Remembrance Beast

A.X.E.: Death to the Mutants #1 Written by Kieron Gillen Drawn by Guiu Vilanova Colored by Dijjo Lima Lettered by Travis Lanham A.X.E.: Death to the Mutants #1 is, deceptively, not at all about mutants--the various X-Men only appear in a few scattered panels. What it actually  is is a story spotlighting the main cast of Gillen's Eternals run (Ikaris, Sersi, Sprite, Thena, Phastos, Kingo, Ajak, Makkari, and the Forgotten One) and what they're up to during and immediately after Judgment Day #2. It's definitely a side story, not nearly as weighty as Gillen's prior issues of the event, but it's still very impactful if you, like me, are a fan of what Gillen's been doing over in Eternals. The miniseries' title comes from Druig's proclamation on the first page--it's a declaration of war, which the heroic Eternals cast spends the issue reacting to. The cast is in fine form--the Machine is quirky, Sersi is snarky, etc.--as Team Sersi goes on a series of sideq...

[Note: this contains spoilers for the issue being covered here. I recommend reading the issue first.]   A.X.E.: Judgment Day #2 Written by Kieron Gillen Art by Valerio Schiti Colors by Marte Gracia Lettered by Clayton Cowles Over the last couple of months, I read through the entirety of what could be considered the "Golden Age" of X-Men comics--the period from 1976-1991. During this era, the X-Men line became, well, a line, primarily under the guidance of Chris Claremont and, later, Louise Simonson.  I mention this because the second issue of A.X.E.: Judgment Day hammers home the event's echoes--whether intentional on the creators' part or not--of "Judgement War," an incredibly weird little epic storyline from the latter half of Simonson's X-Factor run (it's issues 43-50, with a guest-penned interlude in the middle). In that storyline, drawn by Paul Smith, X-Factor's sentient Ship was teleported across space by its Celestial creators to bear witn...

[Note: this contains spoilers for both issues being covered here. I recommend reading the issues first.] Immortal X-Men #5 "Meditations on the X" Written by Kieron Gillen Art by Michele Bandini Colors by David Curiel Lettered by Clayton Cowles Immortal X-Men #5 covers the Eternal Uni-Mind's psychic attack on the Quiet Council of Krakoa and the Council's counterattack in detail after it was previously shown in Judgment Day #1. More importantly, though, this issue puts the character focus on Exodus, recounting his centuries-long backstory in as concise a manner as possible before focusing in on his role in beating back the Uni-Mind attack. I'll admit that I wanted more out of this issue, but the issue was still good--and honestly, this issue had to happen  given how buckwild Exodus' origin story is. Michele Bandini has really stepped up his game in the issues of Immortal X-Men he's drawn. I was really impressed with how he handles motion in the issue, using ...

I'll admit it: I'm a mark for Marvel's particular brand of event comics. Since the mid-2000s, Marvel's doubled down (and then tripled down, then quadrupled down, then--) on the Big Superhero Event Comic. At their best, Marvel events are bombastic, powerful capstones to eras of Marvel history, definitive statements on what stories worked at the time of the event--see Jonathan Hickman's 2 excellent 2010s events, Infinity and Secret Wars, or the capstone to Jason Aaron's Thor run in War of the Realms. At their most aggressively mid (Fear Itself, Avengers vs. X-Men, Original Sin, Empyre), they're still dumb fun, capturing the infectious joy of smashing action figures together. In my eyes, there are only a handful of Marvel event stories that have been properly miserable (both Civil Wars, Shadowland, AXIS, and Secret Empire, FTR) A.X.E.: Judgment Day, then, will probably be an easy win. How can it not? Half of the event's issues are being written by Kieron Gi...