Readers who like their X-Men with a healthy dose of blood, boobs, and bodily autonomous bimbos ought to be reading X-Terminators #3 as soon as they have the chance. The third issue of the delightfully debaucherous limited series by Leah Williams, Carlos Gómez, Bryan Valenza, VC’s Travis Lanham, and Jordan D. White is available now. It’s a kind of storytelling that’s an outlier in current capes comics, rarely written by women, and a perfect deliverance on the gift of the Krakoan era.
SPOILERS AHEAD for X-Terminators #3!
Each issue of X-Terminators opens with a content warning about varying degrees of gore, nudity, and other teases of the raunchy reading ahead. All the installments have delivered on these promises, but issue #3 ups the ante on the comedic Grindhouse elements that feel liberating as opposed to exploitative. The story itself picks up right where we left off: Dazzler, Wolverine, Jubilee, and Boom-Boom are trapped in a magical maze and watched for sport by hordes of vampires.
Danger be damned, these women are to be determined to have some fun no matter what in this book. Case in point: Jubilee punching Boom-Boom in the boobs inevitably leads to a back and forth game of telling “Dazzler’s 🍑 is so fat…” jokes. These antics bleed from flashback to the Quiet Council meeting and back into the main story at hand, which details how Dazzler takes the lead to help the gals escape and start liberating their fellow prisoners.
Weight training regimens aside, it’s the plot that thickens significantly in this issue, not Dazzler’s rear assets. On top of meeting Otherworld fae folk who are also being held captive as part of the vampires’ arena, the ground is pulled out from under our heroes’ feet when it’s revealed that they’ve been in space since awaking in the arena. Furthermore, the gal pals discover that the one behind it all is actually the Collector!
Credit: Marvel
The whole bubblegum bloodbath of this issue would not be so delightful to behold if not for Gómez’s art and Valenza’s colors. However, special attention should be directed to Travis Lanham, whose lettering is perfect for gal pals’ cheeky vocabulary as well as injecting fae speech with an otherworldly feel. Altogether, the entire creative team behind the X-Terminators miniseries have brought something special to the table, and hopefully we will get more of it even after issue #5.
More than anything, X-Terminators continues to be pure fun in issue #3. Where else in current Marvel Comics could Boom-Boom start a strip tease only to fire a massive explosion from each breast? This unabashedly goofy, girly, and gory romp may feel superfluous to some readers, but this level of creative freedom in X-Men storytelling is an important part of what continues to make the Krakoan age so special.
The flaws in this issue are few and far between, as really only two elements of the issue remain points of confusion. First, Laura Kinney has been advertised ahead of the series as a lead, and in the story she’s integrated into the group quite naturally: so why is Wolverine not on the cast page? The other possible misstep is that no one seems particularly concerned about Boom-Boom being bit by a vampire. There may very well be story reasons for both of these decisions, and it’s entirely possible that all will be revealed in December when issue #4 arrives.
Easily its best issue yet, the third installment of X-Terminators remains bombastic and fun while introducing new mystical and cosmic elements to the merry mutant mayhem. Dazzler, Jubilee, Boom-Boom, and Wolverine are getting what so few at Marvel ever do: be raunchy, messy people while continuing to be great superheroes. Even if you can only get one Marvel book this week, X-Terminators easily proves why it’s the best pull.
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