X-Men Gold #2 Review – Yes, the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants IS a Dumb Name
I’ve lost count of how many Brotherhoods of Evil Mutants the X-Men have had over the years, and to be honest, I don’t care enough to look it up. At the end of the first issue of X-Men Gold, a new Brotherhood showed up with several familiar faces. Avalanche. Pyro. Mesmero. Masque. Former student Amara is with them as well, along with a new guy who looks like he auditioned for the alien in Alien. And yes, they’re still calling themselves the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, just in case we couldn’t tell that they were evil. Attacking the UN building in New York isn’t enough of a clue.
I get why Stan Lee named them so, mostly because it was back in 1963. Corny was the name of the game back then. I’m sure it was delightfully edgy at the time. Now, however? Now it’s a bit of a joke, and I’m so happy Marc Guggenheim has made it one. In fact, if I had to sum up what he has done in these first two issues of X-Men Gold in one phrase, it would be “X-Men trope stomping.” It’s absolutely delightful.
The Brotherhood successfully divvies up the X-Men, allowing Mesmero to kidnap Logan and send Nightcrawler off on a bamf-spree. I never did learn why Logan was kidnapped, because he broke free and beat up Mesmero as well as other members before Mesmero could tell Logan his grand plan.
He couldn’t have had any better timing either, as the Brotherhood just hours before announced they kidnapped the mayor of New York while they escaped capture from SHIELD. When they did so, they left the X-Men behind, thus leaving them with 100% of the blame for the attack on the UN. That was more than enough time to nab the mayor and film a hostage video for the world.
I didn’t get to hear their demands for release, because Heritage Initiative Director Lydia Nance talked over the video. She’s using this as a reason to advocate mutant deportation. She says mutants should only live among their own kind. Go rebuild Genosha. Utopia. She doesn’t care as long as they’re all out of the US. Since Logan has broken free and reached out to Kitty, it won’t be long now until the X-Men can rescue the mayor.
But the seed of deportation has already been planted. The younger X-Men are terrified. We can assume most other mutants across the country are equally as terrified. Guggenheim brought in the Brotherhood, made fun of their name, and used them to set up this much bigger picture. That is rather genius, and to that, I salute you sir.
I also salute you for this panel.
Our Rating: YUS
Author: Marc Guggenheim
Artists: Ardian Syaf, Jay Leisten, and Frank Martin
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Publish Date: 04/26/2017
Acquired via Purchase
