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

JLX #1

A League of Their Own!

Gerard Jones & Mark Waid Writers
Howard Porter Penciller
John Dell Inker
Chris Eliopoulos Letterer
Gloria Vasquez & Heroic Age Colorist and Separations
Ali Morales Ass't. Ed.
Brian Augustyn & Ruben Diaz Editors
Special thanks to Chris Duffy

This is the byproduct of the great DC Versus Marvel/Marvel Versus DC event of 1996. After several of the top heroes of each company battled each other to an indecisive conclusion, DC and Marvel created a handful of standalone comics taking place in the Amalgam Universe, which combined DC characters with their Marvel counterparts. With JLX #1 — a combination of Justice League and the X-Men — we have Aquaman combined with Namor the Sub-Mariner, Cyclops with Ray, Nightcrawler with Creeper, and our lovable Impulse paired with Quicksilver (who recently had a great part in X-Men: Days of Future's Past). This Impulse/Quicksilver character is named Mercury, and although it's not explicitly stated in this issue, I've seen websites name him Pietro Allen. I like how his design is basically the normal Impulse look with a simple color swap — it shows just how great that original Mike Wieringo design is.

Our story starts with a chaotic battle over the waters of the North Atlantic. Apparently Mariner had been framed of some great crime and imprisoned by the Judgment League Avengers. After being rescued by his fellow mutants — a splinter group now calling themselves JLX — they get into a big fight with their former teammates. Mercury is kept busy catching all of Hawkeye's trick arrows before they disable their cruiser. But Captain Marvel bashes the cruiser, preventing Mercury from catching one arrow, which knocks out Runaway.

Finally, Angel-Hawk decides to put an end to the fighting by faking a broken back with the help of the mysterious Mr. X. When all the heroes see one of their own so badly injured, they decide to call off the fighting for now. The Judgment League Avengers take off, vowing to recapture Mariner if his guilt can be proven.

The JLX jump into the cruiser with Mr. X to resume their mission to find the ancestral home of mutantkind. Mr. X warns them that Captain Marvel damaged the hull, which means submerging could kill them all, but they all agree that no risk is too great. Mr. X uses his telepathy to probe Mariner's mind to find the location of Atlantis, and all the heroes brace themselves for their dangerous mission. Mercury, in particular, is quite impatient, seeking any distraction to take his mind off his recent failure with the Flash.

The damaged cruiser nearly falls apart, but it manages to get JLX to the domed city of Atlantis. Once inside, the heroes find all the civilians mysteriously missing. Suddenly, they're attacked by Will Magnus and his army of sentinels. The fight goes poorly for JLX, until Mr. X transforms into a large green alien to chase away Magnus and his robots. Mercury asks X what kind of vitamins he's been taking, but X reveals himself to be J'onn J'onzz, the last survivor of the Skrulls. Mercury wants to chase after Magnus, but J'onn says their priority should be finding the lost citizens of Atlantis.


Wow. What a wild and crazy story. And intentionally so, if I'm not mistaken. Everything was so wacky and over-the-top, it kind of felt like they were making fun of the melodrama that so often prevails in the Marvel comics of this time. It certainly seems like the creators of this comic had a fun time making it, pretending this was part of a much-larger, long-established universe. They created a fake letters page, and sprinkled in tons of editorial references to comics that don't exist. For example, Mercury wasn't fast enough to save Flash from Professor Kang in Flash and The Scarlet Witch #10.

It was kind of boring that Impulse was combined with another speedster, which didn't give him any new powers. But he did have a new "emo" attitude, which was pretty fun. Overall, I'd say I did enjoy this issue. It had a pretty fun and wacky concept, and thankfully didn't take itself seriously. We will see one more of these Amalgam comics, but sadly, Mercury will play a very small role in it. Now on to the ads:

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Next time, we get back on track by heading to September 1996 for Impulse #17.