This Week in Comics — 2011/02/22

“Astonishing X‑Men” #36

Men­tal­lo is back. The long-time psy­chic-for-hire (he dates back to the ear­ly days of Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. and his work­ing rela­tion­ship with the Fix­er) is now work­ing for Rox­on, one of the major (and malev­o­lent) cor­po­rate play­ers in the Mar­vel Uni­verse. He’s on a ship bound for one of those places you don’t want to go, the appro­pri­ate­ly named Mon­ster Island. Rox­on paid big bucks to Japan for the drilling rights to the island and appar­ent­ly Men­tal­lo is their key to paci­fy­ing the natives. Natives that stand over a hun­dred feet tall and breathe fire, or resem­ble pre­his­toric dinosaurs with radioac­tive shells.

Except he does­n’t see it that way and he does­n’t care any­thing about the oth­ers. (He seems a lit­tle off his game, pos­si­bly even depressed. Not a good thing for one of the most pow­er­ful psy­chics on the plan­et.) With the mon­sters under his men­tal con­trol, he can do about any­thing, and that includes send­ing a cou­ple to stomp Tokyo, and no one can stop him.

Well, except maybe the X‑Men, sev­er­al of whom just hap­pen to be in Tokyo at the time.

Note: Got­ta check the last page: the real mon­ster is pic­tured next to a bill­board adver­tis­ing a Godzil­la movie.