...and then there was the time when Dr. Strange led a mutant cult and engaged in cannibalism.

[wizardru]

I sometimes like Warren EllisMark Millar, but sometimes his reach exceeds his grasp, IMHO. At the same time as he was doing some very interesting stuff else with StormwatchAztek, he was freelancing for Marvel and doing....other things.




This was a single issue 'Elseworld'-type story from 2000. Called "Codename: X-Men", it was an alternate Marvel Universe which was...well, by today's standards I'm not sure if it was actually a darker future, honestly. Mutants are considered a danger to society and have been rounded up into prisons. It's not really made abundantly clear why they all have costumes, since it's implied that most of them weren't members of their original teams. I'm not really clear where the divergence from 616 starts, but it's really weird and kinda dark without much benefit.

Colonel America summons his X-men, consisting of Cyclops, Iceman, Deathbird, Goblin Queen (Jean Grey), Mastermind and Wolverine. Colonel America has basically put together a Suicide Squad. They are his expendable men...his X-MEN, GEDDIT?!?! (sigh).

Anyhow, they're sent to find Iron Man, who was sent in a quinjet with an experimental warhead: a nano-bomb, a 'eco-friendly nuke'. It blows up everything and the reassembles the atoms of the area...minus your enemies. But he's gone missing, so they send the X-men to find out why. The usual alternate reality versions of heroes and villains show themselves.

The bomb has been stolen by that Mutant Messiah, Doctor Strange, leader of the Church of the Splitting Atom. Here are the two pages where we meet him and his men:



That's Mastermind there, being the voice on not-crazy. The Church of the Splitting Atom apparently accepts any metahuman of any kind, as you can see by the presence of the Wrecking Crew. Mister Sinister as a henchman is pretty funny, IMHO.



And then Wolverine flies a Quinjet into Dr. Strange. The End.


This whole thing kind of felt like it was terribly, terribly rushed. From the scratchy artwork to the very rushed storyline. I'm not sure what was going on here.

Comments

[mrstatham]

The artwork isn't rushed, or scratchy, it's just Sean Phillips style, which became a lot better while he was doing Sleeper with Bru, and then Incognito and Criminal.

As for Ellis, I love him as a writer, but his early Marvel work seems hit and miss. I know he did a great Carnage story, of all characters, around the same time he was doing this, but he also did Ruins, the antithesis to the Alex Ross Marvels stuff, which was very scary, bleak and miserable. So he is kind of hit and miss, definitely.

[wizardru]

Wow, you know, I didn't make that connection at ALL. He really improved, 'cuz I like his style in Incognito. I didn't post some of the (IMHO) uglier pages.

[mrstatham]

He's definitely better by the time he did Incognito, but I think he and Bru are that good of a mesh anyway. Incognito is a lovely looking book, though. I adore those watercolour covers he did.

[skjam]

If I recall correctly, this was supposed to be a comic book printed within the Marvel Universe itself, (The idea being that the writere just sort of made shit up about public figures.)

[icon_uk]

Yup, this is from that series.

[wizardru]

Wow, you know I never noticed that aspect of it. I see the house-ad on the last page advertising it...but it still doesn't make the concept very clear. I never bothered glancing at the bullpen part..and scanning it now, you'd still have to read three paragraphs until you'd get the joke.

It really is a clumsily executed concept, if I've owned the thing for over a decade and never noticed it.

[squirle]

I never read these comics myself, but I remember the X-Axis' Paul o'Brien review of them making just that point. If this is supposed to be an in-universe comic about the X-Men, how come Captain America is with them? And how the writers even know about Deathbird, the space alien?

[jlbarnett]

he's not Captain AMerica, he's Colonel America. I believe he introduces himself, when Iceman asks if he's any relation, that he's where Captain America will be in a few years if he follows orders and stays away from certain types of women.

[wizardru]

For reasons unexplained, Iceman uses a gun, which is pretty odd, too.

There's a lot of characters that show up here that don't really make sense for the conceit. Deathbird is the first. Why is Jean Grey the Goblin Queen? Who even knows who Mastermind, Lady Deathstrike, Spiral and Mister Sinister? I don't know about the other titles, but this one seems just like an alternate reality without much relation to the concept that I missed.

And for that matter, they kill off a LOT of the characters. For a story that's supposed to be written to take place IN the MU, might it not actually seem kind of odd that they killed of WOLVERINE, of all people? I mean, the only way this would work is if it were a crazy anti-mutant screed, not a comic from Marvels 616 analogue. It doesn't really make sense in that context, IMHO.

[arbre_rieur]

The Deathbird thing isn't implausible as long as the character doesn't resemble the real Deathbird too much, I'd say. If she ever had any fights in public areas with the X-Men, then innocent bystanders would have heard the name used and mentioned it to other folks. Rumor spreads and voila.

[cainofdreaming]

She did have a pretty public fight with the X-Men in the beginning of the first Brood saga. She'd also fought Ms Marvel and Hawkeye before this, on two different occasions not at the same time, though having not read those myself I can't say how public those were.

[kamino_neko]

The Spider-Man one was much the same.

On the other hand, you get the FF one, which is officially licensed, and thus quite complimentary.

I rather enjoyed the fact that the Captain America one was supposed to have been drawn by Steve Rogers and written by...IIRC, Rick Jones. (Sadly, also IIRC, it was really written by PAD, so no posting of that one can happen.)

[icon_uk]

Also worth it for the bit where Rick Jones "congratulates" Bucky on his impenetrable secret identity

[darkknightjrk]

You know...two of Ellis' work I just find absolutely horrible sounding, and they were all purposefully twisted and dark versions of the Marvel Universe. I wonder if that says something.

[icon_uk]

I think that's how he would have been told to write it. This is supposed to be the sort of comic book that residents of the Marvel Universe read, so mutants are treated as being hostile and frankly horrible beings.

[wizardru]

That explains Goblin Queen declaring that it's been proven that mutants really are dangerous scum and humans are totally right to lock them up, torture them and send them on suicide missions. I thought it was really weird, but figured they were just brainwashed or something.

[auggie18]

Hmm. An alternate reality X-men group with Jean Grey in it, written by Ellis? Gee. How long did it take her to die and how horrible was it?

[proteus_lives]

I remember those codename what-ifs. Weird stuff.

[arbre_rieur]

Wasn't this written by Mark Millar?

[misterbug]

Definitely. Not only is it his unsubtle uberviolent style, but he later re-used the name 'Colonel America' in the Marvel Zombies Universe during his run on Ultimate Fantastic Four.

[wizardru]

Yep, you're correct. For some reason, I saw Mark Millar and my brain said "Warren Ellis". Odd. I'll fix that. :)

[bariman]

It makes me wonder about the in-universe stuff about this comic line. Would the real Doctor Strange, if he found out about this comic, want to sue "Marvels Comics" for libel? He's a semi-public heroic figure, and certainly not an evil mutant cannibal cult leader. At the very least, it would be hilarious to see him teleport into the company's offices and look all disapproving.

Are the X-Men at all public figures? One would think they would trademark their name and emblem somehow.