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

Screw It, New Origin for Fantomex in Giant-Size X-Men Fantomex #1 [XH]

Published Mon, 10 Aug 2020 16:30:33 -0500

Another week, another batch of X-Books to recap for North Korea's favorite weekly X-Men recap column, X-ual Healing (we hear Kim Jong Un is a big fan). Last week had three X-books in stores: Empyre: X-Men #2, Deadpool #6, and Giant-Size X-Men: Fantomex #1. Last, we're recapping Giant-Size X-Men Fantomex #1. Let's get down to business.

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.

The cover to Giant-Size X-Men Fantomex #1

GIANT SIZE X-MEN FANTOMEX #1
MAR200888
(W) Jonathan Hickman (A/CA) Rod Reis
HICKMAN AND REIS TAKE ON THE WORLD!
The hit creative team of Jonathan Hickman & Rod Reis (NEW MUTANTS) turn their attention to the covert activities of the Weapon Plus program's Weapon XIII! A bred killer who choses the life of a gentleman super-thief, Fantomex has always defied expectations… For example, who would expect him to break into the World, the artificial realm of his creation? And then again? And then… again?
Parental Advisory
In Shops: Aug 05, 2020
SRP: $4.99

Giant-Size X-Men Fantomex #1 Recap

The issue starts with a flashback to the lab where diabolical scientists are creating an endless array of human clones, each different by only one chromosome. Except two of the clones are mistakenly exactly alike. The scientists dispose of one of them.

Ten years later, Fantomex leads The Howling Commandos on an invasion of The World. Fantomex leaves them to battle robots while he rides a pterodactyl to ask a young boy if the boy wants to leave. The boy says no.

Ten years later still, Fantomex makes a deal with the Hellfire Club to invade The World once again. They fight a giant robotic killer octopus while he goes to see the boy again, now older. The boy says he's fine and suggests Fantomex not come back. Fantomex removes his mask to reveal the two are twins, or, presumably, the clones from the beginning.

Ten years later, Fantomex is chilling on a beach and decides not to go back. But ten years after that, Fantomex teams with a new group of heroes called the Humonganauts to invade The World once more. Fantomex goes to see his clone brother, who tells him they're building something that cannot be stopped. Fantomex leaves.

Ten years later again, it's Morrison era New X-Men time, with Fantomex meeting Wolverine and Cyclops and going to invade the world once more, as initially portrayed in New X-Men #144. Fantomex meets with Ultimaton, who is implied to be the clone brother.

Less than a decade later (can't allow a Marvel comic to put real dates on Marvel time, after all), Fantomex is talking with an AIM scientist when Storm, Monet, and Cypher arrive through a gate. Storm is dying (see Giant-Size X-Men: Jean Grey and Emma Frost), and she needs something from inside The World to cure her. Fantomex agrees to another visit, and the issue ends with them walking in the door.

What's going on here? Fantomex has been known as Weapon 13, and Ultimaton as Weapon 15, but at least on the surface of this story, both were numbered #13 and are identical clones of each other. Then again, perhaps it's a commentary on nature vs. nurture? Or perhaps its more of Hickman ripping off… sorry, paying homage to the mysterious tone of Morrison's New X-Men, which has been pretty much the story of his X-Men reboot from the start. In any case, it looks like Fantomex's origins and history are getting a major revamp here, not that he's ever been all that reliable a narrator. I'm looking forward to seeing where this goes.