Category: X-Men

By Paul Cornell, Leonard Kirk, Jay Leisten & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4527-1

When draconian US Federal mandate The Superhuman Registration Act led to Civil War between costumed heroes, Tony Stark was hastily appointed the American government’s Security Czar – the “top cop” in sole charge of the beleaguered nation’s defence and freedom. As Director of high-tech enforcement agency S.H.I.E.L.D. he became the final word in all matters involving metahumans and the vast costumed community…

Stark’s mismanagement of successive crises led to the arrest and assassination of Captain America and unimaginable escalation of global tension, destruction, culminating in an almost-successful Secret Invasion by shape-shifting alien Skrulls.

Discredited, ostracised and declared a wanted fugitive, he was replaced by apparently rehabilitated, recovering schizophrenic Norman Osborn – the original Green Goblin – who assumed control of America’s covert agencies and military resources. Osborn promptly disbanded S.H.I.E.L.D. and placed the nation under the aegis of his own newly-minted organisation H.A.M.M.E.R.

The erstwhile villain had first begun his climb back to respectability after taking charge of the Thunderbolts Project; a penal program which offered second chances to super-criminals who volunteered to undertake Federally-sanctioned missions…

Not content with legitimate political and personal power, Osborn also secretly conspired with a coalition of malevolent masterminds to divvy up the world between them. The Cabal was a Star Chamber of villains working towards mutually self-serving goals, but such egomaniacal personalities could never play well together for long and cracks soon began to show, both in the criminal conspiracy and eventually Osborn himself…

As another strand of his long-term plan, the Homeland Metahuman Security overlord fired Stark’s Mighty Avengers and created his own, more pliable team consisting of compliant turncoats, tractable replacements and outright impostors.

Constantly courting public opinion, Osborn launched his Avengers whilst systematically building up a personally loyal high-tech paramilitary rapid-response force. After the Utopia crisis engulfed Earth’s depleted mutant population, he pulled the same scam with the world’s most recognisable Homo Superior team…

Compiling his own team of X-Men to police “mutant problems” and be the face of law and order for the dangerous evolutionary minority, Osborn quietly continued exporting his seditious Dark Reign: a slowly destabilising madman who – through means fair and foul – officially worked to curb the unchecked power and threat of meta-humanity, with ever-decreasing success…

The repercussions of Osborn’s rise and fall were felt throughout and featured in many series and collections throughout the Marvel Universe, and this one, collecting 5-issue miniseries Dark X-Men (cover-dated January to May 2010, by writer Paul Cornell, artists Leonard Kirk & Jay Leisten with colour by Brian Reber) offers one of the first best nails in his coffin…

The drama begins with a strange plague: ordinary humans becoming dream-walking somnambulists communally declaring “I’m an X-Man”. The mystery provokes Osborn to convene his less-than-eager X-squad for a mission that will take them on a ‘Journey to the Center of the Goblin’…

Team leader is devious, rebellious shapeshifter Mystique; kept honest and grudgingly showing willing because of bombs implanted in her bloodstream. She’s supplemented by clinical depressive Calvin Rankin AKA Mimic, emotionally troubled, power-absorbing Michael “Omega” Pointer and alternate-Earth Henry McCoy – a conscienceless and sadistic biologist dubbed Dark Beast. He at least is happy to play: Osborn has promised him unlimited resources, plenty of guinea pigs and no ethical oversight…

Dispatched to Burton, California – site of the largest outbreak – on a glorified PR jaunt, the federal X-Men – with Mystique wearing the shape of the dead saviour Jean Grey – are interviewing a victim when Omega is suddenly overwhelmed and intoxicated by a huge influx of mutant energy and goes berserk…

Mimic heads off to stop him but is also affected by the strange force, gripped by a tantalising sense of precognition which promises to banish forever his crippling anxiety about his future…

As the team-mates crash through Burton causing untold carnage, in the hospital a ghostly force materialises from the boy they were quizzing. The nebulous shape stares at Dark Beast and says “I know you from home” before coalescing into long-dead mutant superman Nate Grey…

Grey, also known as X-Man, originally came from the same world as the Beast: an apocalyptic hell where humanity was all but eradicated. On escaping to our world Nate – son of that tragic Earth’s Jean Grey and Scott Summers – slowly evolved into an immensely powerful, shamanic, trans-dimensional messiah before ascending to a state of pure energy.

Now he’s back and might see right through the rogues pretending to be his extended family. However he disperses again before realising his “mother” is also an impostor…

Retrenching in New York after their debacle, the mutant squad confer with Osborn – who is practically salivating at the prospect of suborning X-Man’s unlimited power – and receive orders to find and capture the psionic phantom at all costs…

The energy-absorbing team members are far from keen, but deviant Dr. McCoy loves a challenge and makes use of H.A.M.M.E.R.’s nascent Psi-Division (an army of interned psychics and telepaths forced into a gestalt by unscrupulous charlatan Dr. Jarl) to summon and stabilise the psionic fugitive.

Physically present and instantly aware of all Osborn and McCoy’s past sins, the reborn X-shaman arrives on Earth all-powerful and furiously outraged…

His first move is to attack the Dark Avengers, routing all of them until only Olympian war-god Ares remains. Battling simultaneously throughout numerous time-planes Grey might even have beaten him, had not the extremely conflicted Mimic intervened and distracted him, allowing the immortal warrior to destroy X-Man…

Things take a strange turn in the aftermath as Mystique quietly confronts the gloating security supremo. Expert at swiping identities for decades, only she has realised Nate has willing discorporated in order to possess the most influential man in the world…

Determined to make Earth a paradise, Grey is wearing Osborn like a meat-glove: using him to carry out his own – benevolent – ambitions. However the mutant ghost has utterly underestimated the astonishing willpower of the madman he’s riding and the voracious fury of the savage elemental force pent at the core of Osborn’s fractured id.

To finally succeed in his evil plans, Norman Osborn had to hive off and imprison his maniacal, petty, angry other side, but with Grey now inside his head, the lethally dangerous, uncompromising Green Goblin is breaking free…

Unable to convince Nate to withdraw and terrified of what the Goblin persona might do if it ever gained control, Mystique finds herself forced to play hero for real and, galvanising her team of monsters and no-hopers, she uses the remnants of Dr. Jarl’s brain brigade to transport her Dark X-Men into Osborn’s mindscape to fix – or if necessary end – the catastrophic three-way mindwar.

Only they’re a little too late…

Rocket-paced, action-drenched, wryly imaginative and wickedly funny, this sharp sortie into weird worlds also includes sketches and designs by Leonard Kirk and a cover gallery by Simone Bianchi & Simone Peruzzi, Mike Choi, Sonia Oback, Giuseppe Camuncoli and Morry Hollowell to complete a perfect package for tried-and-true mutant mavens and Fights ‘n’ Tights aficionados everywhere.
© 2009, 2010 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

By Greg Rucka, Russell Dauterman, Carmen Carnero, Terry Pallot & various (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-624-3

When mutant genius Henry McCoy learned he was dying, he used time-travel tech in a last-ditch attempt to give his life meaning. Seeking to prevent a species war, he brought the young, naive X-Men of his own youth into the future to reason with his radicalised former comrade Scott Summers, praying the still idealistic and hopeful teens could divert Mutant Enemy Terrorist No. 1 from his path of doctrinaire madness…

The gamble paid off in all the wrong ways. Rather than shocking Cyclops back to his senses, the confrontation hardened the renegade’s heart and strengthened his resolve. Moreover, after the younger McCoy miraculously cured his older self, he and the rest of the X-Kids were trapped in their own future and began gradually defecting to the fundamentalist team…

Eventually the temporally misplaced First Class all ended up living with the elder Cyclops’ crew, but everything changed after Gladiator of the Shi’ar realised that Jean Grey AKA Marvel Girl – and future host of the cosmic force known as the Phoenix – was back. The alien overlord rashly attempted to abduct and execute her for the crimes of her older self…

The insane pre-emptive punishment plan was foiled by an amalgamation of X-Men, Guardians of the Galaxy and intergalactic buccaneers Hepzibah, Ch’od, Raza and bizarre medical wizard Sikorsky – collectively known as The Starjammers.

During the cosmic conflict 16-year-old Scott met his believed-dead dad Christopher, now called Corsair and undisputed leader of the cosmic privateers and, when the mutant heroes returned to Earth, he chose to remain in space with the father he had spent most of his brief life assuming killed in a plane crash…

Scripted by Greg Rucka and illustrated by Russell Dauterman, Carmen Carnero & Terry Pallot, stellar saga Starstruck collects issues #1-5 of Cyclops: (July-November 2014), following the chronal castaway to the ends of the universe and even further into uncharted emotional territory…

The story begins as the still shell-shocked teen spends some time in hard vacuum with his dad’s exotic paramour Hepzibah. Together they are testing his new spacesuit which allows him to fire his fearsome optic blasts safely through his helmet. That and reminiscing about how he got here and revelling in the sheer majesty of the intergalactic firmament, of course…

For most of his comicbook career Scott Summers has been capable and competent but also dour, grim, despondent and simply no fun at all. Here, however, we get to see the incredible hero he always was, but also follow a nervous, unsure kid hungry for affirmation and still capable of ingenuous wide-eyed wonder.

That’s never more ably demonstrated than when his attempts to write a letter to Jean (the girl everybody from the future tells him he will marry and lose) are interrupted by an attack on the starship.

The Starjammers are wanted by almost every empire in the universe but this ambush by the scurrilous Brotherhood of Badoon is easily repulsed and only results in the pirates capturing their attackers’ vessel primarily intact…

Not so easily handled is the growing gulf between Scott and Corsair. The boy simply cannot accept why his father would allow him – and indeed his future self – to believe he was dead for decades…

The grizzled star-pirate thinks he has a solution. Giving Scott a sword liberated from the vessel (apparently a crucial piece of kit for any space-farer regularly indulging in close combat) Christopher Summers suggests a father-and-son vacation: a few months tooling around the galaxies in their newest prize, just getting to know each other…

At first the grand tour is all mind-bending exploration and eye-popping alien encounters but eventually Scott begins to see a disturbing pattern to his dad’s actions and comes to a horrifying conclusion. Corsair is a drug addict and their numerous stopovers in quirky cosmic bazaars and seamy sidereal marketplaces are simply opportunities to restock his personal pharmacopoeia…

One such jaunt introduces the boy to unlikely barkeeper and crimelord Baroque and leads Scott into a potentially life-changing VR encounter with a svelte and sexy alien temptress named Vass. Unfortunately anything he might have learned is promptly forgotten when a multi-species band of merciless bounty hunters corners the father and son team.

The wily thief-takers are utterly unprepared for Cyclops’ optic blasts however and the displaced humans get away relatively unscathed… except for Corsair’s fresh stash of drugs…

The next crisis occurs soon after as the Badoon ship catastrophically malfunctions and shipwrecks them on an isolated planetoid. Painfully scouring through the wreckage some time later, Scott discovers a tracking device – now destroyed – and finally confronts his father about the drugs.

He is doubly appalled when Corsair shamefully reveals that rather than buying narcotics, his dad has been visiting every criminal dive in creation “scoring” proscribed nanite technology: the only thing currently keeping him alive…

Stranded on a primitive mudball filled with predators all becoming increasingly less cautious and more hungrily curious, Scott at last learns of his unsuspected brother Vulcan, a mutant who once seized control of the Shi’ar Empire, sparked an intergalactic war and killed their father…

Of course, his devoted comrades refused to leave Corsair dead and petitioned the enigmatic creatures known as the Shrouded to restore him. The cloaked wonders succeeded but the cure requires constant and illicit maintenance…

Days pass and as the last dregs of the contraband drugs are used up, fading father and son grow closer, even to the point where they unite to turn the tables on the horrific bird-things stalking them.

As Corsair impatiently tries to teach his son everything he’ll need to know to survive the decades he might be alone on the planetoid, the boy derives a desperate scheme to save them both. The first step is to repair the tracking device and lure the certainly still interested bounty hunters to their current location…

Everything goes according to plan and the hunters become the hunted, but at the critical moment Scott, seemingly swayed by the blandishments of the mercenaries’ female slave, sells his own dad out…

What happens next proves the boy hero’s astonishing tactical genius and saves everyone’s lives – if not necessarily their honour…

Heartwarming, thrilling, funny and astoundingly action-packed, Starstruck combines cosmic intrigue and dashing derring-do with solid characterisation and wild blue yonder wonderment, and comes with a covers-&-variants gallery by Alexander Lozano, Greg Land, John Tyler Christopher and Paul Renaud as well as AR icon sections (Marvel Augmented Reality App) for access to story bonuses once you download the free code from marvel.com onto your smart-phone or Android-enabled tablet.

What more could any wide-eyed, entertainment-starved child of the wondering stars want?
™ & © 2014 Marvel & Subs. Licensed by Marvel Characters B.V. through Panini S.p.A. All rights reserved. A British Edition published by Panini Publishing, a division of Panini UK, Ltd.

By Chris Claremont, Todd Grummett, Rodney Buchemi & various Terry Austin, Brent Anderson & Joe Rubenstein (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4664-3

In 1963 The X-Men #1 introduced Cyclops, Iceman, Angel, Marvel Girl and the Beast: very special students of Professor Charles Xavier, a wheelchair-bound telepath dedicated to brokering peace and integration between the masses of humanity and the emergent off-shoot race of mutants dubbed Homo Superior. After years of eccentric and spectacular adventures the mutant misfits disappeared at the beginning of 1970 during a sustained downturn in costumed hero comics as supernatural mystery once more gripped the world’s entertainment fields.

Although their title was revived at the end of the year as a cheap reprint vehicle, the missing mutants were reduced to guest-stars and bit-players throughout the Marvel universe and the Beast was refashioned as a monster fit for the global uptick in scary stories until Len Wein, Chris Claremont & Dave Cockrum revived and reordered the Mutant mystique with a brand new team in 1975’s Giant Size X-Men #1.

Old foes-turned-friends Banshee and Sunfire joined one-shot Hulk villain Wolverine and all-original creations Kurt Wagner, a demonic German teleporter codenamed Nightcrawler, African weather “goddess” Ororo Monroe AKA Storm, Russian farmboy Peter Rasputin, who transformed at will into a living steel Colossus, and bitter, disillusioned Apache superman John “Thunderbird” Proudstar in a makeshift squad.

Chris Claremont became scripter with the next tale – which saw Thunderbird become the first X-Man to die in action – and the new revision prospered.

It became an unstoppable hit and was soon the company’s most popular and high quality title. In time Cockrum was succeeded by John Byrne and as the team roster shifted and changed the series rose to even greater heights, culminating in the landmark “Dark Phoenix” storyline which saw the death of arguably the book’s most beloved and imaginative character.

In the aftermath team leader Cyclops left and a naive teenaged girl named Kitty Pryde signed up. The stellar saga seemed to fracture the epochal working relationship of Claremont and Byrne, however. Within months of publication they went their separate ways: Byrne moved on to establish his own reputation as a writer on series such as Alpha Flight, Incredible Hulk and especially his revolutionised Fantastic Four, whilst Claremont stayed with the burgeoning mutants’ population.

He only left after scripting the “Mutant Genesis” storyline in X-Men #1-3 in 1991, at the height of the group’s popularity and following an unbroken sixteen year run. The team carried on evolving, facing crisis after crisis under a number of writers – including on occasion Claremont himself.

However in 2009 the author was offered a unique opportunity, thanks to the concept of Alternate Earths. Although published years later, X-Men Forever was set immediately after Mutant Genesis and ostensibly followed the heroes as Claremont would have written them had he stayed…

The project turned into a regular series which ran 24 issues (August 2009- July 2010) until a catastrophic climax saw the heroes sacrifice far too much to once more save their world…

Collecting X-Men Forever 2 #1-5 – spanning August to October 2010 – this slim chronicle from another universe focuses on a very different squad of heroes, written as ever by Claremont.

The world has recently reeled to the revelation that most mutants suffer from a genetic malady dubbed “burnout”. As revealed by Professor X, the condition causing super-powered mutation comes at a price and most meta-gifted Homo Superior will die young: their lifespans curtailed by as much as half due to their genetic advantages…

The world became a far deadlier and more desperate place on hearing the news.

Now the Beast is dead and Wolverine has been murdered by Storm. Kitty (AKA Shadowcat) has somehow had one of her beloved mentor’s Adamantium claws grafted to her arm. Nightcrawler Kurt Wagner and Rogue Anna Marie Raven have accidentally traded power-sets.

The aforementioned weather goddess has taken control of African nation Wakanda whilst a pre-teen version of her has replaced her on the team.

Former foe Sabertooth – maimed and blinded – has become an unlikely and still barely trusted recruit and even founding father Charles Xavier is gone: taken by the Shi’ar Empire. Now S.H.I.EL.D. Supremo Nick Fury notionally directs the mutants’ missions.

The remaining still-reeling stalwarts include Cyclops, Gambit and telepath Jean Grey, whilst geneticist Moira MacTaggert struggles to serve as science officer to the still outcast and frequently outlaw organisation…

The drama commences with ‘A Cry of… Vengeance!’ illustrated by Tom Grummett, Cory Hamscher & Wil Quintana as, following the loss of Hank McCoy and Tony Stark (foiling a plot to eradicate all mutants by secret combine The Consortium), the Avengers arrive at the X-Mansion intent on taking the survivors in for “questioning”. The confrontation quickly devolves into all-out war and leads to an horrific explosive tragedy…

Meanwhile in an Omaha orphanage an old foe prepares for another vile assault on the misunderstood heroes…

It might well be a wasted effort. When the dust settles at the Xavier place all that the Avengers can see is a colossal three-mile wide crater. The release of power has somehow interacted with the Skrull and Shi’ar technologies cached at the school and detonated with cosmic force.

Nothing remains and the repentant superheroes depart, utterly unaware of the immense scam that has been perpetrated…

The story resumes ‘Six Weeks Later’ as the world – some of it at least – mourns the loss of the mutant champions. As Earth’s media continually rehashes the events looking for answers and somebody to blame, in Wakanda Queen Perfect Storm rages. Now she will never be able to make Kitty pay for disfiguring her with Wolverine’s transplanted claw…

With Fury gone, mutant-hating racist Ziggy Trask is elected chief of S.H.I.EL.D., and in Colorado Warren “The Angel” Worthington gathers all the surviving heroes who have worn the “X”, swearing to keep them safe from an ever-more hostile world.

…And in New York, publisher J. Jonah Jameson despatches journalist Peter Parker to get pictures of the federally embargoed disaster site. Nobody can truly believe the X-Men are gone but even Spider-Man’s notoriously crazy luck and fierce optimism cannot ascertain the true facts…

Only when Parker is again webswinging through the Big Apple does a truth emerge when he stumbles on a mugging, only to find a woman who looks uncannily like the deceased Nightcrawler foiling the felons…

The astounding truth begins to seep out in ‘A Night on the Town!’ ashapeshifting mastermind Mystique tours underworld dives looking for information on her two presumed dead children. At that very moment Spider-Man is confronting one of them exhibiting all the powers of the other…

Meanwhile at the geographical location of the X-Mansion – albeit one second out of phase with the universe – Fury, a select team of S.H.I.EL.D. volunteers and the dearly not-departed X-Men are all going frantic. Six weeks of lying low in an adjacent dimension are endangered because Rogue got cabin-fever and lost control of her new teleporting powers…

From inside their Skrull-enabled, other-dimensional hidey-hole, Cyclops despatches a stealthy retrieval team whilst in Omaha a malign scientist plans to abduct a hero’s surviving relatives, determined not to lose the crucial Summers genes…

In New York Spider-Man and Anna Marie while way their cares thrashing common thugs but things get nasty quickly when Ziggy Trask’s S.H.I.EL.D. Sentinel mechanoids zero in on the errant mutant…

Close by, Jean, Kurt and Kitty assess the situation but are ambushed by more murderous robots. As battle is joined they are saved by the heroes they were hunting and Mystique who has a starling offer in mind…

With art by Rodney Buchemi, Greg Adams & Quintana, ‘Stolen Lives!’ then cuts back to the mansion where Moira and Sabertooth have been kidnapped by Morlocks who have easily traversed the trans-dimensional divide.

Even as Fury and Cyclops dubiously ponder Mystique’s request to join the team the intruders are making their escape, intent on executing their former persecutor and using Moira’s research to stave off their own imminent deaths from mutant burnout…

As Agent Daisy Dugan organises a pursuit squad, her boss Fury is interrogating Mystique and learning to his horror for just how many decades the shapeshifter has involved herself in his affairs…

As Cyclops, Dugan, Kitty and Gambit enter the Morlock tunnels under New York, they are completely unaware that the young version of Storm has followed; intent on proving she is nothing like her treacherous older iteration.

As the heroes close in on the abductors, nobody realises that Trask’s S.H.I.EL.D. goons have targeted all of them…

Whilst mutants battle each other in ‘Dead Reckoning!’ (Buchemi, Adams & Quintana), back at the mansion Mystique’s debriefing has taken a disturbing turn as Jean is forced to confront her hidden feelings for the murdered Wolverine. In the tunnels the chaotic combat has reached an impasse but the moment when a truce could save them all is lost as Trask’s S.H.I.EL.D. agents burst in. Only some few escape thanks to the intervention of former Morlock leader Callisto…

Moreover, unless something happens quickly, the X-Men’s hard-won cloak of grave anonymity looks to have disappeared like smoke in the wind…

To Be Continued…

With covers by Tom Grummett, Cory Hamscher, Terry Austin and Quintana, this quixotic mixture of intriguing Might-Have-Beens and exotic action offers all of Claremont’s soap opera bravura whilst displaying a fine sense of having-one’s-cake-and-eating-it-too for Fights ‘n’ Tights fans.
© 2010, 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

By Peter David, Valentine De Landro, Emanuela Lupacchino, Pat Davidson, Guillermo Ortega & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4655-1

Since its 1980s debut, X-Factor has been a superbly effective umbrella title for many uniquely off-kilter iterations of Marvel’s mutant phenomena. Indisputably the most impressive and enduring assemblage was created by writer Peter David in 2006; mixing starkly violent suspense with cool detective mystery, laugh-out-loud comedy and fantastic Fights ‘n’ Tights action even whilst slyly and subtly addressing social issues in a regular riot of superbly adult Costumed Drama.

It all began when Jamie Madrox, the Multiple Man – a veteran of the formerly government-sponsored (and controlled) team – appropriated the name for his own to create the specialist metahuman private detective agency X-Factor Investigations.

Setting up shop in the wake of “The Decimation”, which had reduced the world’s mutant population to a couple of hundred empowered individuals and millions of distressingly humanised (ex) Homo Superior, he and a perpetually fluctuating team set out to discover why and how it had happened and, once that was settled, just kept going…

This splendid sampling of strange happenings – written as ever by your man David – collecting X-Factor #213-219 (February-July 2011) commences with ‘Keeping Things’, illustrated by Valentine De Landro, Pat Davidson & Jeromy Cox, as the freshly liberated from Asgardian-hell-Niffleheim heroes recuperate in Las Vegas after a nasty brush with Death Goddess Hela.

Braving damnation to rescue obnoxious oik Pip the Troll, the mutants had faced an eternity of undead combat until Armando “Darwin” Muñoz stretched his hyper-evolving gift to the utmost and became something far more than mortal to secure their release.

Now he finds that he just does not fit on Earth… as a succession of increasingly tense PTSD style confrontations with gamblers, gangsters and even his team-mates proves.

Eventually he takes his leave and walks out into the desert to be alone…

The recently rescued troll is eager to take his place, but X-Factor deftly duck him by matter-shifting back to New York, forgetting that the malodorous little troglodyte can teleport too. Pip is resolute in wanting to reward their deeds by serving them, but he actually has a secret boss and private agenda dictating his actions…

When mystery-powered mutant Layla Miller, Guido “Strong Guy” Carosella, Theresa Rourke Cassidy (AKA Siryn), alien enigmas Longshot and Shatterstar all joined Madrox in his quixotic bid to save the troll, they behind left psionic super-woman Monet St. Croix – who was involved in a private case – and former lovers Rictor and Rahne “Wolfsbane” Sinclair.

The latter pair were dealing with the repercussions of Rahne’s swiftly developing pregnancy but Madrox now believes he has some shocking news for the already shell-shocked father-to-be.

Whilst in Niffleheim, Shatterstar (Rictor’s current lover) clashed with deceased wolf-god Hrimhari, where the vulpine zombie claimed Wolfsbane’s condition was his doing…

Thanks to a prenatal scan Rictor already knows and is dealing with being lied to in an uncharacteristically mature manner…

Issue #214 – with art from Emanuela Lupacchino, Guillermo Ortega & Matt Milla – then focuses on Armando as he wanders the wastelands trying to come to terms with his transformation. His solitary ruminations are derailed when a showgirl appears, chased by a colossal dragon.

Stepping in as any hero would, Darwin soon finds himself trapped in a bizarrely off-kilter ghost town facing down a gun-toting angel of death and herald of biblical Armageddon who calls himself “Tier”. The triggerman is straight out of The Book of Revelations and also claims that Rahne is/will be his mother, but the final climactic showdown only leaves more questions than answers…

De Landro, Davidson &Cox illustrate ‘Stake Out’ as, back in the Big Apple, the detectives are hired to prove that a man’s death-by-vampire attack (the story is set during the crossover event Curse of the Mutants) was more than it appeared. Distraught daughter Adina is convinced that her new stepmother is responsible, but when Layla and Madrox investigate they find a far more complex and chilling scenario in effect: one where all the players are both right and wrong in every aspect of their accusations and suspicions…

The remains of this volume focus on the fallout of the aforementioned solo case undertaken by Monet. When the abrasive telepath had agreed to psi-probe a woman plagued by dreams of atrocity she was rather surprised when her mental recalibrations scored a total success. Now the costs of that victory begin to hurt as mentally healed “Noelle Blanc” tracks down some former army comrades who don’t remember her at all…

Illustrated by Lupacchino, Ortega & Milla the tale begins to unfold as Mayor J. Jonah Jameson calls in a long-promised favour from Madrox and demands the detectives discover who murdered the former publisher’s oldest friend General Sam Ryan…

As Spider-Man nosily tries to find out what JJJ’s up to, in Nebraska Noelle has turned a flamethrower on a meek doctor and awoken the dormant memories of another woman soldier transformed by a top-secret military experiment…

The revelations continue in ‘Deep Scars’ as the cyber-enhanced war-girls go looking for their final comrade – and more revenge – even as Madrox, Rictor, Shatterstar and Longshot investigate the General’s assassination in a graveyard and find a connection to a super-secret project…

Back in NYC increasing civil unrest leaves the remaining team-members stuck on bodyguard detail during a street protest, but it’s Jameson’s troubleshooting clandestine employee Black Cat who first discovers Blanc (nee Ballistique) and now un-deprogrammed allies Sylvius and Rococo as they move in to add Jonah to their lengthy list of successful hits. Strangely, though, despite the human weapons wanting the Mayor dead, that’s clearly not their endgame…

In the ensuing chaotic melee of a manufactured riot Guido goes down and does not get up again…

The drama continues in ‘Man Down!’ as the riot turns into a bloody debacle and the shooters make their escape. Guido dies on the operating table but incredibly revives later, yet only Layla is not overjoyed at the seeming miracle…

The drama concludes in ‘Lies, Damned Lies’ as Monet goes crazy, kidnapping the Mayor and compelling him to reveal the truth about Ryan. Years ago the General and scientist Dr. Young Soo Pock conceived a black ops revision to America’s Super Soldier program.

Strategic Capture And Retrieval (or S.C.A.R.s) gave three female volunteers numerous cybernetic enhancements which turned them into unstoppable killers. Sadly it also made them crazy and they began taking mercenary jobs before being caught, decommissioned and given mind-numbing amnesia.

Unfortunately even the US Military had turned the project down from the outset and Ryan had asked his old fried Jameson to fund it. The patriotic fool did and now the S.C.A.R.s girls have their memories back and they want revenge on everybody who messed with them…

As Layla apologizes to the bewildered Guido for what’s she “done to him” Madrox and the team have tracked down Young Soo Pock, arriving just as the cyber killers are extracting their revenge. A monumental battle ensues, but although Monet mercilessly deals with Ballistique for killing Guido she’s quite happy to let the others go…

To Be Continued…

With covers by David Yardin & Sonia Oback and ‘Opening the Sketchbook’ – an original-art crammed biography feature on artist Emanuela Lupacchino by John Rhett Thomas – this volume continues a superb run of challenging, compelling, compulsive and supremely scary funny tales, making this iteration of X-Factor the ideal example of mature Fights ‘n’ Tights fiction: utterly indispensable for everyone who needs wit to underpin their superhero soap opera shenanigans.
© 2011, 2012 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

By Peter David, Sebastian Fiumara, Valentine De Landro, Emanuela Lupacchino, Pat Davidson & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4655-1

Since its debut in the 1980s, X-Factor has been a splendidly effective umbrella title for many uniquely off-kilter iterations of Marvel’s mutant phenomena. Undoubtedly the most impressive and enduring assemblage was created by writer Peter David in 2006; mixing starkly violent suspense with cool detective mystery, laugh-out-loud comedy and fantastic Fights ‘n’ Tights action – and even slyly addressing social issues in a regular riot of superbly adult Costumed Drama.

The premise saw Jamie Madrox, the Multiple Man – veteran of a formerly government-sponsored (and controlled) team – appropriating the name for his own, to create the specialist metahuman private detective agency X-Factor Investigations.

Setting up shop in the wake of “The Decimation”, which had reduced the world’s mutant population to a couple of hundred empowered individuals and millions of distressingly humanised (ex) Homo Superior, he and a perpetually fluctuating team set out to discover why and how it had happened and, once that was settled, just kept going…

This splendid sampling of strange happenings – written as ever by Peter David – collects X-Factor #207-212 (September 2010 – February 2011), exploring some less well scrutinised elements of the immortal themes of Love and Death in a most unique manner…

Recently returned to New York from the wilds of Detroit (by way of the furious future), Madrox and literal mystery woman Layla Miller have no trouble settling in as ‘Lost Souls’ – illustrated by Sebastian Fuimara – opens with a stunning and statuesque client decked out in skimpy green sheen hiring X-Factor to track down a missing man and stolen pendant.

Her effect on the usually ambivalent-to-ladies, luck-manipulating alien Longshot is a study in weapons-grade pulchritude and should really have tipped off the detectives that all was not right…

Elsewhere Guido “Strong Guy” Carosella, Armando “Darwin” Muñoz and psionic super-woman Monet St. Croix are back from South America, having rescued the latter’s abducted dad from drug-lords and mystic menace Baron Mordo. To facilitate their escape Monet had to promise to let the dying sorcerer steal her life energies, but once on safe ground again the wizard finds that he has bitten off more than he can chew…

At a shooting range, young lovers Rictor and Shatterstar are working out a few emotional problems like men do, whilst a multitude of Madroxes and his unforgiving ex Theresa Rourke Cassidy (AKA Siryn) have located the fugitive thief Gofern. However, when they challenge the roistering rogue, things take a distinct left turn into pure wyrd…

Back home, Rictor’s former girlfriend Rahne “Wolfsbane” Sinclair accidentally interrupts him and Shatterstar making up and her shock is transparent and devastating. It’s pretty mutual however as the furiously feral transmorph seems to be extremely pregnant with what Rictor assumes is his child…

The untitled second part opens with Rahne taking out her not-just hormonal anger on her boyfriend’s boyfriend whilst in a dingy dive across town Gofern – now revealed as objectionable alien oik Pip the Troll – fights desperately to regain the amulet Madrox has confiscated. He claims the piece was the only thing protecting him…

Whilst the rest of the team strive to stop Wolfsbane killing Shatterstar, back at the bar things get very cold as outraged Asgardian Death Goddess Hela manifests to reclaim the obnoxious jester who dared to run from her…

The action switches to Las Vegas in ‘Strip Search’ (Lupacchino & Davidson) as a hand-picked squad track the Queen of the Nordic Damned. Madrox is determined to cancel the contract and rescue poor shmuck Pip from the underworld, but the trail seems to lead to nothing but frustration.

Splitting up, Layla, Shatterstar, Siryn and Guido manage to wreck most of the town before Longshot’s luck powers draw them to vacationing Jane Foster (former love of Thor and expert on many things Asgardian) who advises them that the last thing they should do is attract the mercurial goddess’ attention…

Never ready to accept good advice, Madrox sets Longshot loose on the casinos and almost bankrupts the city before Hela takes the blatant bait…

Valentine De Landro illustrates the untitled next chapter as, back in the Big Apple, Monet agrees to psi-probe a woman plagued by dreams of atrocity and is frankly astounded by a rare, easily achieved success. Rictor and Rahne meanwhile go for an ultrasound scan and discover something most unsettling and inexplicably lupine and mystical about their impending sprog…

The action returns to a secret necropolis of Nevada for ‘Staying in Vegas’ (Lupacchino & Davidson) with the wayward away team under attack by an unending horde of undying warrior zombies. Whilst Hela idly tortures Pip in Niffleheim, his would-be saviours battle effectively but not tirelessly in the lands above.

They’re almost glad when the formidably daunting thunder god Thor – having received a phone call from an old friend – explosively storms in and takes command…

The saga astoundingly concludes as the unlikely and constantly sniping assemblage invades the nether regions to save the troll, much to Hela’s amusement. When challenged, she hands over the malodorous little troglodyte with a shrug and a smile.

She’s already bored with Pip and instead wants Longshot for her new toy, but when spurned the Queen of Hell is still in a good mood and grants them leave to depart.

Of course the exit is on the other side of her realm, but surely crossing the hostile, frozen perdition whilst every corpse and monster in her power tries to kill them won’t be any problem…?

As the heroes doggedly battle their way across the tundra of terror, Shatterstar is specifically targeted by recently deceased wolf-god Hrimhari, who claims the gleeful alien adventurer smells of his one true love. With horror Siryn remembers how the lupine lord once had a fling with the absent Wolfsbane…

With inevitable doom at hand, coldly calculating Madrox challenges Hela directly, gambling Darwin’s ability to hyper-evolve and counter every threat to his existence will provide a means to beat the death goddess…

Against all odds it does and they all – even Pip – escape, but the horrifying effects and shattering power of gentle Armando’s latest adaptation don’t fade even after they are all safely back on Earth…

To Be Continued…

With covers by David Yardin, this volume continues a superb run of challenging, compelling, compulsive and supremely scary funny tales, making this iteration of X-Factor the ideal example of mature Costume Dramas: utterly indispensable for everyone who needs wit to underpin their superhero soap opera shenanigans.

© 2010, 2011 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

By Matt Fraction, Greg Land, Yanick Paquette, Terry Dodson, Jay Leisten, Karl Story & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-4105-1

Since its revival in 1975 Marvel’s Mutant franchise has always strongly featured powerful and often controversial female characters and the balance has never rested solely on the side of light.

For every valiant woman – or indeed super-powered, conflicted teenage girl – fighting the good fight there has been a shady lady playing for the dark side.

This particular collection – gathering Uncanny X-Men #508-512, cover-dated June to August 2009 – primarily features a stupendous clash between the maligned mutant mavericks and a dastardly coterie of extremely wicked women warriors but also offers a fascinating insight into the occluded history of one of the endangered species’ most enigmatic survivors…

At this point in time, the evolutionary offshoot dubbed Homo Sapiens Superior is at its lowest ebb. As seen in both House of M and Decimation storylines, Scarlet Witch Wanda Maximoff – ravaged by madness and her own reality-warping power – reduced the world’s multi-million plus mutant population to a couple of hundred individuals with three simple words…

Most of the remaining genetic outsiders accepted a generous and earnest offer to relocate to San Francisco but, of course, trouble is always happy to make house calls…

Scripted throughout by Matt Fraction, the 4-part saga ‘Sisterhood’ – illustrated by Greg Land, Jay Leisten and colourist Justin Ponsor – opens following the shocking news of a massacre in Cooperstown, Alaska.

Terrorists had razed the isolated town to burning rubble because of reports that the first mutant baby since The Decimation had been born there…

Anti-mutant activist and passionate bigot Simon Trask was quick to stir the flames of panic and prejudice with his Humanity Now Coalition pushing the government to end the threat of mutants forever. With hysteria growing, even previously neutral outcasts began making their way to the mutant enclave of the Greymalkin Industries Facility on the Marin Headlands. However, even with an ever-growing host of feared and despised genetic pariahs housed in her city and the entire population potentially at risk from fanatics and mutant-hunters, Mayor Sadie Sinclair still stands firm on her offer of sanctuary.

The dark drama commences in a secluded private cemetery in Tokyo as the Sisterhood of Evil Mutants disinter a certain body. They are interrupted by probability-bending sometime X-ally Domino whose main talent seems to be landing in the wrong place at the right time.

Sadly, even her odds-altering powers and superspy training are not enough to stop the grave-robbing, and Regan and Martinique Wyngarde (daughters of the malevolent Mastermind), psychic assassin Chimera, cyborg killer Lady Deathstrike, extra-dimensional witch Spiral and the infernal spirit of Red Queen Madelyne Pryor get away with the corpse of ninja legend Kwannon…

In San Francisco Henry McCoy convenes his newly convened X-Club; a unique think tank comprising human geneticist Kavita Rao, mutant tech-savant Madison Jeffries, atomic mutation expert Dr. Yuriko Takiguchi and former Nazi-hunting mutant mystery man James Bradley AKA Doctor Nemesis.

The Beast carefully outlines their intended goal: finding a way to reactivate the millions of mutants “cured” by the Scarlet Witch. Their first session soon concludes that she has somehow switched off the power-creating “X-Gene” in most of the mutant population, but they need to know more about the origin of their own species before they can turn them all on again…

Elsewhere in the city the Sisterhood have completely resurrected the purloined corpse and filled the body with a former host… or at least one of them…

Long ago (Uncanny X-Men #256-258, in fact) priests of ninja cult The Hand mystically transposed the mind of telepath Betsy Braddock – AKA Psylocke – into the physical shell of a lethally effective adherent named Kwannon. The brainwashing and mystic body-swapping turned the English Rose into a sultry, sexy Chinese bodyguard/concubine/siren and perfect gift for the undisputed overlord of the Orient, The Mandarin.

After much ado, myriad battles and many years, both mind-switched incarnations died in combat, but now the Red Queen has succeeded in reuniting the long-separated soul and form of the elite killer…

As the X-Men reach out and enlist former Canadian mutant hero – and media-savvy global Gay celebrity – Jean-Paul Beaubier (one-time Alpha Flight member Northstar), the sinister Sisterhood moves on to the next stage of Pryor’s convoluted game-plan…

With the enclave happily acclimatising and being welcomed by the mellow Californians, the demagogue Trask springs his latest nasty surprise from Washington DC. Proposition X demands legislation to ensure the mandatory sterilisation of mutants and all humans carrying the X-Gene…

The news drives the younger mutants at Greymalkin into a fury, whilst in the science labs cooler heads have devised a potential plan to study the origins of their kind: all they have to do is travel back in time and get blood samples from the first humans to conceive a mutant child…

Outmanoeuvred, the usually reticent and inspirationally obnoxious Bradley is forced to admit having been born in 1906, and that his own parents might well be the best possible candidates…

Before they can act, though, the Sisterhood invade the Facility using a prisoner in the detention centre to deactivate all the psychic security provisions. The assault is devastating and catches the X-Men completely off guard, but Pryor’s big mistake is underestimating the determination and sheer bloody-mindedness of student heroes X-23, Armor, Pixie and the telepathic gestalt called the Stepford Cuckoos…

Following the kids’ counterstrike, the swift recovery and retaliation of the adult X-folk quickly drives the Sisterhood out, but Wolverine is forced to admit that the invaders got what they came for: a lock of hair from Jean Grey he’s been treasuring since her death.

The sample could provide the ghostly Pryor with the genetic material needed to grow herself a new body – one with all the power of the nigh-omnipotent Phoenix…

The conclusion (with additional art by Terry & Rachel Dodson) sees the desperate X-Men rush to foil the plot and spectacularly triumph, not only ending the threat of cosmic resurrection but incidentally reclaiming one of their own fallen from the grave…

Following that all-out cosmic-tinged clash ‘The Origin of the Species’ (illustrated by Yanick Paquette & Karl Story) offers a taste of steam-punk and tragedy as the postponed jaunt to the dawn of the Mutant Age finally gets underway.

Accompanied by the restored Psylocke and Archangel, Beast’s “X-Club” of super science geeks pop back to San Francisco in 1906 on an extremely tight deadline to get blood samples from Dr. Nemesis’ parents but stumble into the birth of their worst nightmare…

Inventor Nicola Bradley and his wife Catherine have been striving to complete a generator that will provide free, unlimited broadcast power for humanity but are increasingly being threatened by thugs and brigands determined to steal it.

Cornelius Shaw and his mentor Lord Molyneux are using the sybaritic Hellfire Club to fund Bradley’s experiments but they want his incredible engine for purposes far darker than lighting the world.

Molyneux has visions of mankind crushed under the monstrous heel of a new superior race – “Overmen” – and needs the battery to power his colossal mechanical Sentinel. Against that even the aberrations-to-come will be helpless…

He’s also behind the attempted raids; hedging his bets in case Bradley cannot complete the job, so when the freakish X-Club turns up he knows the time to act is now…

Thankfully – and perhaps instinctively inspired by his wife’s pregnancy – Bradley solves the final problem, but soon regrets his actions as the Hellfire lords take his device and unleash a marauding mechanical myrmidon upon the populace.

…And that’s when the strangers with wings and blue fur and other incredible abilities reveal themselves…

Concluding in calamity, catastrophe and cruel, heartbreaking irony, this smart slice of time-tampering neatly wraps up a superb sample of Mutant Mayhem: at once exciting, enthralling and exceptionally entertaining.

This slim, stirring, supremely sensuous Fights ‘n’ Tights tome also includes a selection of cover reproductions and variants by Land, Ponsor, Paquette, Edgar Delgado, Laura Martin, J. Scott Campbell & Stéphane Roux, resulting in a treasure trove of treats for all fans of sexy superheroes and combat connoisseurs alike

© 2009 Marvel Characters In. All rights reserved.