Amazing Spider-Man #88 (February 2): Hoo boy. Beyond's Board members are less than thrilled Maxine lost the drive, so she puts her career on the line by doubling down and getting them to activate the "Halifax Protocol."
As she later villainsplains to an imprisoned Marcus, Halifax was an oil-company CEO with a super-mansion full of bodies in Broxton, OK. The police were on the scene investigating his crimes when Thor's fight with the Sentry happened in "Siege." Maxine notes that no one cared about Halifax anymore. As such, she reveals that Beyond's product - a question that I've had since the beginning - is chaos. The Halifax Protocol is Beyond's super-villain division, and Maxine activates it by using Norman Osborn's sins (i.e., the contents of that creepy jar that she's been holding) to turn Dr. Kafka into Queen Goblin.
Meanwhile, Janine goes to MJ for help, and MJ brings her to Glory Grant at the "Daily Bugle." Tracking Janine, Beyond sends Queen Goblin after them, and Ben arrives just in time to save Janine. Queen Goblin manages to destroy the drive, but, to Maxine's surprise, Ben announces that it isn't his problem. He departs with Janine, leaving MJ to face Queen Goblin by herself. In other words, Ben is losing it.
X Lives of Wolverine #2 (February 2): This issue at least gives us a better sense of what we're actually doing here.
At some point, Mikhail Rasputin stole the Cerebro Sword, which Magneto made from the Cerebro unit that Professor X was wearing when something (someone?) called XENO attempted to assassinate him. (I'm assuming it happened in "X-Force.") As such, Rasputin has some connection to Cerebro and discovered that X-Force tampered with Omega Red's resurrection, installing the surveillance chip and editing his problematic memories. Rasputin provided that information to Omega Red when he was on a mission in Moscow with Domino and Wolverine, leading him to break into the Hatchery (as we saw last issue) to confirm the information.
Meanwhile, we learn that Sage created a program to monitor any memory alterations since they could be connected to "timeline terrorism." As such, she's able to detect Omega Red's attempt to eliminate Xavier and/or his ancestors, hence why Jean sends Logan back into the timestream. However, Logan is starting to lose it as he comes face to face with his sins, particularly his actions with Team X. Is Logan going to fuck up everything because he can't help himself? Maybe.
Amazing Spider-Man #88.BEY (February 9): OMG, I love this issue. First, I love Hobie Brown. I remember when he debuted in "Amazing Spider-Man," and I've always been disappointed that he's been such an underused character.
That said, this incarnation of him is fantastic. First, I love him in the Hornet costume. But, the premise is even better. Hobie tells his wife that the destruction he witnessed during the "King in Black" event made him realize that Damage Control helps corporations but not people. He talks about how his crowdsourcing platform, Fairplay, is full of people asking for help to rebuild their lives after super-powered events. He figures that he can match their requests for help and the public's funding with his deep-pocketed superpowered contacts.
As he's describing it, I'm realizing that it's the opposite of what Maxine describes in "Amazing Spider-Man" #88: she wants to create chaos, and Hobie wants to end it. As such, I wasn't surprised at all when Beyond suddenly buys Fairplay. Hobie is initially furious...until he gets his $15 million parachute. But, his wife Mindy notes that everyone got a parachute. In fact, Beyond spent $200 million on a $70 million company.
Suspicious, Hobie breaks into Beyond to swipe their records. While there, Dusk sees him and follows him home. She tells them that Beyond kidnapped Ricochet, and she needs help freeing him. The files allow Hobie to find him. While Mindy (who's a great character) goes through the rest of the files, Hobie and Dusk head to the farm where Ricochet is being held.
But, it turns out Beyond just hired him the previous day to fight some inter-dimensional monsters. He's only been gone so long due to temporal dilation. Hobie works with Dusk and Ricochet to shut down the portal allowing the monster to enter our dimension, and Beyond is so impressed with his intelligence and physicality that they offer him a job.
Man, please, please, please let the Slingers get their own series. This issue is one of the best issues I've read in a while. The characters all have great charisma together, and I'd love to see Hobie in action with a top-flight creative team.
Devil's Reign #4 (February 9): It feels like we're moving to our denouement early, so I wonder what else Zdarsky has up his sleeve. When Kingpin accidentally uses his staff to make Typhoid Mary remember their past together, he realizes that he can use it on himself to remember Daredevil's identity, which he does. He believes that doing so will end his insane drive for revenge, but, um, based on the expression on his face on the last page, I kind of doubt that we're going in that direction.
Moon Knight #8 (February 9): This issue is odd.
Badr is running the Mission since Kingpin locked up Marc, and a former detective, Flint, approaches him for help on a case. Flint is apparently a long-standing Moon Knight character who works with Marc to solve crimes on the "freak beat." He informs Badr that another former Moon Knight character, Stained Glass Scarlet, has reappeared, which is odd since she died a few years ago.
Badr goes to the church where she died and learns that people seeking revenge venerate her. As such, they her into a minor god. But, she's no match for Khonshu, who helps Badr chase her from the church. I'm guessing that McKay is going to return to this story at some point, because we never really learn why Scarlet is now just willy-nilly killing people, when in the past she only killed organized-crime figures (i.e., bad guys).
I can't say that I disliked the issue, but it leaves a little too much on the table.
New Mutants #24 (February 9): I haven't been a fan of Ayala's run, but she wraps up a number of threads here in a way that feels organic.
The New Mutants realize that they haven't helped mutants who've been asking for help. As such, the Five give No-Girl a new body (she now calls herself Cerebella), and Masque helps Cosmar find a form in which she feels comfortable. The New Mutants escort Amahl as he leaves for Arakko to undergo therapy and eventually become a more productive member of Krakoan society. Finally, Dani and Rahne clear the air between them, and I'm going to guess that they're going after Tier soon.
But, it's Magik's conversation with Rictor that was the most interesting to me. They discuss something that I've often mentioned during the "Dawn/Reign of X" era, namely the lack of anyone paying attention. The pair note how the mutants still don't seem to communicate with one another well. They're not talking about a language but a more basic emotional connection. Rictor is apparently now a druid, and he and Magik commit to use their magical powers to make those connections possible. To make matters even more interesting, Magik enlists a resurrected Goblin Queen to help! (I'm assuming that the Five resurrected Madelyne after successfully lobbying for the Quiet Council to life the ban on resurrecting clones for Gabby.)
A little Google-ing revealed that Rictor and Shatterstar are back together. As you can see in the below "Also Read" section, I went and read those issues. In the meantime, I'd love to see them more involved with this series and their friends.
Secret X-Men #1 (February 9): Howard loses control of the crosses, double-crosses, and triple-crosses in this issue, to the point that I'm not entirely sure what happened.
I think that Delphos and Oracle - the Imperial Guard's precogs - convinced Xandra to set up a training exercise to test her "friends" from Krakoa. It's unclear to me if Deathbird was aware that the alleged threat to Xandra wasn't real, but, at any rate, she recruits Roberto to help. (We're apparently calling him Beto instead of 'Berto now.) He assembles a team pulled from the mutants who were most disappointed that they weren't chosen for the X-Men.
Later, it turns out he was under Xandra's influence in putting together this team, as she was impressed that they all commiserated like friends and didn't fight like enemies. After Roberto and his team make their way through Deathbird's traps to find Xandra, someone kidnaps Deathbird. The precogs appears to have known that it was going to happen, making it unclear to me why they would've green-lit this exercise given how essential Deathbird is to the Empire and Xandra.
I mean, sure, I enjoy Roberto and Sam action as much as the next guy, but Howard leans into that too much, as if their banter compensates for the lack of a coherent plot. I hope that we get to see Xandra's "Secret X-Men" in action soon, but I'm not sure that I'd want Howard at the helm.
X Deaths of Wolverine #2 (February 9): This issue is intense as fuck, but I still have no idea what exactly we're supposed to believe is happening.
Future Logan is part of the Phalanx, so I guess that it's possible that the machines sent him back in time to kill Moira. But, why? Do they know Moira is now capable of dying? If so, why would they want her dead now, given that it won't reset the timeline now that she's human. I'm sure that it'll benefit them someway, but I'm not sure how.
In terms of Moira, Jane Foster tells her that she detected "floronic matter" in her cancer, and Moira supposes that the No-Place biome is somehow responsible. In a truly graphic scene, she goes to a hotel, gets drunk, cuts off her Warlock arm, and cauterizes the wound with an iron (!) since she believes that Mystique is tracking her that way. (I'm not sure that's true, but it seems like it's how Future Logan is/was.) Moira at least gets in a lick when Mystique breaks into her hotel room only for a bomb to explode and kill her.
For some reason, Future Logan is now after someone named Arnab Chakladar. Does he need him to find Moira now that he possibly can't track her? I guess we'll see.
Also Read: Excalibur #21 (June 9, 2021); X-Factor #10 (June 30, 2021); Hawkeye: Kate Bishop #4 (February 9)
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