DOORWAY TO YESTERMORROW

MUTANT X #24 (MARVEL COMICS)

“In another place–in another life–Alex Summers led a team of mutants in a battle against oppression. His methods were extreme, his tactics questionable, but–in his soul–he knew that he was fighting for the greater good.

Now that soul has been transferred to another world, and Summers, also known as Havok, has found himself living a lie, allied with a team of mutants who are sinister, parallel versions of his friends and family. It is to this dark, new place that Havok has come, where he stands as a man alone… a mutant alone. Alex Summers is Mutant X.

Fear him. Fear for him.”

25 years ago, Marvel Comics launched Mutant X, a Havok led X-spinoff. I recently came into a complete run of the series, and so now I’m going to re-read the series once a week, and you guys get to come along for the ride!

Hey, you guys remember when I was writing about comics? Yeah, I had some stuff going on and inadvertently took a three month hiatus. But have no fear, I haven’t given up! So, back into the strange world not our own! This week, Hank McCoy reacclimatizes to his surroundings with his restored intelligence!

THE ISSUE ITSELF

Mutant X #24 is cover dated October 2000 and has story and art by Howard Mackie, Javier Saltares, and Andrew Pepoy.

Hank McCoy, his intelligence restored, explores his old lab with Havok. Hank’s intelligence has returned, but he still struggles with his memories, making it tricky for him to gain access to his lab. The two find their way in, and Hank is haunted by visions of his past. As Hank settles into his old work, Alex and Ice-Man converse about their respective alternate universe counterparts. Hank revisits his journals and begins to recall the night that caused his loss of intellect, an experiment that was meant to restore Ice-Man’s powers to where they were before Loki meddled with them. Hank reveals to Alex and Bob that the person responsible for the explosion that caused the experiment to fail was Alex’s alternate universe counterpart. Hank further reveals that he thinks he can send Alex home, and that he believes the alternate Havok may already be there.

We’ve got another issue that picks up pretty closely on the heels of the last main one (the annual having been a completely unrelated flashback story). It’s a Hank-centered story, which certainly leans into the series’s strengths, but the focus on Ice-Man and his background was nice to see. We’re leaning back into the “other Alex wasn’t such a good guy” plot as well, which gives our Alex a little more to work with as he becomes more acclimated with his surroundings.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I missed this issue when it was new, which isn’t all that crazy, except that I managed to get the two issues on either side of it. I blame this one not having Cyclops on the cover for my missing it, honestly. It’s certainly a smaller scale issue, but there’s some good developments in the story, and it sets a good pace for the book’s third year.

I snagged this whole run from my usual comics stop, Cosmic Comix, so I want to give them a shout out here, because it was a pretty great find.