SECRETS AND LIES

MUTANT X #4 (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!

This week, Madelyn Pryor unleashes her dark side, while Bloodstorm reveals some of her secrets! And Alex? Well, he sort of bounces around.

THE ISSUE ITSELF

Mutant X #4 is cover dated January 1999, and has story and art by Howard Mackie, Gary Nord, and Andrew Pepoy.

Madelyn Pryor has a nightmare of becoming the Goblin Queen, but is awoken by Alex, who tells her Scotty is calling her. Alex tells her to go back to sleep and goes to check on Scotty himself, encountering Bloodstorm on his way. She leaves for business off premises, and arrives at another castle. Kitty Pryde informs her that her meal awaits, and Ororo enters to see Forge, who allows her to feed on him. Back at Bannerman’s Castle, the lights go out, and Alex and Scotty go to check on them. They are attacked by goblins, and run to find Maddie. Beneath the castle, Maddie speaks with a shadowy demon figure, who convinces her to give into her demonic powers. Alex and Scotty are chased through the castle by the goblins, and are eventually cornered, before Maddie arrives and makes the goblins vanish with her new powers.

This issue starts to really delve into the ongoing story elements that will really shape this series, especially Maddie’s arc. It also gives us our first glimpse into Bloodstorm’s character, and further develops Alex and Scotty’s relationship. The developments with Maddie are important, but also feel just a tad sudden, given she and Alex just made peace with his own problems last issue. Knowing that this was originally only supposed to run 12 issues does explain some of this, since it gave them more of a tight schedule. However, that tight schedule makes the lack of any role for three of the team’s members (Ice-Man, Brute, and Fallen) in this issue seem even worse, especially since Bob and Warren have neither one gotten any real focus thus far. Warren in particular still hasn’t gotten much to go on beyond being the friend that nobody likes.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As a kid, the Goblin Queen stuff is sort of where my interest checked out. Not that it’s bad, but it did feel a little meandering at times. This issue definitely shows that more so. There’s set up, but it doesn’t quite have a punch just yet. Of course, it’s still nice to get more Alex/Scotty scenes, and at least this advanced the plot more than last issue.

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.