This series is full of death, but apparently Edie’s death last issue actually had an impact on the characters, as well as their devious millionaire wunderkind funder, Spike Freeman. Spike decides the team needs to rebrand with a new name and starts recruiting members. Most will not be seen again. But a few will get recurring roles, namely Washout:
And Venus Dee Milo. We also meet Simon O’Sullivan, a lawyer for U-Go Girl’s family, who is a mutant and a public relations person.
He’s half Irish and half Jewish. Strange thing to emphasize.
Meanwhile Orphan, who has never been a fan of Spike and who loved Edie, takes matters into his own hands and announces a new name himself, the last word Edie said before she died: X-Statix.
In a meta twist that has become typical in this brilliant book, renaming the team and relaunching is what Marvel will do with several series in just a few months—so just as Orphan undermined Spike’s plans, the comic gets ahead of the others in the Marvel publishing line. It happens on the last page…
…With a cliffhanger to next month’s #1.
Excellent.