Welcome back to another installment of Mutantversity! Mutantversity is your home for all things X-Men. In Mutantversity, I, your loyal X-Men tutor, will look at all the things happening in the mutant universe. Each month, I’ll look at a handful of titles and rotate around each month. I’ll keep focus on the most important books or what I consider the most noteworthy. That’ll include crossovers, events, new creative teams and first issues. This month, we’re looking at what went down in the X-Men Universe in June 2018. There was a wedding, some time travel and we’re still apparently looking for Wolverine even though she’s been killing it in her own series. Let’s jump into this but be warned, this is full of spoilers.
The Wedding Of The Century?
“X-Men: Gold” #30 by Marc Guggenheim, David Marquez, Matthew Wilson and Cory Petit
There’s no way we can talk about the month of June without talking about the major, massive wedding that didn’t happen. Kitty Pryde and Colossus being “X-Men: Gold” #30 all ready to get hitched. They have the ceremony ready to go, all their friends are there and everything seems fine, that is, until Kitty has a conversation with Magik that turns everything around. The issue opens with a flashback to when Colossus told Kitty that he was in love with someone else and they part ways. We’re then taken to the present day at that same place but in a more jovial setting – their wedding. At the reception, romance fills the air. Gambit and Rogue get cute with each other, Lockheed debuts his family and Nightcrawler has wedding bells in his head too. Kitty goes to get some quiet time with Magik and they have a talk about her relationship with Colossus. Magik puts it in Kitty’s head that maybe, after all these years, if they didn’t already get married, maybe they weren’t meant to. Kitty appreciates this honesty and the next day, everyone gets ready for the wedding. There are lots of cute and sweet moments between all these friends and even Logan pops up for a second, watching from afar. When the wedding begins, everything seems to be going okay but Kitty phases when Colossus goes to put the ring on her finger and she backs out of the marriage. She phases away and Peter gets bamf’d away because of how utterly embarrassing and heartbreaking this is. At the reception for the wedding that didn’t happen, everyone is reeling from what happened. Kitty and Peter have a conversation about their relationship and Kitty basically decides they can’t get married because too much happened between them and she doesn’t think it’s what you can build a marriage from. Back at the reception, Gambit decides to finally get on one knee and proposes to Rogue and they go and get married right then and there. It’s not the wedding we were promised but it’s the one we need.
Rogue and Gambit getting married right off the events of their miniseries is actually the smartest thing that has happened in the X-Men universe in years. This relationship has been through so many ups and downs and the contrast of their history with Kitty and Colossus is really interesting. Gambit sees their history and always coming back to each other as a sign as to why they should be together. The two of them always come back to this relationship and it’s the constant in their lives and to them, this means something positive unlike what Kitty sees. This is where the reasoning kind of falls apart for me but I think there was a worry that they couldn’t ruin one of these characters with an affair or something. However, marriage and relationships are so complicated and very unique in your own experience that what makes sense for one couple doesn’t quite make sense for another. I get this and as I’ve sat with this issue for a couple of weeks now, I’ve come around to that as a way to tell these two stories. This issue works way more than the promised Batman and Catwoman wedding because there was still something very happy about it. It felt right and it felt very X-Men. I also have to address how absolutely genius it is that Gambit basically stole a wedding. It’s all very romantic between the two of them but they didn’t even have to pay for their own wedding, which is the most them thing that could ever happen. I’m so excited to read the series that will spin out of this because Kelly Thompson just knows what we want from this couple. It may not have been the wedding we were promised but it’s a much better storytelling choice and way more fun.
Continued belowHe’s Back….And Making A Mess
“Multiple Man” #1 by Matthew Rosenberg, Andy MacDonald, Tamra Bonvillain and Travis Lanham
Jamie Madrox is back but not really but also yes really. Last we saw him he was dead after being exposed to Terrigan Mists back when the Inhumans and X-Men were trying to kill each other. Comics are weird because that feels like it happened an eternity ago and it was actually super recent. Anyway, he died during that but now he’s back because this is the X-Men and no one ever truly stays dead here. The New Mutants find him in a bunker and bring him back to Beast. Beast is confused because when Jamie multiplies, those are separate from him but they don’t live separately. What that means is that if the actual Jamie Madrox dies, all the copies die but this one didn’t…yet. Beast tells him that he can keep him alive a little longer but he’s going to deteriorate anyway. This duplicate of Jamie is a little smarter but just as sneaky and he steals Bishop’s time traveling device and sets off a wild chain of events that closes the issue with Jamie being met by other duplicates of himself that all seem to have taken on the look of other heroes. There’s a Hulk Jamie, a Deadpool Jamie and even a shrouded wizard Jamie.
“Multiple Man” #1 is a comic book that is begging you to stay and it tries to do that by introducing a really big idea and hoping you’ll come back. If you’ve enjoyed Rosenberg’s other X-Men work, specifically “New Mutants,” you’ll love this. It’s why I was into it. “Multiple Man” doesn’t outright say what it’s about. It doesn’t promise to be a “coming back to life” story like “Phoenix Resurrection” and it’s not really something like “Hunt For Wolverine.” It’s got a really wacky feeling to it but also this weird underlying dread about identity. Jamie Madrox is a weird character because at any time a 100’s of him could be running around the world, living their lives. What does that mean? Is Jamie Prime the only one that matters? What was his responsibility to them and what is the identity of someone who’s a copy and knows it? There’s so much to look at here and it kind of comes up a bit in this issue. If there’s anyone I think that would try getting into that, it’s Rosenberg. The thing about this issue to is that it’s another series in the current X-Men line up that really exists on its own. One of the things I noticed lately is that this line is starting to allow itself to be unique. These aren’t all books that crossover with each other a bunch. Not all of these stories are big catastrophes. This is just a story about one X-Man and something that’s totally unique to him. I like this and I hope that this is what we keep seeing. Team books are great and big events can be great but what makes me like this side of the Marvel Universe are the characters and the very unique things that make the X-Men special.
More Deadpool
“Deadpool: Assassin” #1 by Cullen Bunn, Mark Bagley, John Dell, Edgar Delgado and Joe Sabino
I keep trying really hard to love Deadpool as much as everyone else and I think I found a story that works for me. “Deadpool: Assassin” #1 is the start of yet another new Deadpool starring series but unlike the core series, this one isn’t trying so hard to be edgy. In my last column I talked about how I absolutely hated “Deadpool” #1 but this is a little more my speed. Deadpool is working with Weasel again. Weasel gets Deadpool the jobs and the weapons and Deadpool takes care of the rest. In this first issue, Deadpool takes out a group of mercenaries that aren’t doing things the way he thinks is respectable. After he does this he goes after a former member of The Hand who’s struck out on his own. The real drama of this issue though is that something is going with Weasel. Deadpool keeps talking about how he wants out of this business and Weasel just keeps ignoring him and telling him that he won’t actually stop doing this. Deadpool figures out that Weasel went and got married but Weasel tells him that things change when you get married and you end up missing this life. Deadpool doubles down on what he said before and Weasel leaves him hanging at the very end when Deadpool asks about another job.
Continued belowAssassin trying to walk away from the job is not exactly new and it’s probably come up with Deadpool but I love this dumb trope and I’m here for it. Sometimes I think Deadpool would walk away from it but I know in my heart that he’ll never stop. It’s the same thing with me and Twitter. I’m never logging off and you can’t make me. I think too that even though this story feels familiar, it’s much more the kind of Deadpool I like. I’m not really a fan of the mindless, big action in comic book form. I need something a little more, especially after Gerry Duggan’s run with the character. I think he did a great job adding something more to the character but kept the humor in tact. That’s what this issue does. I get people not liking the fourth wall breaking but I think it works for him and it works for this story. If anything, it’s what feels more like the movies and in this day and age, making something that would be familiar feeling to movie viewers can be a good thing. This isn’t the main Deadpool book to read but if you were really turned off by “Deadpool” #1 like I was, this might be the one to check out.
Sins Of The Past
“Cable” #158 by Lonnie Nalder, Zac Thompson, German Peralta, Jesus Aburtov and Travis Lanham
“Cable” has become a very personal story as Cable has been in his mind, traveling through his deepest history as Metus, a monster from his past follow him. Each issue has been Cable going through very specific moments in his history and in this issue, we’re taken to the 90’s when he was starting to lead X-Force on his own with Domino beside him. We’re taken to a training session in the Danger Room that starts off okay but quickly turns badly when Metus shows up posing as Warlock, who at this point just died, so it messes with everyone pretty badly. Metus makes a mess of the place and says that he’s there for Cable and Cable knows why. Cable tells him that he was just a boy and we’re given a little more insight into what happened here. At this point, we still don’t know what happened here but with “Cable” #159, we find out and we’ll get into that in next month’s edition.
Cable is a hard character to write but I think this team has absolutely hit it out of the ballpark with this story. I get that for some people, continuity is bad, especially when we’re looking at decades of story. However, when it’s used like this, it’s utterly genius. This story makes a ton of references but it’s all clearly laid out for the reader to do further reading and even if they don’t want to, they don’t have to because enough context is given without weighing everything down in needless exposition. This is how you embrace history and how you tell a story with all that that feels welcoming. I wish this run had been given a separate miniseries so it would have that shiny #1 on it and pull in even the most casual readers because it’s genuinely one of my favorite X-Men stories of the year.
They’re Still Looking For Him
“Hunt For Wolverine: The Adamantium Agenda” #2 by Tom Taylor, R.B. Silva, Adriano Di Benedetto, Guru-EFX and Joe Sabino
“Hunt For Wolverine: The Adamantium Agenda” #2 picks up with Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Spider-Man and Iron Man all aboard a submarine, ready to take part in an auction for superhero DNA. They think it’s Logan’s but when Tony Stark sits down to bid, they find out that the DNA actually belongs to Danielle Cage and that makes Jessica and Luke go completely off the rails, rightfully so. Everyone there is fairly bored by this reveal and only Tony bids on it because she hasn’t shown any powers, so why would anyone else want it? When Tony Stark has to go pay for what he bought, he brings up to the seller that he would like Logan’s DNA and the guy tells him he has it and would give it to him for $6 million. Just at that moment, Mister Sinister shows up and blows a whole through the submarine because if there’s anyone who has no sense and no chill it’s him. Come on Sinister, you’re in the ocean. Supervillains, what can you do? The issue ends with the current Wolverine (and only one I recognize now) Laura Kinney, showing and putting down Sinister.
It’s taking about 100 miniseries to find Wolverine and he was literally just on the roof of some building in “X-Men: Gold” #30 watching over Peter and Kitty. I found him, Marvel. Please stop this. With that said, this team is absolutely making the best of it. Tom Taylor is honestly in my top 5 writers at Marvel and DC right now and that’s why I chose this one as the series I would actually write about. It’s the least painful of them because it’s actually kind of fun. There are a lot of really good moments like Jessica Jones using Luke Cage to plug up the whole in the submarine while Spider-Man webs him in place. I also love Jessica and Luke getting a little mad when they realize no one wants their daughter’s DNA because parents will always stan for their kids. Also, Mister Sinister showing up like he does and making a mess because he only thinks about himself is hilarious. A lot of it works, it’s just not really only about Logan and it’s not all in its feelings the way some of the other “Hunt For Wolverine” books are. This isn’t so broody and stabby which makes it feel so different. It’s this kind of feeling that was brought to “All-New Wolverine” and that’s why it felt so fresh for anything involving Logan. I like Tom Taylor but I won’t recommend this to everyone because honestly, it’s all overkill for a character that never truly left.
