Posted in: Comics, Comics Publishers, Current News, Marvel Comics, X-Men | Tagged: jed mackay, Ryan Stegman

The Return of the Big Bad in X-Men #4 (Big Spoilers)

X-Men #4 draws inspiration from 2002, revisiting the concept of psychic rescue, bringing back a formidable antagonist from the past.

Well, with the movie and all, I suppose it was only a matter of time. Today's X-Men #4 by Jed MacKay and Ryan Stegman is one hell of a swipe file, a deliberate attempt to echo the famous Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely editorially-imposed silent issue, New X-Men #121 from 2002, diving into the head of Cassandra Nova.

It's not the first time the Xbooks have redone this issue, with Giant-Size Jean Grey And Emma Frost by Jonathan Hickman and Russell Dauterman from 2020 diving into the head of Storm, doing a beat-for-beat remake of the issue.

And while this isn't as much of a beat for beat, there is much to compare. So we may not have a big sign saying "psychic rescue"… but we do have Kwannon using those words, as she joins with Quentin Quire.

To enter the world inside the head of the newly-created mutant, Ben Liu, who believes he was abducted by aliens.

Six five, blue eyes, trust fund? I hear that's enough for some people, Quentin. But behind the abduction, there is something else.

Or rather someone else. Left behind as a form of insurance policy.

The remnants of a very familiar face, last seen in the Krakoan comic book series, Marauders, imprisoned, immobile and imprisoned in Threshold's zero cells, stranded two billion years in the past, with a mass extinction event on the horizon. Still, that's not going to keep anyone down when a billion-dollar movie has just been made. And a classic page to be homaged once more…

Cassandra Nova, the subject of the first psychic rescue, is now the revelation. And 3K? These folks from the QR Code in the first issue… as suspected, the Chairman is Cassandra Nova. And she is making new mutants from old humans, "constructing a magnum opus, preparing a crucible from which a whole new world will be born."

How she got here from two billion years ago? The power of Deadpool And Wolverine of course.

X-MEN #5
MARVEL COMICS
AUG240711
(W) Jed MacKay (A/CA) Ryan Stegman
While the X-Men engage the social-media sociopath Upstarts, Kid Omega and Psylocke dive deep into the mind of a troubled mutant. Silence: Psychic Rescue in Progress! But Quentin Quire has never been good at keeping his mouth shut… Rated T+In Shops: Oct 02, 2024 SRP: $4.99

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