THE HUNTED PART 1

MUTANT X #28 (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 it’s another Wolverine episode.  I know.  I’m shocked too.  Let’s look at “The Hunted Part 1!”

THE ISSUE ITSELF

Mutant X #28 is cover dated February 2001.  We’ve fixed the year this time!  Yay!  The issue was written by Howard Mackie, with pencils by Ron Lim, inks by Andrew Pepoy, letters by Chris Eliopoulos, and colors by Gina Going.  Once more, Michael Golden is back to handle the cover, though this time, we do get a slightly better summation of the story within.

A group of hunters track something in the snowy wilderness.  When they catch up to whatever it is, they discover it’s a man, specifically Wolverine, last seen back in issue #3, feral and in the Canadian wilderness.  Wolverine disappears, and the hunters are set upon by Creed, who kills them all and chases after Logan.  Back at the castle, Jean Grey (who apparently has become an official member of the team, according to the narration) has a nightmare, seeing the rest of the Six dead and buried in the snow, seemingly killed by Logan, who Jean knows, and believes to be dead.  Meanwhile, the team trains in the danger room, when Jean arrives and tells them of her dream.  Havok brings up the team’s earlier encounter with Logan, and they decide to go looking for him.  Back in the wilderness, Logan breaks into a remote house, stealing food from the fridge.  He’s confronted by the young girl who lives there.  She believes he is her father, who her mother told her “went away to heaven”.  Logan flashes back to moments of his past life, and, sensing Creed nearby, tells the girl to go to bed.  As he leaves, the girl’s mother recognizes him.  Logan runs and Creed chases him down.  The two face off, and Logan wins, igniting Creed with Gasoline.  The Six (all seven of them) arrive, and Jean offers Logan her help.  Back at the house, the mother urges her children to pack quickly, so that they can run, before a scarred Creed arrives at their front door.

After subverting the usual Wolverine tropes in his first appearance, this issue brings Logan almost completely in line with his regular universe counterpart.  He’s not really feral anymore, he’s got fragments of memories, he’s got the rivalry with Creed, and he and Jean have some sort of connection.  The main characters wind up pretty minor in this story, which is frustrating, since they were also largely absent from the last two issues as well.  Honestly, there’s just not really much in the way of new ground here.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’d be lying if I said this wasn’t a rather disappointing.  I kind of liked the early appearance of Wolverine making him into such a minor player in this universe, just for a change of pace.  Now he’s…just Wolverine.  Like, that’s it.  No real changes, no new intriguing story.  Just the guy we keep seeing everywhere.  Also, not really digging how little we see of the team, in favor of more Wolverine.  With only a short bit of the run left, this feels like a bit of a waste.  Maybe the second part will turn it around?

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.