JLX Unleashed #1

The Unextinguishable Flame!

The new chapter of Amalgam Earth's mightiest heroes is brought to you courtesy:
Priest Writer
Oscar Jiminez Penciller
Hanibal Rodriguez Inker
Ken Lopez Letterer
Patricia Mulvihill Colorist
Ruben Diaz Editor

Apparently the DC-Marvel mashup was a big enough hit to warrant another batch of books in 1997. So here we are with a "new" JLX series, which unfortunately does not include the Impulse-Quicksilver character, Mercury. He does show up in a quick flashback, so I'll keep this post equally quick.

Our story begins with the Hellfire League of Injustice summoning the powerful Fin Fang Flame, whom we see on the cover. The fiery dragon flies around killing everything in sight, and proves too tough for the Judgment League Avengers to handle alone. So Amazon (the cross of Wonder Woman and Storm) seeks the aid of Mr. X (Martian Manhunter and Charles Xavier). Mr. X tells Amazon that his team, JLX, is pretty much in shambles since the Armageddon Agenda, which legislated war against the metamutants. Many were killed or imprisoned, but Mercury was lucky to escape to the future with Iriskani (Iris Allen and Askani).

Apparently things got so bad, Mercury lost his usual blue suit and had to wear a red suit that looks exactly like Impulse's. Anyway, Mr. X reluctantly agrees to help Amazon, and everybody battles Fin Fang Flame, ultimately defeating him thanks in large part to Apollo (Ray and Cyclops), who drained the dragon's energy. It's all very over-the-top and melodramatic, which makes it fun — I'm just sad Mercury didn't have a larger role here. And as far as I know, this is the final appearance of Mercury, which is also a shame because I felt like there were more stories to tell with him. But I do understand how difficult it must have been to pull off this Amalgam series.

There are more fake letters to the editor, but none of them mention Mercury, so let's head straight into the ads:

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More Amalgam Comics: Challengers of the Fantastic #1, Generation Hex #1 and Iron Lantern #1.

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Next time, we return to normal with Impulse #26.