THE WAKE UP CALL

MUTANT X #17 (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 Cyclops of this strange alternate reality returns in “The Wake Up Call!”

THE ISSUE ITSELF

Mutant X #17 is cover dated February of 2000.  It has story and art by Howard Mackie, Javier Saltares, and Andrew Pepoy.

In narration, Havok recounts nightmares he’s been having since the team went on the run from SHIELD.  in them, he sees The Six, Scotty, and Elektra all killed by some unseen force.  Alex awakens from his latest recurrence of the dream and goes on a walk to clear his head.  He’s ambushed by a figure hiding in the bushes, who reveals himself to be Cyclops, there to protect his brother from some unseen force.  The force, who is a shadowy figure different from the one in Alex’s dreams, attacks, and Alex fights back, revealing….Mysterio, Spider-Man, and that one kid from the Daily Bugle who is on non-specific drugs…oh, wait, sorry, that’s the third part of the anti-drugs thing.  Good thing they don’t ruin the momentum of the story telling, huh?  Anyway, Alex is knocked unconscious and awakens strapped to a table in a lab, right next to his brother.  Cyclops recounts what’s happened since we last saw him, revealing that he and the Starjammers were attacked by this shadowy figure days earlier.  The Starjammers were taken out of commission and Scott fled, feeling in his gut that he needed to protect Alex.  Based on context clues, Alex is able to piece together that their captor is an alternate universe version of Mr. Sinister.  The alternate Sinister arrives, and explains that he needed the two of them for their genetic code.  With that gathered, he intends to keep them hostage for further study.  The two escape and destroy his lab.  Cyclops leaves for space once more, believing they will both be safer if they are separated.  Sinister watches footage of the lab’s destruction, as Jean Grey enters and asks if he intends to let them go.  He does, and remarks that he can’t wait to unleash his “X-Man” on the world.

The return of this universe’s Scott Summers wasn’t an unwelcome one, but ultimately, it doesn’t feel as fresh or different this time.  Not a ton happens in this issue, and what does feels like a rather generic Mr Sinister plot, which doesn’t really require the alternate universe setting.  Dispensing with the Starjammers in flashback is also a bummer, because I liked their dynamic in Scott’s first appearance.  At the very least, it’s nice that they weren’t actually killed off the way the X-Men were.  Also, after building up the newly re-formed Six line-up, they get sidelined for the issue, which continues to be frustrating.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I really enjoyed Cyclops’ first issue, but this one was…I mean, it’s not bad. But, it’s also not quite as thrilling.  There’s a lot more build-up to other stuff, and a lot more Havok just sort of wandering around.  I did like the angle of Havok knowing Sinister based on his encounters in the main universe, but Sinister then being pretty much exactly like his mainstream counterpart feels like a waste.

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.