THE RIPPLE EFFECT

MUTANT X #15 (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, anti-mutant sentiment rears its ugly head again and the Six gets back up to being the Five, in “The Ripple Effect!”

THE ISSUE ITSELF

Mutant X #15 is cover dated December of 1999.  It has Howard Mackie as writer, Cary Nord on pencils, and Andrew Pepoy on inks.

The X-Men’s mansion is destroyed by a nuclear detonation, seemingly killing all members of the team.  The remnants of the Six watch a news report on the destruction, caused by Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D., who claim to have been under the control of the Goblin Queen.  Suddenly, a wounded Cerebro teleports into the Six’s headquarters, and confirms for them the demise of the rest of the X-Men.  S.H.I.E.L.D. arrives at the Six’s headquarters to take them into custody, but Havok and the others fight them off and are able to escape.  With nowhere to call home, Bloodstorm takes the group to Forge for safe haven.  Upon arrival, they are also greeted by Kitty Pryde, now Black Queen of the Hellfire Club.  Kitty has helped to unite Sebastian Shaw, Captain America, and Sunfire under the cause of protecting mutants and other super-powered beings from the regime of Fury and acting-President Graydon Creed.  Forge introduces his part of the plan, which hinges on Cerebro Mark XIII.  He reveals that it was he who created the Cerebro that grew into the sentient being with the group now, but that this one will be without human characteristics.  It would be used to classify mutants by whether or not they can be trusted by humans.  When Havok brings up the moral implications of such classifying, Forge backs down, but Sunfire is enraged, and vows to destroy the machine and all those present.  The group, aided by Captain America, are able to defeat Sunfire, but not before he destroys the facility and himself with it.  With the group on the run again, Cap offers to join the team.  Meanwhile, Cerebro feels as though a part of him has died and been reborn into something evil, as a shadowy robot figure rises from the wreckage.

With this issue, the series thoroughly sheds its veneer of pleasant human and mutant relations, and also crafts some notable shake-ups to the established universe.  After much fanfare to their arrival earlier in the book, the X-Men are wiped out off-screen, with only Cerebro surviving.  The remaining members of the Six are still somewhat out of focus, but we do get some additional lore for the universe.  The Six also gains a new member in the form of this universe’s Captain America.  We don’t get much background for him, but he’s certainly living up to the spirit of Steve Rogers, given his refusal to work with S.H.I.E.L.D. to hunt mutants.  Sunfire’s motivations are left a little murky, but there’s a hint that someone else is behind them, setting the stage for larger story pieces.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This particular bit of the book is the part I knew the least about.  I knew how the Goblin Queen stuff ended, and I knew a lot of the later established status quo, but how they got there was kind of news.  I was actually rather shocked by the X-Men’s sudden demise, and a bit surprised by how quickly and without fanfare Cap’s addition to the Six is, but I’m still feeling pretty excited by where this is all headed.

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.