The Louisiana X-Men are the only force standing in front of a murderers’ row of monsters, killers and creatures, and Jubilee may fall off the vampire wagon, just for a start. Uncanny X-Men #24 is written by Gail Simone, drawn by David Marquez, colored by Matt Wilson and lettered by Clayton Cowles.
See coverage of last issue here!
Adam Reck: Y’know I was thinking. Some people do Christmas in July, but nobody does Halloween in May. Why is that? I’m only asking, but it sure feels like Halloween up in this new issue of Simone and Marquez’s Uncanny.
Austin Gorton: I was thinking the same thing reading this; it sure feels like a story that could have kicked off in September and, with the occasional double-shipping, wrapped by the end of October.
Adam: But before we can get back to the Marvel sorta-Universal Monsters team, we need to check in with Mr. St. Juniors’ bedtime story.
Cowboys vs. Zombies?!
Adam: The Outliers and the Endling are all on the edge of the bed listening to their cowboy counterparts battle wits with Cobra Pete and his pals. Unfortunately for them (in the story), the sun is about to set in the West, and that is going to turn Pete & co. into unkillable zombies. Sounds bad!
Austin: It really is kind of wild how evenly split this issue is between this Western story-within-the-story and the horror stuff involving the X-Men (even as more horror elements seep into Marcus’ story). I remain very curious if they’re just going to remain two narratives in parallel (with some thematic echoes), or if one will eventually bleed over into the other.
Adam: In classic story-within-a-story format, Pete and his zombie crew want the same thing as the monsters fighting the X-Men outside: to take over a town. Can the Outliers stop them? I guess we’ll find out next issue. Until then, a tip of my cowboy hat to Marquez’s continued ability to draw this part in a different hand, and Matt Wilson’s watercolor on simulated grainy, aged paper.
Austin: The way Marquez and Wilson are able to craft a visual style that is both familiar yet distinct is genuinely impressive.
Adam: But as good as that look is, Marquez seems VERY excited to draw a LOT of fangs in this issue so let’s get to the MONSTERS!!!
Amusement Park Hide ’n Shriek
Adam: Elsa Bloodstone and the Legion of Monsters give up pretty quickly on their threat to hurt Jubilee. Instead, they move the fight to Sweet Water Park, a (not real) New Orleans theme park destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. This is a very fun idea for a setting, one that has a long history in horror flicks, and each monster pairs off with an X-man for fights among the damaged rides.
Austin: Honestly, I kind of dig Simone essentially saying, “you know, let’s just shift venues to a more cinematic location” and not bother to spend a ton of time justifying it. Similarly, the whole “two teams pair off with one member from each side facing each other” technique is almost as old as superhero comics themselves, but there’s a reason it gets trotted out so often: It’s fun and effective.
Adam: The pairings are fun and make sense. My favorite might be Nightcrawler hoping for some empathy from fellow chased-with-pitchforks guy Frankenstein’s Monster. Unfortunately, Kurt’s opponent seems to hate mutants.
Austin: I also like how Nightcrawler seems more afraid of Frankenstein’s Monster, given he’s something of a regional monster relative to where Nightcrawler grew up. The whole “hates mutants” thing seems new, though.
Adam: The Morbius vs. Jubilee fight makes sense on paper, but I really can’t believe Jubes would be tempted to ever become a vampire again after all the time she spent complaining about it. Plus, if we haven’t noted it — that’s not Morbius’ thing. (Also, I know I’m always on Jubilee dialogue watch, but would she ever in a million years describe anything as “covered in the patina of death”?)
Austin: I absolutely bumped up against that same line of dialogue. That is NOT how Jubilee talks.
It Was Agatha All Along
Adam: In the midst of the fight, we learn that Elsa and the monsters are being controlled by a big bad, the one and only Agatha Harkness. And because she’s so young and never named it took me a second to realize who this was.
Austin: Yeah, thanks to the MCU, Agatha has been Kathryn Hahn-ed up relative to her traditional wizened old lady look for a bit now — so much so that her base card in Marvel Snap is “young” Agatha, something which I roll my eyes at every time it appears.
Adam: Harkness even has an ugly dog named Salem, which means when she goes after the St. Juniors home, even Waffles has a monster counterpart to fight.
Austin: I think Salem is new — traditionally, her familiar is a cat named Ebony — and is probably there for exactly that reason (the Waffles counterpart). Does seem weird Agatha would have a pet named Salem given her history with Salem’s Seven, though.
All that said, I have to admit to not being well-read on recent Agatha Harkness stories to know whether her actions here with this Legion of Monsters are in character/consistent with her motivations, or something entirely new Simone is doing with the character.
Adam: I know very little about Agatha or why she wants New Orleans, and if the past 23 issues are any indication, we may never know. But honestly I don’t care because the true reveal at the end of this issue cracked me up so much. What was your reaction to the Werewolverine, Austin?
Austin: My first thought was “Wait, didn’t this happen already?” and then I remembered that no, Wolverine just guest-starred in CapWolf, he didn’t become a werewolf in it. My second thought then was “LOL yes, what the hell, let’s go all in.”
Adam: As I said up top, it’s clear Marquez is having a lot of fun drawing this. And as an unrepentant fan of CapWolf (to say nothing of the Jeph Loeb “Evolution” arc of Wolverine Vol. 3 where Wolverine might somehow be descended from wolves?), I have to say, this is my kind of goofy stuff. Will any other X-Men get a monstrous upgrade? Guess we’ll find out next time!
X-traneous Thoughts
- At some point, Rogue notes she has a “passel of fast.” I think she’s saying “parcel.”
- The “Where Monsters Dwell” logo on the cover is taken from an old 1970s series of the same name, which reprinted earlier monster comics.
Buy Uncanny X-Men #24 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.
