Expatriate X-Men #3: Parent Traps

The Blue Dashers have made it to the Limbo Lands, but are stalled by the Darkchild. As a heavy battle ensues, the team takes heavy losses in order to survive. As things calm down, the tangled webs of deceit weaved by Kamala and Thao start to unravel in real time. 

It was stated early on that Thao made a backdoor deal with Mystique and 3K, and here is where we learn that the reason for this deal was that 3K promised to bring back Kitty Pryde (who seems to have a story happening in Book of Revelation). Though that is not the biggest twist in this issue. It is also revealed that Lyrebird made a backdoor deal AROUND Thao’s backdoor deal. His deal was with Darkchild. The reason? To secure the safety of his daughter, whose mother is Magik. 

This brings up a few interesting questions, chief among them being just WHEN Magik had this child, named Nika. Lyrebird debuts in the first issue of this series, and while there is a ten year gap between “now” and the Age of Revelation, the BEST implication is that Lyrebird and Magik met somewhere between the time frame, Magik got pregnant, and then gave birth before she died in the SHIELD attack lead by Revelation. However, this doesn’t seem to work because in issues 4-6 of the AoR Infinity comic (written by Tim Seeley with art by Phillip Sevy) Magik is shown trying to fight her way out of Limbo along with Darkchild, but there is no mention of Lyrebird or her being pregnant. So that leaves another option which is…less than ideal. That being Darkchild and Lyrebird had this child, but while the Darkchild IS Ilyanna, she’s technically not which would sex under false pretenses which is rape. That’s not even getting into Piotr’s non-reaction to his niece and you know what? I’m going to stop there. All that to say is that the twist of Magik and Lyrebird having a child not only comes very out of left field, it also has some very unsavory undertones which I don’t think was the intention of the creative team.

Outside of this very confusing choice, Eve Ewing’s script is pretty good. There are some very good moments between the cast, especially Thao, Bronze, and Piotr when things start to break down during the Darkchild fight. There is also a good reconciliation between the group that looks to move them into a positive direction towards the event’s finale. 

I can’t really say much more about Francesco Mortarino’s pencils and Raul Angulo’s colors that I haven’t already said in previous reviews. These two are a stellar team that help bring the book to life in more ways than one.