THRESHOLDS

MUTANT X #25 (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, Hank McCoy experiences his own “Flowers for Algernon” as he attempts to fix all that he can with his restored intellect in “Thresholds”!

THE ISSUE ITSELF

Mutant X #25 is a double-sized issue cover dated November of 2000.  Its story is by Howard Mackie, with art by Tom Lyle, colors by Gina Going, and letters by David Sharp.  It’s also got a cover by Michael Golden, which may well be my favorite cover in the series, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

Hank McCoy narrates through entries in his journal.  It is his birthday.  He recounts how his mind was returned to its former state by a psychic blast from Charles Xavier, and how he has been monitoring his brain activity since.  This monitoring has lead him to the devastating discovery that he is once more losing his mind.  With no knowledge of how much time he has left, Hank gathers everyone together, hoping to make good on all of the promises he’s made since last issue, the biggest being his promise to send Havok home.  The team aids Hank is exploring a portal that goes through the Negative Zone, with Alex and Hank going into the breach together.  When Hank is almost pulled through the portal, Havok decides they’re all tired and tells everyone to take some time to themselves.  Hank hangs back to continue his work, with the others try to find themselves without the team.  Iceman, Cap, Gambit, and Bloodstorm all encounter each other at a nearby bar, having nowhere else to go.  Hank continues his experiments, looking for a solution to each team member’s own struggles.  Alex meets a young woman, Andrea, and her nephew, Shane, in the park and reminisces about his home universe, remembering his struggles to fit in.  When Shane is put in danger, Alex steps in to save him, reminding him of his place in this new reality.  The team returns to the castle, solidified in their beliefs that this is where they all belong, and Hank re-opens the portal to send Alex home.  When something else comes through the portal and begins attacking, Alex decides to stay and fend the creature off, saving his new friends.  Hank reveals that he is becoming the Brute again, but he has also found a way to cure Ice-Man’s permanent ice-state.  He performs his experiment before collapsing, reverting once more to the Brute.  Days later, Hank is completely back to the Brute, with no memory of regaining his intellect.  His journal once more takes the narration, but it is now much simpler, identifying Ice-Man as his “bestus frend.”

It’s interesting to see such a milestone issue take such a hard focus on Hank, but I can’t say I minded it much.  His narration and his struggles with knowing his end was near add some solid pathos to his story, and I very much appreciated that his returned intellect didn’t immediately make him into a villain.  In fact, it amplifies his selfless traits, as he prioritizes helping his friends over keeping his own mind.  In the end, he’s happy, and it’s nice to see that.  In fact, though bittersweet, this is probably one of the most satisfying ends to an issue the series has given.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I owned this issue growing up, and I *vividly* remember its cover.  As I said above, it’s one of my favorites.  I recalled absolutely nothing about the contents of this issue prior to the re-read, though, and I think that’s largely because the cover had very little to do with the actual story within.  But, I love the cover, and I enjoyed the story, even if they maybe don’t go together all that well.  And, from here on out, I’m in uncharted territory, at least for first hand knowledge of the story.  Let’s see where it goes.

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.