What If…? Uncanny X-Men #1 Review

Madylene Pryor is one of my favourite Marvel characters, and her abandonment by Cyclops, the way she is subsequently robbed of any self and reduced to nothing but a facsimile of the “real” Jean Grey, has long been one of the greatest injustices in Marvel history. It’s a story of a woman robbed of any agency in her own life, slowly stripped down to nothing but hate and forced to rebuild herself from that. And while in the modern era Maddy has been given a chance at redemption and personhood of her own, it doesn’t change the decades she was nothing more than a chapter in Jean Grey’s memories. That seemed to be changing with What If…? Uncanny X-Men.

When this book was announced, I was glad to see a world where maybe those wrongs didn’t happen, and Maddy was given a life of happiness. Even seeing Gerry Duggan as the writer, whose work with the X-Men has varied widely in quality, he treated Maddy well in the Dark Web event and always had a strong voice for Cyclops, so I looked forward to seeing his take. Unfortunately this issue failed to deliver, either as a redemption to Maddy’s story, or a particularly interesting What If…?

Despite being in the title of the story, Duggan seems entirely uninterested in Maddy herself. She’s treated as nothing more than a clone of Jean both in character and the plot, despite the fact her being a clone wasn’t even known at this point in time and was only revealed during Inferno. This secret being revealed early matters less than what Duggan does with information, which is nothing. How does Maddy and Scott’s relationship work in a world where both Jean and Maddy are present, but Scott has chosen Maddy? It just does. How does Scott cope with leaving the X-Men behind, a constant struggle even after his defeat from an unpowered Storm? Oh he’s just fine with a normal life now, outright refusing the call to action even after events like Genosha. How do Jean and Maddy coexist? They just do, until Jean decides they can’t and goes off to space somewhere. The issue avoids every hard question about this scenario that would provide any sort of interesting character work, instead opting for a vague sideshow of Scott and Madelyne’s idyllic life for over a decade, raising little Nathan in peace while the universe goes about pretty much unchanged. And don’t worry, Jean Grey wipes Mister Sinisters mind for a bit so nothing too interesting can happen to Nathan. 

Duggan’s treatment of the women in What If…? Uncanny X-Men is quite appalling. Madelyne is reduced to nothing but a doting mother to Nathan, with no real thoughts or personality of her own. There is nothing to distinguish her from Jean Grey despite the two having quite different personalities. She inexplicably has Jean’s powers, she goes off to become a superhero despite that being something Maddy never wanted and is ultimately fridged to make Scott sad. Jean’s treatment is even worse, simply taken out of the story to avoid any real conflict as soon as Scott and Maddy enter the public eye, which is 10+ years into the issue’s story itself, and she does nothing except mind-wipe Sinister in that time. Storm, despite being Scott’s co-leader of the X-Men is barely even mentioned. And Emma shows up once looking hot enough to give Scott a brief moment of doubt, and by brief I mean a single consequenceless panel that is immediately moved on from. Duggan is simply only concerned with giving Scott a chance to make up for being a poor father and has no interest in even acknowledging he was also a poor husband.

Another issue i have with What If…? Uncanny X-Men is how wholly uninterested it is in the era that sparks its divergence points, opting to largely skip ahead to modern times and deal with tweaked versions of Uncanny X-Force, Academy X and Krakoa. Falling once again into the classic “Scott Summers is a bad guy now, but we’re only going to tell you this while showing him doing regular superhero things” trope that was beyond tired by Death of X and felt even more uninteresting this time around. Despite treating Scott as the real focal point of the issue, it has absolutely nothing to say about the character and provides next to no characterisation for him or anyone except a brief moment in the first few pages where Scott reflects on his own fathers abandonment when deciding to stay with his family instead of X-Factor. 

Jan Bazaldua is the saving grace of this issue, and does some of her strongest work here, especially on the action scenes and the pairing with Arthur Hesli on colours complements it perfectly. I still struggle to connect with her emotionless doll faces at times aside from the few brief moments the script allowed Jean Grey to feel something, which I think Bazaldua portrays beautifully. It feels strange for the more complex sadness to be captured so well while others feel so bland. As mentioned, Bazaldua’s work shines during the more action heavy scenes, but the quick cuts through time leave few of those.

What If…? Uncanny X-Men is ultimately a waste of a really interesting premise, opting for Krakoan cameos over any sort of actual character work as it retreads the exact same mistakes it seeks to fix if not making them even worse. A total disappointment.