It’s time for X-Men #34, the final issue of the series before the big Uncanny X-Men #700 extravaganza. The House of X has fallen quite far, and the Powers of X have nearly finished rising: now it is time for some superhero punch-ups and character farewells as the book’s end shifts toward the final push of the last battle in the concluding act of the Krakoan Era’s denouement. Gerry Duggan, Joshua Cassara, Romulo Fajardo Jr., VC’s Clayton Cowles, and Jordan D. White are at the helm.
Doctor Stasis, Feilong, Director Devo, and Dr. Alia Gregor have all been killed or turned against the AI puppet masters behind Orchis. The only standing threats to the continued existence of human and mutantkind are Nimrod, Omega Sentinel, Moira.eXe, and Charles Xavier. However, those enemies will be faced down by The X-Men®, meaning that the team members in this book are either cleaning up loose ends or exiting the narrative altogether. Emma assures us that “top X-Men,” are on the case to prevent our extinction, so this issue is for the other guys (like Synch, the ostensible leader of the X-Men).
Issue #34 largely follows the same cast of heroes as the previous issue: Firestar, Ms. Marvel, Synch, Shadowkat, and both Wolverines are split into two concurrent plots. Doom’s X-Men are nowhere to be seen, perhaps they graduated into the final issue of FoHoX. But there’s no time to worry about that since M.O.D.O.K. is on the loose. He previously resigned from his executive position within Orchis, but had one last bit of fatal fun to drop on his former minions. Playing mixologist with Orchis goons’ genetic soup, M.O.D.O.K. makes the fascists as monstrous on the outside as they are on the inside. Oh, and their homicidal rage no longer discriminates between homo sapiens and homo superior, so it’s a good thing some X-Men are here to save the day.
Marvel Comics
One plot follows the M.O.D.O.K. madness from the Daily Bugle to the docks. Firestar has a strong presence here, clearly still running hot from her final goodbye to Doctor Stasis. Her time undercover gave Angelica ample opportunity to think up punchy quips considering she has plenty here. Ms. Marvel is a ray of light as ever, something the more senior X-Men hope to help her maintain. Synch and Wolverine have their first proper team-up since the loss of Talon, and Everett and Laura remain very respectful about the wild circumstances around their relationship. This half of the issue delivers action and bombast to balance its emotion-driven sister plot, and in that area, it succeeds.
Kate Pryde has been under Duggan’s stewardship for most of his tenure in the Krakoan X-Office. He brought her into this era, and the other half of the issue is devoted to leading her out of it. Outside of Logan’s appearance in the final pages, Shadowkat only interacts with Caliban in X-Men #34. The albino Morlock’s debut is inextricably tied to young Kitty Pryde, and the contrast between their first meeting and their latest is clearly in her mind throughout the story. From Caliban’s first weak utterance of “Kitty?” to Kate’s ugly, harsh rebuke of him after their argument, Shadowkat’s arc this issue is striking at key memories from her adolescence with the X-Men. Kate is being forced to test how much of herself she can repress and sacrifice in service of saving the world. While likely massaged to match her upcoming rebrand in Exceptional X-Men, Pryde reaching her breaking point, and admonishing herself “no more X-Men,” makes sense entirely.
Likely a symptom of Marvel’s forced compression of the end of Krakoa, X-Men #34 has a details problem. Ben Urich’s cameo accomplishes little more than leading us to ask: “remember his big exposé in Uncanny Avengers? Did it ever accomplish anything?” Neither writer, artist, colorist, nor editor noticed Wolverine telling Synch to use Polaris’ powers despite Everett already doing so. While Laura and Synch have a nice moment grieving together in this issue, shouldn’t Talon have been resurrected in the White Hot Room and returned to Earth somewhere between RoPoX #4 and X-Men: Forever last week? The setting of Shadowkat’s plot remains elusive since, judging by daylight, time is passing at roughly the same speed as the M.O.D.O.K. mess, but the neon signs in Krakoan script suggest a Madripoor locale rather than Manhattan. Also, delivering a final thesis on what Shadowkat means to Kate and apparently shepherding her out of this era into From the Ashes without addressing the Krakoan gates mystery is confusing, to say the least. None of these flaws ruin the work being done in this issue, but they are distracting.
Cassara and Fajardo Jr. do good work together in this issue. Cassara brings a tangible feeling of grit and grime to X-Men #34 which sells the body horror of M.O.D.O.K.’s human rights violations. Cassara also drew Caliban’s previous appearance in X-Men, which grants #34 an added bonus of visual continuity for the Morlock. Fajardo Jr.’s colors are a fun play in contrasts: stark whites and inky darkness, vibrant pinks and purples against bright greens. Both artists’ talents unite in Shadowkat’s final scene, as the panels after she harangues Caliban capture Kate’s final heartbreak.
X-Men #34 is a fun issue. It has exciting action and a good moment of character work ahead of Shadowkat’s exeunt. Sadly, its flaws raise a number of questions that could have been easily avoided with a few more proofreads. In the end, this book remains the franchise’s flagship title in name only, a feeling to which Synch ought to be able to sympathize with by now. However, things are set to change for both hero and book upon the arrival of the hotly anticipated Uncanny X-Men #700 in the coming weeks. We’ll see you there.
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