X-Manhunt Omega #1 is a Predictable Crossover Conclusion (Review)

“From the Ashes” has been an somewhat lackluster follow-up to the Krakoa Era, taking the various X-teams to regressive status quos, while not giving readers very much new. It’s hasn’t even been a year yet, but the X-line has gotten its first major crossover in “X-Manhunt”. The story revolved around Xavier escaping Graymalkin prison, battling the X-Men and X-Factor, and retrieving the last Krakoan resurrection egg, all in order to resurrect the one person who could save his daughter Xandra — Lilandra Neramani, the former Empress of the Shi’Ar Empire. All of this has led to X-Manhunt: Omega #1. This big blow off story closes out the various plot lines brought up throughout “X-Manhunt”, but honestly, if you’re not into the decisions being made by X-Men group editor Tom Brevoort, this book is just going to be another X-Men comic.

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It starts with a flashback to the time after “Raid on Graymalkin”, a story that saw the two teams of X-Men fight over whether they should free Xavier and the prisoners at Graymalkin. Cyclops and Rogue discuss whether they should free Xavier, with Cyclops saying they should leave him in prison, and Rogue saying she’d never leave any of the X-Men behind. The book jumps back to the present, with Storm and Sage talking about the situation, all while showing the crimes that Xavier was imprisoned for, before Storm agrees to give one of the Storm Sanctuary’s engines to Sage for a mysterious purpose that involves a giant mech. The story jumps around a bit here, as the X-Men and X-Factor try to find where Xavier’s hiding. Cyclops and Magik end up in Reynisfjara, Iceland, as Lilandra does brain surgery on Xavier. At first it seems like Xavier’s not there, but then a ship launches. Cyclops and Magik work together to destroy the ship, but Xavier isn’t onboard. Magik falls, but is caught by a giant demon she summoned. Sage appears with a megaphone and talks about how she was able to trick Magik, and John Wraith shows up in the giant mech to fight Magik’s demon.

During the battle, Magik’s demon takes the worst of it, but Cyclops is able to destroy the mech. Cyclops runs to an injured Magik just as another ship launches, and Magik uses the last of her energy to teleport him to it. Cyclops tries to break in when Xavier’s astral form comes out to argue with him, finally telling Cyclops that the humans he was accused of killing were just simulacrums and that he did it all so everyone would hate him, not the entire mutant race. Storm is able to shoot Cyclops off the ship, allowing Xavier to escape. Cyclops has a panic attack, his powers flaring out of control, that is only stopped when Wolverine stabs him in the gut. However, Xavier decides that he wants to say good-bye, so they go back. There’s a big speech where Xavier says farewell, telling them to work together instead of fighting, and leaves with Lilandra, inviting them to the Shi’Ar Empire whenever they want.

So, let’s start with the good. This issue is an example of a well-paced, well-structured big fight issue. Writers Gail Simone and Murewa Ayodele do a great job of telling an entertaining story, one that moves at a nice clip with some great action. There’s a cool little thing that the creative team does during the battles, naming the particular moves — for example, “The Red Surfer” or “The Jaw Annihilator” or “The Scarlet Scattershot” — which makes the fight scenes a lot more interesting. Everyone is in character, the last speech is cool, and the issue deals with Xavier’s brain tumor. The rapport between Cyclops and Magik is awesome. The art, by Gleb Melnikov, Federica Mancin, and Enid Balam, is mostly great, especially Melnikov’s pages.

However, the problem is that everything about this story is basically predictable. When “X-Manhunt” started, it was hard to guess where the story was going, other than the X-Men fighting each other again. However, as each issue went forward, and the real story started getting revealed, it was easy to guess what was going to come next. This issue also suffered from that. Anyone who opened this book and didn’t guess it would end with Xavier leaving wasn’t paying attention to this story. The predictability is one of the problems with Brevoot’s X-Men; it’s easy to guess what direction he wants to take everything. On top of that, a lot of the pages are just repeating things that readers already know. We already know that Rogue wants Xavier free and Cyclops doesn’t. We already know that Xavier didn’t destroy the Spiro Agnew. This issue really didn’t do anything new, and that’s been the biggest weakness of “From the Ashes”.

From a structural level, there’s nothing wrong with X-Manhunt Omega #1. It’s a well done issue with some cool scenes and good moments. But it’s endemic of the problems with “From the Ashes”. It’s predictable and it feels like it’s setting everything up for the eventual return to the Mansion. This is how Brevoort’s X-Men works; there are no new ideas and everyone already knows the goal. If you enjoy that goal, then you’ll be very happy with this issue. If you don’t, like me, than this issue is more of the stuff you don’t like.

Rating: 3 out of 5

Published by Marvel

On March 26, 2025

Written by Gail Simone and Murweda Ayodele

Art by Glen Melnikov, Federica Mancin, and Enid Balam

Colors by Brian Reber

Letters by Travis Lanham