One of Marvel’s oldest queer couples got back together

For the whole of Marvel’s Krakoan era, there’s been a gay Chekhov’s gun on the mutant mantelpiece in the form of Mystique and her late wife Destiny. The secret cabal that runs Krakoa believes that all their plans will run to nothing if Destiny is resurrected, and Mystique has been a hairsbreadth from burning it all down if her wife is not resurrected.

Inferno, a farewell lap of sorts for writer Jonathan Hickman, architect of the Krakoan era, pulled that double-barreled shotgun off the wall last month, revealing that Mystique had somehow, secretly, already brought her wife back to life.

This week, we got to see it fire — Marvel’s terrifying shapeshifter and her oracular wife are together again for the first time since 1989.

What else is happening in the pages of our favorite comics? We’ll tell you. Welcome to Monday Funnies, Polygon’s weekly list of the books that our comics editor enjoyed this past week. It’s part society pages of superhero lives, part reading recommendations, part “look at this cool art.” There may be some spoilers. There may not be enough context. But there will be great comics. (And if you missed the last edition, read this.)

Image: Jonathan Hickman, Stefano Caselli/Marvel Comics

Unlike in 1989, when an editorial ban on queer relationships kept writer Chris Claremont only hinting at Mystique and Destiny’s relationship rather than clearly stating it, Mystique and Destiny’s 2021 reunion is gay as hell. I for one welcome our newest gay mutant power couple.

And I do mean power couple, since Mystique not only resurrected her wife into a young, hot body as a present, she also immediately politic-ed her into a seat on Krakoa’s ruling council. Now that is a relationship goal.

Image: James Tynion IV, Tate Brombal, Chris Shehan/Boom Studios

From old gays to new gays: House of Slaughter #1 is setting up some queer boarding school “and they were roommates” drama — right alongside its “kids training to be secret society monster hunters and maybe the cute guy grows up to to be a monster” drama. Boom Studios is showing a lot of faith in the Something is Killing the Children audience with this spinoff comic, but then again, that audience is big enough to have gotten Netflix’s attention.

Image: Kelly Thompson, Elena Casagrande/Marvel Comics

When I first saw this panel, I thought Black Widow #12 was a very delayed Hellfire Gala tie-in comic, but no, it’s Black Widow, Yelena Belova, Hawkeye, and the Winter Soldier all attending a perfectly normal human party-that’s-clearly-supposed-to-be-the-Met-Gala. All I can say is that I am absolutely for every superhero book going to a fake version of the Met Gala, especially if it’s cover for an elaborate heist, as it is here.

Image: Trung Le Nguyen/DC Comics

Anthology books can be hit or miss but there were some real bangers in this week’s Wonder Woman: Black & Gold, like this story from Trung Le Nguyen (of the heavily lauded The Magic Fish) that looks and reads absolutely gorgeously.

Image: Gerry Duggan, Phil Noto/Marvel Comics

This week in Marauders, several members of the team find themselves shoved out of an airlock and they survive and win back their spaceship by combining all of their mutant powers and items into encasing themselves in an ice ball, creating oxygen and heat inside the ice ball, and then creating a propulsive method for the ice ball.

Which is to say, Bishop and Sebastian Shaw, who both have the ability to absorb kinetic energy for use later, punched each other a whole bunch until they turned into a freakin’ jet engine for the ice ball. This kind of brilliant mutant teamwork — created by smart writing — is always a pleasure to read.