…AMERICA’S FUTURE!

MUTANT X #18 (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, Nick Fury steps up his recruitment, and the Six become supporting players in “…America’s Future!”

THE ISSUE ITSELF

Mutant X #18 is cover dated March of 2000.  It has Howard Mackie as writer, Cary Nord and Billy Patton on pencils, and Andrew Pepoy on inks.

We are introduced at the start to Jack Lang and Dianne Davidson, two recent recruits to the Children of Humanity, Nick Fury’s anti-Mutant movement. Fury gives a speech to his new recruits as a montage is shown of Jack and Dianne’s training. Meanwhile, Alex, Brute, and Bloodstorm guard a young mutant boy. The Children of Humanity send out reinforcements to track the boy down, and Jack and Dianne encounter the boy, Harry, in the woods, alone. Dianne is dead set on following orders to deal with Harry, but Jack is hesitant after encountering him in-person. As they debate, they are set upon by Bloodstorm, followed by the other two. Dianne bursts into flames, revealing she is a mutant, something missed by the CoH’s screening. A shocked Jack calls for back-up, but before it arrives, a hooded woman steps out of the shadows and warns that someone is coming. The group is attacked by Frank Castle and his Punishers, and escapes thanks to a diversion from the hooded woman. Back on their plane, the woman reveals herself as Jean Grey. Meanwhile, Jack sits and thinks, his eyes reflecting a Punisher skull.

In a notable narrative change-up for the series thus far, Havok winds up a minor player, as the story shifts to Jack and Dianne, giving us a look at the other side of the human/mutant conflict. In contrast to the extremist bigots of the last issue, these two seem like nice, well-meaning people at the surface. In true dramatic irony, it is Dianne, seemingly the more hateful of the two, who discovers she herself is a mutant, while the seemingly friendlier Jack finds himself pushed more into fanaticism. It offers up some interesting current parallels as well, given the use of Frank Castle and the Punisher skull to symbolize Jack’s slippery slope. Where the last issue felt too close to the main universe, this feels more properly removed, giving a less cut and dry look at human bigotry, in contrast to the main universe’s cleaner lines on such things. At the end, even with his nicer demeanor, Jack is still the villain of the piece, more closely resembling real world bigotry, and also showing the darker turn of this particular universe.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I missed a lot of the anti-mutant subplot in my original reading, so I didn’t know quite what to expect of it. After last issue, I felt they were losing some of their alternate universe angle, but this one again refreshes things. It’s not a *fun* issue, but it’s a solid one, and I liked getting a different perspective for a change.

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.