The new X-Men team is put through the wringer as threats hurtle towards Earth from all sides. Can the X-Men stop this Annihilation? Find out in X-Men #2 by Gerry Duggan, Pepe Larraz, Marte Garcia, VCs Clayton Cowles, and Tom Muller.
Cori McCreery: Another month and another massive threat to Earth for the Avengers. What do you mean they’re busy in Russia? Ok. Ok. The X-Men to deal with… Anyway, glad to be here to talk to you about mutants pulling our collective fat out of the fryer, Tony.
Tony Thornley: Look, I know they billed this series as “the X-Men as big damn heroes,” but I did not expect the series to go this hard this soon. I also feel like Captain America owes Cyclops some barbeque after X-Men #2.
X-Terminators
Cori: And our threat for this month is, *spins wheel*, the Annihilation Wave! Now cosmic Marvel is very much not my wheelhouse, but that does not sound good. Do you know more about this threat, Tony, or should I have done like Rogue and attended Avengers seminars on extinction threats?
Tony: I read the original Annihilation series, and I loved it. We can credit that event with today’s cosmic Marvel even existing. The Annihilation Wave was the army of Annihilus, which the Negative Zone despot used to invade the positive matter universe. Think King in Black, but cosmic locusts instead of goop dragons. Then, make the story way better. It happened concurrently with the original Civil War. Many fans thought the Wave would crash into Earth to get Captain America and Iron Man to work together again.
So, to hear Cordyceps Jones accept a bet that one of his patrons was going to destroy Earth using the wave? Yeah, that’s very scary with context. Even without context, what we see on panel is some excellent cosmic horror. Besides that, though, there’s some extremely frightening callousness from Cordyceps and his casino. I wonder if this creepy fungi (fun-guy?!) will be a big deal in the Marvel Universe more generally.
Cori: I told you last month, and I’ll repeat it, Cordyceps Jones is the character find of 2021. No, I don’t care that he was created in a different pre-2021 book. That doesn’t matter. I did not discover him until this year, so he counts. Yeah, the idea of him sending threat after threat towards Earth is a superb concept. It plays so well into what this book is trying to do.
Tony: Our fearless leader Zack compared it to the TV series Power Rangers Ninja Steel, one of the best Power Rangers concepts in recent history, and he’s right. [Ed. note: In the series, alien gamblers send a monster to Earth that the team of five must defeat with a big mech.]
This Means War
Tony: We get a few great downtime scenes with Remy playing a card game in the Treehouse basement and Jean and Everett connecting. It’s all made my inner Gen X fan very happy indeed. The lighting of the X-signal cuts the downtime short, and the team jumps into action. I dig the pacing of the action scenes. Instead of padding pages with decompression, we get right into it.
Duggan still spends the time to do classic X-Men soap opera, but he also gives us big damn action. As the series goes on, I hope he finds a better balance of action and character work, but as an establishing arc, I think it clicks. Also, I believe you were the one to say it in Slack; this is just a Larraz showcase book from beginning to end, isn’t it?
Cori: It is, and there’s nothing wrong with that at all. Larraz is one of the best in the game, and if he wants to draw big superhero action? You let him draw big superhero action.
The combination of the art and script is what I love the most. One aspect of this creative team is how experienced they are. Most of them have worked together before, and because of this, they gel as a team almost instantly. Their familiarity with one another is even more evident in X-Men #2. What was your favorite moment from the big fight scene?
Tony: I love how Lorna remains effortlessly cool the entire issue, including in the fight scenes. Lorna has always felt like she’s been on the X-Men’s B-list to me. Her handling of the fight makes me hope the series establishes her as an iconic X-Men. It’s not the only Lorna scene I loved, but I know you’re a pretty big Lorna fan yourself, right?
Cori: Oh, Lorna is 100% of the reason I’m here. I see two pages that feature her hanging on the wall above my desk as I glance up. What makes X-Men so good for her is it seems like a natural extension of where she was during the recent X-Factor run.
While only ten issues, it was so immensely good for her. By the end, she had reclaimed her identity that had been missing for decades at that point. This is a Lorna who is sure of herself, who feels she’s earned her place because she has. She didn’t get here because she’s Magneto’s daughter. She’s not here because she’s Havok’s girlfriend. She’s here because she’s every bit the heavy hitter of everyone else on this team. She faced down a death goddess, and now she’s facing down cosmic locusts. In previous interviews with the creative team, they’ve said each character will get a chance to demonstrate why they wanted to be on the team, and I can’t wait for hers.
Tony: Absolutely. Lorna demonstrating her power is one of the best aspects of X-Men #2. It’s not just her. Everyone gets a solid moment fighting the Annihilation Wave. It’s clear Duggan knows how to juggle the group of characters he has.
Wishing Only to Be of Service
Cori: Speaking of the spotlights on character motivations, X-Men #2 was perfect for Sunfire’s. Not only did he get the big damn hero moment (and Larraz is freaking good), he got to explain his motivations. He explained his long journey and how this time is different from the others. This time he’s happy to be serving the world as an X-Man. It doesn’t seem like he will quit the team this time, right?
Tony: It doesn’t seem like it.
Like Lorna, Shiro has been one good run away from the X-Men A-List. After he saved the day in the King In Black tie-ins in SWORD, seeing him as a noble warrior cements his growth as a character. I liked him before, but this issue just pushed him forward in a massive way.
Also, between this and SWORD, Sunfire is making “sterilizing alien invasions with the power of a sun” his brand, and that’s just cool.
Know what the issue is missing, though? Sunfire using his powers to help the Kansas locals barbeque. Including one local that looks suspiciously like someone we know…
Cori: Oh, you mean Pepe Larraz having a bit of fun and popping his co-creator into the art?
Tony: Sure do! After one of the citizens saves Cyclops with a well-placed shotgun round to an alien thorax earlier, it turns out said citizen is none other than Gerry Duggan himself. I laughed at this guest spot. It was a fun little nod to Larraz’s partner in crime. Also, it makes me wonder what style of barbeque is Duggan’s favorite? KC? Carolina? Texas? The world (okay, maybe just me) wants to know Mister Duggan!
This also leads to my favorite panel of the book. After Shiro gives his speech, Duggan invites the X-Men for dinner, and Jean tells them that the team would be delighted. Her line echoing Sunfire’s was so poetic, and she leads her teammate arm-in-arm to the grill. I just really enjoyed this. What did you think?
Cori: We already saw their excellent teamwork in action, but the quiet moments like this also matter. Big sweeping action sequences aren’t the only reason we love the X-Men. The personal connections work to set those larger moments between people who don’t usually spend a lot of time together. It’s also important because the point of this X-Men team is to show the world that despite humanity’s fear of mutants, the heroes are still here for everyone. Also, Lorna leaning over the barbeque, impatient for meatstuffs is her second-best single panel of X-Men #2.
Final Thoughts
- It’s really damning that Synch has been written better in four issues by Hickman and Duggan than he ever was in the entire run of Gen X.
- As a Superman family fan, first and foremost, it doesn’t escape me when an evil alien lands in the middle of nowhere in Kansas. I see you, Duggan.
- Lorna’s best single panel is her effortless float into combat while still nursing her coffee and adjusting her shades. God, Larraz makes her look so goddang cool.
- It looks like we’re getting an evil HR Director next issue. It’s like Gerry is tailoring the series to the individual members of the CXF staff.
- We cannot state enough how excellent Marte Gracia is. Incredible color work throughout.
- Krakoan Reads: Highstakes
Tony Thornley is a geek dad, blogger, Spider-Man and Superman aficionado, X-Men guru, autism daddy, amateur novelist, and all around awesome guy. He’s also very humble.
