Immortal X-Men #17 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
IMMORTAL X-MEN #17
“The White Hot Danger Room”
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Juan José Ryp
Colour artist: David Curiel
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Jordan D White
COVER / PAGE 1. Jean Grey in contemporary costume, surrounded by images of her from various points in her life. From left to right, that’s:
- A Jean we can’t see enough of to place.
- Late 1980s X-Factor Marvel Girl
- Late 1960s X-Men Marvel Girl
- Phoenix / Black Queen from the Dark Phoenix Saga.
- Early 1990s X-Men Jean Grey
- Early Silver Age Marvel Girl
- Phoenix in X-Men #101, rising from the water with Cyclops in front of her.
- X-Men Red Jean Grey
- Morrison/Quitely New X-Men Jean Grey
- Another Jean too small to identify.
The X-Axis – w/c 13 November 2023
X-MEN UNLIMITED INFINITY COMIC #113. By Steve Foxe, Steve Orlando, Guillermo Sanna, Java Tartaglia & Travis Lanham. Infinity Comics don’t really lend themselves to writing reviews of individual chapters, since they’re often just extended scenes – something that’s absolutely fine when you’re releasing on a weekly schedule. This is one such issue, and on those terms, perfectly decent. It’s Firestar trying to help Orchis capture her ex-fiancée Justice in order to keep up her cover. We don’t see much of Justice in the X-books, despite the fact that he’s a relatively high profile mutant, but it makes sense to bring him over for a Firestar arc. If you want to have Firestar feel uncomfortable about how she’s perceived by her friends while undercover, Justice is a much better choice for that role than any of the regular X-Men. The plot is exactly what you’d expect, but it’s handled quite nicely, with Justice knowing Firestar well enough to get that none of this makes sense, and Firestar bringing up uncomfortable bits of past continuity in order to sell him on her supposed sincerity.
JEAN GREY #4. (Annotations here.) Some of the Fall of X minis are already ending, others are on their penultimate issue. That was quick. At this point, it seems clear enough that some books are central to key storylines (X-Men, Immortal X-Men, X-Men Red, Invincible Iron Man); some are just carrying on with their own thing (Wolverine, X-Force, Legion of X / Uncanny Spider-Man); and… well, the publishing schedule says we still need more books. Jean Grey is three issues of What If…? stories based on points in Jean’s life, with a fourth issue that spells out the message we’re meant to be taking from the first three. That message, more or less, is that Jean shouldn’t be second guessing her past choices because anything else that she could have done would have been worse. For that to work, you have to accept that the Phoenix Force is being honest with her. But if it’s not, what’s the story? Even taking it at face value, though, I don’t think this sticks the landing. I’ve generally enjoyed this series as what it is, but I’m not convinced it’s taken Jean anywhere. It’s not as if this sort of self-doubt has been a key character note; if anything, Gerry Duggan tends to write her as supremely confident in her power and her moral choices, albeit with the occasional bit of hand-wringing about that time Dark Phoenix committed genocide. This issue is working hard to sell the idea that the last few issues have taught us something important about Jean, and I’m really not convinced that they have.
Children of the Vault #4 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
CHILDREN OF THE VAULT #4
“Kill the Future!”
Writer: Deniz Camp
Artist: Luca Maresca
Colour artist: Carlos Lopez
Letterer: Cory Petit
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Sarah Brunstad
COVER / PAGE 1. Cable and Bishop fight the Children of the Vault.
PAGE 2. Cable threatens to shoot the City.
This is where we left off last issue.
PAGE 3. Recap and credits.
PAGE 4. Rodrigo Muñoz reacts – kind of – to the battle.
We saw Rodrigo before in issue #1. He was the kid wandering around the lithium fields just before the City showed up overhead.
As Martillo explained in issue #2, the Children’s “Message” transforms people “first in mind, then in body”; most humans will die in the process, but the tiny minority who survive will become Children of the Vault. Clearly, Rodrigo is some way into his transformation.
“Tierra Desnuda”, the name of Rodrigo’s Children-built “Tomorrow Town”, was previously given in issue #1.
Jean Grey #4 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
JEAN GREY vol 2 #4
“Ashes to Ashes”
Writer: Louise Simonson
Artist: Bernard Chang
Colour artist: Marcelo Maiolo
Letterer: Ariana Maher
Design: Jay Bowen
Editor: Sarah Brunstad
COVER / PAGE 1. Assorted Jean Greys squabble over who gets to touch the Phoenix Force.
PAGE 2. Jean is surrounded by other Jean Greys.
This is where we left off last issue. Leaving aside the two Jeans who are shown only in silhouette, the other Jeans on page 2, from left to right, are:
- Jean in her costume from the 2018 X-Men Red series.
- Jean in X-Men #100, just before she becomes Phoenix.
- Dark Phoenix.
- The Goblin Queen.
- Late 1960s Marvel Girl
- Time-travelling “Silver Age” Jean Grey from All-New X-Men.
- Jean Grey from the Morrison/Quitely New X-Men.
Astonishing Iceman #4 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
ASTONISHING ICEMAN #4
“Out Cold, part 4”
Writer: Steve Orlando
Artist: Vincenzo Carratù
Colour artists: Java Tartaglia with Chris Sotomayor
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Designers: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Mark Basso
COVER / PAGE 1. Iceman and Spider-Man in action.
PAGE 2. Iceman races off from his citadel.
The previous issue ended with Iceman getting back home but quickly heading straight back out to deal with a problem in New York, which we saw was Feral (as a Hound) attacking Spider-Man. Mr Clean was fairly obviously engineering these events to lure Iceman away from the citadel and leave it unguarded. As we’ll see later on, Iceman has actually got some security measures in place – he’s not an idiot – but they don’t get the job done.
PAGE 3. Recap and credits.
Dark X-Men #4 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
DARK X-MEN vol 2 #4
“Up Jumped the Devil”
Writer: Steve Foxe
Artist: Jonas Scharf
Colour artist: Frank Martin
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Jordan D White
COVER / PAGE 1. Chasm in the foreground, with Feint, Gambit, Goblin QUeen and Havok behind.
PAGES 2-5. Gambit brings Rogue up to speed.
Rogue is appearing over in Uncanny Avengers. So far, we’ve glossed over the question of why the two married characters aren’t together – but then, Rogue is a previous Avengers, and somebody needs to keep an eye on the Limbo Embassy.
“What he is not used to … is being the most honourable, responsible person in the room.” I’m not sure it’s that unprecedented, given the time he’s spent in the Thieves Guild, or indeed his stint with the Marauders… but sure, Gambit is normally the wild card rogue, and he’s being forced here into playing the role of the last normal X-Man.
Daredevil Villains #7: Stilt-Man
Daredevil #7 doesn’t have a villain – it’s a fight with Namor the Sub-Mariner, who was just about to launch his own feature in Tales to Astonish. So we move on to…
DAREDEVIL #8 (June 1965)
“The Stiltman Cometh”
Writer, editor: Stan Lee
Artist: Wally Wood
Letterer: Sam Rosen
Colourist: Not credited
In the first instalment of this series, I asked whether people could name ten Daredevil villains. Well, here’s one that plenty of people remembered: Stilt-Man. (In fact, in this issue he’s Stilt Man or Stiltman. He won’t get the hyphen until later. But I’ll go with the more familiar version of the name here.)
Everyone remembers Stilt-Man, even if they don’t remember a single one of his stories. Once seen, he’s not easy to forget. He is iconically lame. Silver Age Marvel was fairly light on completely ridiculous villains, and when Marvel did stray into this territory, they often leaned into it. But in his debut, Stilt-Man is played mostly straight. He’s certainly presented as a real threat.
So thing that really makes him stick in the mind is the “what were they thinking” factor. Sure, it’s a struggle to keep thinking of new gimmicks for villains. But… stilts? Even if you’re picking words at random from the dictionary… stilts? Massive, clearly impractical, skyscraper-sized stilts? There’s something adorably mundane about the whole concept of a stilt-themed supervillain, no matter how extraordinary those stilts may be. Did someone have a traumatic childhood experience with a stilt? Even the pros look tentative and awkward moving on stilts. Their height doesn’t translate into an intimidation factor. Nobody has ever looked at a stilt-walker and thought, I bet they’d be dangerous in a fight.
The X-Axis – w/c 6 November 2023
It’s another more or less reasonable week for new releases. Brace yourself for next week, though, which has Alpha Flight, Astonishing Iceman, Children of the Vault, Dark X-Men, Jean Grey, Uncanny Avengers and X-Men Unlimited. This time, though, we have just one Unlimited book and three Fall of X titles.
X-MEN UNLIMITED INFINITY COMIC #112. By Steve Foxe, Steve Orlando, Guillermo Sanna, Java Tartaglia & Travis Lanham. This is the first part of a Firestar arc tying in to “Fall of X”. Like the Sunfire arc, it’s written by Orlando and Foxe, who are both working on regular “Fall of X” titles, and so it seems as if Unlimited is going to be tying in a little more closely than it generally has in the past. In this case, it’s being used to do some material about the internal politics of Orchis and, I suspect, to tie up a Steve Orlando plotline that never quite made it into the normal titles but has seen a bit of play in the Infinity books.
We kick off with a bit of set-up for Firestar’s current status quo, even though it could probably have been skipped in an Infinity Comic (after all, if you’ve got access to this story, by definition you’ve got access to Hellfire Gala 2023). Still, it’s also used to set up Orchis’ attitude to her. Killian Devo isn’t at all convinced by the idea of parading Firestar around as a friendly mutant – doesn’t it undermine the message? Dr Stasis seems to regard her as a bit of a burden as well, but seems driven to honour the deal that he believes he made with her. But Firestar isn’t the only mutant in Orchis, and the higher ups are also starting to wonder why on Earth they let Judas Traveller in. So the supposedly loyal Firestar is seconded to Judas Traveller to try and figure out why he’s there and what he’s up to.
Uncanny Spider-Man #3 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers and page numbers go by the digital edition.
UNCANNY SPIDER-MAN #3
“Superpositional”
Writer: Si Spurrier
Artist: Javier Pina
Colourist: Matt Milla
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Sarah Brunstad
COVER / PAGE 1. Nightcrawler fights Silver Sable.
PAGES 2-4. Nightcrawler fights Gaap and the Wild Pack.
The narrators here are the Vulture and Nimrod.
Gaap the Integument is said to be a Deviant; he’s a new character. Gaap is a traditional demon name; an “integument” is just a tough outer protective layer. Gaap is wearing the same mind control device that was used on Rhino last issue and on Nightcrawler in X-Men: Before the Fall – Sons of X #1. Obviously, this is a repeat of the same basic idea that was tried that issue with the Rhino: lure out Nightcrawler so the Wild Pack can try to catch him.
Nightcrawler has apparently embraced the nickname “Creepy Crawler”, after initially calling himself Spinnenmann.
X-Men Red #17 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-MEN RED vol 2 #17
“The Avatar of Life”
Writer: Al Ewing
Artist: Yildiray Çinar
Colour artist: Federico Blee
Letterer: Ariana Maher
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Jordan D White
COVER / PAGE 1. Apocalypse holds… well, some sort of energy ball with the logo.
PAGES 2-4. Apocalypse and Vulcan.
Last issue ended with Apocalypse, the hooded guy and his sidekick demon – named later in the issue as “Orc” – arriving in the Autumn Lands and declaring that he would “remake the world” there. He specifically mentioned a “sun caged below”, referring to Vulcan, who was imprisoned there in issue #10. Evidently Apocalypse has just freed Vulcan between issues.
Vulcan assumes that Apocalypse is (as usual) recruiting a new Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and asks whether he’s going to be Death – though with an obvious double meaning, threatening Apocalypse. Apocalypse acknowledges that he’s formed plenty of Horsemen groups in the past, all named after the four children who he lost when Arakko was severed from Earth, and he claims to have had a hand in adding their names to “the sacred texts of humankind” – i.e., the Book of Revelation.
