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thebibliomancer · 1 month ago

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Universe X #X!

Still a baffling numbering choice.

Cover featuring: the afterlife versions of Captain America, Quicksilver, Iron Man, Wasp, someone else tiny, Bucky Barnes, Ghost Rider, an elf in a suit?, lady with a gun, Hawkeye, Spider-Woman, someone else, Phoenix, Falcon, and astral projected Dr Strange.

And more. The back cover continues the image but wasn’t included in the unlimited version. I’ll post the combined covers stitch when I make the index for this liveblog.

At this point, with thirteen issues and five specials, I can’t effectively sum up everything. So here’s the pressing bits. The world is doomed again, either from a wonky axial tilt destroying the climate or from Absorbing Man’s rampage. Mephisto’s plan to create a splinter timeline has been stopped. Mar-Vell’s uprising in the realm of Death is falling apart. He has all the pieces of omniscience but is hesitant to risk uniting them.

As a summary, that’s next to useless unless you already know most of what I’m talking about. But we’re neck deep in a very dense story.

Nighthawk repeats the revelation from last time that Mephisto isn’t even the real devil. Mephisto is so offended he fucks off to the Realm of Death to go ruin dead Mar-Vell’s day.

Vision single-handedly resolves the Giant Size Absorbing Man rampage by making Creel intangible so he can’t do any more damage.

I didn’t know he could do that.

But now Absorbing Man can’t interact with the world anymore. He’ll spend the rest of his day essentially as a ghost.

Child Mar-Vell and Thor track down the Silver Surfer where he fell last issue. Marv explains to the shiny space man that there’s one last item on the scavenger hunt. And probably the real reason Mar-Vell asked Silver Surfer to stay in New York.

He needs the power cosmic. And the only way to get it out of Surfer and into Mar-Vell is for Norrin Radd to walk through the Cloak into the Realm of Death and… die.

Silver Surfer is heroic enough to agree to die for the Greater Good. But a dumb problem has emerged. I guess they were in the area of effect when Vision intangibled Absorbing Man. Mar-Vell and the Surfer are also intangible so Surfer can’t enter the Cloak.

Mar-Vell laments that his plan has failed.

And in the Realm of Death things do look dire. Mar-Vell reunited the cosmic consciousness but without the power cosmic, omniscience was too much for him and he’s fallen unconscious.

Mephisto has no trouble knocking out Mar-Vell’s defenders and having him dragged to Death’s throne.

Where Thanos spitefully kicks Mar-Vell repeatedly for always getting in his way.

Mephisto tells Thanos to get out of the way so he can tear out Mar-Vell’s heart. Which won’t do much, since he’s already dead and you can’t double die in the Realm of Death. But it will let Mephisto do dumb wordplay. See, everybody always told him he doesn’t have a heart but now he’ll have one to show off to people.

Just when Mephisto is also done mocking Astral Projection Strange that there’s no hope in the Realm of Death, a huge number of reinforcements arrive to join Mar-Vell’s cause.

Hey, including Captain America! He died earlier in this series but that just moves you over to the dead side of the plot.

He’s wielding his triangular shield because his round shield is indestructible and can’t die, I guess. Who knows how the metaphysics of this all works.

And for those sweating the already established fact that the dead don’t know they’re dead, Captain America was given awareness when he looked into Mar-Vell’s Special Eyes right before his death. The narration establishes that.

Astral Strange is still grim about their hopes for victory, saying this was all about timing and they’ve run out.

But back on Earth, Unpersoned Loki talks Vision into making Absorbing Man tangible. Vision is very reluctant because he wants Creel to be punished for killing the Avengers and one-third of the world. But Loki has a silver tongue, even now that he’s not the god of mischief.

Boom, Creel is tangible. Boom, Silver Surfer can walk through the Cloak and enter death. Boom, Mar-Vell gains the power cosmic and master cosmic consciousness.

Boom, he goes super saiyan.

Mar-Vell explains what was already hinted at. Mephisto is no devil. He’s just another cog in the Ceelstial scheme. He forces Mephisto into his original form so he can’t hide from the truth and then tells him to gtfo.

Then Mar-Vell pulls out the Ultimate Nullifier and says he’s going to ultimately nullify Death to death.

Thanos gets in his way so Mar-Vell has to drop some comic consciousness truth bombs on him.

Thanos only loves Death because for some twisted reason he thinks she his mom. She’s not. She’s an Elder of the Universe, a survivor from the previous one. And the realm of Death is the ruins of that universe.

Um. Alright.

And! Thanos’ mom was a Skrull and that’s why his chin is like that! He raged against Titan because his mom’s fears of what would happen to her if she was discovered! But Thanos’ attack on Titan killed his mom! But Mentor hid her body so nobody would find out she was a Skrull! And that’s how Death was able to manipulate Thanos! This is a lot to reveal in the last issue when Thanos hasn’t really been that important up until now!

Thanos quietly denies all of this as lies but Mar-Vell hands him the Ultimate Nullifier. And ultimately, Thanos turns it on Death for manipulating him.

Death is dead and now Mar-Vell can build heaven.

Back on Earth, Unpersoned Loki has a talk with Absorbing Man before he can continue his rampage.

He tells him that he’s actually far more powerful than even he knows. His is the power of pure imaginatiiion. He can become anything he decides to be so he doesn’t need to be what others define him as.

If Loki can be a hero now, so can Absorbing Man. In fact, the whole world is in his hands right now. If Absorbing Man became just a whole bunch of vibranium, Iron Maiden could guide it to where it needs to be to correct the Earth’s axial tilt. Absorbing Man could save the world. And if not just to prove everyone wrong that only ever saw him as a villain and a killer, then to save anyone on Earth that Creel cares for.

And thinking of Titania, Creel agrees. But he asks if he’ll get a statue for saving the whole damn world and Loki says it’s quite up to him.

And he does leave his Giant-Size Absorbing Man city themed body behind looming over New York as his insides transform into vibranium.

That’s just New York now. It’s shaped like a giant man.

In the realm of Death, Mar-Vell boots Astral Strange back to his body because the world still needs him. And time is weird between the living world and the dead world, apparently, because Strange wakes up from his coma two months after Absorbing Man saved the world.

Which allows for a jump forward to see how everything is getting along now that the world has been saved again again.

Reed Richards and co unabandon Earth and come back in time for Pope Immortus to apologize about that big angry mob he gathered. He concedes Reed was right all along and promises he’ll do what he can to fix the damage he’s done.

Black Knight, over in England declares to the Iron Avengers that they won’t just be England’s guardians anymore, they’ll guard the whole world. King Britain asks Medusa to marry him. Since Black Knight won’t take up the Inhuman throne but has agreed to be heir to King Britain, this will assuage Medusa’s worries about her son. Maybe she and Brian will love each other in time but also the Queen of the Inhumans marrying the King of England will unite the world under England’s rule. Yeah, apparently England just took over the world.

Weird world, Earth X.

The circus X-Men have moved to the Savage Land, into the newly refurbished Sentinel City, now that Magneto is their pal. Belascocrawler lurks in the jungle wondering when the X-Men will redeem him, now that he knows he’s actually Kurt Wagner.

My guy. Just go up to them and say the devil brainwashed me but now I want to be friends again. They don’t even KNOW you’re creeping in the trees, sighing wistfully at them.

Captain America’s face has been carved into Mount Rushmore. That’s apparently what Ben and Alicia Grimm were up to during the big climax. Ben even grouses about it. And wonders, humorously, what’s the big deal about having a face made outta rock.

-laugh track-

Anyway, hugely disrespectful to carve more faces into the sacred mountain. I think Steve himself would be a bit embarrassed by this.

Up on the Moon, Aaron Stack, Machine Watchman, decides that now that he knows about the multiverse, he can’t just leave all those myriad Earths to their own devices. Despite Uatu begging him not to do anything, Uatu is very much planning to Do Something to other worlds.

At a guess, Iron Man 2020, MC2, and Days of Future Past. Pretty popular Marvel AUs and also Iron Man 2020.

For some damn reason, while visiting Gargoyle’s grave, Nighthawk becomes a 3D man.

I’m at the point where I’m thinking this may as well happen.

Despite Nighthawk’s role in the plot being done, I guess he’s getting a new narrative lease on life to continue being important in the next series.

What I think is going on is that he’s still linked to the cosmic consciousness, still tapped into omniscience. I don’t know why that made him 3D when it just turned Mar-Vell into a super saiyan.

As I said, this may as well happen.

Down in the Realm of Death, Mar-Vell shines a light among the dead which sets all their costumes to the proper colors. This is symbolic, I think. He’s enlightening his followers. With light.

But up in the mortal world, Thor goes into the cave where Donald Blake found Mjolnir all those years ago. And Thor realizes that Loki was being honest about the truth of the Asgardians and how Odin was manipulating everyone.

So Thor sex changes into a male man again and plaintively asks thin air “Father. Why?”

Add that to the follow-up pile. Mar-Vell is going to build heaven. Immortus is going to make amends. Thor is probably going to confront Odin. And Aaron Stack is going to Do Something about Celestial embryos in other Earths.

Paradise X is already writing a big check.

So as a whole thing, as fourteen issues and five specials, what did I think about Universe X?

I have a lot of thoughts.

Unfortunately, where they start is that Universe X just isn’t as good as Earth X.

It still had some interesting ideas. Whether or not I like those ideas, they are interesting. Universe X adds to the grand unified celestial theory of everything Earth X posited by adding in more details and filling in some more blanks. Mostly with Mephisto.

I like that the resolution of last series created consequences that the heroes had to grapple with this time. Galactus slurping out the Celestial embryo messing up Earth’s tilt and depleting the core of vibranium. Reed Richards finally understanding what caused the mass empowerment event and building the Human Torches to turn back the clock but only succeeding in aggroing Immortus and his followers.

But its pacing is just so much worse than the first series. The story crawls. Big plot points like the Earth’s axial tilt being screwed up just don’t get a lot of attention. The plot progresses based on new item checked off Mar-Vell’s scavenger hunt or piece of Creel stolen by Wong’s Tong. And when most of the items Mar-Vell collected don’t wind up being relevant, the time feels wasted.

Creel being convinced to save the world is a genuinely clever twist. And a good use of your Unpersoned Loki who has broken free of his narrative. But it doesn’t feel like it’s a culmination of the story.

As far as the pacing goes, it feels like the issue by issue plot was written by the seat of the pants. Like Krueger knew the big plot points but he didn’t have time to brainstorm how to connect them organically.

Universe X started not long after Earth X finished. Marvel wanted to hit the iron while it was popular. And in addition to the fourteen main issues, there were five double size specials. Which I’m pretty sure were written out of order. And Krueger wrote everything.

There’s enough typos in the back of book appendices that I’m sure these books didn’t get a lot of editing passes. No time to fix spelling errors suggests definitely no time to let the plot stew simmer in the ol’ brain pan.

This isn’t an episodic book, it’s a huge epic that’s trying to coherently explain All of Marvel. It needs more careful plotting.

And as a side complaint, while it makes sense to focus on Mephisto as the big villain, given his role in the Celestial plan, I think it left Death without the focus she needed, given she was actually the antagonist of half the plot.

Mar-Vell just drops the lore that she predates the universe and that her realm is the ruins of the previous universe and then we don’t explore what her goals are. Why she was humoring Mephisto by pretending to be subordinate to him. Why anything. We’re not done with Mephisto but we’re done with Death and she didn’t get her due.

It’s theorized by Aaron once that maybe death is fake and something the Celestials invented and Death maybe not being the anthropomorphic personification of death would support that but then, why death? When everything serves the Celestial plan, what is the point of keeping souls or whatever in some vast holding pen endlessly fighting the battles from when they were alive?

So, unfortunately, it’s just not as good as Earth X. Still interesting. Maybe still influential on the rest of Marvel in weird ways.

This won’t be the only time Death is killed thanks to Mar-Vell. We’ll have to see if things work out better than they did for the Cancerverse.

But I’ll probably take a break from Noun X for a while.

Let things settle in my brain before I launch into the next wild thing Earth X brings. And with Mar-Vell promising to build Heaven, how can Paradise X be less than wild?

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