It’s a sleepless night in the Treehouse, thanks to a familiar Marvel demon, in X-Men #4 as written by Gerry Duggan, art by Javier Pina and Erick Arcineiga, and letters from Clayton Cowles!
Tony Thornley: Cori, do you ever have recurring nightmares? Like I often have ones where I relive moments from my past, but make every incorrect decision I could have.
Cori McCreery: I have terrible nightmares pretty often, but almost never am able to remember what they are, so no idea if they are or aren’t recurring.
Tony: Well, we do get to see our heroes’ nightmares this issue… and they’re about what we’d expect.
Restless Nights
Tony: So I didn’t know what to expect with this issue just from the solicitation. However, a visit from chaos demon Nightmare was a welcome surprise for me. I really didn’t know Nightmare at all before Daniel Kibblesmith and Jan Basaldua’s Loki from a few years ago. However, thanks to that series I quickly developed an affinity for him.
We quickly see the demon diving into our heroes’ psyches… Honestly, as much as I liked how Nightmare was written, I didn’t love how predictable the nightmares themselves seemed to be. I also was a bit disappointed that we only saw the fears of three of the 8 team members.
Cori: Yeah, I have to agree here. I have no affinity for the villain, as the magic side of the Marvel Universe is not one that I am at all familiar with, so I would need the story to do the heavier lift to make me actually interested, and if I’m being honest, it didn’t do it. A common complaint about the X-Line right now has been that everything feels like it’s treading water waiting for Inferno and Trial of Magneto to wrap up, but this is the first time the main book has felt like that. Doing an obvious fill-in issue (complete with fill-in artist Javier Pina) that ignores all but the most overused members of the team was a poor choice this early in the run, and really kind of felt like a nothing burger.
Tony: I will say I enjoyed the work of the art team. They did their best to match the style of Larraz and Gracia without coming off as a complete impersonation. Plus, they did a really solid job of making Nightmare seem scary.
But, if this story had done the same thing with Everett, Shiro and Lorna instead of Scott, Jean and Laura, I think it would have connected a lot better. It was spooky, and I think Duggan nailed the creepy vibe of Nightmare in particular. It could have been a really good opportunity for character building with the book’s B-list.
Laura’s vignette was also a little strange to me. After we’ve seen that she and Everett are still close, despite her not having the memories of her time in the Vault, seeing her resistance to having any sort of relationship with Ev didn’t ring true. I mean, there was definitely at least affection between them in the moment last issue when she stepped between Synch and the High Evolutionary…
Cori: Really the only bit of Laura’s that I liked was connecting her back to Logan by means of “A Wolverine without a memory.” And honestly, Scott’s? Boring as hell. Anyone who’s read more than ten issues of X-Men knows what Scott fears, it’s not new ground whatsoever. There’s just so much more that could have been explored with characters that haven’t been main characters of over 500 issues of comics.
Tony: Absolutely. And again Jean is haunted by the Dark Phoenix. Why not something else? I think if we’d gotten Ev, Lorna and Shiro’s nightmares instead, the big reveal of the second act of the story would have landed slightly better.
Hope?
Cori: I do like that we’re getting to see each of the characters make their pitches for why they should be X-Men. That’s a really neat idea, and I think it really helps to flesh out this version of the team out. This time around it was Jean’s turn, and really, she used her own worries to showcase what makes her a good fit for this iteration of the X-Men. I loved her focusing on her kindness and compassion, as those are traits I value very much in my heroes. What’d you think of this moment?
Tony: I really dug Jean’s entire fight against Nightmare, especially her speech from the gala. One of the biggest complaints that everyone has about Jean in general is about how one dimensional she can be. Though I don’t think she is, I do think she is written as such more than she should be. Duggan does a great job at getting to the heart of the character, both in her defense of her family and in her actual pitch for why she should be one of the X-Men.
You and I have talked often about how the House of El (Kal and Kara in particular) is the epitome of compassion and hope at the Distinguished Competition. I think Jean makes the pitch for being that force in the Marvel Universe here. It reminds me of one of my favorite Jean moments- her entry into the story in Extermination. She and Nightcrawler teleport in together right after the Teen X-Men discover Cable’s murder, and she immediately springs into action- not by punching something but by comforting her friends (and her teen self) and making sure they’re okay.
That’s why using Jean as this force against Nightmare is so effective. Yes, she’s a massively powerful telepath. She’s also a force of love and hope.
Polyphemus
Cori: Hey speaking of dead Cable, Ben Urich checks out his recently dug up grave. What a crappy bit of grave keeping this is, huh? But also gives Ben more fuel for the fire that he’s building about mutant resurrection. When do you think he’s gonna light that match?
Tony: I had no idea that Baby Nathan Christopher was “dead and buried” until this moment. Frankly… I was pretty confused by it because of that. And seriously Ben, of all the graves you could go dig up, why a toddler’s?
Cori: I’m pretty sure that was adult Cable’s grave, not baby Cable’s grave. And it was dug up in his own series if I remember right, just never repaired. The empty grave though I think is going to actually give Urich the wrong idea about how mutants come back.
Tony: …
That makes so much more sense.
Yeah, knowing that, I think you’re right.
Then we also get that Orchis memo- Project Polyphemus. Polyphemus was the name of the cyclops that trapped Odysseus in the Odyssey. Odysseus blinded him then tricked him by tying his crew to the bellies of Polyphemus’s flock of sheep. So, considering so much of the memo is redacted, which role in the story do you think Dr. Stasis is intending Orchis to play?
Cori: I’m almost positive that Orchis thinks of themselves as the heroes of the story, as all great villains do, and that the naming of this project is intentional since their adversaries are led by… Cyclops. It’s a plan to steal victory from the jaws of defeat, and the next stop is Arakko.
Tony: Oh yeah, Feilong is on his way to Arakko… And it seems his body mods have done more than made him able to survive on Mars’ surface. What an unsettling way to close the issue…
Cori: I think things will pick back up next issue, and who knows maybe we’ll see more than half the team.
X-Traneous Thoughts
- Big hat-tip to our colleague Corey Smith for the research into Polyphemus.
- The only actual Sleepy Hollow reference in the text after that rad cover was in the graveyard scene. I am disappoint.
- When will my Lorna Dane return from the war?
- Krakoan Reads: The Doctor is in
Tony Thornley is a geek dad, blogger, Spider-Man and Superman aficionado, X-Men guru, autism daddy, amateur novelist, and all around awesome guy. He’s also very humble.
