Madelyne Pryor’s team of X-Men is barely holding themselves together. Find out if she can lead the coalition against Orchis in Dark X-Men #3 by Marvel Comics!
DARK X-MEN #3 (OF 5)
Writer: Steve Foxe
Artist: Jonas Scharf
Colorist: Frank Martin
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Jordan White
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: October 25th, 2023
Previously in Dark X-Men: After Orchis’ attack on the Hellfire Gala, Madelyne Pryor assembled a team to protect mutant refugees against Orchis. However, they have already suffered significant loss with the death of Archangel and the near-death of Havok. Orchis has taken Archangel’s body and resurrected it as their own puppet, while Havok’s body is slowly deteriorating.
Dark X-Men #3 shows the weak bonds between the Dark X-Men. Emplate is paying some sort of debt to Azazel, and who knows how Zero/Albert is even functioning. Gambit forces Azazel to help in the fight against Archangel and is teleported onto Archangel’s back to kill him. Meanwhile, Madelyne, Havok, Feint, and Zero/Albert see a fungus grove where they believe Marisol Guerra is. As they approach, some of the fungus explodes, and the spores poison them, causing them to fall asleep and into nightmares. Feint can create an air ventilator and resist the effects. She decides to move forward to find Marisol.
Marisol is unwilling to come with the Dark X-Men, not having the best experience with Krakoa. So much so that when Feint is attacked by one of Orchis’ Kurt Wagner creature clones, she banishes them away. Meanwhile, Orchis and the Goblin Queen set the next stage of their plan.
Dark X-Men #3 is vibrant on the page. Each character has a unique look and promises an exciting story. However, I don’t believe that the narrative progressed much. The killing of Archangel to save the Morlocks didn’t have much emotional weight, and they failed to recruit any new members. Madelyne’s team could not convince Marisol to join them. So, in this issue, it’s failure after failure but doesn’t set up eventual success. Without the emotional weight, finding attachment to the characters is challenging. I think Feint will be the crux of the rest of the miniseries. She is young and has a little more compassion than the other characters. But with such a massive cast of characters, it’s hard to imagine she will get enough time to create an emotional connection.
I really like the concepts of this book, but this particular comic fell flat. This may be one of those things that will read better as a trade paperback rather than a single issue. However, there is a lot of promise, and I hope the creative team pulls it off. Dark X-Men #3 is a solid 3 out of 5 stars.
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Dark X-Men #3
Dark X-Men #3 has a ton of failure without the emotional weight needed to make the loss enjoyable.
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Writing5
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Art7
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Coloring7
Christopher Rondeau is a storyteller based in Tulsa, OK. Finding himself with little work, he ended up creating a job as a Game Master full time on the internet. Chris spends most of his days reading everything he can, writing bad fiction, and watching old Digimon cartoons with his daughter. Sometimes you can find him Dungeon Mastering a podcast or streaming on twitch. Recently, he has completed his Master's degree with a focus on collaborative storytelling. Find out more at https://rondeaucreator.com