Posted in: Comics | Tagged: marvel, x-men, x-men blue, X-ual Healing - The Weekly X-Men Recap Column

X-ual Healing: An End to Sustainable Genocide in X-Men Blue #28

Published Sun, 03 Jun 2018 15:00:20 -0500

Sworn to sell comics for Marvel executives who feared and hated the fact that Fox owned their movie rights, The Uncanny X-Men suffered great indignities, but with a corporate merger on the way, the X-Men can finally get back to doing what they do best: being objectively the best franchise in comics.

Each week, armed with the joy, heartbreak, and frustration of 30+ years of reading X-Men comics, we read every new X-book that comes out, recap the events, provide the historical context so you can read it on Marvel Unlimited, and wonder when Marvel will let Chris Claremont write something again.

It's the way X-Men comics were meant to be read! It's the column that can only be known as…

For more about the column, check out the reboot issue here.

X-MEN BLUE #28
CULLEN BUNN (W) • Marcus To (A)
COVER BY R.B. SILVA
• The conclusion of the Mothervine story! The ultimate fate of the White Queen and Havok revealed!
• Magneto reveals a secret plan – and secret allies – to counter the chaos caused by Mothervine!
• But some of the new X-Men will not make it out of this adventure alive!
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99

X-Men Blue #28 picks up where X-Men Blue #27 left off, with Magneto arriving at his unnamed destination after escaping the Marauders via his home time travel device. He's greeted by mysterious "friends" who are left unrevealed for now. Back in the present, the X-Men (Polaris, Daken, Gazing Nightshade, and Xorn) are being held captive in a cell by the bad guys (Miss Sinister, Emma Frost, Havok, and Bastion), their powers restricted, while Sinister experiments on/tortures Jimmy Hudson. Well, if you've got two Wolverines, you don't really need to keep both of them.

Emma complains that Sinister is having too much fun, but Sinister explains that the genetic code embedded in Jimmy by his creator — mutants from his Universe were manufactured — is the key to Mothervine, X-Men Blue's driving plot device which can make mutants the dominant species on Earth. She's also got Bloodstorm in some kind of stasis tank, and she's looking forward to exploiting Bloodstorm's mutant/vampire genetic code as well.

Emma has had enough. She seizes control of the Marauders and attacks Sinister. Unfortunately, Sinister controls the Marauders' DNA, and they all fall to the ground when she snaps her fingers. However, the attack was a ruse. Emma used Mach-2's magnetic powers to free Jimmy, who does what Wolverine's do best and tries to murder Miss Sinister.

Back in their cell, the X-Men have regained control of their powers, which were being held in check by Emma Frost. They bust out, ready to kick some ass, but Emma has already taken care of that.

After a brief exchange establishing that the X-Men need to work with Emma even though she's been so naughty lately, Xorn vows to finish this once and for all. Well, there's still half an issue left. It's plausible.

Meanwhile, in Mexico City, at the site of a Mothervine impact zone, people are transforming into mutants and also everyone speaks English even though they're in Mexico. Magneto arrives on the scene with Exodus and Elixer, whose combined powers are able to cure Mothervine, apparently. Magneto doesn't explain how, but Elixer does deliver some X-position: they can only cure the people affected by Mothervine who weren't mutants to begin with. The ones who had a dormant X-gene will remain mutants in an incredibly fortunate turn of events for the status quo of the X-books. Magneto, Exodus, and Elixer plan to travel to every impact zone and cure stop Mothervine (except where it conveniently provides an opportunity to create new mutant characters).

Havok and Bastion are standing together in a nondescript room watching events unfold on floating television screens. Bastion says he'll need to kill Elixer, in order to help mutants thrive so that in the future he can kill all mutants. It's sustainable genocide. Havok regrets not killing Magneto, and wonders where the heck Emma Frost and Miss Sinister are. That's the cue for the X-Men to attack. Bastion tries to kill everyone, but Xorn deflects his fire and takes off his mask, unleashing the power of the singularity inside his head, which sucks Bastion inside before they both disappear, leaving nothing but a smoking mask behind.

Havok is not pleased by this turn of events. He'll kill all of the X-Men if he has to. He's worked hard for this. We've all been there.

Polaris tries to tell Havok that he's only evil because of the lingering after-effects of a super-mega-crossover event (see: AXIS), so she has Emma link up their minds, using Polaris's memories of the real Havok to break the AXIS inversion and turn Havok into a good guy again so that he can go star in the new Astonishing X-Men storyline. Everything is wrapping up pretty quickly now. Elixer destroys all of the Mothervine, including the Mothervine inside Jimmy Hudson. While he's there, he fixes Havok's eye so he's a handsome Summers boy again. Alex promises that he'll have a lot of angst about all of this for the next several years.

Finally, as Magneto is out in the field dismantling Mothervine bombs, Emma contacts him telepathically, hoping they can put their rivalry behind them. Magneto is still mad though, and says he's coming for her next. The issue ends with the promise of the return of the original five time-displaced X-Men from their jaunt into a Venom crossover.

The Bottom Line

X-Men Blue is benefiting right now from that rare blessing in the modern comics landscape: running for nearly 30 issues without a "fresh start." It's amazing how much more satisfying the payoff is for storylines when they're allowed to build on each other for an extended period of time and when they don't feel meaningless because you know a new creative team is coming in to completely change everything in a few months. Marcus To's art, especially when he's drawing mutants using their powers, almost makes us wish this were a legitimate review column and not a lowbrow recap so we could praise it intelligently, but alas…

It was a light week with only two X-Books, but even if there were a dozen, this one would still easily earn the title of Wolverine's Weiner X-Pick of the Week!