AND A CHILD SHALL LEAD THEM

MUTANT X #11 (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, don’t tell Scotty, because Scotty doesn’t know…or something like that.

THE ISSUE ITSELF

Mutant X #11 is cover dated August of 1999, and was written by Howard Mackie, with pencils by JJ Kirby and Mike Miller, and inks by Pepoy, Greene, Elmer, Mei, Koblish, and Candelario. That’s a lot of inkers; I’d guess the monthly schedule got thrown off by the annual the prior month.

At the X-mansion, Scotty sits at the top of the stairs listening to Havok and the X-Men discussing what to do about Madelyn. His thoughts go out to her, and she hears him. In Madelyn’s mind, she faces down a personification of the Goblin Queen, before the two merge into one entity. Back at the mansion, Ororo has come for Scotty. The X-Men are unsuccessful in fighting her off, and Ororo brings Scotty back to the castle. Locked away, Scotty lashes out with his powers. He is visited by Brute, who is freed from Madelyn’s control by Scotty’s abilities. Brute breaks Scotty out, facing down against his old teammates. Scotty briefly frees Ice-Man and Bloodstorm from Madelyn’s control, but is unable to reach Fallen, who nearly kills him. Madelyn intervenes, seemingly holding back her Goblin side, and she sends Scotty and Brute away, back to the mansion.

After being a supporting player for several issues, Scotty gets to be the main focus this issue, and it works well. The stakes feel pretty real, and it’s nice to see the Six back to themselves, even briefly. Brute’s return is especially nice, because he remains one of my favorites. Madelyn being more than just the big bad for a change is also refreshing.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This is the last issue before the big wrap-up of what was supposed to end the original run, and I wasn’t sure what to expect. We’ve seen a fair bit of filler recently, and this one *could* have been that, but it wasn’t. I particularly liked the ending being just a nice, hopeful note, rather than a cliffhanger. I’m actually pretty excited for the next chapter, though.

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.