X-Men #14: Don’t leave me this way. I can’t survive, I can’t stay alive, without your sweet love…

It’s X-Men 14, and it’s the final issue of the flagship X-Men’s book participation in the AXE: Judgment Day event that’s going on, and it’s got very little to do with the event that’s going on, and instead is an issue full of character development for Iceman, who has had very little development since the Krakoan era started. We also get to see the newest winner of the X-Men’s Hellfire Gala’s X-Men lineup, Firestar, and her new costume designed by outgoing artist Pepe Larraz. So without further ado, let’s get going shall we…

The story begins as a group of space pirates, terrorists, gamblers? from GameWorld, the casino that was being run by the sentient mushroom, Cordyceps Jones, and was taking bets on who could destroy the earth now that mutants colonized Mars, and named them the voice of the Sol system. Mutants have already been on the regulars crap list, so these aliens striking while the mutants are preoccupied seemed to be a great time to pull this heist. Unfortunately they were alerted, and Magik and Cyclops ported into their ship to take them out. Unfortunately it was too late for them to stop the gamers from sending a probe into the sun that threatened to make it send a flare big enough to destroy the earth. Enter the star of the show, Iceman…

As stated before, this issue spends time giving some much needed character development of Iceman, and it was definitely much needed, since he hasn’t had all that much since the beginning of the Krakoan era has begun, despite being one of the main cast in the original Marauders title, so Duggan definitely needed to do something for Bobby since he was chosen to join the new official public X-Men roster. So we get a story where Iceman saves the day, and comes out to the rest of the world at large, and while it was very clunky, wasn’t offensive either. It just kinda…was. The story comes across as well intentioned, without coming across as preachy, which I find happens with a lot of mutant pr pieces, like the infamous Havok speech from the first volume of Uncanny Avengers. Havok’s speech was just tone deaf, and caused quite a bit of an uproar in the comic community, but the data page here with Bobby’s feelings on being both a mutant, and a member of the LGBTQ+ community, and it felt okay. 

The other big thread here was Firestar’s big debut as a member of this new team, and I’m excited to see how this plays out. We all know Firestar’s inclusion on this team was decided by an online vote, and I am completely fine with that. It’s not Firestar’s first foray in the X-world, as her first appearance in an issue of Uncanny X-Men in 1985 (Uncanny 193!), and her subsequent mini written by Tom DeFalco, and New Mutant artist, Mary Wilshire, gave us Angelica’s origin story, and her connection to Emma Frost. We also see the scene that would become the biggest scandal this side of Emma’s insistence that she’s only 27 years old (spoilers: RIP Butterrum!), so I’m eagerly awaiting to see how these two interact moving forward. 

What wasn’t brought up here, and I’m assuming for good reason, was the lack of time surrounding Angelica’s role as a…for lack of a better word, spy, or informant, for the Avengers on the political moves regarding the mutants on Krakoa, and planet Arakko. I’m really eager to learn how Firestar’s going to keep this secret while being on a team with one of the premier telepaths on earth, and Synch, who routinely borrows Jean’s gifts (and has no problem using them in ways he shouldn’t), so this could all boil over into something huge. The magnitude of this revelation once the mutant community becomes aware of it could create a fissure between the two supergroups that could top the AvX levels of drama. Especially once Brand’s machinations become public knowledge as well.