THE END
MUTANT X #32 (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!
It’s almost over, guys! I’m officially at the Mutant X finish line! Yes, this week, things get pretty cataclysmic and pretty hectic in the mad dash to wrap everything up in “The End!”
THE ISSUE ITSELF
Mutant X #32 is cover dated June 2001, and officially brings to a close the Mutant X title, just under 3 years from its start. The issue is credited to Howard Mackie, Ron Lim, Andrew Pepoy, Chris Eliopolous, Gina Going, Michael Golden, Lysa Hawkins, and Joe Quesada.
Magneto cradles a dying Polaris outside the castle, following the attacks of Dracula and the Beyonder. The battle has ended, but it has left most of the heroes, including all of the other X-Men, dead. As Beyonder demands Alex Summers, a distraught and vengeful Magneto is collected by Doctor Strange, who offers Magneto a chance to help stop the Beyonder. Inside the castle, Scotty has succeeded in waking up Havok, who saved the remnants of the Six from Dracula. Bloodstorm reveals to Havok that Strange has told them that Havok is the key to defeating the Beyonder. Strange, however, informs Havok that he is actually the key to the Nexus of all realities, and he is the one thing the Beyonder wants. Havok wants to join the other heroes in fighting the Beyonder back, recounting his brother Scott’s encounters with the Beyonder in 616, but Strange shows Havok that all of the heroes have fallen. As Strange takes the few remaining heroes to a safer location, Dracula awakens once more in the castle, sensing an opportunity. He offers to help the Beyonder locate Alex and the others, at a price. Strange teleports the heroes to Antartica. Magneto reveals he has built a “Citadel of Seclusion” at this location, having been greatly strengthened by the proximity to the pole. Inside the Citadel, Havok argues with Magneto, wanting to take action against the Beyonder. Strange reveals that the being they’re facing isn’t actually the Beyonder, but some other entity using the Beyonder’s form. Victor Von Doom leads one last stand against the thing masquerading as the Beyonder, while Strange calls in reinforcements in the form of Reed Richards, Xavier, Baron Mordo, and the Fallen. Mordo reveals that when the Nexus was “destroyed” in the first annual, it was actually moved into Havok’s body. Richards, Xavier, and the Fallen aid in preparing Havok and Scotty to do battle with “her,” revealing the Beyonder to actually be the Goblin Entity, having merged with the Beyonder’s corpse following its defeat by Havok and Scotty previously. Dracula and “Beyonder” arrive at the Citadel, and Havok and the Entity do battle. Dracula lurks in the Citadel, killing Reed, but is finally killed by Bloodstorm. Havok is nearly overwhelmed by the Entity, but is able to separate it from Madelyn. Havok absorbs the Entity into the Nexus, and sends Madelyn back to the others. Havok finds himself once more floating in a black void, but now instead of only remember dying, he also remembers living.
The annual crammed a lot of plot into its pages, and it didn’t do a spectacular job of it at that. This issue also has a lot to do in the grand scheme, but ultimately less moving pieces than the prior issue. We get some actual clearing up of exactly what happened to the bulk of last issue’s heroes, which at least makes things a little less confusing. I suppose it’s also nice that they managed to bring all of the original Six members back for the finale, even if most of them aren’t left with much to do. Bloodstorm again gets the biggest focus of the non-mains, with her moment to kill Dracula and a few other scattered lines of dialogue. Brute is unfortunately out of commission the whole time, and Ice-Man’s in a lot of panels but doesn’t utter a single word for the entire issue. The Fallen gets perhaps the silliest turn of all, re-appearing as part of Strange’s crack team to take down the Entity, uttering no lines, and not contributing anything at all to the actual story in the slightest. You gotta admire their full three-year commitment to having Warren never actually do anything. The twist with Beyonder being possessed by the Goblin Entity’s not a bad one, and it wraps things up with a neat bow, but it does feel awful rushed, to the point that the resolution of the actual Mutant X universe’s characters is literally 3 panels at the bottom of the second to last page. We don’t even really see how everyone else reacts to Madelyn’s sudden return. For his part, Havok will be floating in limbo until he gets brought back into the mainstream universe by Chuck Austen, and…well, that’s it’s whole own thing that I ain’t touchin’.
THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION
After the last few issues, I knew this one would be rushed, and I prepared myself for that. It helped, though not immensely, I suppose. Like, it’s not a great issue, and it’s a lot more of a “we just stopped telling the story” sort of ending than a true wrap-up. There’s a degree of closure, but only in the loosest of terms. I can’t say I loved it.
I knew only scattered elements of the end of this book going into this read-through. Honestly, I was shocked by how quickly we shifted from still building up the world to “hey this is it, it’s the end.” You can clearly see the shift when they found out the book was ending. The end result is a lot of loose ends that don’t ever fully resolve. Wolverine and Jean both rather abruptly disappear, with little explanation. Gambit gets an explanation, but it’s not one that offers any more closure. Cap and Elektra both at least get actual resolution, but it’s also hollow to say the least. And that’s not getting into story elements that just get plain dropped. What the heck happened with Cerebro and his “bad” side? In general, the book wound up as a real mixed bag. Year one is very punchy, which makes sense, given they originally intended to only do a 12-issue run. After that, there’s some promising ideas as the book tries to keep building out, but it ultimately never truly finds the footing it’s looking for. I think year three might have really gotten them back on track, had it not been cut short. But, alas, it wasn’t meant to be. Having read it all the way through, it’s an entertaining experiment, and I certainly don’t regret the time I put into it in the slightest. It may be imperfect, but you can’t say they didn’t try to do something unique. And with that, the Mutant X re-read is finished. That was pretty crazy, huh?
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.
Captain America is figure 3 in the Marvel Fighting Armor line from Sentinel. The figure stands 6 3/4 inches tall and he has 42 points of articulation. Compared to, say, a Figuart, the articulation is certainly a lot more straight forward. It’s not quite as simple as a Legends figure, though; it sort of falls in between. There’s a degree of moving panels around for proper range of motion, but it feels like it has a good flow about it. Cap’s sculpt appears to be unique, at least for the most part. I don’t have any of the others, of course, so I can’t say for certain. It’s a solid set-up. He’s got a new design, made to fit in with the rest of Sentinel’s in-house looks for the Fighting Armor figures. It takes the classic Cap design, with a bit of the Marvel Now design thrown in, and armorizes it, but notably in a different fashion than, say, the Tech-
On Cap. The whole thing is very sleek and clean, which I love. It also just feels very intrinsically Captain America, which I also love. His construction uses a little bit of die-cast metal. It appears to be largely confined to the core of the figure, and mostly serves to give him a reasonable heft when you pick him up. I don’t mind that so much. Cap’s color work is dialed into the traditional Cap fare, being very heavy on the red, white, and blue, albeit mostly metallic. He’s got a flat shade in place of the white, though, which breaks things up pretty well. Cap is packed with three sets of hands, in fists, gripping, and open gesture, as well as an armorized version of his Shield, and a standard display stand. The shield’s got a kind of interesting way of attaching; there’s like this whole arm on it, which swings in and out relative to how you want it to be attached, be it his back, or either of his hands. It’s an interesting idea, but the joints are a little loose on mine, so it flaps down a lot.
The Figure In Question 