Hellions #12 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
HELLIONS #12
“Gatecrashing”
by Zeb Wells, Stephen Segovia & David Curiel
COVER / PAGE 1: The Hellions cause chaos at the Hellfire Gala.
PAGES 2-4. Mr Sinister, Havok and Kwannon prepare to go to the Gala.
We’re not told directly why the rest of the Hellions didn’t get invited, but it’s pretty obvious. This is a diplomatic mission, it’s meant to build bridges with the humans, and you really don’t want Orphan-Maker and Wild Child running around. Ideally you wouldn’t have Mister Sinister either, of course, but he’s on the Quiet Council. Kwannon’s not a villain; she’s on the team as a supervisor. And Havok… well, aside from the fact that there’s a suggestion that he’s been put there for reasons he isn’t aware of, Havok’s a member of the Summers family and his absence would be notable.
X-Force #20 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-FORCE vol 6 #20
“The Secret Garden”
by Benjamin Percy, Joshua Cassara & Guru-eFX
PAGE 1 / COVER. X-Force work security at the Hellfire Gala, which apparently means skintight tuxedos. Quentin has a psionic velvet rope. The invitation in the foreground is the same as the one shown as a data page in Marauders #21.
PAGES 2-4. Kid Omega greets guests.
This is an expanded version of a scene from Marauders #21. In this version, Iron Man gets a bit more space in which to explain why he isn’t wearing the Krakoan flower or using their portal – basically, he knows a tracking device when he sees one, and he quite understandably doesn’t trust the Krakoans an inch. This being X-Force, the book will go on to confirm that he’s absolutely right.
Marauders #21 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
MARAUDERS #21
“You are Cordially Invited to the Hellfire Gala”
by Gerry Duggan, Matteo Lolli & Edgar Delgado
COVER / PAGE 1. Emma Frost welcomes you to the Gala. Though really, by the time you’ve got this close, it’s a bit late to be offering you an invitation.
PAGE 2. Data page: the invitation to the Gala, which also appears on the cover of this week’s X-Force #20.
“On the evening of the summer solstice.” That would be 21 June. Apparently in the Marvel Universe you can see a starry sky on Mykines “a few minutes after midnight”, and enjoy a fireworks display, all on the summer solstice. But the Faroe Islands are so far north that it doesn’t actually get dark in midsummer. Let’s politely ignore that and move on.
PAGES 3-4. Kate, Sebastian and Emma await the arrival of the guests.
Mykines, which is a real place in the Faroe Islands, was acquired by Emma in Giant-Size X-Men: Magneto #1. The Faroes are actually an autonomous territory within Denmark.
Heroes Reborn: Magneto & The Mutant Force #1
HEROES REBORN: MAGNETO & THE MUTANT FORCE #1
“Beware! Psychic Rescue in Progress!”
by Steve Orlando, Bernard Chang & David Curiel
So.
This is a thing.
Why is this a thing?
I do not know.
I do not know why this is a thing.
Well. Maybe I know why this is a thing.
Heroes Reborn was name of the 1996/7 event where Avengers, Fantastic Four, Iron Man and Captain America were relaunched by Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld. The 2021 Heroes Reborn has nothing to do with it whatsoever. I can only assume the name was chosen for trademark renewal.
That’s always a good impression to put front and centre, isn’t it? Trademark renewal.
It’s an Avengers arc which has sprawled into an event comic. History has been changed, the Avengers never existed, and now the biggest heroes of the Marvel Universe are the Squadron Supreme of America. Who are basically a hard-right JLA.
I couldn’t care less about Jason Aaron’s Avengers and I couldn’t care less about Heroes Reborn. I gather the gimmick of the main series is something to do with “the Marvel Universe, but if it was a bit more like the DCU”. Is that interesting? It’s an own-brand Amalgam, isn’t it?
New Mutants #18 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
NEW MUTANTS vol 4 #18
“Homecoming”
by Vita Ayala & Rod Reis
COVER / PAGE 1: Karma, apparently readying herself to fight in the Crucible. Behind her, a symbolic representation of her brother Tran, via the white rabbit that he manifested as in Otherworld via Mirage’s powers.
PAGES 2-4. Dani calls up Tran so that Xi’an can speak to her.
Basically, Karma explains the plot. The best telepaths on Krakoa can’t get Tran’s mind out of her body, so they’re going to have to kill her and resurrect her instead. Since Krakoa frowns on outright suicide, this means the Crucible. We’re seeing an increasing undercurrent of scepticism about Krakoan rituals in books like Way of X, but this story plays the Crucible pretty much straight – it’s a second chance, it’s liberation, it’s paying a symbolic price.
X-Men #20 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-MEN vol 5 #20
“Lost Love”
by Jonathan Hickman, Francesco Mobili & Sunny Gho
COVER / PAGE 1: The face of a damaged Nimrod.
PAGE 2. “The Oracle”
This is Mystique’s underground home, which we last saw in issue #6. The floating mask with the energy effect, which we also saw in that issue, belongs to her late wife Destiny. As shown in that issue and Powers of X #6 (among others), Professor X and Magneto signed Mystique up for the Krakoan project on the promise that Destiny would be resurrected. But Destiny can’t be resurrected because of the rule against reviving precognitives: first, she would be able to detect Moira MacTaggert hiding on the island; and second, she would apparently see something pretty alarming about how things turned out. And so Professor X and Magneto have been stringing Mystique along.
Way of X #2 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and the page numbers go by the digital edition.
WAY OF X #2
“Let Us Prey”
by Si Spurrier, Bob Quinn & Java Tartaglia
COVER / PAGE 1. The swashbuckling Nightcrawler in Kurt’s mindscape battle an attacking Kraken.
PAGE 2. David and Kurt.
Legion. The name “Legion” comes originally from New Mutants vol 1 #26-27, and used to be David’s codename. He started rejecting it in Spurrier’s X-Men Legacy vol 2. Strictly speaking, in the original story, “Legion” was a collective name for all of David’s multiple personalities.
The Patchwork Man. David is aware of the Patchwork Man, and evidently assumes that his father is jumping to conclusions in blaming him; he sees Xavier as completely distrustful and unsupportive, which is pretty much fair (and stands in stark contrast to his more paternal role with the rest of the X-Men).
Wolverine #12 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
WOLVERINE vol 7 #12
“Penumbra”
by Benjamin Percy, Scot Eaton, JP Mayer & Matthew Wilson
COVER / PAGE 1. Dracula and the Vampire Nation hook themselves up to a captive Wolverine in order to get his blood. The image is upside down, so that the vampires look like bats.
PAGES 2-4. Logan and Louise in Paris.
All fairly straightforward in terms of plot. Louise wonders if fighting on against her vampirism is heroic or just hypocritical; Logan tells her to fight on. We have been here before with Wolverine, in X-Men Annual vol 1 #6, with Rachel van Helsing. She was a former vampire hunter turned into a vampire, and she asked Logan to kill her. That time, he did.
Penumbra. A more mundane definition would simply be that it’s an area of partial shadow. The bit at the edge of a shadow where it fades out instead of ending abruptly. But the point works as well.
“Those vampire kids…” Wolverine is referring to the vampire kids he met in issue #5, who were indeed successfully resisting Dracula’s control. Perhaps they’ve had an impact on his thinking, but in the next scene his main point is that all his own losses of control have only made him more determined to do the right thing – not simply take himself off the board.
X-Men: Curse of the Man-Thing #1
X-MEN: CURSE OF THE MAN-THING #1
“Curse of the Man-Thing, Chapters 7-9”
by Steve Orlando, Andrea Broccardo & Guru-eFX
So here’s one for the “technically an X-book” file.
X-Men: Curse of the Man-Thing #1 might sound like a one-shot, but it’s actually the final part of a three-issue miniseries. The other two chapters are Avengers: Curse of the Man-Thing #1 and Spider-Man: Curse of the Man-Thing #1. It’s what you might call an imaginative use of “#1”.
We’ve had this format once before, with a Typhoid miniseries. At root, it’s a tacit admission that Marvel would really like to do a story about Man-Thing, but that book obviously won’t sell at all, so maybe if we prop it up with guest stars it’ll work. Which is a bit of a shame for Man-Thing, as this is his supposed to be celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of his debut in Savage Tales #1. The poor bastard doesn’t even get top billing at his own birthday party.
X-Factor #9 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-FACTOR vol 4 #9
“Interlude: DJ Mark’s Mixtape of Mojoverse Beats to Make Out To”
by Leah Williams, David Baldeón & Israel Silva
COVER / PAGE 1. Dazzler and Lila Cheney perform in the Mojoverse, with X-Factor in the foreground.
This is the penultimate issue of the series, and issue #10 is a “Hellfire Gala” tie-in. So if you’re wondering why this issue seems in a terrible rush to tie up its storylines…
I’m so glad you enjoyed 9, and thank you for reading. 💗💗💗 I got the news about the book ending while scripting 9 so it immediately became a priority to resolve everything I could in a finite amount of space.
— Leah #XFAQtor Williams (@mymonsterischic) May 12, 2021
…well, there you go.
PAGE 2. Opening quote. Wind Dancer talks about her new role as reluctant overseer of the Mojoverse – she’s appointed as the Krakoan envoy later in the story. This is why she has a movie studio on hand to make promo videos for X-Corp in X-Corp #1.
