While I love seeing the X-Men take on their fellow mutants, I’ve always gotten a thrill whenever they take on monsters. Whether it’s against the Brood, a giant squid, or Dracula, the X-Men throwing down with the creatures of the night (or space) has always been something that has delighted me ever since I was a little kid and discovered X-Men Classics #63, which reprinted the awesome battle against Dracula in Uncanny X-Men #159. I always keep an eye out for any Marvel Monsters making any appearance in the mainline continuity, so I was delighted when Gail Simone and David Marquez’s run on Uncanny X-Men featured not one, but a whole Legion of Monsters this past year, which is now collected in Uncanny X-Men‘s fourth volume, Where Monsters Dwell.
With Gambit under the slow possession of the Left Eye of Agamotto, his fellow teammates of the New Orleans-based X-Men are growing more and more concerned. As Rogue attempts an intervention, the group are attacked by Elsa Bloodstone and the Legion of Monsters, who have their sights set on the Eye and the X-Men’s new charges the Outliers. But why are the famously misunderstood monsters suddenly turning villainous against the X-Men? And where are the Outliers, and who’s watching them if the X-Men are fighting said monsters? And ohhh crap did Wolverine just get bitten by Werewolf By Night?!?!
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The answers to all of those questions will be found in Where Monsters Dwell, which also contains two one-off stories in the form of Uncanny X-Men #22 and Uncanny X-Men Annual #1. I’ll get to those two issues in a bit, but I will say that the main attraction you’re paying for is one of the most purely enjoyable pieces of X-Men comics I’ve read in some time. While the X-Men are well known for the soap opera melodrama and heightened stakes of protecting a world that hates and fears them, too often that overshadows a need to see the X-Men kick ass and take names against some bad guys. And in Where Monsters Dwell Gail Simone doesn’t shy away from that, giving us some truly badass and awesome moments that are practically ripped from a ten year old’s mind who just finished binge watching X-Men ’97 and some old school monster movies.
But in addition to the action are some great character moments for both the X-Men and the younger mutants of the title. As someone who’s been reading this run on Uncanny since the start, I’ve felt that the balance between the young mutants The Outliers and this X-Men team has always been in flux. Many times there’s been a big focus on the new kids over the old guard, which has struck me a little weird as this is a roster of X-Men that is largely plucked right out of my brain when I watched the cartoon in the ’90s. This has almost all of my favorites on one team, and I want to see them in action! But at the same time, I’ve really warmed up to the Outliers as characters, and I know they probably can’t justify their own book. With Monsters, Simone finds a way to satisfy both sides of the dynamic of the book in a way that not only upends your expectations for how the fight against the monsters will go, but also gives the Outliers the confidence they have been building to throughout the series.
Marvel
On the art side of things, longtime Uncanny artist David Marquez is here for a large chunk of the issues (Luciano Vecchio helps out a bit in Uncanny X-Men #25), and man if you thought his depictions of the X-Men were awesome, just wait until you see him draw some monsters. Yet even with the big knockdown battles between Jubilee and Morbius, Rogue and Elsa, and especially Wolverine and Werewolf by Night, Marquez, like his writer, finds ways to surprise you in this collection. Chief in point is Marquez’ depiction of classic Western comics that are peppered throughout the story when we switch back to the Outliers and their experience hearing the bedtime story that Haven House’s proprietor Mr. St. Junior reads to his daughter. It’s a wonderful bit of honoring the past of Marvel’s publishing history by Marquez, as he mixes up his style to suit that era so well you might be convinced that Marvel just grabbed older art and repurposed it at first.
Where Monsters Dwell is bookended by two standalone tales to make this collection a bit more well rounded, but both stories showcase one of the strengths of this run on Uncanny X-Men so far: the focus on character. Uncanny X-Men #22 finds new villain Mutina returning to the fold, demanding to join the X-Men to repair her public image with her fans. It’s a fun standalone issue that puts a majority of the focus on Nightcrawler, and lets Gail and David loose on the X-Men’s teleporter in a way that showcases his swashbuckling and romantic nature in a fun way. The collection wraps up with the already mentioned Uncanny X-Men Annual #1, a flashback tale that is far more moving and impactful than I expected it to be when I started it. Co-written by Simone and Mikki Kendall with art by Francesco Mortarino, it’s a flashback tale to introduce us to the Regulators, a group of outlaw mutants who helped other mutants in South. When an injured Wolverine is saved by them, he joins up for a bit until, in true Logan fashion, he has to move on to other pastures. As a singular story and closing to the collection it’s a pretty great way to close it out, and gives the feral member of the X-Men a surprisingly sweet anchor to the current hideout of Xavier’s mutants.
Uncanny X-Men Vol 4: Where Monsters Dwell probably shouldn’t be the first trade of this run that you pick up, but if you want to get some awesome mutants vs. monsters action, it’s hard to pass up. The “From The Ashes” era of the X-Men has taken some time to find its footing, but we’re now in a part of this era that feels really lived in and willing to try out some new things. Some of that is just having fun putting the X-Men against some monsters, and if that’s something you’re in the mood for, Where Monsters Dwell will fit the bill for you.
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