Read our review of X-Men: The Wedding Special from Marvel Comics, as Mystique and Destiny get married to kick off Pride month.
We reviewed the book on the Stack podcast. But in the interest of highlighting more about the title, here’s a summary of the conversation with our thoughts. And if you prefer the longer audio version, that’s below as well!
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X-Men: The Wedding Special Review:
In this Pride month special, Mystique and Destiny are getting married. Meanwhile, we get tales surrounding the wedding, including one with Rachel Summers and Betsy Braddock, one with Logan and kids, and a Rogue and Gambit one as well.
Given the way this straddles the Krakoa era of the X-Men and upcoming continuity, host Justin Tyler noted, “I like the way that it plays fast and loose with the continuity because it’s not about that… It’s more about the actual celebration. The Mystique and Destiny stuff was my favorite part of it. They’ve done a great job of lifting up this story and making it a nice part of what’s been going on lately.”
Tyler added that he thought the “romance here is just really well done,” and appreciated the inclusion of Nightcrawler as well. However, the stand-out for him was some text in the back of the issue. “There’s an interview with Chris Claremont in the back, talking about how important their story was, and the fact that he had to sort of work around the Comics Code Authority back in the day, but they were always intended to be a couple,” Tyler continued. “That I thought was super interesting and a great corollary to the current continuity action and the wedding itself.”
Pete LePage also loves “a love story that really showcases how two people are connecting and how they are working together.” And the fact that — spoilers here — the whole wedding is a front for a heist from Mystique and Destiny was “such a cool way to showcase two characters you know, knowing who they are and being together.”
On that note, Alex Zalben added his favorite running joke in the issue was everyone wondering whether they should be supporting these two villains, with Anole making shirts that have a picture of Mystique with the text “Bisexual Menace.” He also gave a shout-out to Tini Howard’s story for channeling classic issues of Excalibur, and the story of Logan paling around with kids had nice shades of Wolverine and the X-Men.
X-Men: The Wedding Special Official Synopsis:
WEDDING EXTRAVAGANZA! Mystique and Destiny are one of the most beloved – and longest running – gay couples in history. Somewhere in their 100+ years together, the pair married, but we’ve never seen the event on the page. This year, Marvel’s Voices: Pride makes history with Marvel’s first woman-to-woman wedding! And with a couple as complex as these two, you know there’s a lot more to the story. We promise party crashing! Villainy! Romance! In the classic tradition of Fantastic Four Annual #3 and X-Men #30, this anthology will be a must-read for every comics fan. Featuring the Marvel debuts of award-winning writers Yoon Ha Lee (Ninefox Gambit, Machineries of Empire) and M. Louis (Agents of the Realm), and much more talent to be announced!
