Cable #9 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
CABLE vol 4 #9
“Bargaining”
by Gerry Duggan & Phil Noto
COVER / PAGE 1. Cable and Esme share a drink in the Green Lagoon, while a woman with a logo for a head stands over them. Okay, it’s Emma and her head is actually off the top of the page… but it does look a little odd.
PAGE 2. Epigraph from an anonymous customer at the Green Lagoon, basically making the point that nobody really treats Kid Cable seriously. Partly that’s because he doesn’t have the gravitas and experience of the familiar version, but we’ve also seen before that Cable himself has serious doubts about whether he’s really up to the role that he’s taken on.
PAGES 3-5. Cable and Esme deal with an A.I.M. submarine.
As any longtime Marvel reader will know, these guys are from A.I.M. (Advanced Idea Mechanics), which is basically a group of scientists who want the world to be ruled by a scientific meritocracy (i.e., them). They’re serving here as generic walk-on villains.
Cable started this series dating all five of the Stepford Cuckoos – or perhaps just four of them, given that Phoebe is dating Quentin Quire – but we seem to have quietly settled down to just him and Esme. Back in issue #2, Esme is the one that Emma Frost singled out in her conversation with Cyclops. (“Do not let him [Cable] break their hearts, except Esme. She needs it, Scott.”) Emma’s reaction to Esme’s behaviour here should be seen in that light.
X-Force #18 annotations
X-FORCE vol 6 #18
“Shadows of the Mind”
by Benjamin Percy, Garry Brown & Guru-eFX
COVER / PAGE 1. Kid Omega… um, crying psychic energy, I suppose. Explosively.
PAGES 2-4. Black Tom is attacked.
Obviously, this is the psychic creature that XENO created using Kid Omega’s body. It’s not really clear to me how we’re meant to read this scene – whether Black Tom is cut off from part of Krakoa, or whether he’s connected to Krakoa but Krakoa can’t sense the psychic entity, or whether being unable to sense something on Krakoa has become something nightmarishly wrong for him.
The opening line, with Tom talking in his sleep, refers to his long-running partnership with Cain Marko, the Juggernaut. There are some stories that portray them as extremely close friends.
We’re told later on that the psychic entity’s attacks are tied to “the unguarded mind”, which usually means a strong emotional state. In Tom’s case, however, it seems to be just sleep.
S.W.O.R.D. #4 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
S.W.O.R.D. #4
“The Krakoan Sun”
by Al Ewing, Valerio Schiti & Marte Gracia
COVER / PAGE 1: Knull corrupting Cable. Yes, it’s still a King in Black tie-in.
PAGE 2. Cargill’s monologue.
Cargill is stuck inside Knull’s black symbiote goop stuff, following the previous issue. She experiences this as a sensory-deprivation void, which she’s trying to find a hook for. We can see on the next page that she’s not actually surrounded, so this must be some sort of mental effect that the symbiotes have.
When she says that “something stole Cable’s face”, she basically means that one of Knull’s symbiotes has taken him over.
PAGES 3-4. Symbiote Cable rants at Manifold.
Manifold addresses this character as Knull later in the issue, so we should presumably take it that Knull is speaking through the symbiote.
Wolverine: Black, White & Blood
WOLVERINE: BLACK, WHITE & BLOOD #1-4
November 2020 to March 2021
An anthology title! We haven’t had one of those in a while.
Marvel’s track record with anthology titles is patchy to say the least. X-Men Unlimited used to serve as the X-books’ anthology, and to put it politely, it was a mixed bag. But, different times. And in an age when the ongoing titles are tied into a big picture, perhaps there’s a gap for stories that are more freestanding.
Even so, Black, White & Blood seems uncertain about what it’s aiming for. The gimmick here is to tell Wolverine stories, drawn from any point in his history, but with the art in black and white with only red as colouring. So black, white and blood, you see.
And… is that a good idea? For a series?
The Incomplete Wolverine – 1984
Part 1: Origin to Origin II | Part 2: 1907 to 1914
Part 3: 1914 to 1939 | Part 4: World War II
Part 5: The postwar era | Part 6: Team X
Part 7: Post Team X | Part 8: Weapon X
Part 9: Department H | Part 10: The Silver Age
1974-1975 | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1979
1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983
Welcome to the era of event comics.
UNCANNY X-MEN vol 1 #178
“Hell Hath No Fury…”
by Chris Claremont, John Romita Jr, Bob Wiacek, Brett Breeding & Glynis Wein
February 1984
Wolverine doesn’t appear in the January issue, in which Lilandra and Binary leave with the Starjammers, and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants attack Kitty and Colossus.
In this issue, the X-Men come to the rescue. It turns out to be a diversion to draw the X-Men away from the Mansion, so that Mystique can kill Professor X as revenge for taking Rogue away from her. Rogue talks Mystique down, and Mystique spares Professor X in exchange for safe passage for the Brotherhood.
So not a Wolverine story, then. He does note that Storm is taking on some of Yukio’s traits, and suggests that he doesn’t think this is a great idea – understandably, since Yukio’s role in the Wolverine miniseries was to offer the temptation of succumbing to his instincts.
X-Factor #8 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-FACTOR vol 4 #8
“Suite No. 8: Scio Me Nihil Scire (Tritone Substitution – Jazz Arrangement)”
by Leah Williams, David Baldeon & Israel Silva
COVER / PAGE 1: X-Factor overshadowed by the Morrigan.
PAGE 2. Aurora and Northstar watch TV.
This scene takes place just before the final page of the previous issue. That final page showed Daken, Prodigy and Eye-Boy hiding from the Morrigan in the living room, with Rachel, Polaris, Aurora and Northstar already dead.
Aurora is wet because she was in a hot tub with Daken, in the immediately preceding scene of the previous issue.
PAGES 3-4. Rachel finds Eye-Boy.
It’s the old trope that animals can sense things that humans can’t, although in this case it’s Amazing Baby detecting something that the normal-by-Krakoan-standards Rachel can’t pick up.
Children of the Atom #1 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
CHILDREN OF THE ATOM #1
“Uncanny”
by Vita Ayala, Bernard Chang & Marcelo Maiolo
Children of the Atom. This is the first series of that name (though there was a miniseries called X-Men: Children of the Atom in 1999). “Children of the Atom” used to be part of the X-Men’s intro text back in the 70s, the original idea being that the upsurge in mutants was connected with the development of nuclear weapons.
The central characters never actually call themselves by this name in the story, but I’ll use the name anyway for ease of reading.
COVER / PAGE 1. A straightforward pin-up of the cast, giving nothing away beyond the very obvious parallels to existing X-Men characters.
PAGES 2-3. The Children of the Atom interrupt an armed robbery.
Hell’s Belles. As explained later int he issue, the three villains seen here are Flambé (with the flamethrowers), Vague (in the white hood) and Tremolo (the, er, other one). Their only significant previous appearance was in X-Factor #80-81, back in 1992. Despite that, the information we’re given later on about their depowering is established canon – all three appear on the long list of depowered mutants in New Avengers #18, and their teammate Briquette doesn’t. Briquette showed up, with powers intact, attending a mutant support group in Domino Annual #1.
Hellions #10 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
HELLIONS #10
“Funny Games, Part II: Hitbox”
by Zeb Wells, Stephen Segovia & David Curiel
COVER / PAGE 1. Some of the Hellions in the foreground, with Arcade gloating in the background. For some reason this issue has old-style 1980s cover boxes, which doesn’t really seem to play into anything much (though it does get the characters who aren’t in the main pose onto the cover).
PAGE 2. The now-usual opening quotation from Nightcrawler. This time he’s telling us what a valuable experience it is to face our demons and grow.
PAGES 3-6. Arcade talks to Sinister.
Arcade traditionally wouldn’t be in anything approaching Sinister’s league when it comes to power. But he does tell us that Sinister’s powers are being dampened by the chair. And Sinister seems to be a lot less physically powerful in his current incarnation anyway.
The Incomplete Wolverine – 1983
Part 1: Origin to Origin II | Part 2: 1907 to 1914
Part 3: 1914 to 1939 | Part 4: World War II
Part 5: The postwar era | Part 6: Team X
Part 7: Post Team X | Part 8: Weapon X
Part 9: Department H | Part 10: The Silver Age 1974-1975
1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1979 | 1980 | 1981 | 1982
We left off with the Brood arc, which extends into early 1983. The X-Men and the Starjammers had just figured out that Professor X was infected by the Brood, and were racing back home to sort it out. Along the way, they stop for a flashback in Excalibur vol 1 #116, in which Kitty and Kurt insist on doing what they can to help a Sidri starship in trouble. Wolverine’s there, but he doesn’t contribute much.
UNCANNY X-MEN vol 1 #167
“The Goldilocks Syndrome!”
by Chris Claremont, Paul Smith, Bob Wiacek & various
March 1983
The X-Men storm the Mansion in pursuit of the Brood-infected Professor X, only to encounter his latest recruits the New Mutants – Cannonball (Sam Guthrie), Psyche (Dani Moonstar), Wolfsbane (Rahne Sinclair), Karma (Xi’an Coy Manh) and Sunspot (Roberto Da Costa) – who try to defend their home. After the usual fight, both teams join forces to defeat the Brood Queen, and Sikorsky clones Xavier a new body. This body can walk, but Xavier still has psychosomatic issues for a little while. Since Deathbird has seized control of the Shi’ar Empire, Lilandra also stays on Earth for now. And the Professor infuriates everyone by demoting Sprite to the New Mutants.
As you might expect, Wolverine’s not the focus here. He completely outclasses the New Mutants that try to deal with him – he even shrugs off Karma’s possession powers – but dutifully notes that they’ll be more dangerous once they’ve had time to train. He supports killing the Professor, but only because he’s unaware of the cloning option.
New Mutants #16 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
NEW MUTANTS vol 4 #16
“One Step Behind”
by Vita Ayala & Rob Reis
COVER / PAGE 1: The faces of the New Mutants in a shadowy cloud, presumably the Shadow King. Once again, Scout is shown with the team, somewhat jumping the gun in terms of the actual story.
PAGES 2-3. Some kids sneak into Otherworld.
The Braddock Lighthouse is the headquarters of Excalibur, as seen over in their own book. That’s Rictor hanging around near the gate and being sneaked past, though the character model is a little off (the X-logo on his chest is usually drawn bigger than that).
The three kids are Monica, Josh and Liana. Monica’s the one with the red hair. Technically it’s the first appearance for all three of them, but versions of these characters previously appeared as background prisoners in Ayala’s Age of X-Man: Prisoner X miniseries. We established in the previous issue that the prison in that series included a bunch of filler characters who were copies of real-world mutants but apparently were not simply counterparts of them – from the look of it, Ayala is importing a whole bunch of these background characters into mainstream continuity.
