As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.

MARAUDERS vol 2 #11
“Pre-Genesis, part 1”
Writer: Steve Orlando
Artist: Eleonora Carlini
Colourist: Matt Milla
Letterer & production: Travis Lanham
Design: Tom Muller
Editor: Jordan D White

COVER / PAGE 1. Fang and Lockheed fight Brimstone Love.

PAGE 2. Data page. This is a reprint of page 8 of Legion of X #1, with Kate’s post-it note added. Here, it’s serving mainly to establish Kurt as Krakoa’s ethical philosopher.

PAGE 3. Kate contemplates the map.

Dead Mutant Cove is the surfing bay from X-Force #25-26. In this book, it was previously seen in issue #8, when Tempo and Theia went to watch the sunset there.

The map was in the mysterium puzzle box that Kate received in Marauders Annual #1, effectively the first issue of Orlando’s run.

“It seems the first blood spilled between us is yours.” This is what Cassandra said last issue when Kate defeated her and stranded her in the past – the immediately preceding line was “Good work, Sprite… proud of you.” Kate’s logic in that issue was that she was taking revenge for the death of her father (as one of the many slaughtered on Genosha at Cassandra Nova’s instance in New X-Men #115), in which case the first blood was obviously spilled by Cassandra. Kate is apparently dwelling on what Cassandra meant by her comment. Perhaps Cassandra was simply alluding to the time travel angle, which meant that Kate was objectively taking revenge for something that hadn’t happened yet, though the fact that our attention is being drawn to the comment suggests there’s more to it.

(more…)

As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.

WOLVERINE vol 7 #30
“The Beast Agenda: Beast Must Die”
Writer: Benjamin Percy
Artist: Juan José Ryp
Colourist: Frank D’Armata
Letterer: Cory Petit
Design: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen
Editor: Mark Basso

COVER / PAGE 1: The Beast holding Wolverine’s adamantium skull (the one from the Wolverine he killed in issue #26).

PAGE 2. Wolverine washes in the sea.

I’m tempted to ask where all these seagulls came from, but Benjamin Percy’s stories have always been unique in showing Krakoa with actual wildlife.

“I haven’t trusted this island in a long time.” In Percy’s stories, Wolverine has been sceptical of Krakoa from the outset, at least in the sense of not buying into it as a utopia. On the other hand, he was actively accusing Krakoa of consuming Kid Omega in X-Force #30, and that was last August.

The flashback panels show Beast killing Wolverine at the Legacy House auction in issue #26.

(more…)

As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.

X-MEN vol 6 #19
“Lord of the Brood, part 1”
Writer: Gerry Duggan
Artist: Stefano Caselli
Colour artist: Federico Blee
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Design: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen
Editor: Jordan D White

COVER / PAGE 1. The X-Men fight the Brood. The image continues on the cover of Captain Marvel #46, which is cross referenced on the recap page – but that strand of the storyline, “Revenge of the Brood”, actually began back in Captain Marvel #43. None of that is recapped in this issue, and in fairness, none of it directly matters yet. But here’s what happened:

In Captain Marvel #43, Captain Marvel receives a fragmented video message from Rogue. She asks the X-Men about it, and Cyclops and Jean Grey establish that Rogue has gone into space. Another distress call comes in, this time from Binary. (The current Binary is a duplicate Carol Danvers that gained sentience and has been around for several arcs now.) Captain Marvel leads a team into space to investigate, consisting of herself, Hazmat, Spider-Woman, Polaris, Wolverine (Laura), Psylocke and Hazmat. They find Rogue infected with the Brood.

(more…)

As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.

NIGHTCRAWLERS #1
“Sins of Sinister, part 3: Voices of Fire”
Writer: Si Spurrier
Artist: Paco Medina
Colourist: Jay David Ramos
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Design: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen
Editor: Jordan D White

NIGHTCRAWLERS is the temporary title of Legion of X during the Sins of Sinister crossover.

COVER / PAGE 1: The Nightcrawler chimeras emerge from the shadows, led by the Wolverine version.

PAGE 2. Vox Ignis explores the Sanctum Sanctorum.

The Sanctum Sanctorum is Dr Strange’s base, and while he’s been known to disguise it as abandoned from time to time, it seems to be genuinely abandoned here. Vox Ignis tells us that Mother Righteous has sent them “to scavenge for items of power” – we’ll see at the end of the issue that she apparently has a plan that involves using iconic superhero memorabilia to bring down Sinister, and that the Eye of Agamotto is on her list.

Banshee tells us that everyone occult has fled to Otherworld, the magical world from Excalibur and Knights of X – apparently they’ve given up on trying to liberate Earth. In Sins of Sinister #1, Storm mentioned that all the Spirits of Vengeance had left the Earth about five years before this point.

(more…)

As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.

STORM & THE BROTHERHOOD OF MUTANTS #1
“Storm’s Seven”
Writer: Al Ewing
Artist: Paco Medina
Colourist: Jay David Ramos
Letterer: Ariana Maher
Design: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen
Editor: Jordan D White

STORM & THE BROTHERHOOD OF MUTANTS. This is X-Men Red, re-titled for the duration of the “Sins of Sinister” crossover. In practice, this is X-Men Red #10A. It’s part 2 of the crossover.

By the way, my plan for this year is to generally limit annotations to ongoing titles (or books like this that are stand-ins for them), partly so that I can make some time to catch up on reviews. I’m making an exception for Sabretooth partly because I’ve already started it and partly because it’s really good, but I’m going to skip over Bishop: War College and save that one for reviews.

COVER / PAGE 1. Storm being generally impressive amidst what’s presumably meant to be the rubble of Arakko.

The logo has a Sinister diamond in Storm’s name, but don’t worry, fans, she’s still herself. As pointed out in Sins of Sinister #1, Sinister can’t take advantage of Storm’s resurrections to mess with her mind, because she renounced the option of resurrection in order to prove herself to the Arakkii in X-Men Red #4.

(more…)

As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.

LEGION OF X #10
“Among Us Stalk the Sentinels”
Writer: Si Spurrier
Penciller: Netho Diaz
Inkers; Sean Parsons & Álvaro López
Colourists: Java Tartaglia & Ruth Redmond
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Design: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen
Editor: Sarah Brunstad

COVER / PAGE 1: Everyone fights Nimrod. This is a very loose interpretation of what’s happening in the story itself, where Nimrod isn’t exactly there in person. Professor X can be seen in the centre, cradling Legion (which happens on the astral plane). Nightcrawler is there, although he’s otherwise occupied in the story itself. And for some reason that’s Rogue and Gambit on the right.

PAGES 2-3. Professor X realises he’s made a terrible mistake.

So, the giant psychic thing is an astral plane version of a Technarchy, summoned by the Babel Spire that Nimrod is building on Krakoa. Legion ought to be the natural defence against this thing, but Professor X knocked him out with a psychic trojan last issue because he was expecting a fight. In fairness to the Professor, for many years Legion’s routine was that things always went wrong and all manner of damage was caused by his efforts – but that changed quite some time ago, and the Professor obviously hasn’t been paying all that much attention. The very fact that he hasn’t noticed the change is indictment enough, and it’s at least partially to do with Professor X being in denial about Legion being anything much to do with him.

(more…)

As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.

X-FORCE vol 6 #37
“Unmasked”
Writer: Benjamin Percy
Artist: Robert Gill
Colourist: GURU-eFX
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Design: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen
Editor: Mark Basso

COVER / PAGE 1: The Man with the Peacock Tattoo removes his mask, which must have been terribly itchy with X-Force inside. Wolverine is shown with X-Force here, but he’s not in the issue – presumably, this takes place while he’s still missing over in his own title, thanks to the Beast imprisoning him.

PAGE 2. Carlos Pacheco obituary.

PAGES 3-5. Deadpool annoys his teammates.

Omega Red threw Deadpool off the waterfall before, in issue #30. But aside from that, what is he doing, staring at the wall? Is he meditating? Does he suspect that something is behind there, maybe to do with one of Beast’s schemes?

(more…)

As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.

SABRETOOTH & THE EXILES #3
“Station Three”
Writer: Victor LaValle
Artist: Leonard Kirk
Colourist: Rain Beredo
Letterer: Cory Petit
Design: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen
Editor: Mark Basso

COVER / PAGE 1. Nekra and Sabretooth fight. I assume that red and white swirly background is meant to say “astral plane”, though it’s really more “Jim Steranko”.

PAGE 2. Recap and credits.

PAGE 3. Establishing shot of the astral plane.

Third Eye, as our narrator, describes this version of the astral plane as “the classics”. It’s basically the Ditko Dr Strange version of the astral plane, complete with something in the bottom right that resembles the window from Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum.

PAGE 4. Sabretooth and the Exiles in the astral plane.

In keeping with the general swirliness of the astral plane, the art gives us a breakdown in the passage of time, with a page that’s simultaneously a series of panels and a single static splash page. Everyone appears much as they do on Earth, complete with Nanny and Orphan-Maker in their armour.

(more…)

As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.

SINS OF SINISTER #1
“Everything is Sinister”
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Lucas Werneck
Guest artists: Geoffrey Shaw, Marco Checchetto, Juan José Ryp, David Baldéon, Travel Foreman, Carlos Gómez, Federico Vincentini, David Lopez, Joshua Cassara & Stefano Caselli
Colour artist: Bryan Valenza
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Design: Jay Bowen
Editor: Jordan White

COVER / PAGE 1. Sinister in a central diamond, surrounded by shards with images of other X-Men and Quiet Council members.

This is a one-shot, effectively an extra issue of Immortal X-Men, which leads into the “Sins of Sinister” arc that runs over the next three issues of Immortal X-Men, Legion of X and X-Men Red – retitled for the interim as Immoral X-Men, Nightcrawlers and Storm and the Brotherhood of Mutants.

PAGE 2. Carlos Pacheco obituary.

(more…)

As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.

IMMORTAL X-MEN #10
“Hated and Feared”
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Lucas Werneck
Colourist: David Curiel
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Jordan D White

COVER / PAGE 1. Professor X, with his helmet damaged to expose part of his face.

PAGE 2. Carlos Pacheco obituary.

PAGE 3. Mr Sinister creates a new save point.

We saw Sinister doing something similar to this with Moira VI in the previous issue – and then burning through all ten of her iterations before finally managing to be semi-successful in his assassination attempt on the Quiet Council. Once again, he uses Velocidad’s time warping powers to get this seventh Moira clone to a stage where she can be used as a save point. As seen in issue #1, Sinister’s scheme involves killing the Moira clones and using their powers to carry information back in time so that when their lives start over, he has access to the information from the deleted timeline. Hence, the absence of any information in the clone’s memory means this is its first timeline.

(more…)