For Your Life

“X of Swords: Chapter 14”
Marauders #15
Written by Gerry Duggan and Benjamin Percy
Art by Stefano Caselli
Color art by Edgar Delgado

“X of Swords: Chapter 15”
Excalibur #14
Written by Tini Howard 
Art by Phil Noto

“X of Swords: Chapter 16”
Wolverine #7
Written by Benjamin Percy and Gerry Duggan
Art by Joshua Cassara
Color art by Guru-eFX

And now the story gets a little weird! But of course, “weird” is a human word…

• Marauders picks up on last week’s cliffhanger in the most jarring way possible, zooming ahead to the aftermath of Wolverine murdering Saturnyne – the inevitable conquest of Krakoa and the rest of Earth by the forces of Arakko and Amenth. But of course Saturnyne is seemingly omnipotent in her realm, and so she’s only just messing with Wolverine and showing him the actual stakes of the situation. This all supports the notion that it’s in Saturnyne’s interest to defeat the Arakkii and flush the influence of Amenth out of Otherworld lest they inevitably conquer the rest of her domain, but Saturnyne’s actions over the course of three issues complicate matters further by capriciously rigging the contests against the Krakoan swordbearers in increasingly absurd ways. She’s playing a game, but it’s hard to tell exactly what it is. 

• Marauders #15 continues on from last week’s issue in further developing the characters from Arakko at the banquet before the contest. The White Sword’s tension with the family of Apocalypse and Genesis is highlighted by his utter disgust for War attempting to poison her opponents at the parley, while Redroot and Death ponder the ways living in a far less horrific world has made the X-Men “weak and soft.” It’s remarkable how familiar these characters and their milieu have become over the past few weeks – it’s all so rich that it would be a shame to see some of them go at the end of this story. 

• We get our first glimpse of Death’s mutant power as he murders a servant with a glare at the banquet. This scene is handled very well by Stefano Caselli, who paces it very nicely and conveys how effortless and meaningless this gesture is for Death. It’s interesting that this power is only a minor variation on that of Gorgon, who also hides his eyes to hold back his own version of a death gaze. (And of course this carries over to Cyclops, though he’s not in this story.) 

• Isca the Unbeaten is further developed in both Marauders and Excalibur, in both cases suggesting that she’s a decent person who feels inclined to spare her opponents the inevitability of her victory. It’s increasingly obvious Isca is going to be hanging around the X-Men for a while after this, and I welcome it. She has so much potential, and the concept and design of her is so strong.

• Excalibur #14 begins the contest phase of the storyline and immediately upends all expectations by giving us an abrupt anticlimax in the duel of Betsy Braddock and Isca and then a forced marriage rather than a battle. Betsy’s apparent death in her fight with Isca is strange and abstract, and also unrelated to any power we know Isca to possess besides that she wins any battle she’s in, so it seems very likely whatever happened to her is the intervention of Saturnyne’s magic or perhaps her brother Jamie’s reality-warping power. 

• The forced marriage of Cypher and Bei the Blood Moon is a wild curveball, but makes sense if Saturnyne’s true goal is to weed out the Amenthi influence on the Arakkii and get the Krakoans and Arrakkii on the same page – i.e., purging Amenth from Otherworld. This sequence is a lot of fun, and I love that Bei is able to “speak” in a way that is intuitively comprehensible to everyone else but is by technicality indecipherable to him as a result of his power. So of course he’s fascinated by Bei, and though Bei’s thoughts on the matter are opaque she seems pretty enthusiastic about marrying – and violently protecting – this cute little golden-hearted dork. But still, as amusing as it is for this tall warrior woman to embrace the notion of marrying him, it’s hard to grasp why given the limited information we have about her life. 

• The Wolverine issue pushes the absurdity of Saturnyne’s competition to another level, first by making Magik’s battle against the monstrous Pogg Ur-Pogg an arm wrestling match she cannot possibly win, and then by having Wolverine kill Summoner in the surreal realm of Blightspoke and having the point go to Arakko because they were told it was a fight to the death and Summoner was the one to die. Then Wolverine is roped into another duel as a result of the agreement he made with Solem off-panel earlier in the story, and when Wolverine defeats War in battle, the point also goes to Arakko. Saturnyne is plainly rigging the contest against Krakoa… but why exactly? It makes sense for her to want to mess with Wolverine and Betsy specifically, but what is she actually up to? I suppose we’ll get that reveal next week. 

Truth

“X of Swords: Chapter 12”
X-Men #14
Written by Jonathan Hickman
Art by Leinil Francis Yu with Mahmud Asrar
Color art by Sunny Gho

“X of Swords: Chapter 13”
Marauders #14
Written by Gerry Duggan and Benjamin Percy
Art by Stefano Caselli
Color art by Edgar Delgado

• I was wondering how Mahmud Asrar was handling the deadline crunch of seemingly getting put on a third of last week’s Stasis special while being assigned to draw four other issues in the crossover, but now we know the answer: He only drew the framing sequences of this issue, and the majority of the issue is made up of repurposed Leinil Francis Yu pages from X-Men #12. Jonathan Hickman has made use of the old “reuse the art” trick before, but this is a particularly bold move, reframing the history of the mutants of Arakko as told to Apocalypse by Summoner from the perspective of Genesis. Whereas Summoner was trying to mislead and trap Apocalypse, Genesis is telling him the hard truth of things. It’s like hearing the same song played in a different, far more melancholy key. 

This creative decision is as artful as it probably was quite pragmatic, though it does make you wonder what the compensation deal was like for Yu in this situation.

• It’s interesting to see where Summoner and Genesis’ accounts differ and converge, with some bits of their stories perfectly aligning on particular panels. The most blatant deviations come towards the end of the story, with Genesis revealing that the demons of Amenth had bred captured mutants to create a hybrid warrior race and the demon conjuring Summoners, and that Genesis indeed killed the prior host of Annihilation and was obligated to wear the Golden Helm of Amenth and command its armies. And though she put this fate off for many years, she eventually gave in and all of Arakko succumbed to Amenth. This led to the conquest of Dryador, and onward to the next goal of taking Krakoa. The final text page of this issue is heartbreaking, spelling out the truth of Arakko: The mutants there are “prisoners in their own land,” oppressed by the Amenthi hybrids, the Summoners, and the Golden Helm. What was previously implied is now very clear – Arakko must be liberated from Amenth and the mutants loyal to Amenth. 

• Isca the Unbeaten plays an interesting role in this story – her power to never lose compels her to side with inevitable victors, which directly led to her sister Genesis being corrupted by Annihilation and Arakko falling to Amenth. She’s a narrative echo of Cylobel from Powers of X, who was bred by Nimrod to betray her fellow mutants, but the notion of people who are genetically compelled to turn against their own is an odd and potentially contentious theme for Hickman’s macro story. However, just as Cylobel turns against Nimrod, it seems very likely that Isca will side with Krakoa by the end of this story. But whereas this is a redemptive act for Cylobel, wouldn’t this just be another convenient turn of events for Isca? And besides, how exactly is surrendering one’s loyalties not a form of being beaten? 

• The “vile schools” of mutant-Amenthi hybrid warriors is another echo of a plot point from Powers of X – the breeding of chimera as a warrior class of mutants by Mister Sinister. And what’s going to be the comic in this storyline to really engage with the vile schools? Hellions, the series featuring Mister Sinister as the lead.

• There’s such a sad poetry in Apocalypse having to face this brutal survivalist ethos he’s been living with for centuries from the perspective of now having Krakoa, and seeing in Krakoa a real possibility of true mutant culture and prosperity that is entirely alien to these Arakki people who can only see a zero sum game of survival or destruction. Genesis sees only softness and weakness in Apocalypse and Krakoa, but she has lost all context for true civilization. The Arakki fight merely to conquer and survive in their miserable lives, but the people of Krakoa have something to truly treasure and protect.  Genesis is blind to the power of that motivation. 

• Marauders #14 is a welcome tonal shift from X-Men #14, reorienting the story back to the perspective of the X-Men swordbearers as they meet their counterparts from Arakko for the first time at a banquet hosted by Saturnyne. Much of the story focuses in on Storm, who carries herself with absolute confidence as she rebuffs the romantic advances of Death, and on Wolverine, who is openly contemptuous of Brian Braddock for not taking advantage of Saturnyne’s love for him to prevent the tournament. There’s also a fantastic little scene in which the Krakoan captains Magik and Gorgon look for weaknesses in their opponents and test Isca, who manages to spook even them. 

• Stefano Caselli noticeably steps up his game for this issue, and really outdoes himself in drawing the surreal banquet hall of the Starlight Citadel. He does some stellar work with body language and facial expressions through the issue, and is particularly impressive in how he conveys so many distinct personalities and interpersonal dynamics in the party scenes. He was very well cast for this sequence of the story. 

• Since starting this site I’ve paid a lot more attention to X-Men comics fandom, and doing that can be like stepping into a weird alternate universe in which everyone dislikes Wolverine and finds him boring. I can’t relate. But this issue, as with most Wolverine comics written by Benjamin Percy, makes a great case for why he’s such a widely beloved character. His brutish no-bullshit attitude is a necessary contrast with the pomp and circumstance of Saturnyne’s banquet and the absurd formality of her contest. When he stabs her on the last page it is a genuinely cathartic moment, even though it’s quite clear there’s no way he’s successful in this tactic. 

Muramasa and Skybreaker

“X of Swords” Chapters 3 and 4
Wolverine #6
X-Force #13
Written by Benjamin Percy
Art by Viktor Bogdanovic
Color art by Matthew Wilson

“X of Swords” Chapter 5 
Marauders #13
Written by Vita Ayala
Art by Matteo Lolli
Color art by Edgar Delgado

• These three chapters of X of Swords mark the story’s first narrative gear shift, as the spotlight narrows to a pair of solo stories starring Wolverine and Storm as they go off in pursuit of the swords assigned to them by Saturnyne. There’s a trade-off here – a loss of momentum, but a deeper focus on character and the weight of responsibility bearing down on these two core X-Men members. If the shipping schedule of this crossover were different, these issues might have slowed things down too much, but if we’re burning through the “quest” issues in two or three weeks with a few issues at a time it’s making good time and allowing the reader to invest in Krakoa’s champions before they head off to war. 

• The Wolverine and X-Force issues are one story split between two issues, with the X-Force issue being fully a Wolverine comic as the rest of the cast – or even the basic premises of that series – is part of the plot. Benjamin Percy’s plot moves along the X of Swords story while working well as a discrete two-parter in which Wolverine must find a Muramasa blade and discovers he can only do that by literally going to hell to find one. These issues introduce Solem, one of the Swordbearers of Arrako, who is positioned as Wolverine’s new archnemesis in the absence of Sabretooth. Whereas Sabretooth is Wolverine’s opposite number, Solem is more of an inverted version of Wolverine – a warrior with adamantium skin, who embraces aesthetics and hedonism just as Wolverine is more salt-of-the-earth and ascetic. 

There’s a certain amount of hubris in aiming to give a major character like Wolverine a new central villain, but given the status quo now it’s sort of necessary. Percy has set up an interesting contrast here, and Solem is immediately charming – an arrogant lothario with poetic sensibilities and a history of causing chaos in Arrako just for the thrill of it. There’s a lot of potential here, if just in exploring a character who is basically a hyper-violent Frasier Crane. (Wolverine, of course, would be the Martin Crane.) 

• I particularly like the opening scene of this mini-arc in which Wolverine confronts Krakoa, which very succinctly gets a lot of exposition out of the way while reaffirming Wolverine’s commitment to the promise of the Krakoan nation state and his spirit as a warrior, and showing us that he’s come to distrust the sentient island itself. It’s very true to Wolverine’s nature, but this moment is notable as it’s a rare occasion in which someone has questioned the character of Krakoa and its motives in this era. 

• It’s interesting to me that while DC Comics’ current event Death Metal and its predecessor Metal strain to evoke a “heavy metal” aesthetic, X of Swords and these two chapters in particular actually do a better job of that without necessarily advertising it as part of the project. Even aside from all the Arrako elements of the story, just look at those pages in which Wolverine’s adamantium skeleton emerges from the literal fires of hell – you can practically hear the speed metal riffs come through the pages. The fact that these issues are illustrated by Viktor Bogdanovic, whose work looks quite a bit like that of Death Metal artist Greg Capullo, only encourages this comparison. 

• The Marauders issue tells the story of Storm going to Wakanda to collect her assigned sword Skybreaker, which is complicated by her fraught relationship with Wakanda royalty since divorcing Black Panther and giving up her crown, and that there is a major taboo of Skybreaker leaving Wakanda soil. Vita Ayala, who makes their Hickman-era X-Men debut here as a guest writer before taking over New Mutants and launching Children of the Atom after this event, has a very good handle on Storm and embraces the complexities and contradictions of her life rather than try to pare down her story. Ayala makes this part of the point of the issue, as Storm seamlessly segues between different aspects of her character – mainstay of the X-Men, goddess, Wakandan royalty, political leader, thief, ex-wife. Aspects of Storm’s identity shift like the weather, but the plot emphasizes that her indomitable will and absolute conviction in doing whatever it takes to do the right thing are immutable characteristics. 

• As good as the Marauders issue as a solo Storm issue, it slows some of the momentum of the larger X of Swords story. Whereas the Wolverine and X-Force issues have the same essential narrative purpose as this in terms of focusing on one character and the sacrifice they must make to compete in Saturnyne’s demented tournament, the former story continued to introduce new information about Arrako and its people. Those issues flow more naturally from the previous two chapters, whereas the Marauders issue feels more like a tie-in. It has the vibe of a very good annual, not so much a continuation of the story established by Jonathan Hickman and Tini Howard. 

• Text pages in all three of these issues continue the trend of giving background information on each of the realms of Otherworld. The most interesting of these is certainly the page for Mercator, which keeps up the mystery of that realm’s regent, but heavily suggests that it is indeed presided over by Absalon “Mr. M” Mercator, the missing omega level mutant previously mentioned in passing in House of X #1 and the Hickman pages of the Incoming! special. I’m personally very intrigued to see how this character will be presented, and I like this as a potential new context for an underdeveloped and obscure character with godlike powers. 

X-Book Mini-Reviews: Marauders, Cable, Wolverine, X-Men + Fantastic Four

Marauders #8-12
Written by Gerry Duggan
Art by Stefano Caselli (8, 10, 11)  and Matteo Lolli (9, 12)
Color art by Edgar Delgado

Gerry Duggan was just beginning to hit his stride where I left off with this series and with these issues he’s fully in the zone. The magic of this book is in how deftly he balances his exploration of the new Krakoa status quo and a firm grasp of characterization and character history. He does excellent work in restoring Callisto to her Claremont-era greatness as a queer punk anti-hero with a strict code of honor, and pulls off a minor miracle in reinventing Jason Aaron’s absolutely horrible kid Hellfire Club as a legitimate threat under the name Verendi. I love the way he writes the fraught character dynamics of his central cast of Storm, Emma Frost, and Kate Pryde with all the nuance of years of publishing without requiring a reader to have actually read any of those comics. And bless him, he’s even doing his best to acknowledge years of Kate being written as a bisexual woman, though it doesn’t seem as though he’s allowed to state this in the text.

These issues keep up a strong Claremontian momentum even with a significant break in the publishing schedule as a result of the pandemic, though the issue in which Kate is finally resurrected is oddly anticlimactic given how much the question of whether or not she even could be resurrected is positioned as a major plot point. But Kate’s actual return in issue #12 makes up for this bum note – Duggan and Matto Lolli present her with a renewed swagger, and set up the next phase of the plot so enticingly that it actually feels disappointing we have to move away from this story for three issues to get through X of Swords. 

Cable #1-4
Written by Gerry Duggan
Art by Phil Noto

Whereas Duggan’s Marauders is centered on political intrigue and the nuanced relationship of its trio of leading women, his Cable solo book is positioned as more of a light-hearted wish fulfillment story for boys. Duggan is working with the teenage version of Cable established by Ed Brisson in Extermination – a young man who’s killed the older version of himself we’ve known for decades for the crime of not being good enough at his job. On a macro level, Duggan’s story is about this boy gradually and inevitably becoming the old man, but in these issues it’s mostly just presenting Cable as an adventurer and establishing his five-way romance with the entire Stepford Cuckoos hive-mind. This is clever – the Cuckoos are established as clone/daughters of Emma Frost, and Cable is the time-lost child of Cyclops and a clone of Jean Grey, so it’s a play on their dynamic while also just depicting Cable as this ultra-stud. (We also see that Armor has a crush on him – mutant ladies sure love a Summers man.) 

Phil Noto’s art is typically fantastic in these issues, with his usual flair for clean design, vivid colors, and expressive faces. He’s very well-suited to Duggan’s writing style, adept at both action scenes and conveying his humor. He does a particularly good job in giving the five Cuckoos distinct expressions and body language, and in playing off the odd dynamic of the teen Cable meeting Deadpool for the first time while Deadpool was friends with his older self for many years. 

Wolverine #1-5
Written by Benjamin Percy
Art by Adam Kubert (1-3) and Viktor Bogdanovic (1, 4, 5)
Color art by Frank Martin (1-3) and Matthew Wilson (1, 4, 5)

In all my years of reading X-Men comics I have rarely regularly followed a Wolverine solo title, largely because those series seem rather inconsequential and I prefer the character as part of a team dynamic. It’s like how I love cinnamon in an apple pie, but wouldn’t really want to eat cinnamon by itself straight out of the spice rack. Benjamin Percy, however, is a guy who just wants as much Wolverine as he can get and is obviously having the time of his life as the primary author of the character in both his solo series and X-Force. Percy has a firm grasp on exactly what makes Wolverine work and is fluent in the particular cadences of his dialogue, and his enthusiasm for the character is infectious, so much so that the two narrative arcs in this run of five issues are only so-so in plot terms but are nevertheless very enjoyable just for all the great character moments. 

I’m particularly fond of Wolverine’s interactions with Magneto, a man who has caused him great agony over the years that he’s now forced to answer to as one of the leaders of Krakoa. Percy is very interested in the nuances of how these old men who are very set in their ways adapt to an entirely new status quo – they are both going about it in good faith, but there’s only so much of the past you can ignore while working for a better future. 

This mix of “same old” and “totally new” seems to be the narrative crux of this series, and that extends to the art as well, as classic Wolverine artist Adam Kubert is trading off arcs with relative newcomer Viktor Bogdanovic. Kubert’s art is solid as ever, though his tendency towards unusual page layouts is kicked into high gear with these issues. He’s very good at drawing Krakoan landscapes and biotech, and it’s apparent he’s excited by the challenge of working with Pepe Larraz and R.B. Silva’s designs. Bogdanovic’s art is extremely similar to that of Batman artist Greg Capullo, to the point where you could just pretend it’s actually Capullo drawing the book. This is fine, though I’d like to see him evolve more into his own style as he clearly has the raw skills down. 

X-Men + Fantastic Four #1-4
Written by Chip Zdarsky
Art by Terry Dodson and Rachel Dodson
Color art by Laura Martin

Chip Zdarsky is a writer that leads with humor and delight, but always grounds his stories in compelling dramatic questions. To some extent that’s the job of a superhero comic writer, but it’s not tremendously common for people to actually achieve that balance, particularly when Marvel comics that lean humorous are nearly always full of unfunny soy jokes with no narrative stakes. This miniseries, in which the X-Men and Fantastic Four clash over the question of whether or not Reed and Sue Richards’ omega-level mutant son Franklin belongs on Krakoa, presents as a high-stakes story, even if the actual resolution of the Franklin question feels like a shruggy compromise. But even if the ending feels a bit inconsequential, the philosophical clashes are handled thoughtfully and Zdarsky’s handle on the personalities and voices of all the core characters is impressive. Terry and Rachel Dodson, no strangers to either the X-Men or Fantastic Four, do typically excellent work in their ultra-clean and dynamic style. The ending of the story hints at a further conflict between Reed Richards and Charles Xavier down the line, but even without that thread this miniseries leaves me with the feeling that I’d be happy to get more X-Men and/or Fantastic Four comics written by Zdarsky in the future.

The Red Coronation

“I’m On A Boat” / “The Red Coronation” / “The Bishop In Black” / 
“The Red Bishop” / “A Time to Sow” / “A Time to Reap” / “From Emma, With Love”
Marauders #1-7
Written by Gerry Duggan
Art by Matteo Lolli, Lucas Wernick, Michele Bandini, and Stefano Caselli
Color art by Federico Blee with Erick Arciniega and Edgar Delgado

Marauders is a peculiar series, both the most radical of the new Dawn of X series in concept and the most traditional in its storytelling. Gerry Duggan is enthusiastically exploring the possibilities of the new ideas Jonathan Hickman introduced in House of X/Powers of X – the issues of trade and diplomacy that come from both Krakoan sovereignty and the miracle drugs that drive its economy, the rebranding of the Hellfire Club as the Hellfire Trading Company, the quirks of Krakoan gates, the utility of the resurrection protocols – and is doing it, in of all things, a pirate comic. I was initially wary of the clean, direct “house style” art and emphasis on humor and action/adventure, but seven issues into the series it’s clear to me that Duggan is playing to his strengths as a writer while taking Hickman’s concepts very seriously. 

This is an ensemble series, but the star is clearly Kitty Pryde. Pryde, who now wishes to be called Kate rather than Kitty, is mysteriously unable to pass through the Krakoan gates and can only get to the living island by boat. In the first issue Emma Frost, the White Queen of the Hellfire Club, offers Pryde a seat on the Quiet Council of Krakoa in exchange for becoming the Red Queen of the Hellfire Club and heading up both the distribution of Krakoan drugs and missions to rescue mutants around the world who cannot find a way to Krakoa. Pryde is accompanied by her close friends Iceman and Storm, the mutant cop Bishop, and the newly resurrected and reformed villain Pyro. Sebastian Shaw, the Black King of the Hellfire Club, is the book’s primary antagonist and is actively scheming against Frost and Pryde. 

Each lead character in Marauders gets some fun moments, but it’s pretty obvious that Duggan is invested in Pryde above all else, and is doing what he can to push the character forward after a few decades of stagnation. The usual problem with the depiction of Pryde is that she’s often written in an overtly nostalgic way by authors who grew up in the early 80s, and that she’s frequently presented as a moralist scold. The latter bit doesn’t have to be a bad thing – it is a legitimate personality flaw that’s been with her since the beginning and it can be genuinely interesting – but Duggan seems rather pointed in steering clear of all that and emphasizing the ways she’s become willing to make ethical compromises. Duggan’s Kate Pryde comes across as a young woman who is so sick of her usual goody-goody patterns that she’s becoming reckless in search of a new identity – she’s more ruthlessly violent, drinking heavily, getting tattoos, and leaning hard into the whole pirate aesthetic. She also seems very depressed and lonely, and I trust Duggan to dig deeper into that as he goes along. 

It doesn’t always work, particularly in the first few issues. There’s a text page in the debut issue in which Wolverine sends a message to Kate asking for a list of goods, foods, and beverages to bring to Krakoa that is both wildly unfunny and nonsensical given that he’s a person who can freely teleport anywhere he wants, and she’s a person who is stuck taking long boat rides everywhere. Duggan fumbles some early story beats by delivering things we’ve already accepted as the high concept of the series, such as Pryde becoming the Red Queen, as big issue-ending reveals. Storm, a Quiet Council member and second to only Cyclops in the chain of command of the X-Men, doesn’t quite make sense as a subordinate supporting character in this series despite her close relationship with Pryde and only seems to be in the book because Duggan called dibs on her very early. 

Duggan’s greatest strength in writing Marauders is that while the circumstances of the story are exploring new ground, the relationships and motives of the characters are firmly rooted in continuity without getting bogged down in rehashing old stories. Frost and Pryde, introduced in the same issue back in the Claremont/Byrne era, have a long and complicated history together, and Duggan pushes them into a new phase of mutual respect and collaboration after too often being written as petty rivals who cruelly condescend to one another. Storm and Iceman are two of Pryde’s closest friends in the X-Men, but are also two people who’ve had very painful histories with Emma Frost. When Callisto is reintroduced in the seventh issue, Duggan gracefully acknowledges her contentious relationship with Storm, her past with the Morlocks, and her brief career as a model. I particularly like when Callisto shows a grudging respect for Pryde taking the name of the Marauders, the kill crew who slaughtered the Morlocks and nearly ended Pryde’s life in the “Mutant Massacre.”

Marauders has been illustrated by four different artists in the span of seven issues, and while they’ve all been somewhat bland and functional, they’ve all matched up stylistically so the series at least has a consistent visual aesthetic. It feels somewhat churlish to complain about the strong draftsmanship of Matteo Lolli, Lucas Wernick, Michele Bandini, and Stefano Caselli, but I do wish they had a bit more flair. They’re not exactly miscast for the tone or subject matter of the book, and Lolli is particularly good at drawing some of Duggan’s most imaginative action sequences, but it looks like it could be any mid-list Marvel book as opposed to what is effectively one of the flagships of the newly ascendant X-Men franchise. I just wish it looked more fresh. 

All told, I’m glad I held off in writing about this series because it’s been better with each passing issue, with Duggan deepening his characterization and steadily heightening the stakes. He’s even managed to make Jason Aaron’s Hellfire Kids characters from his dreadfully goofy Wolverine and the X-Men run a worthwhile set of antagonists in this, which is borderline miraculous. (That said, why does he take these awful little kids more seriously than Donald Pierce, a character who was presented as one of the more unhinged and terrifying villains of Chris Claremont’s original run?) But despite minor quibbles, I feel like Duggan is headed in the right direction and am grateful for his efforts in evolving Kate Pryde as a character.