Scott Summers burns it ALL down in an issue that shows what this series really can be! X-Men #10 from Jed MacKay, Netho Diaz, Sean Parsons, Fer Sifuentes-Sujo and Clayton Cowles.
Tony Thornley: Cyclops has unleashed hell, and I am here for it. Scott [Redmon, not Summers], welcome welcome!
Scott Redmond: Thanks for having me! I heard the Cyclops alarm go off and knew I had to come check on my boy.
Consequences
Tony: Itâs ten minutes later. The X-Men have just successfully scared the hell out of Graymalkin Prison. And naturally that means that the US Government is scared as hell, so theyâre going to threaten Scott Summers.
X-Men #10 is two things. Itâs following up on issue #3, in which Cyclops and Agent Lundqvist made veiled threats at each other. Secondly, itâs showing why you do not back Scott Summers into a corner. And for those two reasons it WORKS.
Scott: Iâm always down to see Scott Summers give someone the business about what mutants go through regularly. Loved it when he calmly verbally decimated the Fantastic Four in House Of X. When taken as a direct continuation of the third issue, as you mentioned, it fully works. In the wider context of the series as a whole and across the line, I have some quibbles. Mostly from how up and down and side to side everything is. Cyclops and this thinly-veiled governmental threat stuff is probably the only real throughline this series has, and even that has had someâŚissues (looking at you X-Men #2 and the sword/ heaven comment).Â
But as a single issue, and even as a sequel issue, X-Men #10 is the kind of thing that should be more at the heart of the X-Men after what happened in the Fall Of X. Less ground bears/moonbeams and more poking the government in the eye to show why you donât mess with mutants (chiefly Scott Summers).Â
Tony: We were talking about this in the CXF Slack this week â this series is the stronger of the two flagships (since Exceptional X-Men is kind of existing in its own space). But itâs not stronger because of the plot. Itâs because of issues like this.
Jed MacKay is not a high concept or big plot writer. Those are always vehicles in his stories for strong character writing. And does he ever do that here.
First, we get an opening with Magneto being extremely self-sacrificing (including the badass revelation that his condition only affects his control, not his power level). That then inspires the others remaining to prepare to sacrifice themselves as well. But then Cyclops shows up and we get to see what heâs really capable of.
And I mean, itâs what we all know Cyclops is capable of. Itâs just nice to see it again.
Taking a step backwards, though. Iâm kind of sick of this resurrection deterioration disease. I mean, itâs ill-defined, inconsistent, and out of the blue. We should be seeing Scott and Quentin showing at least a few symptoms, considering how many times they were resurrected. Or others in the universe. And âoh, my powers arenât weaker, just harder to controlâ seems out of left field. Magnetoâs dialogue? Cool as hell. The actual mechanics of it? Not so much.
I just donât like it.
Scott: In full agreement here. There are others who went through resurrection far more times than Magneto, who famously took himself out of the protocol and came back through actual magical means (ya know, old school ways to bring people back to life in comics). It not only is ill-defined and inconsistent but so vastly unnecessary. Like many things that define this era, it feels like a needless swipe at the previous era because the man in charge seems to have a massive (ill-informed, since he never read it) hatred for the Krakoa era.Â
Resurrection was a logical way to do what comics do all the time. Hell, they even mention here that even if Magneto dies from either the disease or going out in a blaze of glory, heâll for sure return. Yet, the powers-that-be apparently hate mutant resurrection and took it off the table quickly because random, vastly varying (and often stupid) means of returning to death is somehow better.Â
As for MacKay, youâre quite correct. Character stuff is his bread and butter and is why his runs with Black Cat, Moon Knight, and even Doctor Strange/Clea work so well. This is the guy that made me really like Taskmaster, for goodness sake. We see bits of that here, but much like his run on Avengers, it feels like the bigger books just hold that back. Because they are a different beast that editorial/publishing has bigger goals and desires for.Â
So we get a ton of MacKay recycling what other X-Books did. There has been a lot of chatter about this series being the Bendis Era 2.0, with Bendis’ particular talent only showing up sometimes. At least so far, itâs benefitted Cyclops in the best ways. Thatâs something at least.
Donât Test Me
Tony: Scott Summers is not a guy you mess with. At all. So when he decides to play chicken with Agent Lundqvist of the Office of National Emergency, you know itâs not really chicken. Scott will not mess around, and he will win.
So the duo begin amenably (though with Lundqvist being an absolute asshole), then the tension ratchets up as Scott makes it clear that heâs not messing around. Graymalkin is a private organization (something I didnât think was as clear as it should have been previously), and he calls out Lundqvist rightfully about it â a government agency should not take orders from a private organization, and be doing their grunt work.
Scott: If only they had a crossover about Graymalkin that actually could have laid out how the heck a former podcaster runs a private prison with potential government assistance. Oh well, guess there just isnât time for such things.
But damn, that is a good speech from Cyclops. One aspect that I liked about it is the fact that it didnât dissolve into a âwe could wipe you out if we wanted toâ speech, which would be out-of-character for Cyclops. Itâs a man laying out that they will do what they must to protect their own, but to keep pushing them would mean the end of everything as it currently stands. Granted, my money would be on it being a little more MAD (mutually assured destruction) than he points out, just cause the scale of some mutant powers, but the sentiment still works.Â
Tony: And while I think Lundqvist and Scottâs escalation is a little much â the gun to the head especially â I really dug what followed. Scott understands mutually assured destruction better than anyone, and will do whatever he needs to avoid it. In the next breath though, he has no problem at all playing chicken with the idea.
He knows the Avengers wonât step in. Carol Danvers has taken the Avengers off the playing field for organizations like ONE. He knows that a little property destruction wonât do much besides make some people very angry. Heâs making a point, heâs showing what he can do with a team that isnât even his A- Team. Or B-Team or C-Team, at that.
And then Scott puts the Phoenix on the table, and let me tell you, for the first time Jean being absent from Earth really and truly WORKS.
What artist Netho Diaz does here is a big part of why it works. Up until the gun is drawn, Scott stays calm and collected. Lundqvist immediately devolves into a quivering mass of nerves. I donât think visually it could have worked any other way, and Diaz NAILED it.
Scott: Gun to the head is just such a wild spot, as is Cyclopsâ âDo it, do it now, I dare youâ attitude. Some peak white male stuff going on here.
Anyway, yeah, Diaz makes this work. I donât like to really point at artists too much and be like âThis did better than thatâ but I feel like this would not have been as effective with Stegmanâs style in previous issues. Certain styles just work in different ways. Diazâs really works for this kind story and for this book overall in my opinion.Â
Raising Hell
Tony: Okay⌠on one hand â I love that Cyclops has a âfuck shit upâ team on speed dial. I love the charm and personality we get out of most of them. On the other â why was Boom-Boom here for anything but âblow shit up?â
Scott: On paper, there is definitely something that works about Cyclops having such a team. Plausible deniability and all that. As a concept, there is just something lacking here. Feels like a lot of this X-era of just throwing random mutants places for the heck of it, but in a way that feels hollow. Sure, every era has the background characters and cameos, but in the Krakoa Era it felt like we would actually get to spend some time with such groups, even if for a moment. Now characters like these and Blob or Siryn are just pieces on the board with no real assurance that weâll get something more from them.Â
And yes, Boom-Boom has definitely become the go-to âwe just need someone familiar who blows stuff up, what about her?â character in many respects. Itâs only the occasional things, like X-Terminators, where we get more from her. If we had a nickel for every time Boom-Boom was part of a suddenly-revealed, poorly-explored side group, weâd have at least two nickels. Which isnât a lot, but itâs weird itâs happened twice.
Tony: Honestly, I kind of dig the line-up, mostly. It feels like the Hellions or X-Factor from the Krakoa era. But youâre right â when you pair it with the Blob, Wildchild, and Siryn lineup in Graymalkin, or even X-Force or X-Factor of this era, it feels like throwing noodles at the wall and hoping it sticks.
That said, I would much rather read the misadventures of this team than X-Force right now. MacKay does a great job with Fantomex in particular, and it was kinda nice to actually see the Bedlam brothers have an actual personality. But I wish Locus and Boom-Boom had gotten a substantial moment or two.
Legitimately, I donât know If Iâve ever read a comic with Locus in it before this week.
Scott: To your point, Iâd rather read a book that was just actually throwing noodles at a wall than either X-Force or X-Factor at this point. I hate comparing eras all the time because it feels kind of weak and not fair in some respects, but in a way the âConductor Of Xâ did this to himself. One of the strengths that came with Krakoa, and had been missing in the X-Line for a number of years, was actual variety and clear mission statements of things.Â
A couple of books have that in this era, but so many are missing that foundation and that anchor. Even skipping out on giving us meat-on-the-bones as to why we should follow some of these mutants other than âtheyâre the popular/familiar ones.” To your earlier point, this book feels stronger than Uncanny or others just based on at least having some interesting character beats and some throughlines. Not enough to be a complete fulfilling meal, but at least a decent snack to return to every so often.Â
My brain is chock full of Marvel, heavily X-Men, related information. From some of the most obscure characters to the most well known, and tons of their histories and other messes. Yet, I honestly had not a single clue Locus even existed before opening this book. So, good on you MacKay for digging up someone real deep from the toy box.Â
Also, good to see the Bedlam bros again (from one of my favorite X-Force eras), though itâs wild that they are among the many that were never seen on Krakoa but showed up here. An era that has more diversity and representation behind and on the pages, yet somehow still feels completely hollow in many respects.
Tony: Yeah, considering both women on this team barely get a word on page, itâs almost like, why bother?
I did love the action part of it though. They really screwed things up for O.N.E, and I like that. Not a single person harmed, all âstuffâ destroyed. Thatâs clever. And Fantomex destroying a Sentinel with âstyleâ is so perfectly in character, I couldnât help but grin.
Scott: I really liked that beat, very much fitting the revolution-centric idea of âhit them where it hurtsâ which more often than not is property and information. Taking lives would just allow them to use it as fodder against mutants, and also would invariably harm people that are likely just working a job.Â
Tear down enough of the government’s stuff, hurt them in the pockets, and theyâre more likely to back down. An important thing to remember, for surely not a single reason in our current societal situation.
Tony: I know X-Men #10 was probably written back in October or November, but man did it all feel so relevant to this past week. Hit them where it hurts, for sure.
X-Aminations
- Glob, per usual, is the best. That squishy soul about to take on the world with a frying pan. Get em king!
- Love me some Cyclops, but of course he would be so basic to drink a beer just called âBeer.â
- Letâs cure this degenerative disease so Magneto can screw shit up, please?
- The inclusion of the Bedlam Bros. in this new iteration of the Hellions is a cute nod to their past association with that name.
- This issue really helped cement the idea that the âbeefâ between Cyclops and Rogue is beyond silly, because sorry Rogue, heâs right.
- Iâm still looking at this team lineup and thinking âItâs one character away from really feeling like THE flagshipâ and I hope that concern gets resolved sooner rather than later. Maybe itâll be Jean?
Scott Redmond
Scott Redmond is a freelance writer and educator fueled by coffee, sarcasm, his love for comic books and more "geeky" things than you can shake a lightsaber at. Probably seen around social media and remembered as "Oh yeah, that guy." An avid gamer, reader, photographer, amateur cook and solid human being.
Tony Thornley is a geek dad, blogger, Spider-Man and Superman aficionado, X-Men guru, autism daddy, amateur novelist, and all around awesome guy. Heâs also very humble.
