This could have been so much better but there are storytelling glitches and it’s far denser an issue than it needs to be. The last issue felt like a regular issue of Hickman’s X-Men with some cute elements thrown in to subvert it, but this issue is by the numbers B-list Marvel. Written by committee that’s not surprising, as good as Duggan, Percy and Williams can be, but this is a case of moving characters around first and trying to use dialogue to make the story happen. Despite artist Lucas Werneck’s best efforts there are moments of half decent comedy, but neither the plants, zombies nor Hordeculture elements have adequate payoffs. And a page or three of his art seems completely unfinished, which adds to the problems. It’s an unremarkable piece of work, which bafflingly ignores the opportunities handed to it - we have a generally wobbly plot almost entirely about preventing the Cotati from destroying their ship on Genosha, when the larger issues about Wanda are discarded for no apparent reason. Last issue was an X-Men issue with some cheeky sniping at Empyre thrown in, but this is firmly an Empyre issue, with some X-Men moving about it unengagingly.

It’s a much better issue overall, but the last two issues have set the bar so low I can’t give it huge kudos. The closing revelation is cute but so many of the villainous motivations here are, well, villainous rather than strategic. With stakes this big you’d expect less Dr Evil style mwahaha-ing and more manipulation. The threat to Teddy feels only marginal, give a) Billy would intervene in a heartbeat and b) there’s barely any time left for any threat to cause changes worth paying attention to. Reed Richards and Stark just generally whine while the attack on Wakanda irritatingly mirrors Thanos’ attack in the MCU’s Infinity War. There’s less action and more plot but what there is is thin and there’s little to get invested in with anyone. Mantis? Meh. Cap? Off panel. Thor? Off panel. Sue Richards? Just stands around. Teddy has some good dialogue but Ewing doesn’t have his voice quite right. Valerio Schiti’s art feels a bit more appropriate than usual but it still doesn’t feel epic enough for the scale of the story (I don’t think it’s unfair to compare directly with Neal Adams) and only gets some of the emotional moments. It’s all near-missing again, which feels unnecessary given how long Marvel had to tweak this event during the worldwide lockdown.