- Written by: Gail Simone
- Art by: Javier Garrón
- Colors by: Matthew Wilson
- Letters by: VC’s Clayton Cowles
- Cover art by: David Marquez (cover A)
- Cover price: $4.99
- Release date: November 27, 2024
Uncanny X-Men #6, by Marvel Comics on 11/27/24, sends the Outliers to school in the hope that they’ll learn to get along with humans. The first day goes about as well as you’d expect.
Is Uncanny X-Men #6 Good?
How do you get on board with a title that’s so at odds with itself? One step forward, one step back. Writer Gail Simone has moments of heart and meaning smushed up against a plot riddled with sloppy developments that lack context or believable setup. It’s fair to say Tom Brevoort’s From The Ashes era had a very large trunk of Krakoan baggage working against it, but in this case, Simone’s biggest obstacle is herself.
When last we left the mutants in Uncanny X-Men #5, Rogue discovered her recent bouts of psychic ability were a result of a temporary gift from Harvey X, the young mutant who died in issue #1. Rogue used the power upgrade to defeat the Hag and return her to Warden Ellis for containment. Meanwhile, the new mutants (not the “New Mutants”) got their first taste of battle when they were forced to defend Haven House against the Hag’s army of possessed mutants.
In Uncanny X-Men #6, we begin with a brief flashback to Calico at home with her mother. Calico’s hyper-sheltered life under the thumb of her mother’s controlling influence is demonstrated in stark clarity when the mother orders the firing of a grounds worker who encourages Calico to go to school.
Now, Rogue, Gambit, and Wolverine gingerly try to get Calico to accept the obvious – she’s a mutant. Calico resists at first, ordering her horse to give Wolverine a good, swift kick, but Gambit offers to take the girl for a walk to help her ease into acceptance. Slowly, Calico agrees to accept what her mother (presumably) forced her to deny, and she’s elated over it.
Gail Simone begins the issue by showing just how messed up Calico’s home life made her when her mother treated her like a doll in a dollhouse, denying access or influence from the outside world. Calico’s mindset is understandable, but Simone pushes the mental programming perhaps a bit too far because Calico lived in the wild for some time before coming to Haven House, so you’d think exposure to the outside world would have opened her eyes before now.
After Calico’s breakthrough, we see the ‘Outliers’ dressed for school. Marcus arranged for the young mutants to attend school with Chelsea via an arrangement with the principal. Of course, the mutants encounter annoyingly cliché bullying by boys on the bus as soon as they depart Haven House. The school day doesn’t improve from there.
Later, Nightcrawler and Jubilee are assigned grocery-shopping duties to earn their keep in Marcus’s house. While they’re gone, Wolverine approaches Rogue and Gambit for a favor involving the bottle of liquor he inherited from the dying soldier he received in the first issue. Wolverine’s sheepish presentation prompts Rogue to draw a serious conclusion.
Individually, the collection of scenes leads in conceivably interesting directions, but the tone and themes feel jarringly disconnected, especially when they play out. In effect, the issue loses focus because you don’t know what thread to pay attention to or how they inter-relate, so the flow of the issue turns clunky in a hurry.
In the school, Deathdream and Ransom give the bullies who gave Stutter a hard time on the bus some much-needed comeuppance in the Boys’ Bathroom. Meanwhile, Kurt rescues a child from a runaway camper in the middle of the street while Jubilee is kidnapped by a group of familiar mutants in forced service to Warden Ellis. Lastly, Warden Ellis’s stormtroopers kidnap Calico in the school gym.
The issue concludes with Rogue manifesting a new power – psychology(???)
What’s great about Uncanny X-Men #6?
As with the previous issues, Gil Simone has a knack for strong moments, particularly in the interpersonal connections between the favorite characters, e.g. Rogue and Gambit, Rogue and Wolverine. There’s a charm between their familiar relationship that draws you in, and you can start to see those connections forming between the Outliers, which shows promise for the series.
What’s not great about Uncanny X-Men #6?
There’s no excuse in the X-Men line or Gail Simone’s level of experience for this amount of sloppiness when you consider all the things that don’t make sense, absent a plausible explanation.
Why have Wolverine’s eyes not grown back yet? Where did Calico think her powers came from if her mother convinced her she wasn’t a mutant?
How did a group of costumed mutants enter the grocery store, kidnap Jubilee, and escape without anyone noticing? Yes, Nightcrawler was distracted by a hyper-coincidental rescue in the street, but that rescue took place not more than 25 yards away.
How did a squadron of Warden Ellis’s stormtroopers enter the school without anyone noticing? And why would Calico try to activate her horse powers when the horse is still back at Haven House? She was hyper-sheltered, not brain damaged.
When did Rogue suddenly decide she was qualified to diagnose Wolverine with PTSD? I’m not sure anyone at Marvel is qualified to tackle that weighty subject with the respect and care it deserves.
Too many questions mean a poorly constructed plot, so any good from the small moments gets drowned out by Simone’s self-inflicted sloppiness.
How’s the Art?
Hats off to Javier Garrón for a great-looking comic. There isn’t much action beyond a few brief scenes, but Garrón makes the visuals engaging, especially in the smaller, personal moments.
About The Reviewer: Gabriel Hernandez is the Publisher & EIC of ComicalOpinions.com, a comics review site dedicated to indie, small, and mid-sized publishers.
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Final Thoughts
Uncanny X-Men #6 is a mixed bag of interesting moments and genuine connection between the characters overshadowed by a clunky, disjointed, plothole-riddled script. Gail Simone masterfully executes the heartfelt scenes between the characters, but the general plot is unfocused, and things happen without a plausible setup.
5.8/10
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