MUTANT X #9 - June 1999

The Uncanny!

Credits: Howard Mackie (writer), Mike Miller (penciler), Andrew Pepoy (inker), Gina Going (colors), Chris Eliopoulos (letters)

Summary: Havok is rescued from the Goblin Queen’s Sentinels by Ben Grimm, Mole Man, and Callisto. He’s taken to the underground, but demands to be freed so that he can check on his son. Callisto arranges for his release, only to reveal that she’s cut a deal with the Goblin Queen to give up Havok in exchange for the underground’s safety. When Havok refuses to surrender, Goblin Queen burns Callisto’s face. Havok fights his former teammates, as Magneto suddenly appears.

“That’s Crazy Because They’re Different”: Callisto’s face isn’t scarred (until of course Madelyne burns it off), and she’s in a relationship with Mole Man.

Better Than X-Factor?: This is probably on the same level as Mackie’s average X-Factor issue. That’s a polite way of saying that it’s a clumsy collection of mashed together, half-formed ideas. It’s hard to be charitable towards a series that has the protagonist falling to his death out of a skyscraper at the end of one issue, then opens the next issue with the same character talking on a pay phone with no explanation whatsoever. I have to confess that I found the non-hideous Callisto and Mole Man pairing amusing at first, but unfortunately Mackie has to do the most predictable thing you can do to Callisto (outside of having her lose a fight to Storm) and ruin her face just a few pages after she’s introduced. The idea that her relationship with Mole Man is based, as far as we can tell, solely on their desire to live underground also seems like a stretch if you think about it. It’s not as if the mainstream Callisto was pairing up with random Morlocks simply because they were conveniently located. Unfortunately, Mackie seems to be falling into the trap of sheer gimmickry every issue of this series and is already squandering some of the decent ideas he established in the opening issues.