X-Men Gold #8 Review – Well, That Was Brief
X-Men Gold #7 was the first X-Men foray into the hellish world of the Secret Empire. Issue #8 will be its last. I’m not sure why we had to tell a story at all, if it was going to be so brief. It was almost as if the Gold team realized the X-Men would be in the thick of the disaster in Manhattan, since the mansion is now in the middle of Central Park. Thus, they have to write in something quick to keep it on par with the other chaos in the Marvel superhero universe. Perhaps they shouldn’t have. At least Guggenheim knows how to keep the story light in the middle of this rather forced Secret Empire inclusion.
Yeah, there’s a mutant-killer on the loose in the middle of what-is-already chaos. No offense, but there’s always a mutant killer on the loose. It doesn’t matter if it’s Bolivar Trask, William Stryker, or Senator Kelly; someone wants to blindly kill all the mutants. We have another one who seems to be Crossbones, which could and could not be possible at the same time. Then again, it’s Marvel, so who knows.
It’s not Crossbones, though. It’s a random mutant-hater who thinks that he can properly avenge his family by killing every mutant on the planet. In his eyes, none are innocent. I suppose that he thinks the best time to go on such a killing spree is when Stevil Rogers has New York under siege.
But this guy is super serial about it. He has rigged the mansion to blow, and he’s done it with literal biological warfare. That way Kitty can’t short it out with her intangibility. Thanks to Peter literally trying to impress Kitty and getting shot in the process, Kitty and Santo are able to save the mansion from blowing up. Again.
However, this “main plot” was really the glue holding together even more serious goings-on in the background. Peter’s obvious on-going love for Kitty Pryde is humorous, but not one of the deeper layers. Those fall on Kurt and his religious views, and the Hand (yes these assholes again) trading the remains of Omega Red for human trafficking. Oh goody, Omega Red. Can we count on Darkstar returning as well? Might as well get all of them involved.
Yes I’m slightly annoyed with the return of Arkady, but those panels with Kurt will haunt me for quite some time. Pick up the issue for yourself and see why.
Our Rating: Yep
Author: Marc Guggenheim
Artists: Ken Lashley and Frank Martin
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Publish Date: 07/19/2017
Acquired via Purchase
