From the ashes emerge new mutants, new monsters, new conflicts – and a new backstory for Charles Xavier? We’ve got all that and Jubilee too in this month’s installment of the uncanny adventures of Team Rogue. Uncanny X-Men #2 is written by Gail Simone, drawn by David Marquez, colored by Matthew Wilson and lettered by Clayton Cowles.
Anna Peppard: Welcome back to more uncanny ramblings about the latest uncanny mutants! Last time, we fought a dragon and met a prison, a monster and some brand-new traumatized and terrifically powerful teens who brought a horse to the cookout.
Since then, we’ve learned, via editor Tom Brevoort and writer Gail Simone, that Kurt Wagner is not a priest. He just has the kind of relationship with his sister where every time they don’t see each other for a few weeks, she asks him if he became a priest in the interim, just in case. (Honestly, given the history of X-Men comics, this isn’t implausible — when doing catch-ups with my mutant friends, I’d also ask if they’d recently met any new clones or evil brothers, time traveled to the desolate future, or stopped or started any intergalactic wars.)
Anyway, Kurt’s not in this issue, but the first love of Charles Xavier sure is! And I’m very sure you can all guess who it is!
How’s this month finding you, Jake?
Jake: Has it been a month already? I have to admit, life’s been a blur ever since I got my hands on The Left Eye of Agamotto. Not in a bad way (I promise I’m not complaining Agamo … er Anna), things are just … different now. Man, I miss my chere and de cats. Anyway …
If there’s one thing that could bring me back down to earth, it’s this issue. Coquettish college Charles, a misunderstanding turned melee and the return of one of comics history’s great rooms. This is the Uncanny X-Men as we know ‘em and love ‘em.
Let’s get into it.
Giving a Helpless Yank a Boost
Anna: We open this month’s issue with a flashback to a young Charles Xavier, narrated by excerpts from Chuck’s journals. He’s a college student at Oxford and is sitting on a bench in the snow reading a book about (what else?) genetics when the aforementioned Very Important Woman in His Life interrupts and asks for help finding her frisbee. This very important woman is, of course, Moira Amelia Lilandra Gabrielle Sarah. She’s as new to us as she is to young Chuck. Because our once and future Professor X is lonely — and because Sarah is hot as hell — these two youngsters grab some tea.
Parts of this scene are fun; I did enjoy Chuck’s face when his cheek collides with Sarah’s pelvis as well as Sarah’s smiling invitation. (“Are you coming?” — yes I’m quite sure he already did.) And yet — are we really doing this? A callback to Moira meeting Charles in House of X/Powers of X? Aka one of the most iconic scenes in what’s quickly become one of the most iconic X-Men stories of all time? Which kickstarted one of the most innovative, far-reaching retcons of all time? While also adding yet another potential first love-turned-villain to the already crowded backstory of Charles Xavier? I’m sure different folks will have different mileage on all this. Maybe it’s just a joke or a red herring. And a lot depends on how it plays out in subsequent issues. But I’ll confess it had me sighing; I don’t think I’m ready for more retcons about the love life of young Chuck.
Jake: There are a few well-worn paths an X-Men writer can tread to establish that a character is “old (and therefore, sadly in superhero comics, important) as hell.” They could have strapped up Apocalypse’s sandals during the siege of Carthage, or hung out in a Babylonian blood bar with Selene, or even rubbed grubby shoulders with a Hellfire Club member or two back in the bad old days. Or they could date Charles Xavier pre-X-Men.
It’s a quick grab for narrative loftiness that, as you say, is worn to the point of being threadbare. By entrenching a character as far back in history as possible, the argument goes, the more instantly important they become. It means that when the final scene ties the bow on the issue by revealing that the ski-suited hottie of Charles Xavier’s past is in fact the mutant hunting monster who’s dropping bodies at Warden Ellis’ door, the intent is surely to leave us wondering: “What tragedy must have befallen her?” And it’s not that Simone doesn’t achieve that necessarily, it’s just such a comic book trope that I can’t help but see it as something of a cheap trick.
With that being the case, it appears that all roads lead back to Professor X once again. After the crushing ending Kieron Gillen et al gave him at the end of the Krakoa era, I was content with Charles not featuring in stories so prominently for a little while. How are you feeling about the prospect of everyone’s favorite “appalling blond” returning?
Anna: Not great. Retreating to the epic past of Charles Xavier to sell your book in issue #2 suggests, to me, a lack of confidence in the characters who actually star in it. I understand why we’re doing it. It’s the reasons you said above plus we want all of this to tie into the mutant prison, and the importance of Charles as the fallen leader of the mutant cause has been heavily emphasized throughout the line. I just can’t help feeling it might be more impactful for this new character to be linked to the backstory of one of our regulars – to provide context and motivation for, say, Rogue – rather than just sending our mutants on yet another quest to pick up after the mistakes of their (supposedly) great leader.
Also, in general – all this foregrounding of Chuck as the fallen great leader feels a bit Onslaught-era to me. And that’s not a status quo I’m super anxious to revisit. Are there really mutants who don’t already know Professor Xavier is a jerk? I personally had no idea so many of them still revered him as a godlike father figure, but OK.
The Newest Mutants
Anna: While some of you, and some of us, might have different takeaways from some of the takes on offer in this series so far, I’m pretty confident we can all agree David Marquez continues to kill it. This is true in every scene but perhaps especially the fight scene that also serves as our introduction to both the powers and personalities of our newest mutants. Just so we’re all on the same page before we get into it, these are the new faces our uncanny protagonists are facing, as introduced in this era and some promotional materials Marvel released after their first one: Becca Constance Simon-Pinette, aka Calico, who shares a transformative psychic connection with her horse, Ember; Hotoru, aka Deathdream, who can summon ghosts; Sofia Yong, aka Jitter, who has the power of “hyper-focus”; and Valentin Correa, aka Ransom, who’s apparently got a black hole for a heart.
The fight scene in this issue has to do a lot of narrative heavy lifting. It needs to introduce us to the powersets of each of these brand-new characters while also establishing how those powersets interact with their personalities, as all great powersets should. Marquez’s talent for big action and subtle emotion is on full display and woven throughout the scene, as our newest mutants start off confident then find out the consequences of overconfidence, powers fizzling, faces meeting adamantium and other almost-equally-hard fists. We learn a lot simply through the body language of these new characters after they’re defeated. Calico is down but still itching for a fight; Jitter is down because she’s exhausted; Deathdream is slumped in spooky reverie; while Ransom is already halfway back on his feet with his hands on the shoulders of Calico and Jitter in a protective gesture that may be either sweet or possessive, depending on how his misogyny shakes out (more on that in a moment).
In the hands of a less talented or less thoughtful artist, a scene like this could become a real mess real fast. Here, it’s a joy to read. And, speaking as a grown-up horse girl, I have to say, was I ever a sucker for that Pegasus Knight! mini-splash, which was not only gorgeous and delightfully unexpected, but also exactly what this bratty horse girl would imagine for herself and her horsey in a moment when she needs to feel as awesomely powerful as possible.
Jake: Marquez really is killing it. I was particularly impressed with the deftness with which he captured Rogue’s emotional journey in issue #1, and in this issue the way he achieves character development through fight scenes is brilliant. It’s not the punches, kicks and power flexes that stand out to me (although the way he draws Jitter’s power signature and the big flaming horse in the sky is cool as hell), it’s the fact that the scene is carrying a lot of dialogue and introducing us to new characters but it never feels heavy. Cockiness very quickly gives way to desperation, as the young mutants lose the element of surprise and begin to discover their limitations. This is achieved both through the mechanics of the fight (see Calico falling down cascading panels as the melee around her clears the path to her unceremoniously being dumped in a bale of hay) and the body language and facial expressions of the young mutants as they descend into total dejection (see the drooped head of that poor horse in the very last panel of the fight scene). The scene conveys its purpose so well: These teens may be strong, but they’re lost, vulnerable and in need of help.
If I have a criticism of this scene, it’s that I could have told you that from the offset because the poor youths did ask the X-Men directly for help. Now I know what you’re thinking: “I remember when I read my first X-Men comic,” and yes, this has been par for the course in X-Men comics since time immemorial. But this scene in particular is overly contrived. It relies on The Left Eye of Agamotto going a bit screwy and magic-blasting a child who is already having to deal with Logan’s aggro (which I also find a little out of character even if this is explained later) as a catalyst rather than there being any plausible character-based reason for the fight to break out. I was extremely grateful for the beautiful splash page of Jubilee announcing her arrival under a shower of fireworks that put an end to the nonsense.
Anna: Jubilee basically stops the fight by simply arriving and announcing, loudly and brightly, that she’s Jubilee, and that’s terrific. Doesn’t hurt that Marquez really nails her classic pose in an iconic silhouette, legs wide, jacket furling, left fist clenched, right hand fireworks-ing.
Jake: 10/10, no notes.
Anna: If I might offer my own criticism of this scene, it would be that I’m not sure how I feel about the use of what I might call High Claremontian phonetic accents in this series in general, but I’m especially unsure how I feel about the vocal stylings of Ransom when, after the fight and some post-fight make-outs between Gambit and Rogue, he exclaims, in the direction of Gambit, “High five! My dude. Your girl is slammin’.” Perhaps “slammin’” is something the kids of today are wont to say; not being a kid of today, I can’t say for sure. But to me it sounds like something out of a Prince song circa 1987.
Jake: I will state for the record that I am also not a kid, but if the young people of today are saying “slammin’” I will eat my hat (I doubt anyone says that anymore either). To your broader point though, I think phonetic accents can be an additive characterization technique, but there’s a line when it begins to detract. I quite like the idea that Rogue and Gambit’s regional accents become broader when they’re in the South, especially given how much their way of speaking has always differentiated them from Xavier’s yankee X-Men. The way he recruits them both to the X-Men in the first place is very different from the likes of Scott and Jean, so I like the fact that they’re in a position of comfort here and showing out.
There are a couple of occasions where the dialogue feels a little unnatural, maybe even inauthentic and disrupts the rhythm of the scene. I’m no expert on Cajun dialect, but “him’s a bit twitchy” is a sentence structure that doesn’t even fit with the way Gambit talks in the rest of this issue, let alone throughout the character’s history.
Anna: I’m also not sure how I feel about what’s becoming a running joke of this series, in which male characters enthusiastically remark on Rogue’s hotness. Listen, I get it — Rogue is hot. I support her hotness in all its forms. But is having presumptively straight male characters yell this at Rogue — or, in this case, at Rogue’s husband — the best way to communicate this? In my many years of existing as a woman in this patriarchal world of ours, I have had male strangers shout these types of uninvited comments at me a time or two (or two hundred), and they have never, ever been welcome. Saying them to my male partner, in front of me, as though I am his submissive property, is even less welcome. Then again, I’m not Rogue. Maybe she’s into it? But it’s odd that in a series where Rogue has lots of internal monologue, we don’t get any insight into how she feels about these “compliments.” There is absolutely a way to make a female character’s sexiness feel powerful; Gail Simone has done this in other comics. But for me, so far — this gag isn’t it.
Mommy and Daddy are Fighting
Anna: We should also mention something we didn’t mention in our last review because, to be frank, it wasn’t something I noticed until the writers told me to notice it. And that’s the setup of Rogue and Cyclops as the new Professor Xavier and Magneto. In this issue, this seemingly antagonistic relationship is signposted when Rogue calls Cyclops, and they have a low-key tiff about the new Graymalkin Prison; Rogue wants to break in, Cyke wants to gather more intel.
I’m saying “seemingly” and “supposed” because whatever happened to put Rogue and Scott at odds happened off panel, and I can’t imagine what it could be. Then again, we might simply be sowing the seeds of a future conflict, in which case, we’ve just got to wait and see. I will say, though – it feels weird to say Rogue and Scott are the new Charles and Eric when Charles and Eric are still around, to the point where they’re actually being guest stars and backup characters in the books of their supposed heirs.
Jake: Absolutely. Creating a nuanced contrast between Charles and Eric is something Chris Claremont crafted over years of storytelling, not just building upon but rescuing the line from the “good vs. bad” dichotomy that his original creators intended for them. Their opposing philosophies, methodologies and personalities have shaped the course of X-Men history for almost 50 years now, and I’m sorry but you don’t just get to transpose this well-earned feat of characterization onto two characters just because they’ve fallen out over what to do on a mission. It should be stated that at no point on page has this dynamic been referenced, at least not yet. It’s a cheap piece of marketing that cheapens this book.
Anna: The final important thing that happens in this issue is more of a soon-to-be-important thing, and that’s the continued development of Warden Ellis’ mutant prison. We’re told that they’ve captured a deaf mutant, that their primary defenses are sonic, and also, Ellis tries to sell Siryn on assisting with the cause, in some as-yet-unspecified capacity.
At present, I’m not quite following where all the sonic pieces fit here; at first, I thought they must be exploiting Siryn’s powers to create their defenses, but this doesn’t seem to be the case? I also don’t really understand this context for manipulating Siryn, who’s one of those characters who’s been through so much, I have a hard time believing some time in prison and being told by an anti-mutant bigot that Charles Xavier is dead would be anywhere near enough to break her. But our creative team is clearly keeping stuff back for future reveals, and that’s fine; I’m sure we’ll learn more before long.
We also, as we mentioned above, get the reveal of Sarah, in her present form – a skeletal ghoul flanked by the silhouettes of what look like a couple of medieval knights. Sarah’s powers and motivations are, as yet, unclear. Our newest mutants say she’s hunting them for bounty, but what payoffs appeal to a ghoul? My money is on Ellis paying her with either eye of newt or toenail clippings.
How are you feeling about the continued contextualizing of our big bads, Jake?
Jake: In terms of Sarah, the visual contrast that bookends the issue isn’t subtle. From the perfectly put together blond bombshell from the issue’s opening scene to the dark, disheveled and angular figure at the end, there’s presumably a story of loss, descent into madness and monstrousness that future issues will surely tease out. The fact that she calls herself “Mommy” in the first issue worries me that her “fall” relates in some way to her motherhood, which would be problematic. Panels in the early part of the issue zoom in on her body on a couple of occasions, highlighting the heteronormative view of “femininity,” while her thin, pale, angular body and torn clothes in the final panel accentuate a loss of “womanliness.” I may be reading way too much into this, and for that reason I’m not going to pre-judge, but I’m raising this plot point as one to watch moving forward.
I’ll throw the theory that she’s Calico’s mother in for good measure. There are a few clues peppered throughout the issue, namely that that Calico’s motivation in joining the X-Men is not because she’s a mutant but because she’s seemingly been abandoned by her family, she references her mother’s anti-mutant bigotry (which is apparent in the scene with Fawn in the first issue). Also, the preppy look.
As far as Ellis is concerned, she continues to be fun in a vaguely ominous way. Each issue seeds more and more about her motivation, with her offer of a Trustee position to Siryn suggesting she’s looking at getting the school up and running again (good thing it’s in such great condition!), although her student population being brought there under duress raises questions about the school’s wider purpose.
Overall I thought this issue was a bit of a step back. It consisted of a series of narrative decisions that didn’t quite track for me, but was held together by fantastic art. I’m still on the train, but the ride has definitely gotten a little rougher for me this week.
Anna: I definitely want to see how things mesh when this team comes together and gets a proper mission statement, which they don’t entirely have as yet. For now, color me excited to see Marquez draw Nightcrawler in action next month.
X-Traneous Thoughts
- Someone recently alerted me to the fact that “Warden Ellis” sounds a lot like “Warren Ellis.” Other than reminding us that these are both very shitty people, I can’t currently see the relevance of this possible comparison. But to each their own.
- We’ve praised Marquez to the moon, and I’ll keep doing it to anyone who will listen, but as someone who fancies herself fashion-conscious, I have to mention there’s a continuity error in this issue, where Ellis’ skimpy midriff-baring top becomes a full-length, tucked in top from one page to the next. This might be a coloring error, and it’s not a big deal, these things happen. But it did affect the reading experience, because I’m curious to know whether we’re meant to view Ellis as someone who’s comfortable wearing risque attire within professional settings, as a prison warden; the two versions of this outfit have quite different connotations.
- Last month, we mentioned the weirdness of rebuilding the mansion and stocking it with personal effects off panel; seems like they’ve also reconstructed the classic Danger Room. Would love a Marvel Unlimited bridging story about this off-panel retro reno. I wonder which Krakoan made this their pretty strange personal project.
- Kurt’s on the cover of issue #3. Wonder what he’s been up to, hopefully not fast-tracking his vows (again).
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Anna Peppard
Anna is a PhD-haver who writes and talks a lot about representations of gender and sexuality in pop culture, for academic books and journals and places like Shelfdust, The Middle Spaces, and The Walrus. She’s the editor of the award-winning anthology Supersex: Sexuality, Fantasy, and the Superhero and co-hosts the podcasts Three Panel Contrast and Oh Gosh, Oh Golly, Oh Wow!
Jake Murray spends far too much time wondering if the New Mutants are OK. When he's not doing that, he can be found talking and writing about comics with anyone who will listen.
