Posted in: Comics, Marvel Comics | Tagged: 2020, empyre, hellions, iwolverine, marvel, wolverine, x-factor, x-men, X-ual Healing - The Weekly X-Men Recap Column

Just When You Thought the Crossover Tie-In was Over – X-Men #11 [XH]

Published Tue, 01 Sep 2020 14:00:54 -0500

by Jude Terror

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Okay, okay, yes, usually, I get these things out on Monday. But do you know how much wrestling there was to recap last week? A lot of wrestling. And wrestling, as we all know, is superior to comics in every way. But the X-Men are still cool, and there were four X-books out last week: X-Men #11, iWolverine 2020 #2, Hellions #3, and X-Factor #2. And I'm gonna tell you what happened in every one.

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

X-MEN #11 EMP
MAR200872
(W) Jonathan Hickman (A/CA) Leinil Francis Yu
THE TREES ARE KILLING THE CHILDREN!
Rated T+
In Shops: Aug 26, 2020
SRP: $3.99

X-Men #11 Recap

Rockslide, Loa, and Anole visit a clearing in the Krakoan jungle where they meat up with Summoner, the child of Apocalypse's first Horseman of War. He was lost on Arrako for centuries until the island sex issue. Summoner is playing an Arrakan game on a tree stump, a game he explains is about finding the players' weaknesses. Rockslide agrees to play. Then three Cotati ships come hurtling toward the island.

The title page indicates these things may have something to do with the Empyre super-mega-crossover event. Maybe they're Cotati ships. I don't know. Since I don't have to read Empyre, I haven't been reading it. We see a report from the Captain Commander to the Quiet Council detailing combat readiness for the nation of Krakoa.

We see Exodus teaching his class of young mutants the next day about an attack where mutants died, though they'll be brought back. The kids were evacuated, so he missed the attack, but now he's going to tell them (and us) the story of what happened. Jeeze, just get to it already.

Okay, so anyway, the Cotati invade Krakoa. Magik and Gorgon update Magneto on the situation. Cyclops is on the moon fighting them there. Magik wants Magneto to handle things on Krakoa so that she and Gorgon can go to the moon and help Cyclops. He agrees and puts on his red and purple classic X-Men villain costume.

Magneto leads the mutants in defense of Krakoa. He has Magma bring 20 tons of molten iron to the island, and then he has Iceman freeze it. Magneto forms a bunch of projectiles that he uses to kill all the invaders. He then kills their leader by dropping some satellites on him. Magneto then goes to the moon to finish things off. Back in the woods, Exodus gets his students to chant Magneto's name.

This story was fine. Magneto is cool. Whatever. It was also a bit of a waste of time. We had an Empyre: X-Men spinoff. Did we need an Empyre crossover with the main book, too? I feel like there's already enough X-books out there that Marvel should really be trying harder to make them all count rather than adding more filler. But I guess we're just treading water now until X of Swords starts. God, this is an expensive hobby.