GOBLINS IN THE NIGHT

MUTANT X #5 (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, The Six teams up with Spider-Man Man-Spider, and things don’t go so well for….like any body involved, really, in “Goblins in the Night.”

THE ISSUE ITSELF

Mutant X #5 is cover dated February of 1999, and has story and dialogue by Howard Mackie, pencils by Tom Raney, inks by Andrew Pepoy, colors by Gina Going, and letters by Chris Eliopoulos.

The story begins with the Six in the midst of battling Norman Osborne’s army of minions. Havok, still trying to get a grip on things, refers to them as “demons”, but Maddie takes umbrage with this, insisting they are little more than clones. Eager to end the fight, Maddie takes the Fallen to confront Osborne directly. A distrusting Havok asks Brute to go along to keep an eye on the other two. As Maddie and Osborne battle, Man-Spider arrives to intervene. Maddie is insistent on killing Osborne, but Man-Spider objects. Maddie and the Fallen turn on Man-Spider, and Maddie murders Osborne and Man-Spider just as Brute arrives. Fallen threatens to hurt Brute’s family and friends if Brute tells anyone what happened, sending Brute into a rage. When the rest of the team arrives, Maddie pins the murders on Brute, who, fearful for those he cares for, is unable to offer evidence to the contrary. Alex tries to reason with Brute, but is interrupted by the others, who subdue Hank and turn him in to the authorities.

A lot of stuff happens in this issue, especially in terms of moving the on-going plot forward. After a few issues of filling in the universe, this one seems more set on actually playing within what’s there. It’s also a rather Alex-light story, which is an interesting change. He gets a rather recap-heavy internal narration at the beginning, sends Brute on his way, and then is absent for quite a bit of the issue. There’s a lot of really good stuff with Brute, who remains the most interesting of the Six, as he struggles with his moral compass relative to his reduced intellect. Maddie also falls deeper into the dark side, and we *finally* get some characterization for the Fallen. Boy is *he* not a nice guy. In some ways, Warren’s devotion to Maddie does seem a little sudden, but it’s refreshing compared to the absolutely no characterization he had previously. The sudden demise of Man-Spider after placing him front and center on the cover also is a neat subversion, following up on the trend set by Wolverine of displacing the heavy hitters in this universe.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I said last issue that I was iffy on the Goblin Queen stuff, but it honestly picks up really well this time around. It’s clearer what direction they’re heading with her, and Fallen gets to start his own arc, which I’ve been patiently waiting to see kick into action. There’s a lot less Havok, though, which I’m always a little down on, but at least we get some good Brute coverage

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.