THE KEY

MUTANT X ANNUAL 2001 (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, the end draws nearer, as the Beyonder arrives for the penultimate chapter for the Mutant X universe, in “The Key!”

THE ISSUE ITSELF

The 2001 Annual of Mutant X was “cover dated” May of 2001.  It was words by Howard Mackie, pencils by James Fry, Inks by Andrew Pepoy, colors by Gina Going, and letters by Lysa Hawkins, with a cover by Tom Raney.

At the Earth’s core, Beyonder drains the remaining life force from Captain America’s corpse.  As the planet above begins to be torn apart by the forces from Cap and Havok’s battle last issue, the Beyonder sees the planet as ripe for destruction.  Beyonder uses the life force from Cap’s body to fill himself in on what has been going on during his slumber (and also to recap readers on what’s happened in the book up to this point).  He determines that he needs Havok’s power to accomplish his vague goals, whatever they may be.  Meanwhile, the X-Men make their way back from the shattered moon, protected by Magneto’s magnetic shielding.  As Beyonder returns to the surface, he waxes about this universe’s version of the Secret Wars, while searching for Havok to act as his key.  He uses his power to calm the Earth’s destruction, before wondering what makes Havok so special to wield the power he does.  At that moment, Havok is being drained by Dracula (as you do), but the Six have intervened.  Before a battle can really break out, all parties are struck down by some sort of psychic attack.  Beyonder continues to explore the world, now heralded as a savior.  He is decried as a false god by a deranged and disheveled Donald Blake, who is turned on by the crowd.  Blake is saved by the timely arrival of Spider-Man, who is quickly joined by Daredevil and the Lethal Legion.  Beyonder makes quick work of the Legion, leaving only Spider-Man.  Back at the castle, the Six awaken and get Havok to the medi-lab, while wondering what happened to Dracula, who watches from afar.  Dracula realizes that Havok is the key to…whatever it is the Beyonder wants and decides that he also wants…whatever that is.  The X-Men return to Earth, arriving at the castle, and they and The Six are joined by Doctor Strange, who tells them all that the Beyonder mustn’t get to Alex.  The Beyonder is faced down by an army of heroes, all of whom he quickly wipes out.  Havok continues to drift through the void, while Scotty attempts to contact him.  While Scotty works, the combined forces of the Six and the X-Men try to hold off Dracula, resulting in most of the X-Men’s deaths.  Gambit takes one of the ships and flees, leaving the others to fend for themselves, while Ororo and Elektra do their best to protect Alex and Scotty.  Ororo is unable to face down Dracula directly, leaving Elektra to kill herself with a grenade in an attempt to take out Dracula.  It doesn’t work, but just as Dracula is about to drain Scotty, Alex wakes up and blasts the Count, who tells them all it’s only just begun.  The Beyonder stands victorious from all his battles, ready to make his way to Havok.

Hooo boy is there a lot going on in this one, especially because they decided that two issues before this whole thing wraps was a good time for some world building.  As the Beyonder awakens, we’re treated to a splash page showing us many of the denizens of the Mutant X ‘verse, featuring the returning faces of Man-Spider, Doom, Dr. Strange, and Namor, plus also tweaked versions of the Lizard, Absorbing Man, Wonder Man, and Titania.  We also get the Lethal Legion, which has its own host of tweaked characters,.  I do love the Daredevil that’s a clever combination of Marvel’s DD with the old golden age hero’s design, and I want to know more about the character that I can only refer to as “Werewolf by Moon Knight.”  I won’t know more, of course, because the whole Legion’s wiped out two pages later.  They do better, I suppose, than the army of heroes that faces down Beyonder later in the issue, who don’t even make it to the end of their own splash page.  None of these characters get any actual name dropping, mind you, and that’s not even touching on the returning characters, such as the Defenders from the first annual, who make the final stand against the Beyonder in this issue.  There’s so much going on, that it’s honestly a bit easy to get lost.  Most of the X-Men seem to be dead by the end of the issue.  Elektra’s definitely dead too.  And…maybe Jean?  It’s very unclear.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I came out of the last issue hoping for maybe a little clarity about what was happening.  This issue goes full speed the opposite direction, throwing just about every character we’ve seen prior into the mix, plus *all* of the new ones, which is, like, nifty from a fan service aspect, but also *incredibly* confusing.  I felt like Dracula was too much last issue, and I feel like Dracula is more too much this issue.  We didn’t need two world-ending threats for the team to face, and having them both makes it all extra janky.  But, we’re in the final stretch now, so all we can do is land this thing, right?  Right.

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.