- Feb 12, 2022
- 6 min read

110: X-Men (Vol. 2) # 27 - 30 (The Wedding of Scott and Jean)

What’s Covered?

X-Men (Volume 2) # 27 - 30 & X-Men Unlimited # 3

X-Men Unlimited # 3 tells the story of Sabretooth struggling to control his psyche, which leads him to Charles Xavier.

X-Men # 27 - 30 simultaneously focuses on life with Sabretooth living in the mansion and the lead up and execution of the Wedding of Scott and Jean.

Roster Watch

Synopsis

X-Men # 27: Infectia and Threnody

Writer - Fabian Cortex

Pencils - Richard Bennett

The first of two primary plot lines follows Beast and Iceman paying a visit to the villain Infectia as she lays dying in a hospital due to the Legacy Virus. Infectia is paid a visit by none other than Mr. Sinister (posing as a doctor) while he pops in and draws blood. Even though Infectia had tried to kill X-Factor in the past and had almost succeeded in killing Beast, Beast treats her like an old friend and holds her on a rooftop while she dies.

The secondary plot follows Mr. Sinister and a new mutant named Threnody. Threnody is a mutant who can sense other mutants, specifically in this issue those who are dying, and then she releases their pain through explosions that vaporize anyone nearby. Beast, Iceman, and a few other random X-Men (like Rogue) are trying to help Threnody when Mr. Sinister shows up, identifies himself as the doctor they met earlier, and claims to be an ally. He is equally perturbed by the Legacy Virus (If you recall, Stryfe had given it to him instead of Summers DNA during the X-Tinction Agenda), and vows to use Threnody to find other infected mutants in his own search for the cure. Beast decides to let him take Threnody, knowing it's definitely not best for her, but might be best for mutantkind.

X-Men Unlimited # 3:

Writer - Fabian Cortex

Pencils - Mike McKone

Following up directly from the Sabretooth limited Series, Maverick, Gambit, Rogue, and Bishop are tracking Sabretooth around the country as he goes on a killing spree. Sabretooth is looking for a telepath to replace Birdy who was providing him mental relief. This leads him to Professor Charles Xavier and beguns a run where he will take residence at the X mansion.

X-Men # 28: Sabretooth in the Mansion

Writer - Fabian Cortex

Pencils - Andy Kubert

We're introduced to the new dynamic of Sabretooth living in the X Mansion by joining Jubilee in a nightmare about him. Psylocke goes into his makeshift jail to give him what he calls "the glow," which is really a mental soothing of his pschosis, but Sabretooth says that she isn't good enough for him and "prefers the Red Head." It's clear that Sabretooth wanted to work with Jean since he knows Wolverine is hung up on her, and boy she doesn't disappoint. She basically strolls in and bitch slaps him. She uses her telekinesis to keep him back, gives him a speech about how he's worthless, and then refuses to help him. You see him grinning and clearly she has earned his respect.

X-Men # 29: The Hellfire Club is still around

Writer - Fabian Cortex

Pencils - Andy Kubert

Warren spends the beginning of the issue angsting about love, then spends the issue with Psylocke who is fresh off her fling with Cyclops, so I wonder if this is setting something up here. Anything to make Archangel more interesting!

Warren and Betsy dress to the nines and head to the Hellfire Gala, where Shinobi Shaw offers Warren the chance to serve as his White King. Warren declines, as expected, and a fight breaks out.

X-Men # 30: The Wedding of Scott and Jean

Writer - Fabian Cortex

Pencils - Andy Kubert and Matt Ryan (Atlanta QB?)

I 1000% expected the wedding to get broken up by some villain attack, but was pleasantly surprised when the wedding went off without a hitch. I won't hold my breath for their honeymoon. Storm was the maid of honor and Alex was the Best Man. Rachel spent time in her mother's sitting room helping her prepare for the wedding, which I loved to see. Wolverine refused to come to the wedding, but sent everyone, including Jean, letters.

I distinctly remember holding this coming in my hand when I was 11 and contemplating buying it or another comic. I bought Spawn instead.

My Connections

This was pretty fun, and as mentioned earlier, I was totally expecting the wedding to get ruined by some villain but I was glad that didn't happen. This is really fun, but I kind of feel like "Oh, they hadn't gotten married yet?" I recall reading a long time ago during the X-Factor Run that the only reason they didn't get married years ago was because they knew this X-Men solo comic was launching and that it would be the better place for it to happen. Shocking though that it took 30 issues (and 3 years) since it's launch to make it happen.

I'm also trying a slightly new format today. I'm putting slightly less attention into my recaps and covering them earlier, then going a bit deeper into my evaluation at the end. I like it so far and may stick with this.

Creators

Fabian Nicieza is still plotting and scripting these 4 issues as well as the Sabretooth issue of X-Men Unlimited. It's amazing how fill in artists Richard Bennett and Mike McKone can do a decent Andy Kubert impression, with Kubert still doing his best Jim Lee clone work.

I love Nicieza's devotion to the past as he taps in the way back machine from the original X-Factor run to find Infectia. The X-Office is trying to kill off as many named characters as they can to give the Legacy Virus some stakes so her name gets pulled out of the hat.

Character Beats

Nicieza uses Beast to give a clinic on how to show heroism. While most comics will show a superhero rescuing a child from a burning building or refusing to kill, Beast is able to show empathy for Infectia in the last hours of her life, regardless of the evil she had done to him in the past.

It wasn't all accolades for Beast this week. He was put in a tough decision regarding whether he would allow Mr. Sinister to take Threnody or not. While not all of this is put into text, it's clear that Beast has spent more hours in the lab that in the danger room lately trying, and failing, to stop the Legacy Virus. Here Beast puts his heroism aside and allows Threnody to be taken and used by Sinister all in the name of defeating the Legacy Virus. I am in a lot of X-Men social media circles (X Twitter, Reddit, etc.) and I see a lot of talk about how Beast has "gone progressively dark" over the past 20 years. I see this as a step towards the "Ends Justify the Means" and I'm going to be watching closely to see if this is the start of his fluctuating moral compass or just a fluke.

Jean calls scott, Orroro, and Hank to Harry’s Hideaway to talk about Prof X’s judgment regarding letting Sabretooth be at the house. I loved this because it seemed very real. Professor X has been doing some whacky things lately, whether it was pushing Storm to steal documents, wiping Magneto's mind, or keeping Sabretooth at the mansion. It totally makes sense that the senior members of the team would want to chat about it, led by Jean. "Sooooo, does Chuck seem like he's off his rocker or is it just me?" It's not a coincidence that founding members Iceman and Archangel failed to get an invite, but Storm did.

Psylocke is losing some of my respect as she's really a flirting machine. We've been tracking the Scott and Psylocke flirtation run, which is officially over. She spends some time flirting with Warren, but the bridge too far had to do with Sabretooth. It's not super clear, but it seriously seems as though she's flirting with him too, which seems like a poor life choice.

Jean hasn't had much to do in a while, but boy does she shine in her scene with Sabretooth. I mean, she just bitch slapped him and put him in his place. Between that badassery and seeing her call the senior squad to the bar, you can see that she is real heart and soul of this team.

I really like what they doing with Sabretooth. They are finding a way to make him more sympathetic, but there is no attempt at making him redeemable. Both he, and us know that he knows what he's doing and he likes killing. He might be messed up and could use some help to prevent...you know, murders, but he's not going to be redeemed anytime soon.

I like that Warren got entire plot, but I'm getting really tired of seeing him angsting all the time. He deserves to just be happy for a while, and maybe become even more interesting.