Amazing Spider-Man #29: This issue is the perfect Spider-Man story, which sucks for Peter, because it means he wins but also loses.
Mary Jane is leaving for Los Angeles for two months to film a movie that the author wrote specifically for her. (Uh-oh...) Peter promises to meet her at the airport after he helps Aunt May paint the newly rebuilt F.E.A.S.T. Center. (Long-time readers can see several problems for Peter in that sentence.) But, Teresa arrives to recruit him to help her save a former S.H.I.E.L.D. colleague (and lover) who radioed for help. (Of course he did.) It turns out the Chameleon is trying to root around the colleague's brain for information that he can sell to other groups as well as information on the whereabouts of an unnamed person. They arrive too late to save Teresa's colleague, and Peter is also too late to meet Mary Jane. She tells him that she understands and that she knows when he's late that he's saving some innocent person's life.
But, earlier at the F.E.A.S.T. Center, Aunt May gave Peter a pep talk after he told her that he was afraid of losing Mary Jane again. She reminded him that they always find each other and that he knows what he has to do to make his feelings for Mary Jane clear. Later, after FaceTimeing with Mary Jane, he sits on his twin bed in his crappy apartment and stares at the engagement ring that he was going to use to propose. His narrative throughout the issue was that he felt like he was stuck in old patterns, that his life always turns out the same way no matter what he does. (Given the fact that Spencer has returned us to a mid-200s version of Peter, it's a remarkably meta comment.)
Aunt May tried to show him the positive side of that pattern: that he always gets back together with Mary Jane. But, sitting on his bed, Peter sees only the other side: always losing her in the first place. Spencer and Ottley do great jobs here showing Peter's broken heart as he stares at the ring and says, "Maybe some other day." The clear implication, per Peter's narrative, is that he doesn't believe that's true: he believes that he'll always lose her. It's devastating and perhaps the best issue of this run so far, moving Spencer beyond the "my roommate is a super-villain!" jokiness of most issues. I can't wait to see more of it.
Powers of X #4: This issue is the most Hickmanesque one, as I understood little of what happened. Or, put more directly, I understood what happened, but I didn't understand what it meant. It isn't necessarily a bad thing at this point, but it does raise the stakes for later issues.
The opening sequence is the most easily understood and fun. Hickman should write Sinister all the time. Magneto and Professor X visit Bar Sinister in the X0 time period, and Sinister is at his campiest and most insane self. His obsession and jealousy over Magneto's cape alone is worth the price of admission. But, we're not here just to watch Sinister chew scenery. (Though, it would be totally OK if we were, just to be clear.) Magneto and Xavier are there to convince Essex to change his focus from cataloguing the world's DNA to cataloguing mutantkind's DNA. Sinister -- or, at least, the throne-sitting version of him whom we first meet -- declines. He notes that he tried introducing that "aberrant gene" into his "superior genetic structure" but he didn't like the results. However, he's then shot in the head by said Sinister with the mutant gene, creepy cape and all. (See, Essex. You get a cape!) This Sinister agrees to Charles' plan, and Xavier then puts him to work...and wipes his mind of the conversation until the day that Xavier wishes to tell him to remember it. This entire sequence obviously has significant repercussions for the X-Men. It sets Sinister on his path of torturing the Summers family, showing that Hickman isn't rebooting Xavier as a less troubling figure than his most recent portrayals have shown him to be.
At this point, it all gets murkier. Hickman uses two of his interstitial pages to give us a Bar Sinister newsletter called the Red Diamond. It's hilarious but...vague. In the more direct category, we learn that mutant Sinister has Thunderbird's DNA. The rest of the entries are blind items dealing with a range of characters. Some I can guess: Madeleine Pryor left behind a whole lot more than secrets, Logan is allegedly having an affair with a married woman with a kid whose equally unfaithful husband knows what's happening, other Summers siblings may exist, Apocalypse longs for his original Horsemen, and another Sinister may have replaced the brainwashed Sinister and knows exactly what he's doing (presumably setting up the Betrayal). Others are less clear. Who's the trendsetting mutant cut down in his prime who's going to return? Vulcan? Who's the progerian mutant with secret ties whose plan wasn't foiled? Which non-couple couple is going to become a couple? Jean and Scott? I guess we'll see.
The next sequence makes more sense, as Charles brings Cypher to Krakoa in the X1 time period to decipher his language, setting the stage for the marvels that we later see. We also learn more about Krakoa. He was once an island called Okkara until the "twilight sword of the enemy" tore him apart, creating Arakko and Krakoa. In the chasm between them, the enemy poured into the world. But, Apocalypse stopped them and used his powers to send Arrako and, I'm assuming, the four original Horseman through the chasm to "sentinel that land." (I'm guessing they're returning soon, per the Red Diamond.) However, Krakoa is still grief-stricken over the loss of Arakko. In the present, Doug builds the interface that becomes the basis of the mutants' interaction with Krakoa, and we learn that four mutants manage it: Sage (transit), Black Tom Cassidy (defense), Trinary (external systems), and Beast (data analysis). We also learn that Forge may or may not be building biological machines to manage mutant expansion on the island, though I'm not quite sure what that means.
X3 continues to be the most complicated time frame to follow. If I understand correctly, the Elder downloaded a copy of his consciousness into a host machine and used that to "ascend" with the Phalanx. If it works, it seems like it saves Earth, because they'll be satisfied, since the Phalanx doesn't work with biological entities. At least, I think that's what happened?
Though Hickmanesque, I wasn't disappointed with this issue. Hickman has made it clear that no loose end will go unresolved, given the attention that he's clearly paying to the details. It makes it a lot easier to accept my confusion as a temporary state. That said, I usually get into trouble with Hickman when he expands that confusion to an unacceptable degree. It's important that we get answers to some of the questions that he raised here in a relatively short timeframe, so it doesn't just become a confusing mess of questions. We shall see. For now, I'm still a very happy camper.
Also Read: Detective Comics #1,011; Invaders #9; King Thor #1
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