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

Calling Out the Beast is All It Takes to Win the Wolverine's Weiner X-Pick of the Week for January 29th, 2020

Published Mon, 03 Feb 2020 16:30:34 -0600

Four X-books hit stores last week. Five if you count Deadpool: The End, which normally we would, but there's no recapping that issue which was just one long series of meta-jokes. Kudos for wrecking DC's Batman Who Laughs nonsense though. Anyway, we're recapping X-Men #5, X-Force #6, New Mutants #6, and Fallen Angels #6. Which will win the coveted Wolverine's Weiner X-Pick of the Week? Not Fallen Angels, that's for sure.

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 thanks to a corporate merger and a line-wide relaunch, the X-Men can finally get back to doing what they do best: being objectively the best franchise in all of comics.

X-MEN #5 DX
AUG199030
(W) Jonathan Hickman (A) R. B. Silva (CA) Leinil Francis Yu
The X-Men, the most powerful heroes on the planet, deal with an old nemesis' surprising return…
Rated T
In Shops: Jan 29, 2020
SRP: $3.99

Considering this issue was framed with Cyclops questioning what the hell he's done after going along with Xavier's plan to send three young mutants into either their deaths or several centuries of pain and suffering, it's a pretty clear signal that something is rotten in the state of Krakoa. Of course, there are some in the fandom who still won't accept that Xavier is pretty clearly a bad guy in the Dawn of X because they like the concept of mutant power and solidarity as a metaphor, but when even Cyclops is questioning whether this has gone too far after sending basically kids on a poorly-planned suicide mission, you have to accept that maybe it has. The only question is why he went along with it in the first place? Why did Storm go along with? Wolverine? These three in particular seem like the type who would have been begging to heroicly self-sacrifice and go instead (yeah, I know, Darwin's powers blah blah). The point is, allowing this to happen seemed very out of character for these three… unless their minds have messed with by a certain professor, of course. With the exception of Fallen Angels, every X-book out this week touched on this theme, so if this one doesn't convince you, maybe one of those will?

In any case, it was a good issue.

Read the recap here.

X-FORCE #6 DX
NOV190824
(W) Ben Percy (A) Stephen Segovia (CA) Dustin Weaver
DEADLY CHOICES CARRY DARK CONSEQUENCES!
First, Domino and Forge have to pick up the pieces as the team faces a major setback! Then, Beast takes matters into his own hands when a piece of new technology threatens the safety of the nation.
Parental Advisory
In Shops: Jan 29, 2020
SRP: $3.99

Man, I am a sucker for comics which expose Beast for the total dick he is. Inventing a mutant cure, bringing the time-displaced X-Men to the future, and now unleashing an omega-sentinel-like organic threat on mutantkind. Will Beast ever learn? Probably not, he'll just find a way to blame Cyclops. Screw you, Beast.

Of course, the most interesting part of this issue was Xavier's confession. His confession frames his actions as necessary to steel the hearts of mutants, comparing his assassination to Pearl Harbor or the sinking of the Lusitania, but really isn't it more similar to the Gulf of Tonkin? Xavier is manipulating everyone to prepare for war against humans. He's way far gone, and he will be the villain the X-Men need to put down in the final act of Hickman's epic. Good stuff.

Read the recap here.

NEW MUTANTS #6 DX
NOV190817
(W) Jonathan Hickman (A) Flaviano (CA) Rod Reis
A simple visit to check in on old friends in the human world has gone wrong – dangerously wrong. With innocent lives on the line, Armor and the other young mutants have their hands tied… but escaping without collateral damage looks increasingly impossible.
Rated T+
In Shops: Jan 29, 2020
SRP: $3.99

It took some plot contrivances to make this story play out the way it did. For a nation that claims to care so much about all mutants to the extent it has forgiven every genocidal X-Men villain from all of history, nobody on Krakoa gives enough of a crap about Beak and Angel to check up on them except for a group of kids? Nobody but Boom Boom cares enough about those kids to check up on them? Nobody notices what's going on in Nebraska and they can't call for help because… there's no cell phone service? Don't the X-Men have pretty much global coverage with all their telepaths and Cerebro?

But if you can overlook all of that, it's interesting to watch Maxime and Manon and their complete lack of any kind of morality. When confronted about it, they act innocent and apologetic — they just don't know any better — but is that really true? Or is it just emotional manipulation? And is it any surprise, given Xavier's behavior, that these two would learn to act this way?

Read the recap here.

FALLEN ANGELS #6 DX
NOV190834
(W) Bryan Edward Hill (A) Szymon Kudranski (CA) Ashley Witter
HARK! MORE ANGELS FALL!
Husk and Bling! Join Psylocke and company on their mission to stave off Apoth and his children! Then – Cable turns on X-23?!?
Rated T+
In Shops: Jan 29, 2020
SRP: $3.99

Well, it at least acknowledged the fact that it didn't make any sense for Psylocke to mentor X-23. All the Apoth stuff was explained by the end, though I get the impression it would have been dragged out far longer if the series wasn't cut short. I was not a fan of this series overall, and I'm honestly pretty lenient about X-Men comics. It felt like Fallen Angels had a lot of ambition but no one involved in the project felt like putting the effort to realize it. The art was rushed, backgrounds were non-existent, coloring was over-rendered and too shiny, and the story barely made sense. Well, I guess the lettering was fine. The best thing that can be said about this issue was that it was the last one.

But look, they can't all be winners, right? Everyone involved here has shown they have talent in other scenarios, but it just didn't work here on any level. Cutting losses and moving onto something else was the right thing to do.

Read the recap here.

Wolverine's Weiner X-Pick of the Week

There was some heavy competition this week as X-Men, X-Force, and New Mutants all touched on similar themes (that all is not quite right in the paradise of Krakoa). In the end though, I have to give it to X-Force for putting Beast on blast like it did. I'd say that hopefully he learns a lesson when this is all over, but we know that's not gonna happen.

Congratulations to the creative team on this honor.

Past weiner winners:

The Wolverine's Weiner X-Pick of the Week is an award decided by my whims, not by any rule-based scientific process. It's whichever X-Men comic provides me with the most satisfying feeling, like a tubular cased meat product grilled on a fuzzy Canadian's adamantium claws on a hot Summer day. So you're welcome to disagree and post your opinions in the comments. Unless you thought Fallen Angels should win. That kind of opinion has no place here.