Category: X-Men

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Marvel Knights X-Men: Haunted


By Brahm Revel & Cristiane Peter (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-586-4

The Marvel Knights imprint began as a way to produce slightly darker and more mature miniseries starring favourite characters in stories intended for older readers. More parallel to rather than actually outside regular continuity, the adventures of familiar stalwarts could be counted as canon or discarded as the readership pleased. Eventually these Knights tales were all absorbed into the mainstream and the imprint generally retired.

In 2013 the subset was revived with a few new limited series…

Marvel Knights X-Men: Haunted #1-5 originally ran from January-May 2014 and featured a particularly messy murder mystery and prime example of why baseline humanity should fear the mutants in their midst… and vice versa.

In case you forgot…

In 1975 Len Wein & Dave Cockrum revived a revered but painfully uncommercial fan favourite with Giant Size X-Men #1, replacing most of the 1960s team – Iceman, Angel, Marvel Girl, Beast, Lorna Dane and Havok – with a second generation of edgier international mutants young and old.

With both field-leader Cyclops and wheelchair-bound telepath Professor Charles Xavier remaining to carry on the dream of brokering peace and achieving integration between the sprawling masses of humanity and an emergent off-shoot race with terrifying extra abilities, the stage was set for “All New, All Different” adventures, and the fledgling squad rapidly became the company’s biggest hit and asset, as well as largest pool of captivating characters.

Comic fans have a seemingly insatiable appetite for untold tales and details, so this grim and gritty, chronologically non-specific yarn featuring Wolverine, Kitty Pryde, Rachel Grey,the Beast and Rogue will certainly appeal to older readers with a taste for nasty business…

Written and illustrated by Brahm Revel with colour art by Cristiane Peter, the tale begins when telepathic Rachel picks up the psychically broadcast murder of a young unknown mutant. The most potent sense she got was that the boy was being hunted…

A little technological research by Hank McCoy pinpoints a cluster of three new mutants in rural West Virginia so the team heads off to the Appalachian boondocks. Further poking around had also revealed an unholy number of missing kids in that desolate area…

With Wolverine already on edge over the prospect of somebody hunting mutant children, he and fellow covert specialists Kitty and Rogue arrive in a bleak, forbidding and primitive town and start poking around.

Rogue in particular feels the oppressive tone of a time and milieu she thought she had long left behind. Almost as soon as the suspicious strangers arrive, Wolverine arouses the ire of the local biker gang in their favourite watering hole, but while he does what he does best Kitty has found one of the mutants in the back…

Teenaged Krystal is a drug dealer for her uncle Jasper – the town sheriff – and can control minds, so she easily escapes the X-Men. She is also quite partial to the illicit and unique narcotic produced by cultish isolationists “The Cooks” in their secluded compound and soon after taking another dose is cornered by the patiently searching heroes.

Explaining the situation, the strangers take the oddly subdued Krystal – who lies about her true power – with them as they track down another mutant energy signature.

The trail leads to a cabin in the deep woods, a place the girl is clearly terrified of, and soon all four are experiencing impossible visions.

Wolverine has no time to ponder as he is ambushed by arch-nemesis Sabretooth and a brutal fight ensues. Rogue is then jumped by her former Brotherhood of Evil Mutants compatriots Mystique, Blob and Pyro and soon the shabby hut is filled with an army of old X-enemies and all-out war is underway…

Realising something strange is going on, Wolverine battles his way to a young girl at the centre of the savage melee and discovers that deeply troubled Darla is cursed with the ability to materialise other people’s memories…

As he tries to reach her, the vision of the mutant boy’s murder plays out again for all to see…

Back at the bar, Jasper delivers the latest batch of the new drug from The Cooks and suggests that the bikers get rid of the prying mutie strangers in town…

As the X-Men try to calm the deeply troubled dream-weaver, Krystal suddenly blurts out that Darla was the one who killed the missing boy, resulting in the cruel death materialising yet again and sending Wolverine into a murderous rage.

It’s all his team-mates can do to stop him gutting Darla on the spot…

In an effort to calm the situation the mutants all drive back to town, but when no adult is looking, Krystal slips Darla a bunch of pills from her stash and the memory-girl’s power goes into overdrive…

As Sentinels, evil mutants and demons from the X-Men’s past ravage the town, whilst the heroes turn on each other with homicidal intent, in the woods The Cooks, believing their particular apocalypse has arrived, head towards town to kill all the humans they can find…

Darla is off her head and out of control. However, as the town burns, with Rogue and Wolverine engrossed in trying to kill each other and a manifested army of old foes trying to kill everybody else, the truth slowly begins to emerge.

The Cooks’ special ingredient is bled out from captive mutants, boosting their product’s effect on humans and causing even nastier reactions in any Homo Superior who take it. Moreover, the doom-cultists believe that by taking the stuff they can become mutants themselves, leaving behind mortality and freeing them to slaughter the doomed genetic dead-ends of humanity…

As doped-up, despairing Darla discovers how to control her psychic constructs the chaos spirals to a bloody crescendo and Kitty, largely unaffected by the madness of malignant memories, realises that they have all been played for suckers.

Unfortunately even after the true cause of all the bloodshed comes clean, the carnage has reached a point beyond anybody’s control… and then comes inspiration…

Not all memories are bad and Kitty’s past is filled with valiant friends and heroes who would give their lives over and again to save the innocent and punish the guilty…

With covers and variants by Revel & Peter and Paolo Rivera, Haunted is simultaneously a smart, convoluted mystery and breathtaking primal action comics spectacle that will delight fans of high octane Fights ‘n’ Tights action.

™ & © 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 volume 2: Muertas


By Brian Wood, Terry & Rachel Dodson, Clay Man, Barry Kitson, Kris Anka, Scott Hanna, Karl Kesel, Terry Pallot & various (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-592-5

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 second collected chronicle, scripted by Brian Wood, re-presenting issues #7-12 (from November 2013 to March 2014) takes the conceit a stage further by introducing an all-girl gang of baddies to the mix…

The eponymous triptych ‘Muertas’ – lavishly illustrated by Terry & Rachel Dodson and Barry Kitson, Scott Hanna, Karl Kesel & Terry Pallot – commences the sinister suspense as Colombian cartel princess Ana Cortes assumes her recently deceased dad’s tenuous position at the head of the bloody table and, to consolidate her position, invites underworld tech-facilitator Reiko to implant nanites and memory downloads that will body-modify the ambitious teenager.

Her first mistake is allowing her body to become the physical host of carnage-crazed mutant-hating cyber-assassin Yuriko Oyama AKA Lady Deathstrike…

At the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning, vampire mutant Jubilation Lee is happily hearing how her official adoption of mystery baby Shogo is proceeding apace when multi-powered and recently resurrected wonder woman Monet St. Croix returns to the fold, looking for a place to rest and recuperate…

As the former Generation X team-mates verbally spar upstairs, down deep in the bowels of the school bestial scientist Hank McCoy is assessing the changes in former cop Karima Shapandar: a human friend previously infected with Omega Sentinel systems and transformed into the ultimate mutant eradicator. Apparently her lethal state was more or less cured during a horrifying battle against an ancient and malevolently sentient meteor-borne infection… Arkea.

When the Earth was still brand new and cooling, a pair of siblings manifested. They were immensely powerful and hated each other from the very start. They clashed and the male kicked his defeated sister loose into the cosmos while he stayed here…

Billions of years later, John Sublime – current body of the victorious sentient bacterial life form – fought the X-Men. In various forms he had continuously survived on Earth since life began but was no friend to the subspecies Homo Superior.

Then one momentous day he surrendered himself to his enemies at the Jean Grey School in the light of an urgently manifesting mutual threat…

Sublime abides by possessing biological organisms, and he came to warn the heroes that his sister – who performs the same trick with technology and electricity as well as meat – has returned to the planet, hungry for revenge on him and wanting to control everything else in existence…

Possessing humans and mutants alike, Arkea determined to supersede life on Earth, but her possession, upgrading and alteration of suitable organic-vehicles led to a cataclysmic confrontation (see X-Men: Primer) and she was declared destroyed – but for so many beings in the Marvel Universe, Death is neither fatal nor final…

Back in the now Lady Deathstrike makes her move, sending an army of cartel soldiers to steal the Omega Sentinel from the X-School, but has to change her plans on the fly when Monet and the now merely-mortal Karima drive off her army of gun-toting thugs.

Forced to regroup and reassess, Ana/Yuriko opts to recruit her own super-powered gang and begins by hiring manic multiple personality mutant assassin Typhoid Mary who goes on a daring reconnaissance mission which nets Deathstrike all the files on Arkea and even a living sample of the inimical electronic nemesis.

Ana foolishly considers the specimen as the ultimate body upgrade and even the formidable Sublime cannot convince her otherwise, but after a brief battle the sample proves to be dead. Sadly during the skirmish Yuriko learned that the Arkea hive consciousness may still be alive in other meteoric shards…

By the time Monet tracks him down, Deathstrike and Typhoid are in Norway seeking to extract a promising fallen star where they uncovered the prison of Amora the Enchantress; stripped of her Asgardian magic and locked in a force bubble by the Mighty Thor.

Seduced by the promise of her powers fully restored by the thing in the meteorite, Amora enlists in Ana’s army, a vengeful association she calls The Sisterhood…

With the world facing imminent destruction from a new Arkea assault, Storm, Psylocke, Rachel Grey (the alternate Earth daughter of Cyclops and Jean Grey dubbed Marvel Girl) and Jubilee call on Israeli mutant hero and Mossad agent Sabra who, along with mystery superman Gabriel Shepherd, track Deathstrike and new Arkea to Dubai.

Before the team can strike, however, Monet streaks in, displaying all her terrifying power, but is too late. Arkea has possessed technician Reiko and begun augmenting the others… not for their benefit, but her own…

Extending her control across the planet, Arkea activates an army of broken, abandoned Sentinels, sending them marching across the Pacific sea floor to attack America…

The crisis grows in the second trilogy ‘Ghosts’ (art by Kris Anka & Clay Man) as, fleeing Monet’s blockbusting attack, Arkea drags her increasingly scared acolytes across the world, intent on augmenting the ranks of the Sisterhood by resurrecting two of the most lethal women ever to have faced the X-Men.

As Jubilee leads a squad of older students from the School to Catalina Island to intercept the Sentinels, in New York Arkea/Reiko uses Amora’s restored Asgardian magic to reanimate the immortal life-leeching horror Selene and Ana realises the full gravity of what she has unleashed…

As a too-late act of redemption, the repentant Cortes summons the X-Men to the Sisterhood’s location, but by the time the resurgent heroes arrive Arkea has excised Ana and similarly revived the hellish Red Queen Madelyne Pryor…

Sadly for the cocksure bacterial conqueror, her ungrateful revenants are more than happy to trade a threat to human existence in exchange for their own immediate survival, but as the X-Men spectacularly end the threat of Arkea again, more than one triumphantly weary woman warrior is forced to wonder if they the traded a greater evil for exigent salvation…

Fast-paced, action-packed and stuffed with engaging soap opera riffs, this bombastic extremely enjoyable collection is merely a prelude to greater Fights ‘n’ Tights traumas to come but is at least amply augmented by a lovely cover-and-variants gallery by the Dodsons, John Cassaday, David Marquez & Gerard.
™ & © 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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All-New X-Men volume 4: All-Different


By Brian Michael Bendis, Stuart Immonen, Brandon Peterson, Mahmud Asrar, Wade Von Grawbadger, Chris Claremont, Bob McLeod, Stan Lee, Louise & Walter Simonson, Roy Thomas & various (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-585-7

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 five youngsters – codenamed Cyclops, Iceman, Angel, Marvel Girl and The Beast – for unique roles as heroes, ambassadors and living symbols in his campaign 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, Hank’s further mutation and eventually Scott Summers’ radicalisation.

During the cataclysmic events of Avengers versus X-Men the idealistic, staunch and steadfast 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 former associates.

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

Things got really complicated after McCoy discovered he was dying. Obsessed with the idea that the naive original 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 hardened the renegade’s heart and strengthened his resolve. Moreover, even after the younger McCoy miraculously cured his older self, young Henry and the rest of the X-Kids refused to go home until “bad” Scott was stopped…

The two sides of the mutant question clashed constantly, as the modern world experienced constant change and attacks from all quarters. Amid the rising chaos new mutants began appearing in increasing numbers, all with more impressive talents than ever before.

Through careful orchestration, brilliant media massaging and by avoiding visibly unprovoked acts of violence, Cyclops’ faction began winning the trust and respect of many oppressed sectors of humanity: the poor, the disenfranchised and rebellious, the young…

Following a very public humiliation of the Government-sponsored human/mutant team Uncanny Avengers, the internecine mutant conflict heated up when Summers – utterly convinced of his species’ inevitable extinction at human hands – offered a place to any student wishing to join his own academy: one dedicated to training mutants to fight and survive rather than wait for mankind to turn on them…

The bold ploy succeeded in luring away Angel and the psychically conjoined, emotionally-challenged Stepford Sisters – Celeste, Mindee and Phoebe, before the situation was further muddied in X-Men: Battle of the Atom when both X-Men and Brotherhood of Mutants radicals from the future travelled back to address the issue of the time-displaced First Class.

In the resultant clashes the kids were rendered incapable of returning to their original place in history…

In the aftermath, with the Jean Grey School forever changed, Pryde was unwilling to remain with her former colleagues and joined the Extinction Team. The First Class – now willing but unable to resume their postponed lives and tragic destinies – followed her, making Cyclops’ faction immeasurably stronger…

Scripted by Brian Michael Bendis, All–Different re-presents All-New X-Men #18-21 from January to March 2014 and also includes the contents of the celebratory anthology X-Men Gold #1, as well as a stunning cover-&-variants gallery by Brandon Peterson, Julian Totino Tedesco, Kevin Nowlan & Chris Sotomayor, Olivier Coipel, Stuart Immonen and even a photo-cover featuring the TV sensations from Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Illustrated by Immonen with Wade Von Grawbadger, the tense suspense begins as Kitty renews her childhood friendship with Illyana “Magik” Rasputin whilst the original X-class settle into the secret Extinction base.

Buried in the wilds of Canada it was once the Weapon X facility where Wolverine and so many other mutants were ruthlessly experimented upon and “improved”…

Although heartily welcomed by Angel the newbies are experiencing a few problems. Celeste seems determined to pick a fight with rapidly-evolving telepath Jean and Henry is troubled that Magneto is so different from the raving maniac who (by his reckoning) was trying to slaughter them all mere relativistic weeks ago…

The simian supermind has some other difficulties, paramount of which is Jean’s completely ignoring their recent passionate clinch. Scott the younger is also troubled by that. He’s seen all the records and knows that he and Jean are destined to marry, but she seems determined to change that fate at all costs…

Despite all the teen tumult, Kitty continues training her charges: resolute that they will become warriors capable of surviving everything the uncertain future will throw at them. The first challenge comes almost immediately as mutant-detection system Cerebro pinpoints a potential new candidate in Miami…

Peterson limns the second chapter as Magik warps the young X-Men in just as their target is ambushed by a band of Purifier zealots: bible-bashing fanatics who believe mutants are unholy abominations God ordered them to eradicate. A tremendous battle ensues and Jean’s still-uncontrollable telepathy gives her a peek inside the tormentors’ ugly minds, just as the police arrive.

Idealistic Scott completely misreads the situation and when he tries to hand the Purifiers over, the terrified cops open fire on the scary mutants…

Kitty meanwhile has followed the desperate girl who was the Purifiers’ target and is shocked to see another former student. Thankfully Magik is able to shift everybody back to the hidden academy before events got too bloody…

Laura Kinney was dubbed X-23 when she was a subject of the Weapon X sadists and it takes some time before she reconciles to being back in that now sanitised hellhole.

She is a teenaged clone grown from Wolverine’s DNA, with all his abilities and a lot of psychological problems, but as she slowly adapts to her new normal she finds herself strangely attracted to young Scott. More worrying is the fact that it might be mutual…

Nevertheless, soon after Kitty and Illyana lead the indignant, righteously enraged student team and Laura in a raid on the Florida Purifiers, only to be totally overwhelmed by their leader who possesses a metahuman power they cannot withstand…

In a telling flashback (illustrated by Mahmud Asrar and referencing the landmark X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills), it is revealed that pious bigot and demagogue Reverend William Stryker had allied with the techno-terrorists of Advanced Idea Mechanics to treat his son for an embarrassing and unwelcome “illness”, before Peterson resumes the present-day drama with the juvenile X-Men being tormented and tortured by the now-adult and even crazier than his dad junior Stryker.

When current A.I.M. supreme scientist Monica Rappaccini answers his call, he very foolishly ignores her advice not to harm the time-displaced kids, uncaring of the potential for undoing the entire universe, but his hubristic gloating and Rappaccini’s greedy harvesting of priceless mutant DNA gives the trussed-up teens time to recover and their unified counterattack soon has the fanatic’s forces in full retreat and staring real retribution in the face…

To Be Continued…

This volume also collects assorted in-filling untold tales from the ever-changing team’s history, created for 50th Anniversary one-shot X-Men Gold #1. The parade of all-star vignettes begins with an untitled novelette by Chris Claremont & Bob McLeod, set soon after Rogue joined the team and following the heroes return from Japan. Focussing on young Kitty Pryde, the tale pits the assembled mutants and freebooting Starjammers against a skyscraper-sized Sentinel and its constantly evolving progeny…

Following that is ‘The Sorrow Beneath the Sport’: a nostalgic romp by Stan Lee and Louise Simonson, riotously rendered by Walter Simonson wherein freshly inducted First Class Cyclops, Angel, Beast and Iceman spectacularly spar in an oafish contest to decide who gets to date new student Marvel Girl, after which Roy Thomas & Patrick Olliffe detail the first calamitous meeting of Banshee and Sunfire on their way to the fateful rendezvous with Professor X in Giant-Size X-Men #1…

‘Options!’, by Len Wein & Jorge Molina, adds a sidebar to that landmark tale as crazy Canadian secret agent Wolverine assesses his new team-mates and calculates the best way to kill each of them should the need arise before ‘Dreams Brighten’ (Fabian Nicieza & Salvador Larroca) wraps things up with a peek at a hard-won utopia where Xavier and Magneto count the cost of achieving their Homo Superior Promised Land…

Enthralling and engaging, All-Different also includes AR icon sections (Marvel Augmented Reality App) which give access to story bonuses once you download the free code from marvel.com onto your smart-phone or Android-enabled tablet.
™ & © 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 7: Time and a Half


By Peter David, Valentine De Landro, Marco Santucci & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-3836-5

Since its debut in 1982, X-Factor has been a splendidly effective umbrella title for many uniquely off-kilter iterations of Marvel’s mutant phenomena. Perhaps the most impressive and enduring was created by writer Peter David in 2006; mixing starkly violent suspense with cool detective mystery, laugh-out-loud comedy, fantastic Fights ‘n’ Tights action and even slyly addressing social issues in a regular riot of superbly adult Costumed Drama.

The abiding premise saw Jamie Madrox, the Multiple Man and veteran of the formerly government-sponsored (and controlled) team appropriating the name for his own specialist metahuman private detective agency: X-Factor Investigations.

Setting up shop in the wake of “The Decimation” which had reduced the world’s mutant population to a couple of hundred empowered individuals and millions of distressingly humanised (ex) Homo Superior, he and his perpetually fluctuating team began by trying to discover why and how it had happened…

What We Already Knew: crossover event House of M saw reality overwritten when mutant Avenger Scarlet Witch had a mental breakdown, changing history and reality so that mutantkind out-competed base-line humans, droving “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 that situation… but in the aftermath, the abhorred inheritor species had been winnowed to less than 200 super-powered souls …

This temporally-twisted tome collects X-Factor volume 3 #39-45 (April-October 2009) and opens with the long awaited birth of Jamie and Theresa “Siryn” Cassidy‘s child: the result of a drunken debauch both barely recall and are deeply ashamed of…

Madrox and Co. had relocated to scenic Detroit to avoid interference from old boss and Office of National Emergency bureaucrat Valerie Cooper but she and her Federal flunkies had pursued, and in a tense confrontation with the mum-to-be and former mutant Julio Richter (AKA Rictor) shots had been fired.

Cooper was wounded but Theresa trumped that by going into labour…

Scripted throughout by David, the adventure continues with ‘Multiple Birth’ – illustrated by Valentine De Landro & Craig Yeung – as Jaime joins still-a-mutant Theresa in the hospital just in time for her contractions to trigger her shattering sonic scream…

Following a difficult birth via C-section, everything seems under control and Madrox takes time to visit Cooper, fitfully recuperating after being shot by her own guards. He’s almost forgiven her for threatening to impound the baby when it was born…

Heading back to Theresa and his new son Sean Madrox is utterly unaware of what horror and tragedy are… until he picks up his boy and is helpless to prevent the infant from being reabsorbed into his body.

The baby is gone: never more than the progeny of one of his body duplicates.

Shocked, reeling and feeling like he’s eaten his baby, Jamie barely registers the beating the hysterical Theresa delivers before collapsing…

Madrox’s duplicates are autonomous facsimiles of him. Often displaying one particular aspect of his emotional makeup they can live their own lives for years… until he touches them and they are reabsorbed whether they want to be or not.

Being self-aware, some abscond, never wanting to come back and “die”.

Such a one became priest John Maddox and ‘Slings and Arrows’ (inked by Pat Davidson) opens with him acting as a negotiator in a tense convenience store hostage situation. Unfortunately, one of the captives is a bearded, bedraggled and utterly broken Jaime Madrox who defuses the scenario in a most unlikely manner before stalking the priest home to the wife and kids. In a terse and despondent conversation the Multiple Man ponders how a shallow facsimile can excel at everything his progenitor sucks at before telling Maddox of how another “Dupe” and little Layla Miller disappeared into a hostile future… and only the copy ever returned.

He knows all it about only because when he reabsorbed the clone, he took on all its memories… as well as the disturbing “M” eye-brand that denotes being a mutant in that sorry tomorrow…

Madrox’s real reason for the confessional confrontation comes with a warning that Maddox’s kids might not be all they seem. After wearily incapacitating the priest who mastered living better than he, Jamie puts a gun to his own tired, tortured head…

He is only saved by a nun walking in and telling him he’s not going to die.

She might be a grown woman now, but Layla Miller still “knows stuff”: after all, isn’t it her mutant power?

The time-bending madness resumes in ‘Back and There Again’ (De Landro, Marco Santucci, Davidson) as the happy reunion stalls when Jamie realises she’s just a projection asking him to rejoin him the future. Reluctantly he agrees, completely missing the gun-toting goon creeping up on him…

Elsewhere, brittle Theresa takes over at X-Factor Investigations, taking on a stalking case for frightened ex-mutant Lenore Wilkinson. She’s convinced someone is trying to kill her and delighted that de-powered “Rictor” and especially the astoundingly attractive Longshot are going to be watching over her…

Back at the church the thug has opened fire on Jamie, but when the detective turns the table on his would-be killer the assassin ends himself whilst uttering the word “cortex”…

Next thing Jamie knows, it’s the future and a colossal Sentinel is trying to kill both him and Layla…

In the now and all at sea, Guido “Strong Guy” Carosella, super-woman Monet St. Croix – AKA “M” – and new recruit Armando Muñoz or Darwin are enjoying themselves chasing down operatives of the Karma Project; a gang of science renegades who captured and experimented on the ever-evolving latter mutant.

Back in the future though there’s no fun to be found when Jamie meets Ruby Summers and finds himself neck-deep in another war against Homo Superior…

De Landro, Santucci, Davidson, Patrick Piazzalunga & Yeung all pitch in to illustrate #42 as Lenore makes a move on the naive and credulous Longshot whilst Guido and Rictor go looking for Jamie but find John Maddox instead…

Eighty years later the object of their search is coming to terms with the new normal as Ruby and Layla explain what “The Summers Rebellion” is and how he can help them not lose it, even as more death-laden Sentinels scream into the attack…

In old Detroit Val Cooper finally gets her meeting with Theresa as future mutants Hecat’e and Daemon overcome the artificial assassins attacking Jamie, whilst the real trans-time menace is making his move against Longshot and Lenore…

‘Timely Events’ finds Darwin stumbling into a hit on Lenore, helping save the victim from being killed by her own mind-controlled mother, whilst in the future Madrox is reunited with elderly mutant legend Scott Summers.

Somehow the doom-drenched Cyclops has survived every grim trial and tribulation, fathered generations of kids and is even now still fighting for his embattled species. Things don’t look so rosy in the past however as Guido and Rictor are stonewalled in their search for Jamie, and increasingly strange events are occurring around Darwin, Longshot and Lenore…

Madrox knows nothing about any of it: he’s helplessly falling for and sucking face with the aggravatingly annoying Layla in a world that makes less and less sense every minute. For a start the always dismissive Scott trusts him to be a detective and discover how and why people are disappearing and rematerialising with no memory of the act, whilst simultaneously blaming the temporally shanghaied Jamie for making the future the way it is…

In a Detroit hospital the guys have called in Monet to scan the mind of Lenore’s comatose mum but the procedure goes terribly wrong when M herself is taken over. Attacking Longshot and Darwin she utters the name “Cortex”…

Back at the church Rictor and Guido are similarly inconvenienced when team mate Shatterstar tries to kill them, incoherently mumbling the same word…

‘Dirty, Sexy Monet’ opens in the future where Jamie and Layla’s relationship deepens and the detective suggests a possible solution Cyclops doesn’t want to hear, whereas in the then-and-now M apparently regains her senses and loses her morals.

As the future mutants reluctantly follow Madrox’s advice and consult a super-genius, in the past M is back to normal-ish but incomprehensibly choosing to dress like a tart as she sensibly transfers the embattled XF guys and terrified Lenore to a safe house. Once there, however, she plies the client with booze until she conks out before making a flagrant pass at wide-eyed innocent Darwin…

Only when Monet strips off to reveal a body totally infected by technoid mechanisms does he realise that Cortex never really lost control of her…

This emphatically, wonderfully bewildering collection concludes with a bang as – in the world that’s coming – Madrox, Layla and Ruby consult the aged and senile Victor Von Doom about their recurring reality problems, whilst in the past crafty, craven Cortex overextends himself simultaneously mentally manipulating Shatterstar and Monet to kill their comrades.

As Dr. Doom tantalises with possible solutions to the time-based crisis brewing, Future America’s President ponders the cost of sending Cortex back to pre-emptively deal with X-Factor and foolishly intervenes before the chronal killer can complete his mission, giving Shatterstar an opportunity to shrug off the mind-control and prove his loyalty to his team mates in a most unconventional, if not shocking, manner…

To Be Continued…

Complex, compelling, compulsive and always maturely hilarious in a way most adult comics just aren’t, X-Factor is a splendid example of Fights ‘n’ Tights fantasy for everyone who needs wit to underpin their superhero soap opera shenanigans, and this volume also includes a cover gallery by Mike McKone, David Yardin & & Nathan Fairbairn and a selection of Shatterstar design sketches by Valentine De Landro.
© 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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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.