THE GIFT OF FEAR!

MUTANT X #23 (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, Havok runs into Cyclops…but like, not the one you’re thinking of…or the other one.  It makes more sense in context, in “The Gift of Fear!”

THE ISSUE ITSELF

Mutant X #23 is cover dated September 2000 and has story and art by Howard Mackie, Tom Lyle, Andrew Pepoy, and Cliff Rathburn.

The Six and their allies face down Xavier and the newly arrived Sinister.  The protoplasm that made up the facsimile of Galactus has broken apart and is forming around the heroes.  The heroes are separated from each other, with the protoplasms each taking on a unique form for each hero.  Captain America faces a Red Skull that mocks his mutant heritage and tells him he’ll never be as good as the original.  Ice-Man is confronted by his racist father.  Bloodstorm is attacked by Dracula, which is witnessed by Gambit, who is himself faced with the last of the Assassin’s Guild.  The Brute’s encounter turns inward, as he his mocked by two prior versions of himself, who decry his buffoonery.  Magneto shakes off the first wave of visions, but is dragged down by a more vague abyss of mutants calling out for his help.  As Alex tries to help Magneto, he is cut off by a vision of Cyclops, who calls Alex an embarrassment.  Alex is saved by Jean and Apocalypse, who tell Alex he is the only one who can bring down Xavier.  Since Alex is new to this world, Xavier hasn’t been able to fully get a hold on his mind.  As Alex and Xavier face off once more, Xavier reveals one upper hand: Scotty, who, alongside Gambit’s daughter Raven, is being held captive by Sinister’s latest creation, this universe’s version of X-Man.  Xavier reveals that his plan relies on the Summers’ genetic stock, which Scotty, Raven, and X-Man all possess.  He will use the three as batteries, allowing him to have the power to unite the entire world into one single unified mind.  Sinister, unaware of the full extent of Xavier’s plan, rebels, and Xavier kills him, turning X-Man to the other side in the process.  Apocalypse takes a blast from Xavier, allowing Alex the chance to unload on Xavier.  As Apocalypse succumbs to the blast, Xavier lets out one more in Alex’s direction.  Brute dives in the way of the blast, and Xavier disappears.  Two weeks later, Hank recovers in a stasis tube, as Alex and Scotty discuss why Scotty and Raven must go with Magneto to join the other X-Men on the Moon.  As the Six discusses their next move, Alex’s mind wanders.  They are all interrupted by the arrival of Brute, who has seemingly regained his intellect once more.

Once more, we get a pretty direct continuation from the prior issue, and one that finally brings some closure to the Xavier arc that’s been running for a while here.  In contrast to much of the run, all of the members of the team finally get a little bit of focus, even if it’s just a one page sequence each.  Despite its prominent place on the cover, Cyclops’s appearance winds up surprisingly brief, but it, like all of the other hallucinations, are really effective at selling what’s going on in everyone’s heads.  We get some interesting yet brief world building, with the reveal that Raven is part of the Summers lineage, as well as the somewhat anticlimactic reveal of X-Man.  And it all ends with a rather compelling cliffhanger, while still wrapping up the overall story.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This issue is one of the few that I vividly recall from the original run.  My dad bought it for me because it had Cyclops on the cover, and I actually remember reading it, almost in its entirety.  It’s an issue I was looking forward to when I began my re-read, but was worried I wouldn’t enjoy as much as I’d hoped as I got deeper into the run.  I was happy to discover that it’s actually just a rather solid story.  It wraps things up, but it’s also a pretty nice little stand-alone issue.

And with the next big plot-line wrapped up, I’m gonna break here for a week, and be back in two weeks with more Mutant X fun!

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.