THE CREATORS: Brian Vaughan writes.  Jorge Lucas draws the first arc, and Michael Ryan takes over for the second.

THE FILL-IN ARTIST COUNT: Nil.

WHAT HAPPENED IN 2003: The six-part "Dead Drop Gorgeous", where Mystique stops Cuban Sentinels; and the first half of "Tinker Tailor Mutant Spy", set in South Africa.

Back to the Tsunami books, and the ongoing Mystique series. 

Previous attempts to use Mystique as a lead character had been somewhat unhappy experiences.  She was in X-Factor during the Howard Mackie run, and that was bad.  Then there was the Sabretooth & Mystique miniseries from 1996, which has almost completely disappeared from memory.  (It wasn't very good.)

However, this version has worked out surprisingly well.  As you'd expect from today's Marvel, it's decidedly light on continuity.  There's not much baggage involved here.  Instead, it's a simple set-up: Professor X needs somebody to do his dirty work for him, so that the X-Men can maintain deniability.  So he blackmails Mystique.  That gives us a set-up where Xavier gives Mystique missions and she reluctantly sulks off around the globe to get them done.

This could easily turn formulaic, granted.  But writer Brian Vaughan has livened things up by introducing a subplot with villains trying to buy her out of Xavier's employment.  As a result, the set-up isn't as stable as it first appears, and there's scope to shake it up once it gets tired.

But for now, it's working perfectly well, as Vaughan packs Mystique off to the corners of the Marvel Universe to look into mutant-related problems in Cuba and South Africa.  The book is being written as a straightforward action thriller story, with the settings providing a few political overtones but never overshadowing the plot.  It's intelligent, but moreover, it's good fun.

Vaughan is still probably better known for writing Vertigo series Y: The Last Man.  But he's been doing some surprisingly good work for the X-books over the last couple of years, and his ability to write an action story has been coming along tremendously.  As with the other Tsunami books, this one seemed like a rather pointless exercise when it was announced, but it's now a title I look forward to reading.

Jorge Lucas, who illustrated the first arc, is a solid storyteller, albeit that his early issues had an unfortunate interest in stick-thin women.  Michael Ryan has now taken over with work that's being digitally coloured from his pencils (and looks very good as a result).  Neither of these are particularly flashy artists, but they know how to sell the plot, which is the important thing on a book like this.

As with most of this year's new X-books, you'd struggle to put your hand on your heart and say there was a pressing, urgent need for a Mystique solo series.  But we've got one, and it's quite a good one.  I can certainly live with that.

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