X-Men #31 - Review/Spoilers

[JB]

I liked this issue more than I did the previous one as the overall plot moves forward.

We open with the preview pages, Synch and Talon sitting on a bench inside Synch's mind. Talon tells Synch that they're about to launch an invasion of Earth and that he has more important places to be. He doesn't want to let her go but she insists because using Jean's gift to keep her in his mind is destroying his body. In reality he's curled up in bed in the Morlock Tunnels, Nightcrawler and ShadowKat trying to care for him. Kate says Synch popped bone claws and trashed his bunk but without Talon's healing powers he couldn't sew himself up. He's fighting an infection and his blood pressure is through the roof. They may have to risk taking him to a hospital.

Kate says she wishes they had some good news and Spider-Man radioes (I guess) from the roof of the Oscorp building. He's with Ms. Marvel who tells Kate that the High Evolutionary's bio-bomb that Synch secured last issue is doing the trick. It's discreetly delivering countermeasures for the Orchis hack of the Krakoan medicines. We see the orb flying through Seattle and soon it'll go into Canada. Kamala and Parker are happy with the progress when Nimrod appears on the computer monitor in front of them. He says he bet they thought Orchis wouldn't notice them until it was too late but they were wrong.

Back inside Synch's mind the environment around him and Talon is starting to catch fire. Before she died he was able to sync with her which allowed him to heal the damage caused by syncing with mutants not in the vicinity. He can't do that now and the stress is not only stressing his body it's collapsing his mind. Talon insists he let her go, that he can't take anymore. They both hear a voice saying to Synch that he is needed. It's Kate leaning close to Everett as he sweats profusely in reality. She tells him Nimrod found Kamala but they need more time for the bio-bomb to finish a chunk of North America. As she starts to phase out of the room she says he can't let Talon's sacrifice be in vain, that more X-Men will die if he's not in the fight. Weakly, Everett says he can hold on, that they need a cerebro cradle.

Spider-Man starts to wrap the computers/machinery controlling the bio-bomb in webbing when Nimrod appears and punches him and Kamala. He's about to smash the system when Kurt teleports in then teleports Nimrod from the roof down to the street. Nimrod does a Hulk clap but Kurt bamfs out of the way, cars flipping over from the impact. Kate phases from below and drives her daggers into him. He turns around calling her an annoyance but it distracts him long enough for Peter to drive a dumptruck into Nimrod. It doesn't do much as Nimrod grabs Peter through the windshield and hoists him in the air. Thankfully Kurt bamfs Peter away. Not for long though as Nimrod catches up to them - Kurt is winded from teleporting Nimrod and couldn't port far this time. Nimrod energetically grabs them both, a bystander curses at him and steps up to help but Kamala pulls him back. Kate phases through Nimrod but he tells her that her ability disrupted a lesser Nimrod and he is the greater. She's like yeah I wasn't shooting my shot yet, I just wanted your eyes on me. Wolverine lunges at Nimrod from above and stabs his claws into him. Doesn't do much though as Nimrod slams him to the ground.

We get a scene at the Hellfire Club, a police car pulling up to it. Kingdom is having a meeting (looks like Shaw is there) and his assistant tells the room that the drums of war are growing louder and that an offer of fealty is to be made. (?) A police officer enters whispering into Fisk's ear. He tells everyone to leave and Typhoid Mary is brought in. She seems to be switching from Mary to Typhoid and back but Fisk doesn't care, he's happy to have her back as he kisses her.

The landscape in Synch's mind continues to burn as Talon tells him Scott and Jean trusted them with leadership of the X-Men and today they have to pay for it. That if they succeed then Orchis won't have anymore hostages. "That's the job. To save as many people as we can every day" she says.

Everett: I love you.
Laura: And I loved you. Now go. That's an order.



Logan is seemingly unconscious on the ground and Nimrod punches Kate down too. Nimrod says they could have left for the stars, that he and Orchis may have followed them but maybe they would have gotten away. He says he'll never truly understand them. Synch phases up behind him from beneath the street saying they didn't leave because they belong, because they say so. He hovers above Nimrod and summons lightning.



Nimrod says that was a pretty good shot and if it's the best he can do. Synch, standing with the others, says no but they have a war to win so Nimrod gets a stay of execution for now. Spider-Man announces that High Evolutionary's machine has finished its work, Synch responding that the day is won. Peter grabs and pulls Logan to them with his webbing and as Synch opens stepping discs that each of them drop down into, Synch tells Nimrod that the next time he sees him he will die. Nimrod fires a blast at them but they're gone.

[Kingdom X]

Apocalypse and Genesis looking at them like…. “Longest romance, WHERE?!?”

[Starfish]

What happened to Hickman's Nimrod? This guy is supposed to be the big bad.

[Grunty]

What happened to Hickman's Nimrod? This guy is supposed to be the big bad.

The need to quickly wrap up all of his setups and dispose of the various enemies established which had been lingering in the backround without doing much directly for the longest time.

It's also rather common fiction to have something which was hyped up or even established as super powerfull and dangerous, only to get quickly disposed off all of a sudden because the plot or pacing can't give it the attention it should theoretical still have.

Furtheremore once something has been beaten, it seldomly gains the same gravitas again and will then get beaten much more quickly next time, even if the first time required massive efforts and losses by the heros. Which is why for example Isca the Unbeaten is living on borrowed time, because one day she will get beaten and that means losing her one gimick.

The reasons for this can be varid, but it all comes down to how much a story can devote to presenting and using them.

The same is currently happening with the Dominions. Back in HOX/POX they were presented as massively powerfull beings, seemingly beyond human comprehension because of how their minds go beyond time and space, which required multiple stages of increasingly more powerfull and complex lower tiered hive minds to be formed from billions of individual minds/entities and all that jazz.

But now not only were 3 D-list Sinister offshots on the path of achieving that status but the X-men are currently about to outsmart and beat one.

[danielsan52]

Lack of Angelica's story arc is killing me. I feel like I read this in two minutes. The book is great IMO but should be bi-weekly instead of monthly.

[DurararaFTW]

What happened to Hickman's Nimrod? This guy is supposed to be the big bad.

Synch had to turn into a god and still failed to put him down permanently, it's just the art that isn't doing anything.

[CGAR]

This was a chore to get through. That Synch and Talon relationship is forced and we got people complaining bout Betsy and Rachel *eye roll*

Nimrod jobbed in this issue.

And its so rushed that they already took care of the medicine problem. Ok roger that. No stakes at all.

Im not understanding editorials decision on which stories to highlight.

I bet they are gonna cram of Angelica's plan into one issue of FotHoX.

[Bgred37]

Which hostages are freed? Interested to see the pay of theref with Polaris next week. Especially since she seemingly was going alil rouge based on ShadowKat's pop in on her last FOHOX issue.

[Grunty]

Synch had to turn into a god and still failed to put him down permanently, it's just the art that isn't doing anything.

Valid point. Presentation and dynamic of the art can play an important factor aswell and one here is arguably rather... stiff and dull.

[Whim]

oof man the art was just .... not good. really miss Larraz.

then again the dialogue but Duggan was also .... yeesh.

Synch has become the most bleh uninteresting character. which really sucks as back in Gen X he was good.

just can't wait for Duggan to be gone already.

[davetvs]

This was a chore to get through. That Synch and Talon relationship is forced and we got people complaining bout Betsy and Rachel *eye roll*

Two things can be true at once, babe.

I hated this issue. Nimrod looked weak and ineffectual, the art and scripting during the action scenes was terrible, the solution to Talon/Synch was anticlimactic, etc.

[Rakurai]

Apocalypse and Genesis looking at them like…. “Longest romance, WHERE?!?”

Also, lol at "longest romance" that 99% of happened off panel, like great cheating mate, does not count

[Saturius]

What happened to Hickman's Nimrod? This guy is supposed to be the big bad.

Even Hickman had Nimrod getting owned by Magneto and Xavier in Inferno. Only a gene blocker saved him then.

[JB]

Nimrod is too damn pompous for his own good. He stops and talks when normally I'd expect him to be relentless in his attacks. They really didn't do any damage to him until Synch went god mode so that makes sense. I just wanna see him go full throttle to make him feel more dangerous.

[sbp1972]

Which hostages are freed? Interested to see the pay of theref with Polaris next week. Especially since she seemingly was going alil rouge based on ShadowKat's pop in on her last FOHOX issue.

Orchis infected the Krakoan medicines with a "kill switch" that they can use to kill humans that took the meds. They don't know they are/were hostages, but that is essentially what they were.