Big fights and big reveals heat up the Fall of X in X-Chat #12!

The Fall of X is here in X-Chat #12!

In X-Men #28, Firestar takes center stage as embraces her role as an X-Spy from Gerry Duggan, Joshua Cassara, Marte Gracia, and Clayton Cowles!

In X-Force #46, Colossus finally breaks free of Mikhail from Benjamin Percy, Robert Gill, Guru-eFx, and Joe Caramagna!

And in Uncanny Avengers #4, Captain Krakoa stands revealed from Duggan, Javier Garron, Morry Hollowell, and Travis Lanham.

Tony Thornley: I really wish the real world would stop hassling me. So many interesting comics!

Matthew Lazorwitz: Oh, Brother Tony, I feel you on that one. But as the Fall of X is nearing its climax, it’s good to be back with you.

Don’t Blow Your Cover!

Tony: So you and I have both been reading comics long enough to know mid-arc issues often drag. They’re setup for other plots, they move pieces into place for bigger and more impactful issues. So the secret to these issues is absolutely finding the balance between being a satisfying read while getting those plots, characters and motivations all in place.

That’s exactly what X-Men #28 does. It moves Firestar’s story forward. It gets Juggernaut back with the team. It unites Kate, Kamala and Logan inside the borders of Latveria. And I don’t know that the script is entirely successful, but it does what it needs to do. And man, it looks FANTASTIC.

Matt: Does it ever! Joshua Cassara is a superstar in this issue. There are artists who can do character work, like Firestar’s interrogation scene with the Orchis higher ups. And there are artists who can do action pieces, like her fight with Juggernaut. But one who is an adept hand at both? That’s true talent.

Tony: He kind of reminds me of Kevin Maguire or Stuart Immonen in that way. Not to say that he has a similar style to either, but a similar level of talent.

I really enjoy how the creative team has brought Angelica into the fold. We talked about it with last year’s annual, but other attempts have still cast her as the outsider. Duggan and others have fully brought her into the fold, and this double agent plotline is enough to continue it. Some of the actual execution is incredibly cheesy, but I’ve been digging it.

And, again, Cassara draws the hell out of that fight.

Matt: Angelica has needed something to do, and this is it. She is willing to do whatever she can for Krakoa, and it’s not to prove herself to anyone else, but because this is her calling. It’s powerful. And yes, it is cheesy and heavyhanded (the use of “And yet, she persisted” especially so), but I’ll take it for the benefit of the character.

Tony: I am also enjoying Kamala being brought into the fold. On the flip side from Angelica, she still feels a bit like an outsider, but in a way that’s more welcoming.

Matt: I’ve enjoyed seeing Kamala teaming up with different characters: she and her new bestie, Rasputin IV (credit to Dan Grote for that particular turn of phrase), and now with Kate. And Kate’s resentment towards her, which feels like Kate seeing her younger self in Kamala and not being able to face that right now, is captivating as well.

Tony: Kate’s always kinda distanced herself from the new girl, hasn’t she? Especially when Logan is warm towards that newbie. I kind of dig the idea of Logan having a preexisting relationship to the new girl, instead of just adopting another daughter. And it’s interesting to think about how Kamala has a relationship with the two elder statesmen of the X-Men. I’m kind of surprised she’s not pushing to rescue Scott, now that I think of it.

But this issue ends on a heck of a cliffhanger on two fronts — Angelica is in mortal danger, as Orchis is seeing her usefulness ending, and we’re about to meet Doom’s X-Men. I’m not sure which I’m looking forward to more.

Matt: I always am looking forward to more Doom, but here it’s the Orchis stuff that has me more interested. Barring something truly unexpected, I see the Doom mission as more one to flesh out the relationships here, which is definitely fun and something I like, but the ball is rolling downhill, and I am very much looking forward to seeing what it hits. Angelica seems at a point where, if she sees coming whatever the robo-brigade has coming for her, she is going to go down swinging, I want to see that.

Tony: Whatever happens, I look forward to Angie slagging at least a couple of them!

Brother Vs Brother

Tony: Just shy of four years on, and finally the Chronicler plot draws to a close, in X-Force #46 I think this is the longest-lived individual plotline since… Onslaught maybe? Operation Zero Tolerance? And the best part of this one is that Percy had it all broadly plotted out and ready for this moment. I think this storyline wraps in at least a satisfying way. I don’t think it was perfect, but it worked.

 And it looks like Colossus is going to have to deal with the consequences of what he did while controlled.

Matt: Colossus is a complicated character. He might be one of the most complicated X-Men. I often think he’s a mirror image to Wolverine. Wolverine is a good man who often does terrible things; for all the horrible things that have happened to him over his life, he has never let them break him. Colossus is not a very good person, or at least one who has become so fundamentally broken that he can no longer trust his own judgment, but is looked on as this paragon of nobility. He is always looking for a noble sacrifice to prove he’s good (like committing suicide to cure the Legacy Virus) but is never willing to do the hard work of making amends in a way that isn’t a grand gesture.

Tony: That’s very true. Almost like his interior life is very different from the outward appearance of virtue, and thus not enough people realize how messed up he is to help him change.

Matt: There’s a line from an episode of Doctor Who, “A Good Man Goes to War,” where the Doctor is told that he won’t do something terrible because he’s a good man, and good men have too many rules. The Doctor responds, “Good men don’t need rules. Today is not the day to find out why I have so many.” I have always seen Colossus in that light.

Since he quit the X-Men to join the Acolytes, he has never been that far from slipping into something dark. And while the fact that he immediately surrenders at the end of this issue can be taken as noble, I feel like it’s more that he’s just so damn tired, he’d rather just surrender and let it all be over. Which is bleak, but well within both his character AND the plot of a good Russian novel.

Tony: Yeah, outside of those last couple pages, this issue is pretty light on plot. This is all about setting up Colossus “paying” for what he’s done. Sage and Domino rush into Mikhail’s No-Place and rescue the team, while Piotr confronts Mikhail for the last time. Then Piotr confesses in the last page. It’s mostly satisfying, as long as we don’t get Piotr being let off the hook entirely next issue.

Matt: It’s a visually nice issue. We were just talking about Cassara above, and while Robert Gill isn’t quite there, I’ve liked his work at Valiant, and it’s nice to see him with this gig. 

Tony: Gill has done a great job since he took over from Cassara about eighteen months ago. He has similar sensibilities with a little bit more sparse style. I really dig his action. He made the fight between Piotr and Mikhail look absolutely brutal. And Deadpool’s surprise return had some great fight choreography.

Matt: Deadpool’s return here is cute, but he sure is busy, with everything that goes on in the next book, huh?

THAT Guy

Matt: Ugh. I had called this a while ago, and it makes sense, but boy is Hydra Cap/Stevil Rogers just the worst, or what? He can actually make the Fenris Twins not the worst characters in a book, and that is saying something.

Tony: I had honestly liked Uncanny Avengers #4 TONS more than the previous issue up until that last page. It’s so out of left field that I wonder if he was intended to be someone else up until they ended up elsewhere thanks to an editorial mandate. The clues back in the FCBD special just don’t line up.

Matt: I’m going to have to do a reread on that. I placed this when he unmasked for Andrea Strucker; what other blonde fascist would she react that way to, after all?

Aside from that, I agree this was a satisfying issue. Blob gets to return to his more “face” roll, and the Struckers get maimed. I try to not to feel glee at the suffering of even fictional characters, but the Struckers just plain suck and they deserve it.

Tony: Look, like I said, there’s lots of good stuff in this issue. Blob’s face turn was one of my favorite moments of the series, and Psylocke defeating the Struckers ruled. I’m definitely not one for ultra-violence in comics. Ultra-violence against Nazis though? Yes. I’m in. And Black Widow laughing off Wildside’s psychic attack also was a lot of fun.

Legitimately, if we knew the current X-line had another year in it, I would love to see this series continue with this specific cast. Rogue takes half the team to stop Captain Krakoa’s nuke, while Steve springs the trap he set for the Captain. It’s the usual that we see in comics that mix things up just to get interesting character moments out of it.

Hell, even the brawl on top of the Daily Bugle building was pretty great. The Stevil reveal made sense when you see how he tore the entire team apart. It’s a very Steve Rogers moment — of course he knows each one of them well enough to know how to stop them.

And as much as I disliked the actual reveal, it does make sense in retrospect of this issue itself. We see the master tactician in play throughout the whole thing. Steve goes blow for blow with him. He knows exactly how to take down each member of the team…

Did you smile at Deadpool’s incredibly gross takedown? The rest just got beat up. Deadpool gets bisected.

Matt: Not only was it a fun, gross moment, but it makes perfect sense. Deadpool was in for Stevil for way longer than a lot of people, and I believe one of the arcs toward the end of Duggan’s Deadpool run was Wade going to take him out as revenge for making him do terrible things, so Duggan is calling back to his earlier works. 

I’m a fan of a big team getting divided into smaller squads for separate missions, but that may be the old school Justice League fan in me. It definitely works here, as it lets us give each character a moment to shine, which can get lost when the whole team is together. And specifically keeping Cap with Deadpool helps, as they both have such a big presence, I feel like they can easily drown out a character who has less force of personality.

X-Traneous Thoughts

• Has anyone else wondered what’s up with Firestar’s longtime paramour and fellow mutant Justice? I mean… I feel like there’s a story there, even if I’m not that big a fan of Vance.
• If you aren’t an art person, the painting Colossus drew of Mikhail and himself is an homage to Goya’s Saturn Devouring His Son.
• The X-line is so tied to Daredevil. First tons of Kingpin stuff, now more Ben Urich — who may be possessed by a demon over in Daredevil.
• Seriously, go read the new Daredevil run. It’s only two issues in and it’s very good.
• Did anyone else forget Wildside was part of the new MLF for a minute?
• Man, the Struckers needing to touch has bitten them in the ass more times than it’s helped, no?
• ICYMI, there seems to be a hint towards the post-Krakoa X-Men line in the solicitations for next May’s FCBD issue.

Matthew Lazorwitz

Matt Lazorwitz read his first comic at the age of five. It was Who's Who in the DC Universe #2, featuring characters whose names begin with B, which explains so much about his Batman obsession. He writes about comics he loves, and co-hosts the creator interview podcast WMQ&A with Dan Grote.

Tony Thornley

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.