With one young mutant taken hostage in the underworld of the Dark Artery, it’s left to the remaining Outliers to lead the Louisiana X-Men to try to steal them back, but the ultimate terror blocks the way. The Voice of Darkness seeks a new home, and violence and fear will follow whoever takes that mantle. Uncanny X-Men #15 is written by Gail Simone, drawn by David Marquez, colored by Matt Wilson and lettered by Clayton Cowles.
Adam Reck: I think we can now safely say that we’ve been enjoying this Dark Artery arc so far, and that despite our reservations about the Henrietta story, Gail does seem to be handling it pretty well. Austin, are you ready to dive deeper down into the Artery to learn more about what Haven House, Penumbra and Shuvahrak are?
Austin Gorton: Adam, I have answered the riddles of the Threshold Guardian, outsmarted the Warden of the Doors, played chess with the Master of Trespasses and snuck through the Vestibule of Discovery all to be here in the Realm of Review with you. Let’s do this!
Have Mercy
Adam: Henrietta’s backstory is brief but important here, as she meets three mutants of Haven House, including a burly, bearded man with a shotgun; a four-armed gunslinger, and an elderly healer named Witchfire. Marquez designs each perfectly for the context of the time and place, and I’d definitely be game to see more of them. Witchfire is able to heal Henrietta’s guide, who we thought was dead last issue, but it’s up to Henrietta to decide the fate of the “Sentinels” who pursued her. What did you think of the new characters and Henrietta’s decision, Austin?
Austin: Marquez remains a treasure, and is largely the thing holding up this issue that is mostly one big (overdue) exposition dump. The Haven House mutates are a fun bunch, and work much better in the context of the era than Rock Henrietta and Her Rock Golems. I’m not sure why, but something about “has four arms” seems more old-fashioned-y than “is Lady Thing”? At any rate, if we can have stories about pre-X-Men X-Men like First X-Men, then I’m totally down for a miniseries about a group of vaguely turn-of-the-century proto-X-Men.
Adam: I do really like the idea of Southern Black proto-X-Men doing hero stuff. It presents a completely unexplored corner of history and context for Earth-616.
Austin: And for as much as Henrietta’s visual vibe maybe doesn’t work as well, I really like her sparing the “Sentinels.” We’ve expressed our concerns over the course of this story that she was going to undergo an arc that led to her becoming a virulent wraith of anti-human vengeance and what that would mean for the book and the larger state of the X-books, and while that’s still possible, Uncanny X-Men #15 did a lot, both here and in the present, to moderate that arc.
Letting the Sentinels live is also a good turn because it’s both absolutely the right choice for her to make and absolutely the wrong one. Logically, she should let them be killed. Morally, she should let them live. Letting them live fits, generally, with what we’ve seen in her backstory. She tries to be a righteous person; she isn’t terribly weighed down by thoughts of vengeance and darkness. But I’ve read enough stories to know letting them live will absolutely bite her in the ass. But that’s good! We want this stuff to be complicated.
Adam: Agreed. I prefer Henrietta to be trying to do the right thing over moving straight to murder-villain. It’s a far cry from Podcaster Ellis.
More like Gothliers, amirite?
Adam: One downside to this issue is all the explaining it needs to do. Henrietta has a large exposition dump to explain what she’s doing down in the Artery (this is kind of unclear actually), what Man-Thing’s role is (Nexus of All Realities, naturally), what the city of Penumbra is (city of the dead who betrayed their mutant kin), what Shuvahrak is (creepy metal skull overlord of Penumbra) — it’s a lot! Luckily, we’re walking while we’re talking, but still.
Austin: It is a lot. As I alluded to in our intro, it feels like this whole issue is a lot of passing through doors and explaining what that door is and how it’s different from the other door and who is guarding which door and why and what needs to happen to get through the doors. We get infodumps on Shuvahrak, and the mutant who initially created Penumbra, in the form of a one-page flashback, in an issue that is also in the midst of revealing another character’s backstory via flashbacks.
And yet, despite that, it’s still not entirely clear what everything is and how it relates to the other. Man-Thing is guarding access to Henrietta, who is keeping people from entering Penumbra, which is basically a Hell for people who betrayed mutants, and the Dark Artery is … also that? Or all of that? And is the big stone X the Outliers entered in the first place also the Dark Artery, or the Nexus of All Realities, or something else? Despite all the exposition in this issue, I’m still not quite sure how all these places and terms relate to one another.
Adam: One stipulation to entering Penumbra is you have to look Goth as hell, so the Outliers each get their own symbiote-looking costume, of which I think only Deathdream’s is a keeper. If you’re gonna be a sad boi who keeps telling everyone he’s not needed, you might as well look the part.
Austin: The idea of having to change your clothes before doing something is one of those things that is, realistically, ridiculous, but is a tried-and-true comic book tradition that absolutely fits in a visual medium. I did fear for a moment that their goth looks were going to turn out to be symbiotes and this was all going to get further complicated by tying into Knull and all that symbiote mythology junk, but it seems like they’re just hella goth looks, which is good.
I also appreciate the way Simone writes the Outliers’ various motivations for/reactions to going into Penumbra. Ransom is in it purely to defend Deathdream, Jitter is petrified but willing to overcome her fear. Deathdream just wants everyone to let him go. Even though they ultimately go where we know they’re going to go (because storytelling), it makes them feel more like fully realized characters than simply actors beholden to the whims of the plot.
Goth-Men to the Rescue!
Adam: Back at Haven House, Rogue is warming up after fighting Mr. Ice Dragon. When Marcus acknowledges the Outliers went to the Artery, it turns out Gambit knows all about it. This guy and his secrets!
Austin: I believe it was ComicsXF EiC Dan Grote who noted in the group Slack the visual hilarity of two shirtless men wrapping a blanket around a fully clothed woman to warm her up.
At any rate, one of the things that makes this infodump of an issue a little more palpable is the way it connects to the ongoing mystery of Haven House that’s been lingering on the edges of the book since this group of X-Men settled here. We still don’t quite know its deal, but we’re getting there, and the reveal is being tied to character development — mostly for the Outliers, but to some extent the X-Men as well. Also, for as try-hard as the humor in this book sometimes is, there’s a couple of legitimately funny back-to-back moments, as Gambit and the St. Juniors all declare in unison it doesn’t matter what the X-Men wear into the Artery, and then when Wolverine tells them they all knew it wasn’t going to be beignets and six packs forever.
Adam: Once they show up in Penumbra to help even the odds, the X-Men have their own goth looks, and gotta say, Marquez kills it. They look awesome, especially berserker Wolvie.
Austin: They really do. And I’m always a fan of hooded Rogue. Again, Marquez is just knocking it out of the park. It’s also been a long time since we had a good old-fashioned “eff yeah!” “X-Men springing into action” fist-pump moment in this series not bogged down by weird characterization or plot mechanics like Jubilee hitting on a cop or all the twists and turns required to make the various X-teams fight each other.
X-traneous Thoughts
- Awww, Calico loves Jitter! We’re rooting for you, you crazy kids.
- You know it’s coming the moment he appears on the page, but the beat of “whoever knows fear … burns at the touch of Man-Thing!” just before Man-Thing lights some bad dude on fire is one of comics’ great thrills.
- I wasn’t thrilled to see the return of one of the Sentinel hounds in scenes bookending this issue. Especially when we’re in the middle of a successful arc, it’s not great to be reminded of something that wasn’t working from right before it.
- The looks on the cats’ faces when they saw the Sentinel dog echoes my own feelings.
Buy Uncanny X-Men #15 here. (Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate, ComicsXF may earn from qualifying purchases.)
Adam Reck is the cartoonist behind Bish & Jubez as well as the co-host of Battle Of The Atom. Follow him @adamreck.bsky.social.
Austin Gorton also reviews older issues of X-Men at the Real Gentlemen of Leisure website, co-hosts the A Very Special episode podcast, and likes Star Wars. He lives outside Minneapolis, where sometimes, it is not cold. Follow him @austingorton.bsky.social.
