X-Men #27 - Review/Spoilers

[JB]

While Noto’s art is always beautiful there honestly weren’t any pages that jumped out at me to post. But we are circling back to an old plot point, folks.

We open with the preview pages as Shadowkate sneaks into the Henry Gyrich "Re-education Center" on Randall's Island, NYC. An Orchis prison. She moves through different rooms and is surprised to find Juggernaut alive. He tells her that the adamantium coil around his neck is a noose around the prisoner in the next room. It's Cyclops and Kate is shocked by his condition, his eyes sewn shut. She's about to start freeing him but stops, instead phasing inside his body to find that he's boobytrapped. She tells Juggs that Scott is on a dead's man switch, a living trigger for some kind of bomb. Kate takes the collar off of Juggs but tells him to buy her some time by breaking out tomorrow. She needs to finish the mutant head count Synch tasked her with. Before she leaves he asks her if any of the other X-Men survived. She won't say (for everyone's protection) but says she'll tell him everything once he's out. "We are all X-Men now, Marko. Resist."

Kate returns to the Morlock Tunnels to meet with the team and presents a heavily damaged Cerebro helmet she found in the Orchis facility. She's unsure where they got it from. We learn that Synch's next mission is retrieving Reed Richards' memories that Xavier erased, the memories of how he was able to mask Franklin's x-gene waaaaay back in the X-Men/Fantastic Four mini from the 1800's. The Cerebro helmet might be perfect for such a mission. Kamala questions why Xavier would do such a thing and Kate is like running a country was harder than it looked, Ms. They decide to go out to Arizona where the Fantastic Four are but Kate opts out.

Data page about Rasputin. We're reminded that though she's a mix of 5 mutants she did not receive the maximum power levels of each. In a very ominous paragraph, we're also told that Rasputin has been staying close to Kamala because of "great tragedies" that befall Kamala in the future. She has privately sworn to be at Kamala's side in hopes of changing the future and writing a better outcome for her.

Rasputin somehow procured an old Lincoln car and uses her TK to fly it to Arizona with Kamala, Talon, and Synch inside. I haven't been following the Fantastic Four book but we're told after the disaster in New York they quit social media and headed west to Ben's family farm.

To be honest, the next few scenes fall kinda flat for me and seem forced so I'll move through them quickly. They arrive, Rasputin marches forward to find Reed, Ben hears her say they'll hold Reed down if they must, he confronts her, she punches him. It's all a bit silly. Rasputin telepathically puts Johnny to sleep. Reed and Sue come outside, words are exchanged with Rasputin, she punches Ben again. Kamala does her best to calm the situation. Raspy tells Reed they need the info about masking the X-gene that Xavier took and Reed surprisingly agrees. He says there's been enough mistrust between them all and maybe things would have been different if they all had worked together. He admits that perhaps his fear of his son in their care colored his judgment... It's a very good look on Reed's part as he understands the information could help the mutants.

Unfortunately Rasputin, despite using Cerebro, cannot find the information as there's a deep empty hole where it should be. She says the info of how Reed masked the x-gene was thoroughly removed. Hearing the word masked, Kamala recalls that at the gala Xavier said the Terrigenesis that granted her Inhuman powers masked her mutant one. Reed goes silent then suddenly starts laughing, high-fiving Kamala. He remembers now that low doses of the mist can mask the x-gene without harming mutants. He shakes Kamala's hand, says he's glad Krakoa righted the wrong of her death, and says he'll message them once he creates something to assist them. The X-Men leave.

Ben makes a joke to Johnny about how it's always touch and go with the X-Men but tonight they were bums. Sue turns to them with a stern look and says, "They've suffered a great loss - again. Let's remember life is chaos and we should be kind. We all have an Orchis problem. They are the real monsters." Go off, Sue.

Final page is Stasis and Firestar having dinner. He informs her that Juggernaut somehow got out of his adamantium collar but thankfully Nimrod was on site and beat him down again. Stasis says rather than execute him, he's going to surgically extract the "magic gem" running through Jugg's body and ingest it himself. "I hope the world is ready for Dr. Juggernaut. I've scheduled him for an autopsy in the morning." Firestar chokes on her wine for a moment then apologizes, saying it went down the wrong way. Her face shows great concern as Stasis continues eating.

"Next: Jail Break!"

[Krakoa]

This was alright. Much better than issue 26 but still not living up to the promise of those last few pages of 25. Nice to see the Reed stuff coming back in an unexpected way (though it makes me wonder about his deal with Kate) but overall this series doesn't have the same breakneck pace as most of the rest of the Fall.

[CGAR]

I guess they have to slow burn until the new launch but I feel like this could have had more done in it.

[Rift]

He remembers now that low doses of the mist can mask the x-gene without harming mutants.

So Reed was poisoning his son? I know it's safe in small doses, but like? Like? I know I'm overreacting, but that's kinda messed up in my opinion. It makes the invasion of his son's bodily autonomy seem worse, because now he did it with a potentially dangerous chemical, that could kill Franklin in a horrible, painful way in any other circumstance.

That stupid FF/X-Men mini is cursed and everything that comes out of it has been cursed.

[Krakoa]

So Reed was poisoning his son? I know it's safe in small doses, but like? Like? I know I'm overreacting, but that's kinda messed up in my opinion. It makes the invasion of his son's bodily autonomy seem worse, because now he did it with a potentially dangerous chemical, that could kill Franklin in a horrible, painful way in any other circumstance.

That stupid FF/X-Men mini is cursed and everything that comes out of it has been cursed.

It was fucked up in that mini too, IMO, even if we didn't know the method. Xavier was right to do what he did.

[Krakoa]

I guess they have to slow burn until the new launch but I feel like this could have had more done in it.

I feel like none of the other books feel slow to me right now, so not sure why this one is lagging behind.

[Handsome men don't lose fights]

When did Nimrod become strong enough to begin slapping around Juggernaut at will? This is dumb.

So Reed was poisoning his son? I know it's safe in small doses, but like? Like? I know I'm overreacting, but that's kinda messed up in my opinion. It makes the invasion of his son's bodily autonomy seem worse, because now he did it with a potentially dangerous chemical, that could kill Franklin in a horrible, painful way in any other circumstance.

That stupid FF/X-Men mini is cursed and everything that comes out of it has been cursed.

It's a Duggan retcon. you're not going to take it seriously, are you?

[gonnagiveittoya]

It feels very noticable that they highlight Rasputin's gene makeup of five people, but when Reed scans her he can only detect four of them. Everyone but Kate.

[Frontier]

Well, this was tough as a Ben Grimm fan but it seems like Duggan is trying to make sure X-Fans don't keep thinking of Sue Storm as a Karen.

[danielsan52]

So does this mean Franklin (and possibly even Wanda and Pietro) has been "masked" with Terrigenisis and he has been a mutant all along?

I hope so, and I hope he turns his back on Krakoadom for abandoning him.

[Jackraow21]

This one was pretty “meh” to me. Looking forward to next month with Cassara back on art… and hopefully Logan finally showing up and joining this team.

Need some Logan-Shadowkat ninja action.

[CGAR]

Kitty bringing up the main OGs but not Betsy or Rachel ;(

[Criticalfan]

When did Nimrod become strong enough to begin slapping around Juggernaut at will? This is dumb.

Since... 1985???

https://lowbrowcomics.wordpress.com/...aut-vs-nimrod/

[Alpha to Omega]

Don’t Juggernaut’s powers come from his armor now, since Magik crushed the gem? Or is Duggan ignoring that?

[Fokken]

Don’t Juggernaut’s powers come from his armor now, since Magik crushed the gem? Or is Duggan ignoring that?

Perhaps Orchis's intel on Cain is outdated.