X-MEN #18: You Run, Run, Runaway It’s Your Heart That You Betray

This is it! The issue you’ve been waiting for! Synch’s Hellfire Gala outfit is now his costume. In case you forgot, it’s an updated take on his Generation X look. Gerry Duggan and CF Villa are back to give us a scintillating tale that’s been on everyone’s mind since Forge’s adventure in the Vault. Old Lady Laura meets her younger self, where they finally get down to business and hash things out. Will things out amicably, or will the two do what Wolverine’s do? Also, how is Synch taking this? Plus the X-Men save some ORCHIS agents from a death Ray from space. I’m sure Marjorie Taylor Greene has some thoughts on that. So let’s get to it, shall we? 

The original X-23 and Synch have been having a grand time reconnecting after the two were separated at the end of the mission where the two plus Darwin were sent on a scouting mission to find out what the Children of the Vault were up to, and what their plans might be regarding the mutants on Krakoa. Meanwhile the regular Laura has been hanging out with Dazzler, Boom-Boom, and Jubilee killing vampires at the now defunct train station in Detroit (hometown pride here), and that’s where the two Laura’s meet. 

The two Laura’s decide to go it alone so they can have their heart-to-heart, and it goes about as well as can be expected. Feral and violent. This issue gave us some depth to Laura that we really haven’t had in a long time, and kinda sad considering she was on the main X-Men team after the first Hellfire Gala and helped launch this run. Don’t get your hopes up though, because while there is some focus on the two, it’s not a lot. Just in case you thought that was it, there’s still more. 

As stated before, there’s an orbiting satellite that’s run by ORCHIS, and something causes an explosion that forces several of the crew aboard the station to be ejected into space. The crew is saved by a few X-Men, but this is the first time we’ve seen ORCHIS in these pages, so I’m interested in seeing what they’ve got coming for the X-Men. We also get a lead up to the upcoming Lord of the Brood, that’s going to be crossing over with the Captain Marvel book that’s currently in the middle of the Revenge of the Broods with Carol, War Machine, Spider-Woman, Hazmat, and a group of X-Men, so it will be interesting to see how this is going to play out. 

The biggest problem with the issue is the total lack of Firestar. She’s literally had one line and showed up in one panel. This has been an ongoing issue with this run since it was announced that she would be joining the cast. Firestar was the character voted onto the team, but it feels like Duggan has nothing to say about her, and it’s a pity.

Despite the origin of Firestar in the comics, she’s had very little interaction with the mutant community. Much like the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver before that trash retcon, she’s never dealt with the types of discrimination that’s been directed at the mutant community.

It’s a unique situation that could be dealt with to give the book, and character, some needed gravitas.