Some threads are tightening more than others as Fall of X looms in X-Chat #10

The build up to Fall of X continues in X-Chat #10!

Too much happens in X-Men #24 from Gerry Duggan, Joshua Cassara, Marte Gracia and Clayton Cowles.

Wolverine and Beast’s war continues to escalate in Wolverine #34 by Ben Percy, Juan Jose Ryp, Fran D’Armata, and Cory Petit

The war across time continues in X-Force #41 from Percy, Robert Hack, Paul Davidson, Guru-eFx, and Joe Caramagna.

Tony Thornley: Things are sure coming fast and furious, aren’t they Matt?

Matt Lazorwitz: The Hellfire Gala is coming, so everybody is getting ready for the party!

Phenomenal Cosmic Plotlines In An Itty-Bitty Page Count (X-Men #24)

Tony: I feel like we’ve hit right up against the frustrations we’ve had with the past year of X-Men. While I continue to enjoy this series, man does it ever feel like months of plot in 22 pages of story. This issue was much more straightforward than the previous two. It still had tons of details and moments that feel like they could have been covered better throughout the past year, rather than crammed into the last three issues of the year.

Matt: Absolutely. This was just packed to the gills with plot plot plot, and while it did have some great character moments, I desperately wish some of them had more time to grow.

I’m always up for messy Summers family drama, so I was happy to see both the return of teen Cable as well as Scott and Jean finally hash things out. But while we’ve seen Scott and Jean’s problems growing, we haven’t really dealt with the fundamental whys of it before. And even here, it seems like Scott not going to Arrako is a symptom of the larger problem rather than the problem itself. 

Tony: Exactly. There’s so much stuff in X-Men #24 that the dual prologues both could have had entire issues dedicated to them, but both only had a few pages.

I do want to get back to those, but you bring up something worth chatting about. Scott and Jean’s troubles sure seem to have progressed quicker and further than I expected. I mean, everything was pretty good up until the Brood arc, and even then, it was the END of the Brood arc. Now all the sudden, it looks like they’re separating. I mean yes, it’s over genocide, but also it’s over Scott Summers and aliens, which is like Scott’s #1 most problematic trait. I feel like this should have been bubbling in the background longer for it to have reached this point.

Matt: There could have been hints about the whole Arakko thing, about Scott’s growing paranoia about Orchis, about all manner of things. I can’t remember if I made this joke/observation in the column or just with Dan post WMQ&A chat when we were chatting, but the first X-Men #1 of the Krakoa era is the high point of Scott Summers’s life: he has Jean back, Logan and he are getting along, both his kids and both his brothers are alive and relatively sane, and he’s hanging out with all of them in his house on the moon.

Since then, all of them have slowly gone away. The Summer House is now just Scott, shuffling around in a bathrobe, tank top and boxers with a mug of coffee. And we haven’t seen him really react to much of this because he’s so busy with all the X-Men stuff.

Tony: It’s even relatively recent. In the Judgment Day tie-in, Scott passed on his judgment because he was a massive wife guy. Except for one outburst, he and Alex were getting along, including Alex leaving the team in Dark Web. Sure, Rachel and Cable have both moved on and Gabriel went nuts on Arakko, but up until the Brood fight, he still had Jean, and you can believe that he and Logan were still hanging out off-panel.

Now, do I think this is largely set-up for them to reconcile at Scott’s hospital bed after the flashforward we saw in the FCBD Special? Yes. Beyond that, though, who knows?

Otherwise, I think this is a fun action issue with way too many side plots. Kid Cable is back to stop the Gala (as if any version of Cable isn’t smart enough to have ten contingencies for Orchis capturing him). Destiny tells Rogue there’s a traitor on the team. Sunfire finally begins his mission to Otherworld. Like literally any of these should have been the B-plot to a previous issue or arc, so it didn’t feel crammed into an otherwise fun action story. But hey,

Pogg-ur-Pogg is BACK, and is one of those Arakii who went to space (though I thought he was from Amenth). And Josh Cassara rules, making me SO glad that he’s sticking around on this title after the Gala.

Matt: Everything is better with Pogg-ur-Pogg!

And let’s not forget Polaris and her mourning, which is relegated to a mere page. Duggan did so much to develop Polaris in year one of the book, I’m glad he swung back to her, but there’s so much pathos that could be dealt with in the long term. Also, and this is probably me being pedantic, but thanks to Wanda’s creation of The Waiting Room, couldn’t Xavier or any telepath just surf the timeline, find Magneto, and bring him back that way? You don’t need a present back-up, you just need them to be a mutant. That’s how we got Thunderbird, after all.

Tony: I loved this scene, and it was way too brief. Between her appearance and Sunfire’s, I really just wish we’d gotten more of the character beats from last year, throughout this year. Both of those scenes were great! And I do think it’s inevitable that Magneto comes back, I’m just really curious how it’ll happen. I mean, Steve Orlando’s Scarlet Witch series teased it. I’m not sure we’ve gotten a resolution to that yet (though it does seem like a fake-out).

I also want to back up for a beat. Destiny has shown up a couple times this year in this book. Why is this the first we’re hearing of a traitor? Wait. We’ve already litigated that. Let me ask a different question.

Who do you think it is? I mean, Firestar and Forge are both possible, but Angie would undermine her growth the last 12 months and Forge has no foreshadowing. Sure Orchis or the US Government or something could have got to him, but that just doesn’t feel right. It’s not Scott, Jean, Ev or Bobby. It doesn’t fit.

I definitely think it could be Talon. Who’s to say that’s still Laura in her head, or even if that’s the original Laura. She’s still largely a cipher, and if she does turn traitor, we still have original flavor Laura over in X-Force.

I think it also very easily could be Magik, but not of her own free will. We know Stasis’s nanites are messing with her abilities. Could they also mess with her head?

What do you think?

Matt: I’m 99% sure it’s Talon. We have a Children of the Vault book coming as part of “Fall of X”, so I think that this Laura probably has a Child of the Vault hitching a ride in her, or is a shapeshifter, who was waiting for the mutants to be weakened before opening the Vault. The Gala happens, and BOOM, she opens it and we have Cable and Bishop fighting the unwinnable war against a race of gods. It also gives us some tragedy for Synch to play off of in the next year.

So, who do you think is going to be on the team in the next year? We know Kate. I think Synch sticks around, probably Forge too. That Polaris page makes me think Lorna is back. Jean is out, Magik is out (she’s in Realm of X). I’m 50/50 on Scott. Jubilee is the character getting voted onto the team, I have little doubt. Any thoughts there?

Tony: I think we’re going to retain Bobby and Everett, PROBABLY Firestar, and like you said, we know Kate is a sure thing. I think Scott and Jean will stick around, but they won’t be full-time on the team until Scott heals up. Jubilee seems obvious, but I could absolutely see Dazzler as a dark horse. If Rogue wasn’t in Uncanny Avengers, I’d say her. Maybe she’s voted on but shifts to the Avengers for obvious reasons.

I don’t know, I’m pretty excited to find out, though. Last year the squad kind of landed with a thud.

Matt: I don’t think anything from this Gala is gonna land with thud. I think it’s all bang this year.

Dinner For Two (Wolverine #34)

Tony: We’re at the penultimate issue of this story arc, and I’m real curious how it’s going to end. Logan and Hank’s war is gradually getting worse, with Bannister and Maverick caught in the middle. But August is the Ghost Rider crossover. Are we going to get resolution next issue or is it going to be continued later?

Matt: I’m not sure. With “Fall of X” starting this month, it feels like a good time to have this plotline wrapped up. But with the X-Men caught off guard and in serious trouble (I assume anyway, I have no more inside information than anyone else), Beast still being out there would make for some good plotting. This might be his time to shine.

Tony: I think it would be. His paranoia will have been confirmed and it’s just going to make him that much more insufferable. I mean, here he completely dismantles a US military response to his aggression, takes a CIA agent hostage and generally provokes Logan and Maverick. It’s an ugly situation, made even uglier by how Hank is acting. I mean, just how he eats lobster is gross. 

Matt: The lobster scene is priceless. It shows how far from the Beast of the 80s and 90s he is; heck the Beast up to Morrison and Whedon. That Beast did everything he could to maintain his humanity. His horror when Cassandra Nova got into his head was all about his losing control, of becoming something bestial. Now, he is tearing into that lobster with abandon. He said in previous issues to call him Beast, not Dr. McCoy, and that scene shows how much he has embraced his nom du guerre.

Tony: In his evolution since All New X-Men, the change in his morality has been fascinating. He’s grown as a character, and some would argue in the wrong ways. It’s definitely been in very interesting and readable ways. It shows the dangers of nationalism, since Beast has taken the principles and ideals of Krakoa way too far.  You point out his exclusive use of his mutant name. His lack of accountability for his current actions. Beyond telling a really good action/espionage story, I think Percy’s doing some great allegory.

Matt: I feel like this book, or at least this arc, has become something akin to the best Punisher comics, and some of the best Batman: The Animated Series episodes. At this point, Logan is the driver of the story, but not the character that you’re actually interested in. It’s Beast’s machinations, Maverick’s questionable agenda and the fate of the Bannisters that are the actual story elements we’re following. Wolverine is just there because he’s the guy who all of them know and who is the tissue connecting the characters to the plot. Wolverine hasn’t done anything outside of the general parameters of what Wolverine does in a while; he’s just a hairy, grimacing story engine.

Tony: And in the end, he’s going to be the one who stabs Hank in the gut, or drags him back to Krakoa. But right now he’s just there for the punching.

I know we haven’t talked much about the art, but Ryp keeps showing interesting duality. It’s like one issue he’s overly stiff and leaning too hard into hyperrealism; the next he does some really great, dynamic (and sometimes gross) stuff. I think this issue leans towards the latter. That’s great, and I hope we continue to get more of the latter. I just want some consistency though. At least in August we have Geoff Shaw doing the Ghost Rider crossover.

War Across Time (X-Force #41)

Tony: While I really enjoyed this issue of X-Force, there just really wasn’t any meat on the bones, was there? Don’t get me wrong- I’ll take compressed over decompressed any day, but I expected a little more out of it.

Matt: If this were a longer arc, I would have been more ok with it. If we had six issues, where we were slowly teasing out these times affected by Beast, allowing for a slower burn, it would be fine to have one issue where we didn’t learn much. But this is a three issue arc, which means I think we’re going to need a really exposition/plot heavy third part to tie everything up before, again, “Fall of X” hits.

Tony: I think you hit the nail on the head. I’m game for a fast paced, action oriented arc, but those only work when they balance plot with them. Think of that recent Wolverine/Deadpool arc over in Wolverine: it didn’t let up but it also advanced the plot every issue. 

That said, this issue was a lot of fun. 

Matt: While this isn’t an entirely Deadpool-centric story, it is pretty Deadpool heavy, and so you’re going to get some hijinks. Percy has found a solid voice for Wade, one that is quippy without overpowering every scene he’s in, which is the problem you can often run into with Deadpool. 

Tony: I said it during the Wolverine Deadpool arc — that’s exactly why I don’t like him as a character. Percy, in my opinion, is probably the best Deadpool writer since Gerry Duggan. Though I do like Alyssa Wong’s Deadpool series more than any other I’ve read in a while. We need to talk about that one sometime soon.

Matt: This is why Quentin didn’t bring Deadpool when he took the others into the future. It’s not that he didn’t need someone else eating up his place on the team, but he knew he needed to leave Deadpool behind. It makes a lot of sense, plotwise, and I like that as well.

Tony: It always fascinates me how Weapon X “graduates” are incredibly long lived as well. It’s made for interesting storytelling every time it pops up.

Plot wise, it’s the same as last issue — X-Force faces a new variation of Beast, things go poorly. That’s what makes the character beats so interesting, and to me, ultimately unsatisfying. By that I mean, we know Piotr is currently free of the Chronicler, and he knows it. Domino has ALL her memories back, so she knows that Piotr went against her wishes in her resurrection. Why did that conversation between Domino and Piotr happen without addressing either of those items?

I feel like the Mikhail plot is the next big thing for this series, and by starting to pull the curtain away, we can get ready for it.

Matt: Piotr has to do or say something that leaves some evidence that something is very wrong to trigger the showdown with Mikhail. I imagine that will also tie into what happens with Domino, because that’s a thread that I’ve wanted pulled since it happened.

But we have those character beats and set-up to handle, plus dealing with the last Beast clone (who seems to have the Cerebro sword buried with him, or did I misread that?) and what is going on with Quentin and Cerebrax, whether it’s healing him or stopping him. That’s a lot to do in 20 pages.

Tony: Yeah absolutely. And this isn’t like Wolverine that can just end those plots and pick them back up later. X-Force is actively bouncing through time right now, and they either need to get that resolved in July or not at all.

My guess, by the way, is that the team arrives back on Krakoa mid-Gala next issue.

Matt: I’ll see your Gala bet, and raise you this one: IN part 1 of this story, we saw Wolverine. Part 2, we saw Deadpool. I would lay a bit of cash that part 3 we will see a Beast-infected future Black Tom, as he is the other member of the team not on the journey who might have survived into some future in a way to which Beast could have done something horrible to him.

Tony: I bet you’re right. And since we know this last issue is cyberpunk, with the Nimrod/Beast hybrid, I think that could get really sad. Tom without his organic link — more Warlock than Tom Cassidy — I’d be down for that.

X-Traneous Thoughts

• Man, I wish we got more of Lorna like we did Rogue and Laura this year. That scene between her and Jean was one of the best of the series to date.
• The opening text page, about Moira considering Cable “of Essex”? That is one of those Moira bits that so absolutely recasts so many of her past interactions.
• I kind of hope Kid Cable is back-back for a little while.