wanda Maximoff (former Avenger Scarlet Witch, ravaged by madness and wracked by her own chaotic reality-warping power) reduced the world’s entire mutant population to a couple of hundred individuals with three simple words…

Whilst the majority of Earth’s mutants were rendered human, the freakish few remaining accepted an earnest offer to relocate to San Francisco: reconciled to self-imposed exile on Utopia Island in the Bay. Gathered in a defensive enclave and led and defended by the X-Men, they still found that trouble was always happy to follow them…

Although they were invited by the forward-thinking Mayor and generally welcomed by most of the easygoing residents of the city, tensions grew as leader Cyclops ran the colony in an ever more draconian and militaristic manner.

His relationship with war-weary second-in-command Wolverine was slowly, inexorably deteriorating as they squabbled over methods and ideology for the imperilled X-nation, each interpreting the idealistic, Cooperative Co-existence dream of Professor Charles Xavier in increasingly different ways…

This sleek, slim compilation – written throughout by Kieron Gillen – re-presents Uncanny X-Men #534.1 and Uncanny X-Men #535-539 (cover-dated June to August 2011) and details the fate of young veteran Kitty Pryde who, at the time of this tome, was trapped in an intangible state and unable to communicate or interact with her fellows.

This was especially painful for her as she had just rekindled an intimate relationship with her childhood sweetheart Piotr Rasputin, the steely giant known as Colossus.

First, however, PR guru and supreme spin doctor Kate Kildare has a new, almost impossible brief.

Infamous outlaw mutant terrorist Magneto is now an X-Man living on Utopia and she has the unenviable task of “selling” him as a reformed and benevolent character to the watching, distrustful world…

Fortunately for everybody concerned, a splinter group of Advanced Idea Mechanics has picked this very moment to blackmail San Francisco’s business community with an “Earthquake machine”, so the Mayor asks the mutant refugees for a big favour…

Illustrated by Carlos Pacheco, Cam Smith, Dan Green & Nathan Lee, this bright and breezy caper offers plenty of thrills and a few clever surprises whilst restating the mutant paradigm for new and old fans alike.

The main body of this compelling compilation concerns the 4-part ‘Breaking Point‘ – limned by Terry & Rachel Dodson – which sees the war-loving aliens from The Breakworld come to Earth.

Their last clash with the X-Men resulted in Kitty’s present impermanent state and only concluded after Colossus crushed their brutal leader Powerlord Kruun in personal combat. Now months later, a vast colony ship warps into human space, claiming to carry refugees fleeing the collapse of their unique social order and meekly seeking sanctuary…

Their planetary civil war occurred because Piotr, after maiming Kruun, refused to stay and rule over Breakworld…

With the sarcastic assistance of Abigail Brand, Director of the Sentient World Observation & Response Department, the asylum-seeking newcomers are transferred from The Peak (Earth’s orbital defence outpost) to Utopia and seem to be genuinely attempting to assimilate.

Unfortunately, proud, shamed Kruun soon surrenders to a momentary weakness of will and attacks his despised benefactors. Within minutes the supreme soldier has overcome the X-Men, gravely wounded Colossus and even found a way to harm Pryde in her untouchable state…

Watching Rasputin bleed out, Kitty flees seeking aid and, while the ever-vigilant Wolverine tackles the resurgent Powerlord, strikes a shocking deal with Kruun’s adored and tragic paramour Haleena…

Despite all the grim portents, this gripping thriller surprises with a relatively happy ending all round, before artist Ibraim Roberson closes out the collection with the gritty fable ‘Losing Hope’.

The X-enclave was ecstatic when Cyclops’ daughter Hope was born. As the first new mutant since Decimation she was heralded as a Messiah – before being snatched away and reared in the far future by her half-brother Nathan Summers AKA doomsday warrior Cable.

She returned soon after as a rather rebellious teenager to lead a small gang of other Homo Superior newborns. She also had a dangerously valuable gift: she could kickstart mutant powers…

Here the dour, dutiful, fun-loathing lass is convinced by BFFs Transonic and Oya to go shopping on the mainland, only to be abducted by former X-foe Crimson Commando. When the brutal WWII super-soldier lost his mutant abilities during Decimation, his long years and numerous surgical augmentations began to agonisingly catch up to him. He expects Hope to reactivate his X-Gene and won’t take no for an answer…

Although he was prepared for Wolverine to track and fight him, the Commando utterly underestimated Hope’s stubborn resistance to torture and ruthless manner in dealing with threats…

Graced with a beautiful covers-&-variants gallery by Pacheco, the Dodsons, Simone Bianchi, Humberto Ramos, Edgar Delgardo & Dave Johnson, Breaking Point is exciting, enthralling and exceptionally entertaining: a stirring, supremely sensuous sublimely illustrated slice of mutant mayhem that is another stunning example of Fights ‘n’ Tights fantasy for fans and dabblers to marvel at.
© 2011 Marvel Characters In. All rights reserved.

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X-Factor volume 9: Invisible Woman Has Vanished


By Peter David, Bing Cansino & Valentine De Landro (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4656-8

Since its debut in 1982, X-Factor has been the irresistibly cool and inarguably perfect umbrella title for all manner of Marvel mutant teams. One of the most engaging was created by writer Peter David in 2006; always blending stark action, cool mystery, laugh-out-loud comedy and even social issues into a regular riot of smart and clever Fights ‘n’ Tights fiction.

The core premise saw Jamie Madrox, the Multiple Man – a former member of the government-controlled iteration of the team – appropriating the name for his specialist metahuman private detective agency: X-Factor Investigations. Setting up shop in the wake of “The Decimation” he and his constantly fluctuating team began by trying to discover why most of the world’s mutants had become normal humans overnight…

Marvel crossover event House of M saw reality overwritten when mutant Avenger Scarlet Witch had a mental breakdown, changing history so that “Homo Superior” out-competed base-line humans and drove the “sapiens” to the brink of extinction. It took every hero on Earth and a huge helping of luck to correct the situation, but in the aftermath, less than 200 super-powered mutants remained on Earth.

Originally debuting as X-Factor volume 3, the series was renumbered after 50 issues -magically becoming #200 of volume 1 with the next issue – and this sterling compilation gathers that issue and #201-203 (spanning December 2009 to March 2010), finding Madrox and most of his team relocated from Detroit to New York and about to walk into a world of trouble…

Illustrated by Bing Cansino, Marco Santucci & Patrick Piazzalunga, the story begins after a very grave prologue (that’s a pun, son) as up past bedtime little kids Franklin and Valeria Richards turn up at X-Factor Investigations in need of adults who will listen…

Even scarily brilliant and cosmically powered children have trouble getting grown-ups to take them seriously, so when the offspring of Mr. Fantastic and Invisible Woman can’t get The Thing or the Human Torch to listen to their concerns they go looking elsewhere…

The team (consisting of Guido “Strong Guy” Carosella, shapeshifter Darwin, extra-dimensional warrior Shatterstar, de-powered mutant Rictor, lucky star Longshot and multi-powered mutant super-woman Monet St. Croix AKA M) are working through some issues of their own, but Madrox sagely offers to take the kids back and check things out…

Former X-Factor stalwart Siryn is gone. She’s still coming to terms with carrying – and horrifically losing – Madrox’ baby and doesn’t want to see him, especially as he’s completely obsessed with enigmatic missing teammate Layla Miller.

Not only is “Butterfly” another unwise romantic complication, but she is also morally mutable, annoyingly secretive, immensely powerful and working to a ruthless agenda of her own – and Jamie just can’t get over her…

At the Baxter Building Madrox doesn’t buy Reed Richards‘ off-hand story that he and the wife had a spat so she just stormed off.

Whilst Guido and Shatterstar get into a pointless, devastating brawl with Ben (the Thing) Grimm, distracting the attention of the Smartest Man in the World, Jamie and Rictor take the opportunity to check out a few nooks and crannies and realise the kids were right: the leader of the FF is either an impostor or homicidally crazy…

As Shatterstar astonishingly humiliates Grimm in battle, Madrox arranges to meet with Valeria later. Elsewhere, State Department official Valerie Cooper regretfully informs Monet that her Ambassador father has been kidnapped by terrorists…

Having obtained an object owned by the missing mother, Longshot’s psychometric abilities are called upon to read the past and see what truly happened to Sue Richards. However, his vision is co-opted by the long-missing Layla who somehow speaks to him in real time and tells him to bring the team to Latveria – kingdom of terrifying dictator Doctor Doom…

However, just as Shatterstar opens a space-warp to the Balkan graveyard Layla indicated, an infuriated and vengeful Thing attacks, disrupting the teleportation and marooning half the investigators in the most dangerous country on Earth. Back in New York, Guido gets a call from little Franklin and Valeria. They are running for their lives from Daddy who is intent on killing them both…

After Monet, Madrox and the furious Thing follow through the warp, Grimm calms down enough to join M and Shatterstar in broaching Doom’s castle whilst Jamie’s lads open up a grave and find a missing member of the FF… but not the one they were looking expecting…

The solution to the mystery is sharp, shocking and fabulously entertaining, revealing both Doom’s improbable part in the drama and one of the many secrets of Layla Miller…

That’s followed by the untitled tale from #203 (illustrated by Valentine De Landro & Pat Davidson) wherein Monet and Guido, fed up with the State Department’s stalling over her father’s kidnap, impatiently invade a sovereign South American nation to save him.

When their plane is shot down Monet goes missing so Strong Guy smashes into a local drug cartel HQ and learns just who’s taken her.

His blockbusting rescue mission almost falters when he’s confronted by magical monsters and one of the oldest villains in the Marvel Universe, using the indomitable Wonder Girl as his personal buffet and first aid kit…

To Be Continued…

Even though the main event ends on a cliffhanger, there’s one more narrative treat left here as ‘Matters of Faith’ (with art by Karl Moline & Rick Magyar and originally seen as a back up feature in X-Factor #200) details what Siryn had been doing whilst the team was been busy battling.

Months previously her father Sean Cassidy – X-Man Banshee – died. Already traumatised through losing the baby she had conceived one stupid drunken night with Madrox, Theresa travelled to her “Da’s” grave in Ireland. The last thing she needed to see was one of Madrox’ duplicates…

This one however was created years ago and, like so many others, never rejoined the prime Jamie. In fact he’s become a priest and has some unique insights to offer her troubled mutant soul…

Bold, beguiling and mature in a way most adult comics just aren’t, this is a wonderful Costumed Drama experience for everybody who loves superhero soap operas and comes with a covers-&-variants gallery by Esad Ribic, Morry Hollowell, David Yardin, Kevin Maguire & Nathan Fairbairn and Tom Raney & Gina Going.
© 2009, 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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The Arms of the Octopus


By Mike Costa, Chris Cosentino, Kris Anka, Jake Wyatt, Michael Dialynas & Dalibor Talajić (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-577-2

Here’s a welcome return to those (relatively) uncomplicated Good Old Days, when you could pick up a comic or book without Ph.D. level preparation and just read for the sheer fun of it.

Collecting the linked serial from 2013’s All-New X-Men Special #1, Indestructible Hulk Special and Superior Spider-Man Team-Up Special (and incongruously including the Wolverine: In the Flesh One-Shot), The Arms of the Octopus offers just such a jolly “Blast from the Past” in a gripping tale of time-banditry, courtesy of writer Mike Costa.

Illustrated by Kris Anka All-New X-Men Special #1starts the ball rolling with ‘Elegy in the Classroom’ as time-displaced mutant teenagers Hank (the Beast) Pym, Bobby (Iceman) Drake, Scott (Cyclops) Summers and Jean (Marvel Girl) Grey spend their first vacation day on a trip to Manhattan and get a full-on face-full of 21st century future shock.

Escaping the bleeping sound and blinding visual fury of the telecommunications era, the kids head for Central Park where young Hank is smitten by a poetry-reading college girl. After catching a mugger, the Beast expects her to run screaming, but she’s actually so intrigued at meeting a mutant she invites him back to see her lab.

Hank knows it well: before he and the teen X-Men were brought into their own future he studied there under Gamma-medicine radiation research pioneer David Jude. Decades later the genius is still in residence, but now his field of endeavour is Temporal Displacement…

Dr. Jude is remarkably sanguine about meeting his young-looking old student, but before any questions can be asked the lab is brutally attacked by Doctor Octopus, also oddly youthful and emitting huge amounts of Gamma rays.

As the rest of the X-Men join the bombastic battle the clash inevitably draws the attention of the Superior Spider-Man…

The Wallcrawler is astounded and furious. What the kids – or anybody else for that matter – don’t realise is that for months now the mind of Otto Octavius has inhabited the Amazing Arachnid’s frame and to see his earlier self running wild in 2013 drives the cerebral bodysnatcher into a state of unthinking outrage…

After fractiously cooperating with the mutant kids, Spider-Man defeats Doc Ock and drags him back to Jude’s time-lab, where examination of the Gamma-drenched mystery maniac leads to only one conclusion: some form of time travel…

The X-kids are living proof of concept and with some reluctance the arrogant Arachnid admits that he needs to consult with an expert…

‘For a Friend Whose Work has Come to Triumph’ (illustrated by Jake Wyatt in (Indestructible Hulk Special #1) picks up the tale as S.H.I.EL.D. Specialist Bruce Banner is helicoptered in and, after getting over his astonishment at meeting genuine time travellers, gets stuck into unravelling the enigma of the radioactive rogue.

Before too long however another distraction hits the campus: a blockbusting assault by old Hulk foe the Abomination. The Gamma-irradiated gargoyle is one of Banner’s oldest enemies, and he’s been dead for years…

As the physicist gets green and mean to tackle the threat, the theory of a temporal anomaly caused by the displaced X-teens seems confirmed. Thus the mutants take Spider-Man and Dr. Jude back to their school to check out the time machine which brought them back to the future just as the Hulk makes a shocking discovery defeating his rampaging opponent.

…And in the copter speeding to Westchester, Jude realises he’s been rumbled and makes his move…

The chronal conundrum concludes in ‘With Mercy for the Greedy’ (Superior Spider-Man Team-Up Special #1, with art by Michael Dialynas) as the Machiavellian scientist (Jude, not Ock-in-Spidey for a change) uses previously concealed gamma radiation powers to blow up the transport before heading after the coveted time machine, leaving the assorted heroes in lethal freefall…

Following a suitably spectacular cooperative save, the X-kids and Spider-Man set off on the villain’s trail whilst Banner and Pym frantically work on a method of containing the real radioactive menace. Eventually everything ends up in a ferocious fight before a measure of order is restored and grudging respect is meted out all round…

Blending sinister suspense with riotous action and devilishly clever scenes of outright hilarity, this is a marvellously accessible romp no fan of clear-cut Costumed Dramas should miss and is followed by a rather strange – and unconnected – outing for the world’s favourite mutant.

Illustrated by Dalibor Talajić, Wolverine: In the Flesh is written by – and implausibly co-stars – celebrity chef Chris Cosentino; detailing the hunt for cannibal killer the Bay Area Butcher.

The satanic serial killer’s reign of terror can only be ended after the Canadian mutant recruits his old culinary chum to offer insights into the haute cuisine methodology of cutting meat and invaluably intimate knowledge of San Francisco’s Food Truck culture.

Little do either know that their prey is fed up “serving Man” and needs just one little ingredient for his pièce de résistance: a suitably trussed, tied and marinated mutant…

Light, quirky and mordantly piquant, this one won’t be to everyone’s taste…

With covers by Alexander Lozano and Tim Seeley, The Arms of the Octopus offers casual readers and faithful fans alike a smart break from cosmic epics and should certainly whet the appetite for all the monumental Marvel madness heading our way in the months to come.
™ & © 2013 and 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.

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X-Men – Battle of the Atom


By Brian Michael Bendis, Jason Aaron, Stuart Immonen, Frank Cho, Chris Bachalo & various (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-553-6

At the dawn of the Marvel Age, some very special kids were chosen by wheelchair-bound mutant telepath Charles Xavier. Scott Summers, Bobby Drake, Warren Worthington III, Jean Grey and Henry McCoy were taken under the wing of the enigmatic Professor X as he enacted his dream of brokering peace and achieving integration between humanity and an emergent off-shoot race of mutants, no matter what the cost.

To achieve his dream he educated and trained the youngsters – codenamed Cyclops, Iceman, Angel, Marvel Girl and The Beast – for unique roles as heroes, ambassadors and symbols in an effort to counter the growing tide of human prejudice and fear. The dream was noble, inspirational and worth dying for, and over the years many mutants battling under the X-banner did just that. The struggle to integrate mutants into society seemed to inevitably result in conflict, compromise and tragedy.

During the cataclysmic events of Avengers versus X-Men the idealistic, steadfast and trustworthy team leader Cyclops killed Xavier before eventually joining with old comrade Magik and former foes Magneto and Emma Frost in a hard-line alliance devoted to preserving mutant lives at the cost, if necessary, of human ones. This new attitude appalled many of their formers associates.

Abandoning Scott, his surviving team-mates Beast and Iceman with second generation X-Men such as Wolverine, Psylocke and Storm and stayed true to Xavier’s dream. Opting to protect and train the coming X-generation of mutant kids whilst honouring Xavier’s Dream, they are continuing his methods at the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning under the direction of new Head Professor Kitty Pryde…

Things got really complicated after Hank McCoy discovered he was dying. Obsessed with the idea that the naive First Class of X-Men might be able to sway Mutant Enemy terrorist No. 1 back from his current path of doctrinaire madness and ideological race war insanity, the Beast used time-travel tech in a last-ditch attempt to prevent a species war. By bringing the five youngsters back to the future he hoped to reason with the debased, potentially deranged Cyclops and fix everything before his impending death…

The gamble paid off in all the wrong ways. Rather than shocking Scott back to his senses, the confrontation simply hardened the renegade’s heart and strengthened his resolve. Moreover, even after the younger McCoy impossibly cured his older self, young Henry and the rest of the X-Kids refused to go home until “bad” Scott was stopped…

The elder Cyclops and his “Extinction Team” face many problems. Magneto is playing a double (or is it a treble?) game; betraying the terrorists to S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Maria Hill, and her to Cyclops. Moreover as they travel the world gathering up freshly activated Homo Superior kids, the Extinction-ers have been repeatedly targeted by a new mysterious next generation of robotic hunter/killer Sentinels.

All these tales were detailed in X-titles which resulted from the MarvelNOW! publishing event: a jumping-on point which reshaped the whole company continuity, taking the various mutant bands in strange new directions.

Scripted primarily by Brian Michael Bendis, this chronal chronicle collects all the issues in a crossover affecting those niche X-titles through September and October 2013 – specifically All-New X-Men #16-17, Uncanny X-Men #12-13, X-Men #5-6 and Wolverine & the X-Men #36-37, bracketed by the bookend miniseries X-Men – Battle of the Atom #1-2; a plot-light but action-packed, tension-drenched time-travel drama which sets up the next year’s worth of mutant mayhem…

It all begins with X-Men – Battle of the Atom #1, illustrated by Frank Cho, Stuart Immonen & Wade Von Grawbadger, wherein Magik, using her teleportational ability to traverse time and space, travels into the future to see what tomorrow holds for her kind. The answer seems to be Sentinels, increased human hatred and never-ending conflict…

Back in the now, Professor Pryde is continuing the First Class kids’ on-the-job training against an emergent and very ticked off mutant when more of the mystery sentinels attack. Like evil cavalry the Extermination team materialise and the ideological opponents pitch in together, but in the melee young Cyclops is killed by a stray blast and his older self blinks out of existence. Thankfully even as the entire area begins to shake and fall apart, mutant healer Triage is able to resurrect the dying X-Man. The disruptions cease, but the near-disaster reopens the old argument: the Original Five X-Men are endangering all of existence by being in their own future…

Resolute Kitty overrules young Jean Grey and orders the Beast to send them back, but when he activates the time-cube a strange yet familiar band of X-Men tumble out of it…

The tale resumes in All-New X-Men #16 (Immonen & Von Grawbadger) as the Extinction team (which now includes Jean Grey School defectors Stepford Sisters Celeste, Mindee & Phoebe as well as the time-displaced young Angel) review the attack and consider the notion that S.H.I.E.L.D. might be behind the new Sentinels. Meanwhile at the Grey School the intruders (an elderly Kitty Pride, the grandson of Charles Xavier, an Iceman-Hulk, Deadpool, a further mutated Beast, adult Molly Hayes from the Runaways and mystery telepath Xorn) are demanding that the Original 5 be sent back to their own time immediately…

Or else…

Naturally a huge fight breaks out and in the confusion the traumatised Scott and Jean steal a plane, running away to make sense of all the pressure and acrimony. Most importantly, although the future X-Men’s minds were psi-screened, young Marvel Girl had picked up something indefinable and threatening with her new telepathic abilities…

In the aftermath, as tempers cool Xorn removes her mask and reveals herself as the fugitive girl’s bitter, wiser, fiercely determined older self…

X-Men #5 (art by Davis Lopez) picks up the pace as the now tentatively combined teams set off after the kids. Storm, however, gives her all-female squad different instructions: Rogue and Psylocke join the main party whilst Pryde, Rachel Grey (the confusingly alternate Earth daughter of a different Cyclops and Jean Grey) and vampiric-mutant Jubilee are tasked with guarding the remaining Originals, little Henry McCoy and Bobby Drake…

Never good at obeying orders, they instead follow Scott and Jean themselves, provoking another all-X confrontation and allowing the runaways to bolt for ruined mutant sanctuary Utopia… where the Extinction team are already waiting…

Uncanny X-Men #12 (Chris Bachalo, Tim Townsend, Mark Irwin, Jaime Mendoza, Victor Olazaba & Al Vey) ramps up the tension as the “mutant terrorists” learn of the future X-Men and their mission. It is then that Magik reveals her own time-travel jaunt and (some) of what she’s been keeping to herself…

In the light of these events the Extinction-ers are split: Cyclops wanting to help the youngsters whilst Emma rebels and announces that she’ll be helping Xorn and her crew send all the early X-Men back where they belong…

That resolution only lasts as long s it takes to meet their descendents and legacies. Wolverine & the X-Men #36 (Giuseppe Camuncoli & Andrew Currie) quickly finds all three generations of mutants in brutal intercine combat which only ends when young Jean at last acquiesces to the constant pressure and promises to take her team back where they came from…

Then all hell breaks loose as the real Future X-Men show up…

Thanks to Magik, the true defenders of Xavier’s dream have travelled back to Now, following the instigators of an assassination atrocity committed at the crowning moment of mutant/human cooperation. Colossus, Wiccan, Ice Master, Wolverine (AKA Jubilee), Quentin “Phoenix” Quire, Kymera and Sentinel-X  plan to ensure the madness will end before it begins…

No more spoilers from me then except to say that Cam Smith & Terry Pallot help with inks on X-Men #6 and the concluding X-Men: Battle of the Atom #2 is written by Jason Aaron with portentous ‘Epilogues‘ by Bendis & Brian Wood, illustrated by Esad Ribic, Camuncoli, Currie, Tom Palmer & Kristopher Anka.

In that stunning, ever-escalating blockbuster clash the various iterations of Once-and-Future mutant champions switch sides and back again, fight, quip, discover which presumed ally is behind the new Sentinels and in some cases give their lives to preserve everything good before it all turns out OK – at least for the moment…

When the smoke clears a new chapter will begin with the Original kids willing but now unable to return to their time, the JeanGreySchool forever changed, friendships and alliances destroyed and Cyclops’ Extinction team immeasurably stronger…

Unfortunately, the most psychotic and potentially lethal monster from the future never made it back to the future and might possibly be stalking the heroes of today, and the time-disruptions caused by the assorted chronally-misplaced persons bodes badly for the continuance of existence…

X-Men: Battle of the Atom also includes many pinups and a huge cover-&-variants gallery by Art Adams, Simone Bianchi & Frank Martin, Frazer Irving, Ed McGuiness & Dexter Vines, Marte Gacia, Lopez, Phil Noto, Stefano Casselli & Andres Mossa, Frank Cho, Shane Davis, Nick Bradshaw, Stephanie Hans, Adi Granov, Immonen, Terry & Rachel Dodson, Leonel Castellani, Bachalo, Anka, Milo Manara and Esad Ribic.

™ & © 2013 and 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.

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X-Men Noir: the Mark of Cain


By Fred Van Lente & Dennis Calero (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4437-3

When fictional heroes and villains become really popular – to the point where fans celebrate their births and deaths and dress up like them at the slightest opportunity or provocation – eventually a tendency develops to explore other potential character facets that the regular, cash-cow continuity might normally prohibit.

DC invented a whole company sub-strand of “Imaginary Stories” and Marvel asked “What If…?” sharing glimpses of alternate realities. Even television series got into the act with shows like Star Trek, Roswell and Stargate SG-1 offering coolly jarring, different takes on their established stars and scenarios.

The little dark gem of alternate continuity on offer today comes from an intriguing experiment in 2009 wherein Marvel took many of their biggest stars and reconfigured them for a universe drenched in the tone, lore and ephemera of pulp fiction and Film Noir: a dark land where shiny gleaming super-powered heroes were replaced by bleakly paranoid, deeply flawed and self-serving individuals just trying to get by as best they could…

X-Men Noir: the Mark of Cain is actually a sequel to the initial foray and benefits from not having to explain or differentiate the so-similar seeming stars from the bastions of the regular continuity. It ran as a 4-issue miniseries from February-May 2010 offering a moody glimpse of a world with no heroes, only shades of villainy. Nevertheless it still provides a satisfying slice of suspenseful entertainment for Fights ‘n’ Tights fans in search of something genuinely edgier than their regular fare. After all, the big draw for the jaded is that these folks might actually die and stay that way…

What You Need to Know: situated in the 1930s, these X-Men are not mutants with incredible, science-defying powers but rather a gang of mentally disturbed juvenile delinquents. They had been lab rats for rogue psychiatrist Charles Xavier in his School for Gifted Youngsters, where he strove to exacerbate rather than cure their various anti-social behaviours.

The batty boffin believed that sociopathy was the next stage in human behavioural development and spent his days training and refining the criminal talents and tendencies of his disturbed charges – until he was exposed and thrown in jail on Riker’s Island Prison.

The truth came out after the body of one of his “students” was washed up on the shore, covered in odd, three bladed knife slashes…

There is one costumed mystery man on the scene during these parlous times. Nosy, troublesome reporter Tom Halloway is not-so-secretly also a violent vigilante dubbed The Angel and the hunt for him preoccupied many familiarly different characters such as corrupt Chief of Detectives Eric “Magnus” Magnisky, his troubled children Peter and Wanda, casino owner Remy LeBeau, mobster Unus the Untouchable and drug runner Sean Cassidy…

This sequel volume opens with a public scandal as the government’s secret prison camp at Genosha Bay is exposed. Charges of torture and Applied Eugenics are levelled against the operators but despite rising protests the prison still carries on its inhumane treatments on the legion of sociopaths held there without Due Process or Representation.

In other news: due to lack of evidence, “Professor of Crime” Xavier is freed from Riker’s, arrogantly swearing to track down the killer of his recently assassinate “friend” Magnus…

A continent and ocean away, some of his former successes are cutting their way through the jungles of Madripoor and hordes of berserk headhunters as they try to find the lost temple of Cyttorak and retrieve a fabulous gem.

Sharpshooter Scott “Cyclops” Summers and unpredictable seagoing brawler Captain Logan are temporarily with the Angel, following a map provided by bootlegger and mercenary Cain Marko. They don’t give much credence to the native legends of vengeance inflicted on transgressors by Cyttorak’s “Juggernaut” but that soon changes when Marko is found in the no-man’s land around GenoshaBay, crushed to pulp. Of the enormous jewel there is no trace…

Peppered with evocative flashbacks, the story and trail leads Angel – who learned most of his nasty bag of tricks from Cain – to the USA’s extraterritorial prison and the shocking revelation that Xavier is secretly in charge…

Despite being captured and subjected to the Professor X’s methods of persuasion – administered by the warped woman Warden Frost – Halloway soon breaks free and begins pursuing the how and the who of Marko’s murder.

Fighting his way past the Professor of Crime’s newest protégés, a big burly Russian and an exotic black woman with a white Mohawk haircut, he is recaptured before he can reach Logan’s boat and sometime allies Cyclops and Eugene “Puck” Judd.

Undergoing more of Xavier’s “treatments”, the Angel is then confronted with the scientist’s secret weapon: his own thoroughly crazy – sociopathic – twin brother Robert Halloway…

The period drama and sinister suspense kick into compelling overdrive as the various parties hunting the Gem clash when the action shifts from noir detective to pulp sci-fi and the Professor’s true plan emerges. With the government’s covert connections exposed, and all surviving participants trapped aboard a huge flying battleship, the real value of the Gem of Cyttorak is revealed and, amidst flying fists, double- and triple-crosses abound.

As the agendas of all interested parties crash together thousands of feet above Manhattan, only antisocial violence works and at last a kind of justice is won…

Bleak, cynical and trenchantly effective, this excellent thriller by scripter Fred Van Lente and illustrator Dennis Calero provides a huge helping of thrills and chills that would work equally well even if you had never heard of Marvel’s mighty mutants.

This pocketbook sized collection also includes a covers and variants gallery by Calero as well as a dozen original art pages shot prior to the digital colouring stage.
© 2009, 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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X-Men: Primer


By Brian Wood, Olivier Coipel, David Lopez, with Chris Claremont, Marc Silvestri & various (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-553-6

At the dawn of the Marvel Age, some very special kids were chosen by wheelchair-bound telepath Charles Xavier. Gloomy Scott Summers, ebullient Bobby Drake, trust fund brat Warren Worthington III, insular Jean Grey and simian genius Henry McCoy were gathered up by the enigmatic Professor X – a man dedicated to brokering peace and achieving integration between massed humanity and an emergent off-shoot race of mutants, no matter what the cost.

To achieve his dream he educated and trained the youngsters – codenamed Cyclops, Iceman, Angel, Marvel Girl and The Beast – for unique roles as heroes, ambassadors and symbols in an effort to counter the growing tide of human prejudice and fear. The dream was worth fighting for, and over the years a small army of mutants battled under the X-banner, but the struggle to integrate mutants into society resulted in constant conflict, compromise and tragedy.

These included Jean’s death (twice), Warren’s mutilation (and murder), Hank’s uncontrollable progressive mutations and eventually Cyclops’ radicalisation following his possession by the cosmic entity known as the Phoenix force.

During the cataclysmic events of Avengers versus X-Men the formerly idealistic, steadfast and trustworthy team-leader Cyclops killed Xavier before eventually joining with old comrade Magik and former foes Magneto and Emma Frost in a hard-line alliance devoted to preserving mutant lives at the cost, if necessary, of human ones.

Those tales were detailed in a number of titles which sprang out of the MarvelNOW! publishing event: a jumping-on point which reshaped the whole company continuity, taking various X-iterations in truly bizarre new directions.

This particular chronicle collects issues #1-4 of the fourth volume of the adjectiveless X-Men (from May to August 2013) and also includes a pertinent classic yarn from Uncanny X-Men volume 1 #244 circa May 1989.

Over the decades the many and various X- titles have been notable for the number of strong female characters created, and this new iteration from scripter Brian Wood & artist Olivier Coipel finally takes the logical step of drafting an all-girl squad to save the world from an appalling primal threat…

Inked by Mark Morales, the action begins with a little backstory and reveals how, when the world was still brand new, a pair of siblings manifested. They were immensely powerful and hated each other from the start. They fought and the male kicked his defeated sister loose into the cosmos while he stayed on Earth and developed…

Billions of years later, former X-Man Jubilation Lee takes a commercial flight out of Bulgaria, looking for help from her old friends. She’s inherited a baby with a few problems and is being followed by possibly the most dangerous man on Earth…

At the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning, tutors Storm, Kitty Pryde, Rogue, Psylocke and Rachel Grey (the alternate Earth daughter of Cyclops and Jean Grey dubbed Marvel Girl) are having trouble getting through to some of the more intransigent mutant students. When they get a call from Jubilee, the X-Men drop everything and dash off to intercept her as she heads for the only home and family she has ever really known…

When the man on her trail is revealed to be John Sublime – current body of an ancient sentient bacterial life form which has lived on Earth since life began and no friend to the subspecies Homo Superior – the X-Men expect the worst, but are astounded when he comes to the School and promptly surrenders without a fight…

Sublime survives by possessing organisms and he’s come to warn the heroes that his sister – who performs the same trick with technology – has returned to the planet, looking for revenge on him and control of everything else in existence…

Meanwhile, escorting Jubilee and her baby, Storm, Rogue and Kitty get first-hand experience of the threat as the train they’re on is derailed by an unknown force. Barely escaping, they unwittingly bring the menace into the school where Arkea slips into the dormant form of Karima Shapandar: a human friend infected with Omega Sentinel systems and designed to be the ultimate mutant eradicator…

All they want to do is share old stories and coo over Jubilee’s baby, but with Arkea in control and determined to supersede life on Earth, the girls are drawn into a terrifying war on two fronts. The sinister sister takes control of the Danger Room and locks down the entire school before transmitting herself to Budapest where Jubilee first acquired the mysterious baby she’s named Shogo…

Leaving Kitty and the students to save the school and themselves from a deadly time-bomb, Storm, Psylocke, Marvel Girl, Rogue and Jubilee head for Eastern Europe and track Arkea to a medical complex where humans augmented with medical implants and technology provide Arkea with hundreds of suitable meat-vehicles. As the final battles surges to a crescendo, the warrior women are terrified that the only way to stop the cyber-parasite is to kill her numerous hosts…

When that conundrum is satisfactorily solved, David Lopez, Cam Smith & Norman Lee step in to illustrate an epilogue chapter guest-starring Wolverine who recaps old times with Jubilee as the female X-team sort out their agendas and chain of command whilst trying to stop a passenger jet crashing to destruction…

To supplement the advent of this new grouping, this all-action outing also includes the comedic adventure ‘Ladies Night’ by Chris Claremont, Marc Silvestri & Dan Green (from Uncanny X-Men volume 1 #244 May 1989) which saw the first appearance of Jubilee.

When off-duty X-gals Storm, Rogue, Psylocke and Dazzler head for an undercover dose of downtime they encounter a streetwise, “Mall Rat” runaway with mutant powers, just as the emporium’s management hire a hapless squad of mutant hunters to clear up their Homo Superior problem…

Fast-paced, whimsical and owing a huge debt to the movie Ghostbusters, the riotous romp closes this Fights ‘n’ Tights fest on a rare and welcome light note, but of course there’s still more bang for your buck…

X-Men: Primer also includes a vast and beautiful cover-and-variants gallery by Coipel, Amanda Connor, Terry & Rachel Dodson, Silvestri & Green, Joe Madureira, Mark Brooks, J. Scott Campbell, Arthur Suydam, Mike Deodato Jr., Milo Manara, Ed McGuiness, Humberto Ramos, Kevin Wada, Skottie Young, Kris Anka & Sara Pichelli plus the now standard 21st century add-on of AR icon sections (Marvel Augmented Reality App) which give access to many story bonuses providing you download the free code from marvel.com onto your smart-phone or Android-enabled tablet.
™ & © 2013 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.

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Uncanny X-Men volume 2: Broken


By Brian Michael Bendis, Chris Bachalo, Fraser Irving, Kris Anka, Tim Townsend, Jaime Mendoza, Mark Irwin & various (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-555-0

Following many poor choices and horrendous paths taken by assorted mutant heroes over the last few years, and spinning off from the events of Avengers versus X-Men, the MarvelNOW! event reshaped the entire continuity, pushing the various factors of X-iterations in truly innovative directions.

At the dawn of the Marvel Age, a very special bunch of kids were singled out by wheelchair-bound telepath Charles Xavier. Insular Scott Summers, ebullient Bobby Drake, wealthy Adonis Warren Worthington III, insecure Jean Grey and bookish anthropoidal Henry McCoy were gathered up by the enigmatic Professor X – a driven man dedicated to brokering peace and achieving integration between massed humanity and an emergent off-shoot race of mutants, ominously dubbed Homo Superior.

To achieve his dream he educated and trained the youngsters – dubbed Cyclops, Iceman, Angel, Marvel Girl and The Beast – as heroes, ambassadors and living symbols in an effort to counter the growing tide of human prejudice and fear.

Over years the struggle to integrate mutants into society resulted in constant conflict, compromise and tragedy, including Jean’s death, Warren’s mutilation and murder, Hank’s further mutation and eventually Cyclops’ radicalisation.

The formerly idealistic, steadfast and trustworthy team-leader eventually killed Xavier before eventually joining with old (demon-possessed) ally Magik and former foes Magneto and White Queen Emma Frost in a hard-line alliance devoted to preserving the mutant race at the cost, if necessary, of the human one.

Abandoning Scott, his surviving team-mates and newer X-Men such as Wolverine, Storm and Kitty Pryde stayed true to Xavier’s dream, opting to protect and train the coming X-generation of mutant kids at the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning…

Furthermore when McCoy discovered he was dying, he became obsessed with the idea that the naive First Class of X-Men might be able to sway Mutant Enemy terrorist No. 1 back from his current path of doctrinaire madness and ideological race war insanity.

To that end Beast used time-travel tech in his last-ditch attempt to prevent a species war: risking the entire space/time continuum by bringing the five youngsters back to the future to reason with the debased, potentially deranged Cyclops.

The gamble paid off in all the wrong ways. Rather than restoring Scott’s to his senses, the confrontation simply hardened his renegade heart and strengthened his warped resolve.

Moreover, after the boy McCoy impossibly cured his older self, young Henry and the rest of the X-Kids refused to go home until “bad” Cyclops was stopped…

All that occurred in All-New X-Men: Here Comes Yesterday but there was a flipside and that story was told in Uncanny X-Men: Revolution.

This slim second chronicle, collecting Uncanny X-Men volume 3, #6-11, (July-October 2013) and again scripted by Brian Michael Bendis furthers the counter-argument as the outlaw mutants continue their struggle to save their endangered species.

Cyclops and his Extinction Team face many problems. Magneto is playing a double (or is it a treble?) game; betraying the terrorists to S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Maria Hill, but also telling Cyclops at least some of what he’s doing for her. Moreover as they travel the world gathering up freshly activated Homo Superior kids, the Extinction-ers have been targeted by a new mysterious next generation of robotic hunter/killer Sentinels.

Most worryingly of all , since their possession by the Phoenix Force (Avengers versus X-Men) the natural gifts of Summers, ex-lover Frost, Magik and Magneto are no longer reliable, flaring from overload to ineffectuality, leaving the mutant leaders “Broken” in both powers and spirit…

On the other hand, however, new mutants are appearing in increasing numbers all over, with more impressive talents than ever before and, by carefully avoiding unprovoked acts of violence, Cyclops’ crew are winning the media war: gaining the trust and respect of many oppressed sectors of humanity: the poor, the disenfranchised and rebellious, the young…

The terrorists have begun training youngsters in their alternative institution – the Charles Xavier School for Mutants – and even poached some kids from the Jean Grey School. Raw recruits Eva “Tempus” Bell, shape-shifting Benjamin Deeds, healer Christopher Muse – AKA Triage – and the golden sphere-projecting Fabio Medina – have been joined by the psychically conjoined, socially-challenged Stepford Sisters Celeste, Mindee & Phoebe as well as the time-displaced teenager Warren “The Angel” Worthington…

Fraser Irving illustrates the first story arc here as demon-tainted llyana Nikolievna Rasputina – better known as Magik – resumes her struggle against dark god Dread Dormammu. That malign tyrant had been absorbing the hellish realm of Limbo which she rules as The Darkchylde and which fuels her mutant teleporting power…

In Atlanta another young man finds his mutant power activating, just as Dormammu shanghais Cyclops’ entire team. Trapped in hell, teachers and students alike are thrown into soul-rending, life-or-death combat with one of the vilest monsters in creation.

At the same time, Mara Hill, acknowledging S.H.I.E.L.D. is losing the PR battle, recruits former X-Man Alison Blair – Dazzler – to be the Government’s public face on Mutant Affairs…

Ilyana’s powers encompass both time and space and she now adroitly uses the faculty to become a student of magician Doctor Strange in the past, allowing her to learn what she needs to frustrate Dormammu, but in the subsequent clash Cyclops becomes painfully aware of how much he and his adult comrades have lost in terms of their vital powers and abilities…

With Chris Bachalo & Tim Townsend assuming the art chores, the saga resumes in more prosaic territory. Although surviving the harrowing confrontation unscathed, Fabio is so freaked out that he quits school. Frantic to regain some sense, safety and normality in his life he asks to be taken home to his parents. Unfortunately, when the completely understanding Extinction Squad take him back to San Diego, S.H.I.E.L.D. is watching and waiting. No sooner have the mutants blinked out than the spooks move in…

In AtlantaDavid Bond is innocently testing his new power when police arrive and shoot him. They barely escape with their own lives after an Extinction team led by Emma arrives. Young Celeste is especially keen on making the trigger-happy humans suffer for their prejudice…

Triage has promptly healed David and the new guy’s awesome ability to telekinetically move and interface with machinery impresses everybody – even though Cyclops and Magneto are clearly distracted. The mutant figureheads are increasingly combative regarding their powers crisis situation, but remain united in the conviction of coming mutant extinction at human hands.

Their differences on how to head off the encroaching holocaust are shelved once they learn of Dazzler’s attempt to take Fabio in for “questioning” which had resulted in a very public escalation in tension and a superpower firefight…

The Extinction team move to rescue Fabio from custody aboard the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier and depart with a minimum of fuss, utterly unaware that the Alison they verbally sparred with is in fact a deadly shape-shifting infiltrator with an agenda all her own…

Irving returns to illustrate issues #10-11 (with additional art by Kris Anka) as the kids’ training reveals a new aspect to Eva’s time-powers. Maria Hill in the interim has demanded Magneto capture and hand over Cyclops…

The team leader is currently preoccupied by a human protest march in Michigan, where college students have come together en masse in support of Mutant Rights.

Sadly, when he decides the team should join the campus event, it offers a perfect opportunity for a new super-Sentinel determined to kill mutants no matter how many innocent humans get in the way…

Dark, cynically astute and utterly compelling, this alternative X-outing mixes staggering action, paranoiac suspense and slowly-mounting tension with the signature themes of alienation and personal freedom to deliver a marvellously enjoyable continuation of the nihilistic end of the once directionless mutant franchise.

Even so, there’s still room for some effectively trenchant humour and this series offers a perfect jumping-on point for new and retired fans alike – as long as you also read the companion All-New X-Men volumes…

Broken includes a beautiful cover-and-variants gallery by Irving, Bachalo Ronnie Del Carmen, J. Scott Campbell & Neal Adams and the now standard 21st century add-on of AR icon sections (Marvel Augmented Reality App) giving access to story bonuses once you download the code – gratis – from marvel.com onto your smart-phone or Android-enabled tablet.
™ & © 2013 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.