{"id":12738,"date":"2014-11-20T09:00:21","date_gmt":"2014-11-20T09:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=12738"},"modified":"2014-11-19T17:17:45","modified_gmt":"2014-11-19T17:17:45","slug":"uncanny-x-men-sisterhood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2014\/11\/20\/uncanny-x-men-sisterhood\/","title":{"rendered":"Uncanny X-Men: Sisterhood"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nBy Matt Fraction<\/strong>, Greg Land<\/strong>, Yanick Paquette<\/strong>, Terry Dodson<\/strong>, Jay Leisten<\/strong>, Karl Story<\/strong> & various (Marvel)
\nISBN: 978-0-7851-4105-1<\/p>\n

Since its revival in 1975 Marvel’s Mutant franchise has always strongly featured powerful and often controversial female characters and the balance has never rested solely on the side of light.<\/p>\n

For every valiant woman – or indeed super-powered, conflicted teenage girl – fighting the good fight there has been a shady lady playing for the dark side.<\/p>\n

This particular collection – gathering Uncanny X-Men<\/strong> #508-512, cover-dated June to August 2009 – primarily features a stupendous clash between the maligned mutant mavericks and a dastardly coterie of extremely wicked women warriors but also offers a fascinating insight into the occluded history of one of the endangered species’ most enigmatic survivors\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

At this point in time, the evolutionary offshoot dubbed Homo Sapiens Superior is at its lowest ebb. As seen in both House of M<\/strong> and Decimation<\/em> storylines, Scarlet Witch<\/em> Wanda Maximoff<\/em> – ravaged by madness and her own reality-warping power – reduced the world’s multi-million plus mutant population to a couple of hundred individuals with three simple words\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Most of the remaining genetic outsiders accepted a generous and earnest offer to relocate to San Francisco but, of course, trouble is always happy to make house calls\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Scripted throughout by Matt Fraction, the 4-part saga ‘Sisterhood’<\/em> – illustrated by Greg Land, Jay Leisten and colourist Justin Ponsor – opens following the shocking news of a massacre in Cooperstown<\/em>, Alaska<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Terrorists had razed the isolated town to burning rubble because of reports that the first mutant baby since The Decimation had been born there\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Anti-mutant activist and passionate bigot Simon Trask<\/em> was quick to stir the flames of panic and prejudice with his Humanity Now Coalition<\/em> pushing the government to end the threat of mutants forever. With hysteria growing, even previously neutral outcasts began making their way to the mutant enclave of the Greymalkin Industries <\/em>Facility on the Marin Headlands. However, even with an ever-growing host of feared and despised genetic pariahs housed in her city and the entire population potentially at risk from fanatics and mutant-hunters, Mayor Sadie Sinclair<\/em> still stands firm on her offer of sanctuary.<\/p>\n

The dark drama commences in a secluded private cemetery in Tokyo as the Sisterhood of Evil Mutants<\/em> disinter a certain body. They are interrupted by probability-bending sometime X-ally Domino<\/em> whose main talent seems to be landing in the wrong place at the right time.<\/p>\n

Sadly, even her odds-altering powers and superspy training are not enough to stop the grave-robbing, and Regan<\/em> and Martinique Wyngarde<\/em> (daughters of the malevolent Mastermind<\/em>), psychic assassin Chimera<\/em>, cyborg killer Lady Deathstrike<\/em>, extra-dimensional witch Spiral<\/em> and the infernal spirit of Red Queen<\/em> Madelyne Pryor<\/em> get away with the corpse of ninja legend Kwannon<\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

In San Francisco Henry<\/em> McCoy<\/em> convenes his newly convened X-Club<\/em>; a unique think tank comprising human geneticist Kavita Rao<\/em>, mutant tech-savant Madison Jeffries<\/em>, atomic mutation expert Dr. Yuriko Takiguchi<\/em> and former Nazi-hunting mutant mystery man James Bradley<\/em> AKA Doctor Nemesis<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The Beast<\/em> carefully outlines their intended goal: finding a way to reactivate the millions of mutants \u00e2\u20ac\u0153cured\u00e2\u20ac\u009d by the Scarlet Witch. Their first session soon concludes that she has somehow switched off the power-creating \u00e2\u20ac\u0153X-Gene\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in most of the mutant population, but they need to know more about the origin of their own species before they can turn them all on again\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Elsewhere in the city the Sisterhood have completely resurrected the purloined corpse and filled the body with a former host\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 or at least one of them\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Long ago (Uncanny X-Men<\/strong> #256-258, in fact) priests of ninja cult The Hand<\/em> mystically transposed the mind of telepath Betsy Braddock<\/em> – AKA Psylocke<\/em> – into the physical shell of a lethally effective adherent named Kwannon. The brainwashing and mystic body-swapping turned the English Rose into a sultry, sexy Chinese bodyguard\/concubine\/siren and perfect gift for the undisputed overlord of the Orient, The Mandarin<\/em>.<\/p>\n

After much ado, myriad battles and many years, both mind-switched incarnations died in combat, but now the Red Queen has succeeded in reuniting the long-separated soul and form of the elite killer\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

As the X-Men reach out and enlist former Canadian mutant hero – and media-savvy global Gay celebrity – Jean-Paul Beaubier<\/em> (one-time Alpha Flight<\/em> member Northstar<\/em>), the sinister Sisterhood moves on to the next stage of Pryor’s convoluted game-plan\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

With the enclave happily acclimatising and being welcomed by the mellow Californians, the demagogue Trask springs his latest nasty surprise from Washington DC. Proposition X<\/em> demands legislation to ensure the mandatory sterilisation of mutants and all humans carrying the X-Gene\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

The news drives the younger mutants at Greymalkin into a fury, whilst in the science labs cooler heads have devised a potential plan to study the origins of their kind: all they have to do is travel back in time and get blood samples from the first humans to conceive a mutant child\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Outmanoeuvred, the usually reticent and inspirationally obnoxious Bradley is forced to admit having been born in 1906, and that his own parents might well be the best possible candidates\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Before they can act, though, the Sisterhood invade the Facility using a prisoner in the detention centre to deactivate all the psychic security provisions. The assault is devastating and catches the X-Men completely off guard, but Pryor’s big mistake is underestimating the determination and sheer bloody-mindedness of student heroes X-23<\/em>, Armor<\/em>, Pixie<\/em> and the telepathic gestalt called the Stepford Cuckoos<\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Following the kids’ counterstrike, the swift recovery and retaliation of the adult X-folk quickly drives the Sisterhood out, but Wolverine<\/em> is forced to admit that the invaders got what they came for: a lock of hair from Jean Grey<\/em> he’s been treasuring since her death.<\/p>\n

The sample could provide the ghostly Pryor with the genetic material needed to grow herself a new body – one with all the power of the nigh-omnipotent Phoenix<\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

The conclusion (with additional art by Terry & Rachel Dodson) sees the desperate X-Men rush to foil the plot and spectacularly triumph, not only ending the threat of cosmic resurrection but incidentally reclaiming one of their own fallen from the grave\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Following that all-out cosmic-tinged clash ‘The Origin of the Species’<\/em> (illustrated by Yanick Paquette & Karl Story) offers a taste of steam-punk and tragedy as the postponed jaunt to the dawn of the Mutant Age finally gets underway.<\/p>\n

Accompanied by the restored Psylocke and Archangel<\/em>, Beast’s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153X-Club\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of super science geeks pop back to San Francisco in 1906 on an extremely tight deadline to get blood samples from Dr. Nemesis’ parents but stumble into the birth of their worst nightmare\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Inventor Nicola Bradley<\/em> and his wife Catherine<\/em> have been striving to complete a generator that will provide free, unlimited broadcast power for humanity but are increasingly being threatened by thugs and brigands determined to steal it.<\/p>\n

Cornelius Shaw<\/em> and his mentor Lord Molyneux<\/em> are using the sybaritic Hellfire Club<\/em> to fund Bradley’s experiments but they want his incredible engine for purposes far darker than lighting the world.<\/p>\n

Molyneux has visions of mankind crushed under the monstrous heel of a new superior race – \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Overmen\u00e2\u20ac\u009d – and needs the battery to power his colossal mechanical Sentinel<\/em>. Against that even the aberrations-to-come will be helpless\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

He’s also behind the attempted raids; hedging his bets in case Bradley cannot complete the job, so when the freakish X-Club turns up he knows the time to act is now\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Thankfully – and perhaps instinctively inspired by his wife’s pregnancy – Bradley solves the final problem, but soon regrets his actions as the Hellfire lords take his device and unleash a marauding mechanical myrmidon upon the populace.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6And that’s when the strangers with wings and blue fur and other incredible abilities reveal themselves\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Concluding in calamity, catastrophe and cruel, heartbreaking irony, this smart slice of time-tampering neatly wraps up a superb sample of Mutant Mayhem: at once exciting, enthralling and exceptionally entertaining.<\/p>\n

This slim, stirring, supremely sensuous Fights ‘n’ Tights tome also includes a selection of cover reproductions and variants by Land, Ponsor, Paquette, Edgar Delgado, Laura Martin, J. Scott Campbell & St\u00c3\u00a9phane Roux, resulting in a treasure trove of treats for all fans of sexy superheroes and combat connoisseurs alike<\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a9 2009 Marvel Characters In. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Matt Fraction, Greg Land, Yanick Paquette, Terry Dodson, Jay Leisten, Karl Story & various (Marvel) ISBN: 978-0-7851-4105-1 Since its revival in 1975 Marvel’s Mutant franchise has always strongly featured powerful and often controversial female characters and the balance has never rested solely on the side of light. For every valiant woman – or indeed … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Uncanny X-Men: Sisterhood”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[79,70],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marvel-superheroes","category-x-men"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-3js","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12738\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}