LOGAN’S RUNNING

MUTANT X #29 (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, there’s more Wolverine in “Logan’s Running.”

THE ISSUE ITSELF

Mutant X #29 is cover dated March of 2001. It has story and art by Howard Mackie, Tom Lyle, and Andrew Pepoy, letters by Chris Eliopoulos, and colors by Gina Going. One again, Michael Golden provides the cover art, and it’s one of his better ones for the book.

Logan runs a program in the Six’s training room, as Havok and Jean look on. They discuss telling him something, wondering if his mind can handle it. Jean goes to talk with Logan as Havok converses with someone unseen. Jean and Logan discuss their lives since they last saw each other. They’re interrupted by the unseen figure, James Hudson. Hudson is a cyborg, pieced back together after an incident where Logan left him for dead. Logan tries to finish the job, but Jean restrains him. Hudson reveals the Creed is after Mariko and the children. Hudson takes Havok, Jean, and Logan to the border. Meanwhile, Wildchild tracks the children. He discovers them and tells them he’s one of the good guys. He’s ambushed by Creed, who quickly kills him. Logan splits off from Alex and Jean, who are set upon by Creed. After a brief fight, Creed captures Jean. Logan discovers Wildchild’s remains, and also finds the children unharmed. Alex finds Logan, telling him Creed took Jean. Alex stays with the kids, as Logan confronts Creed. Creed attempts to force Logan to choose between Jean and Mariko’s lives, but Havok intervenes, using his powers to superheat Creed’s bones. Logan uses the opportunity to finish Creed off, finally reuniting with his family. Before they can depart, the group is set upon by Hudson and the Canadian forces.

Like last issue, this one largely feels like a pretty run of the mill Wolverine story. On the plus side, Havok does at least get more to do this time, but the rest of his team is unfortunately absent. The sequences with Alex interacting with Logan’s kids made me really miss Scotty, whose absence from the book has definitely been felt. I did at least like the reversal of the Jean/Logan dynamic, where she’s the one forced to admit she’s happy for him.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Last issue was a letdown, to be sure. This is…well more of that, I guess. I found this one kind of meandering and trickier to get through. The resolution was at least a little more intriguing, but I’m not thrilled about another issue devoted to this plot line.

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.