The X-Axis – w/c 24 July 2023
X-MEN UNLIMITED INFINITY COMIC #97. By Alex Segura, Alberto Alburquerque & Pete Pantazis. It feels a bit odd to have the second part of a Polaris story out in the same week as the Hellfire Gala one-shot, which up-ends the status quo of the line entirely, but there we are.
Last issue’s cliffhanger with Mirage doesn’t turn out great. Alburquerque draws her looking ready to fight, in the same rather tortured pose, three panels in a row… and then they just go and talk. It’s not good. At any rate, after that we get back to the murder mystery, and establish that whoever it is who’s killing people with magnetic powers is still around. The main villain, though, seems to be… well, the obvious one if you’re searching for an archenemy for Polaris. In theory, it makes sense to do something with Malice and Polaris after Malice was returned to Krakoa in Excalibur, since Polaris could use the closure; in practice, this feels a bit like we’re pretending that the Excalibur story didn’t happen. We’ll see how it goes.
WOLVERINE #35. (Annotations here.) Well, that seems to be the pay-off for the Beast storyline in X-Force – and I still think it’s a puzzling move to do it here rather than in that book. X-Force themselves wind up feeling like an afterthought in their own storyline, but at least Wolverine gets the satisfaction of taking down Beast’s operation. What carries this is the understated absurdity of the multiple Beasts and the way Juan José Ryp’s art sells the schtick. The moralising is less successful – did anyone really need to have it pointed out that Beast thinks he’s fighting monsters but he’s become a monster himself, after years of stories about that? But it’s weirdly enjoyable when it leans into the madness.
X-Men: Hellfire Gala 2023 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-MEN: HELLFIRE GALA 2023
“The Hellfire Gala”
Writer: Gerry Duggan (with Jonathan Hickman)
Artists: Adam Kubert, Luciana Vecchio, Matteo Lolli, Russell Dauterman, Javier Pina, R.B. Silva, Joshua Cassara, Kris Anka, Pepe Larraz & Valerio Schiti
Colour artists: Rain Beredo, Ceci De La Cruz, Matthew Wilson, Erick Arciniega & Marte Gracia
Letterers: Virtual Calligraphy
Design: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen
Editor: Jordan D White
COVER / PAGE 1. A montage of assorted characters in their Gala costumes, with Nimrod and Dr Stasis looming ominously behind them.
PAGE 2. Flashback: Emma and Cyclops discuss whether to tell Ms Marvel that she is a mutant.
This is the “previous conversation” that Emma referenced in X-Men #23, when she broke the news to Scott of Ms Marvel’s death in Amazing Spider-Man #26. It’s not made clear here what prompted Emma to raise the question of telling Ms Marvel that Cerebro detects her as a mutant. But we’ll see in the next scene that Emma sees Kamala as a popular figure who would be good for mutant/human relations.
Wolverine #35 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
WOLVERINE vol 7 #35
“Weapons of X, part 5”
Writer: Benjamin Percy
Artist: Juan José Ryp
Colour artist: Frank D’Armata
Letterer: Cory Petit
Design: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen
Editor: Mark Basso
COVER / PAGE 1. Wolverine prepares to pop his middle claws and kill a defeated Beast.
Yes, yes, I know – the main release this week is the Hellfire Gala one-shot. But that’s the size of multiple regular issues and besides, this issue comes first – as you might have guessed, it’s running a week late.
PAGES 2-4. The Beast lectures his clones.
These are evidently the replacement clones that Beast said he would “begin processing” after he wiped out the previous bunch for disloyalty in issue #33. As before, he’s given them different hairstyles and a need for glasses, which makes them all look a bit dopier compared to him. We don’t see anything in this issue to directly suggest that the new clones have started figuring out the need to get rid of Beast Prime, but they do seem befuddled by his old joke and appear to be indulging him.
The X-Axis – w/c 17 July 2023
By normal standards, a very quiet week.
X-MEN UNLIMITED INFINITY COMIC #96. By Alex Segura, Alberto Alburquerque & Pete Pantazis. This is the start of a Polaris story. And it’s a pretty reasonable angle which I don’t think has been done before – after reminding us rather heavily at the start that Polaris has spent a distressing amount of her career under mind control of one sort of another, she gets dragged by an old college friend into investigating a cold case where the murderer seems to be her in the days when she was possessed by Malice. I get that we don’t want Polaris to be a character overshadowed by this sort of thing, but it’s a reasonable enough hook. There are also some pretty blatant hints that all is not as it seems, since something is very obviously up with the old college friend – subtlety is not this story’s strong point – but it’s pretty dense and it hits the ground running.
X-MEN RED #13. (Annotations here.) The parallels here with the collapse of the Quiet Council are presumably intentional, as we build to Hellfire Gala 2023. This is Genesis confronting the Great Ring, and everything more or less falling apart instantly. I’m still not all that interested in Genesis in her own right, but the contrast between her and the regular cast works better here, as she tries to drag Arakko back to the way it was before Al Ewing started rehabbing it. There’s a certain sleight of hand going on here – Genesis is asserting the sort of one-dimensional Arakko that X-Men Red was at pains to emphasise was never a fair reflection of their rounded culture, but evidently it’s a pretty good reflection of Genesis herself. At any rate, she’s a great foil for the regulars here. It’s a very talky issue – essentially an extended meeting in one location – but Jacopo Camagni makes it work. New Great Ring member Lycaon is fun but it seems an odd place to bring in what’s effectively a comedy character.
New Mutants: Lethal Legion #5 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
NEW MUTANTS: LETHAL LEGION #5
“Vampire Heist II”
Writer: Charlie Jane Anders
Penciller: Enid Balám
Inker: Elisabetta D’Amico
Colourist: Matt Milla
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Design: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen
Editor: Sarah Brunstad
COVER / PAGE 1. Nefaria looms in the background while the regular cast are in the foreground. It’s a callback to the cover of issue #1, with the New Mutants looking a bit more battered and beleaguered. The title of the story, “Vampire Heist II”, also links back to issue #1’s title “Vampire Heist.”
PAGE 2. Escapade and Cerebella stake out the Chavetz Center.
According to the comments from last issue, the Chavetz Center is a conference centre in New York which is used for conventions. Karma learned last issue that Count Nefaria’s plan is “to trap a bunch of people in the Chavetz Center and use the Weird Engine [a cosmic artefact] to turn them into ionic batteries so he can restore himself.” As Karma mentions later, this is basically Nefaria’s last throw of the dice to try and restore his powers, and he’s privately aware that the more likely outcome is that he kills everyone within half a mile, including himself. The recap page clarifies that it’s serving here as the venue of the Future Expo.
With admirable efficiency, Escapade and Cerebella take a moment to talk about their character subplot, and how Escapade’s attempts to offer support to Cerebella in the only way she knows how haven’t really worked out that well for either of them. Cerebella has figured out by this point that Escapade is dangerously reckless.
X-Men Red #13 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-MEN RED #13
“The Annihilation of Arakko”
Writer: Al Ewing
Artist: Jacopo Camagni
Colourist: Federico Blee
Letterer: Ariana Maher
Design: Tom Muller
Editor: Jordan D White
COVER / PAGE 1. A symbolically giant Genesis attacks the Great Ring with the Annihilation Staff.
PAGES 2-3. Lycaon makes his first appearance at the Great Ring.
Lycaon makes his first appearance here, but he was previously mentioned by Sunspot in issue #11: “They’re a little more imposing than poor Idyll was. Imagine an Omega Wolverine. And then double it.” Apparently, Sunspot meant the “double it” literally, since this guy is apparently a two-headed werewolf centaur.
The X-Axis – w/c 10 July 2023
X-MEN UNLIMITED INFINITY COMIC #95. By Jason Loo & Antonio Fabela. This is the end of the FF team-up arc and it’s what you’d expect. You can see the idea – the rogue dupes are a way of externalising Madrox’s inner doubts about accepting responsibility, becoming a family man, and so on. And that’s a pretty good idea. But it winds up being tagged on to a rather routine action story, and the FF’s role as guest stars never quite clicks. Yes, they’re the superhero family so they offer something Madrox can feel insecure about… but along with Blastaar they wind up cluttering the plot more than helping it.
IMMORTAL X-MEN #13. (Annotations here.) There are only twelve members of the Quiet Council, so with issue #13 we move on to Cypher, the low key observer. Once again, Lucas Werneck does great work with his reactions, and generally in bringing visual life to an issue that’s almost entirely conversation. The big surprise here is that the collapse of the Council continues to run faster than you’d expect. I’d assumed things would be building to a head during the “Fall of X” event, but instead the Quiet Council is imploding already, At first glance there’s something a little awkward about Professor X dutifully playing along with his non-voting role in the previous issue, only to turn around here and decide to help tear everything down, but I suppose the key distinction is that he still isn’t trying to put himself into a position of power. And there’s a very good scene here that finally confronts head on the question of what Krakoa ever had to do with Xavier’s dream of coexistence. Excellent as ever.
X-Force #42 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-FORCE vol 6 #42
“The Ghost Calendars, part 3”
Writer: Benjamin Percy
Artist: Paul Davidson
Colour artist: GURU-eFX
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Design: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen
Editor: Mark Basso
COVER / PAGE 1: The Nimrod Beast stands over the defeated X-Force.
PAGES 2-3. The Stonehenge Beast clone is transformed into the Nimrod Beast.
This is the same Beast clone that we saw as the Nimrod Beast in issue #40, and that we saw being buried in this location in issue #41. As seen in that issue, he’s got the original Cerebro Sword. In his narration, he seems to regard himself as the original Beast rather than a duplicate, but it’s not clear whether this is Beast in a series of new bodies (through Krakoan-style resurrection or through more conventional Marvel Universe means), or a series of copies that believe themselves to be the original.
Immortal X-Men #13 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
IMMORTAL X-MEN #13
“Part 13: Deadlocked”
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Lucas Werneck
Colour artist: David Curiel
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Design: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen
Editor: Jordan D White
COVER / PAGE 1. Cypher, with Krakoan flowers. We’ve been through all the official members of the Quiet Council (except for new member Selene), and so we reach the spotlight issue of Cypher and, through him, Krakoa itself. Cypher, of course, has been a non-voting observer and presence at the Quiet Council all along, and offers an example of how that can be a more significant role than it first appears.
PAGE 2. Opening quote. This is indeed a quote from the post and cleric John Donne (1571/2-1631), from one of his prose works. The passage is famous as the origin of the phrases “no man is an island’ and “Ask not for whom the bell tolls”, probably his best known coinages today. Donne’s original point is that because we are all part of society, every death is a loss to everyone; here, the island is Krakoa itself, suffering because the mutant society it sustains is suffering.
The version here is in modernised spelling. Donne actually wrote “as well as if a Manor of thy friends or of thine own were”, which makes rather more sense. (Different modernisations also disagree about whether “Manor” should be “manor” or “manner” – “manner” seems to be more common online, as in “as if all manner of your friends were [lost]”, but “manor” seems to fit better with the following words “or of thine own”.)
The X-Axis – w/c 3 July 2023
I’m still on holiday, but time for a quick round-up of this week’s X-books anyway.
X-MEN UNLIMITED INFINITY COMIC #94. By Jason Loo and Antonio Fabela. Okay, I see where this is meant to be going. Madrox wants to impress Reed Richards by showing how far he’s come since his debut in Giant-Size Fantastic Four – he conspicuously doesn’t care that much about the rest of the FF – but finds himself in a storyline involving his own evil renegade dupes. And those dupes are part of him, and therefore that’s embarrassing. I kind of get that, but there’s something a bit odd about positioning Reed as the paragon family-man that Madrox aspires to be – aside from the fact that he’s never come up before, Reed has always been defined more by his awkwardness in that role. Still, he is the patriarch of the MU’s top family-themed superhero team and I guess you could see how Madrox aspires to that… ish? There’s something in that angle, but the A plot with the dupes and Blastaar really isn’t doing much for me at all.
