Saturday, March 09, 2013

Uncanny X-Periment # 158: Dark Reign



Uncanny X-Men # 504-505, Secret Invasion: Dark Reign, Uncanny X-Men Annual: Emma Frost, Uncanny X-Men # 506-507, Dark Avengers # 1, Wolverine: Origins # 33-40


Norman Osborne is running the show now.  As Emma begins to understand that Scott is keeping secrets, she goes off and joins the Cabal alongside the like of Namor, Doom, Osborne, Hood, and Loki.  It’s pretty cool to see them all together and certainly makes me wishes they had just gone off and fought the Illuminati.  Oh well.

While they’re in the city, she and Namor head off and snag Shaw for crimes Shaw helped commit to Atlantis back in the day.  Shaw is then taken prisoner by Emma Frost and is held in the X-Men’s basement/brig.  Meanwhile, word breaks that Cooperstown was wiped out due to a Mutant being born there.  Former Mutants show up at the compound looking for refuge.

Colossus, to help clear his head, goes off and joins a Russian mob and eventually finds some former mutants who had been brought to America illegally as slave labor and hookers.  Colossus takes them back to the compound, and then he and Emma stomp the mob.

Meanwhile, Maddie is gathering together a Sisterhood which includes Spiral and a being-repaired Lady Deathstrike. 

As this occurs, Beast and Archangel begin to assemble the X-Club, including Doctor Nemesis, Box, and Doctor Yurkio Takiguchi.  They fight Godzilla-lit.

Back in New York City, Osborne assembles his Avengers – Sentry, Ares, Spider-Man (Venom), Marvel Boy, Ms. Marvel (Moonstone), Hawkeye (Bullseye), Wolverine (Daken), and himself, the Iron Patriot.  Nick Fury goes to Logan in a bar about this.  In exchange for information about Daken, Fury promises information about the Weapon X Project.  Logan agrees.

Fury reveals that Logan’s mother was part of the Hudson family – a name that’s been haunting him for years (honestly, it’s insanely complicated – head over to UncannyXmen.net for a better and fuller review).  One of the Hudsons fathered three sons: the Weapon X Professor; Victor Hudson; and James Hudson, the Alpha Flight guy.  The Hudsons have been the pawns of Romulus for generations.  Weapon X was eventually built to control Wolverine and make him better.  Stronger.  And when Wolverine joined the X-Men, Romulus focused his attention on Daken.

Daken is looking to get a hold of the Muramasa Blade and use it become the next Weapon X.  Using his place as an Avenger, he draws Cyclops and the X-Men to New York.  Frost confronts Osborne about calling Daken off, but he claims to not know what he’s up to.  Daken fights the X-Men and (eventually) Wolverine and beats ‘em.  The swords breaks and Daken takes part of it.  Cyclops gives the sword back to Wolverine, damning his mission.

Fury tracks down the Tinkerer, who uses the sword to lace Daken’s claws ala Wolverine.  Wolverine goes after Daken, but is confronted by Victor Hudson.  They fight for a while and Wolverine tracks Hudson to a train.  This train leads him to Daken, who reveals that Romulus is on the train.  Wolverine tells Daken that he let Romulus go to save him.  Daken stabs Logan and leaves.

Wolverine tracks the train and Victor Hudson and he is eventually led to a prison in Russia, where he finds the recovered Carbonadium Synthesizer – and Omega Red.  They fight for a while before Omega Red gets taken down and Wolverine leaves.  Injured, Wild Child shows up to finish him off.   Wild Child tells Wolverine that the past few events have been a competition of sorts to find Romulus’ successor.  All that’s left are the two of them, Daken, Cyber, and Omega Red.  Wolverine, of course, gets the advantage of Wild Child and kills him.  Two days later, he gets a package from Black Widow: the Muramasa Blade.  He uses this to kill Omega Red and then finds himself face-to-face with Romulus himself.  They fight, Wolverine eventually loses, and Romulus leaves him to continue to be tested.

We’ll start with Wolverine Origins portion first.  I liked that Way has found a way to bring in the X-Men and the current state of the Marvel Universe that progresses the story.  While I’m not completely fond of the overall Origins story, I found this to be a nice step forward and it’s great to have some momentum going.  Romulus was a major disappointment overall and I’m actually wondering if he was supposed to be from the beginning.

The X-Men stuff . . . hmm . . . well, I liked the X-Club even though they’re pretty snotty.  I liked that Emma and Scott both have secrets and it’s creating tension between them.  I like that stuff.  But I’m not excited by any of the subplots.  The lack of focus and clarity on the characters harms the issues.  I’m not pleased with the way Cyclops just told Colossus to “hit something and get better.”  The scene where Nightcrawler and Colossus were going to sit down and talk was something I was anticipating – and then Cyclops walks in with Emma and they act like snobby assholes towards him.  Like I said, I’m not impressed.

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