This week: our main review shines a light on X-Men #26, the start of a new story arc for the Jed MacKay/Netho Diaz comic. We’ve also got a look at the new X-Men Annual for 2026 and Star Wars: Shadow of Maul #1!
X-Men #26
Writer: Jed MacKay
Penciler: Netho Diaz
Inker: Sean Parsons
Colorist: Fer Sifuentes-Sujo
Letterer: VC’s Clayton Cowles
The trouble I have with this current era of X-Men comics are best captured in this issue of X-Men by the team of writer Jed MacKay, artist Netho Diaz, and colorist Fer Sifuentes-Sujo. None of it is bad, technically, but none of it amounts to anything of substance, nor is it particularly entertaining for that matter. Compared to the Krakoa era of X-Men which, while flawed and at times editorially aimless, at least was always dedicated to trying new ideas and putting forth bold, visually arresting comics. Netho Diaz is a talented artist, no doubt about it. His characters all look and act like individuals, his layouts and visual pacing, with the timing and placement of splash pages and big action moments hit all the right beats for a superhero book. I love his subtle acting and motion, like Cyclops hopping out of the back of a pickup truck.
But this comic book is a dreary, murky slog. Our heroes are bickering, sidelined, and in hiding. Still. The action takes place in such visually diverse locales as a cold, empty warehouse, all the way to a dark, crowded warehouse. Sifuentes-Sujo’s colors are oppressively dark and muddy, adding a palpable dourness to Sean Parson’s heavy inks. Even the peaceful scenes of Glob Herman at a farmer’s market are heavily shadowed and set at a hazy dusk when they’re meant to mostly be an idyllic aside.
There’s a barrenness and claustrophobia that permeates this issue. The characters are lost in a desolate world without life or vibrancy for their hopelessness to play off of. Characters feel cramped and trapped in the oppressive cold spaces, constantly crouched or peering around corners. They’re isolated from any larger world.
All of this would be fine in service to a larger point but like so much of the X-Men comics right now there doesn’t seem to be one. The misery feels purposeless and serve only to beat down our downtrodden heroes for daring to assert their personhood in Krakoa. It’s as if Marvel is dedicated to pushing the X-Men into a dark corner where they belong to be something “familiar” to older readers. But this playing to nostalgia does a disservice to just about every potential audience who might read an X-Men comic. It’s a misguided effort in part because even when dealing with heavy subject matter and themes of oppression, X-Men comics were never as hopeless or joyless as this book has felt since the first issue. Nearly every discussion is about tactics and strategy, bereft of human warmth or camaraderie. There are snippets of the mutants trying to integrate with the community, but that is undercut by the ending and the empty panels leaving the X-Men largely on page by themselves. More than dealing with any threat, they talk about off-panel enemies. It doesn’t read as tension so much as paranoia.
This isn’t a bad issue of comics, all of these people know how to do the technical parts well. But it is craft in service of selling X-Men #26, not telling a human or emotional story. And that’s just not enough.
VERDICT: SKIP
The Rapid Rundown
- Star Wars: Shadow of Maul #1
- As a fan of writer Benjamin Percy’s work, I was excited to see what he could do in a galaxy, far, far, away, and he delivers. This issue is all about the setup for the new animated series Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord, but it’s not a throwaway story. Percy, artist Madibek Musabekov, and color artist Luis Guerrero introduce readers to the new locale of Janix, a Mid-Rim world that feels like Mos Eisley on meth or Gotham City in space: dark, gritty, and full of baddies, the perfect place for Maul to carve out an empire of his own. For a book titled Shadow of Maul, we don’t get to see him until the end of the book, instead we follow Captain Brander Lawson, a no-holds-barred space Jim Gordon type, and his security droid Two-Boots as they try to uncover a local smuggling operation. It’s a spectacular mess of an operation, but it helps show how the two work together, which is important if they’re are on a collision path with the very dangerous Maul. This book functions as great entertainment, a perfect lead-in to the show, and a solid jumping-on point for readers curious about how Maul made his way to controlling the Five Crime Syndicates, after the events of the Clone Wars. A moody sci-fi noir that opens up a new corner of the Star Wars Universe with blasters blazing. – GC3
- X-Men Annual 2026
- The 2026 X-Men Annual is a reminder of what makes the X-Men such a potent concept. X-Men at its core is a book about wanting to belong. About finding community among fellow outsiders to make each other’s lives better. The story by writer/artist Ryan Stegman then asks “What if someone didn’t find community with the X-Men?” He introduces an angry former student calling themselves The Creationist, a mutant who bring anything imagined to life. He sends two monsters to fight the X-Men team in Louisiana. Part of the fun of this annual is that it’s an artist’s jam with artist Steve Skorce drawing the bulk and aided by Stegman and Sanford Greene. Seeing Skorce drawing anything for Marvel, given his more lucrative career as an in demand storyboard, always feels like a gift. The best annuals are showcases for talent and Skorce remains one hell of a talent. So getting his dynamic art on an X-Men annual becomes a perfect fit. Even better Greene and Stegman get to draw some fun monsters to populate the story. Among all the fighting with monsters and insecure villains though, Stegman’s script deals with current discussions of how important human imagination is in the creation of art. That even if you’re not a great artist, the human need to create is more important than the need for perfection. How sometimes even a less than perfect piece of art can save the day. X-Men as a book has inspired so many artists and this issue reads as a thank you to the book for that. – DM
