A.X.E.: Judgment Day #3 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
A.X.E.: JUDGMENT DAY #3
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Valerio Schiti
Colourist: Marte Gracia
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Tom Brevoort
COVER / PAGE 1: Makkari, Jean Grey and Iron Man, presumably inside the Progenitor.
PAGES 2-3. Recap and credits.
PAGES 4-5. The Progenitor judges Captain America.
The Progenitor is still going by the name he had in the Avengers arc that introduced him, despite his resurrection with an apparently altered personality. You have to wonder what the connection is between this guy and the very Celestial-like, though somewhat lower powered, Progenitors from various Al Ewing stories, most recently X-Men Red #2. But that’s probably a story for another time.
Ajak initially tries to rationalise away what she’s done. She’s apparently programmed to worship the Celestials as a religion, and so much of what she’s doing involves trying to explain or reinterpret that religion to get to a place she can live with.
New Mutants #28 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
NEW MUTANTS vol 4 #28
“The Labors of Magik, Book Four: The Queen is Dead, Long Live the Queen”
Writer: Vita Ayala
Main story art & colours: Rod Reis
Flashback art: Jan Duursema
Flashback colours: Ruth Redmon
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Sarah Brunstad
COVER / PAGE 1: Magik in chains before Madelyne Pryor as the new Queen of Limbo. Not especially connected to anything that happens in the issue, though if you squint a bit I suppose you could see it as representing their respective attitudes to reigning Limbo.
PAGE 2. Magik tries making her Soulsword.
That’s Magik’s castle, as last seen in issue #25.
Since rescuing her own younger self last issue, Magik and co have apparently been hiding out in a cave while she tries to recreate the Soulsword. Of course, symbols blurring with reality is a standard trope of magical stories, but Magik seems to literally believe that the key to regaining control of Limbo is to summon up the Soulsword again. Since the sword represents her soul, Magik seems to recognise that restoring the Soulsword is just the outward manifestation of restoring her soul – but it’s not clear what she’s actually been doing over the last week or so restore her soul.
X-Force #30 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-FORCE vol 6 #30
“The Hunt for X, part 1: Dawn of the Hunt”
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 new X-Force line-up, complete with annoying Deadpool. This issue is bannered as a “Judgment Day” tie-in despite having no apparent connection to the crossover at all. In fairness, though, X-Force #30-33 are all listed as tie-ins, so perhaps this plotline will connect to it somehow over the next few issues.
PAGES 2-4. Wolverine yells at a tree.
Wolverine blames Krakoa itself for the disappearance of Kid Omega, who vanishes while fighting a Cerebrax-possessed Krakoa at the end of issue #29. Nothing in that issue gives Wolverine any particularly concrete reason to blame Krakoa, but Percy has repeatedly written Wolverine as the one guy on the island who really doesn’t trust the place. Quentin’s disappearance is the catalyst for Wolverine’s wider doubts to come to the fore.
X-Men #13 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-MEN vol 6 #13
“Resurrection Blues”
Writer: Gerry Duggan
Artist: C F Villa
Colourist: Matt Milla
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Design: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen
Editor: Jordan D White
COVER / PAGE 1: Cyclops and Jean in action alongside Ikaris and Sersi from Eternals. This is an A.X.E.: Judgment Day tie-in.
PAGE 2. Opening quote: Jean Grey. It’s obviously meant to be ironic in the light of the plot of Judgment Day, in which an artificially-revived Celestial judges the whole planet.
PAGE 3. The X-Men in battle against the Hex.
Or rather, all of them but Forge, who we’ll get to on the next page. But the rest of the newly-elected team from X-Men: Hellfire Gala are here.
This is the Hex’s attack on Krakoa from A.X.E.: Judgment Day #2. The one seen here is Thieaka the Harpsicus. The narrator gives us the very basic version of the Eternals’ motivation; the fuller version is that Druig sees this as a way to cement his authority as Prime Eternal, but that’s not really relevant to this issue.
A.X.E.: Judgment Day #2 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
A.X.E.: JUDGMENT DAY #2
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Valerio Schiti
Colourist: Marte Gracia
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Tom Brevoort
COVER / PAGE 1. The reanimated Celestial looms over the heroes (not looking quite the way it ends up in the actual story).
PAGES 2-3. Recap and credits.
PAGE 4. Meet the civilians.
The first appearance of all six of these characters, as far as I’m aware. Arjan’s confidence that the heroes will save him is ironic given what happens to him later in the issue. There are of six of them, matching the number of the Hex, which may or may not be significant.
The narrator is identified later in the issue as the new Celestial god that Ajak is in the process of raising. The caption style is clearly reminiscent of the “machine” narration from Eternals, though.
Tom’s T-shirt has the image of Bruttu, a one-off character from Tales of Suspense #22 (1961). That story involves Bruttu being a comic book character who then inspires one Howard Lindley to become a real-life Bruttu, so the existence of Bruttu merchandise in the Marvel Universe is entirely reasonable.
Legion of X #4 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
LEGION OF X #4
“Pillow Talk”
Writer: Si Spurrier
Artist: Jan Bazaldua
Colourist: Federico Blee
Letterer & production: Clayton Cowles
Design: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen
Editor: Sarah Brunstad
COVER / PAGE 1. Hmm. Well, that’s Nightcrawler and Zsen in the foreground. Standing over them are Mother Righteous in the middle (who doesn’t appear in this issue), Loki to the right, and… presumably another trickster god component on the left, though I don’t recognise him. And in the background is the silhouette of Galactus, which has nothing to do with the content of this issue at all. It’s quite an odd cover. The actual solicitation text seems perfectly consistent with the published issue, though.
PAGE 2. George Pérez obituary.
PAGE 3. Switch is rescued.
We’re not told who his rescuer is, though since he has purple skin and custom speech balloons, he should be pretty hard to miss.
Switch’s psyche was trapped in this jar last issue. Considering how important he is, it seems odd that Switch has been entrusted to Paulie diCosta, who has no experience in this field at all and doesn’t particularly want to be there himself.
X-Men Red #5 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-MEN RED vol 2 #5
“The Hour of Uranos”
Writer: Al Ewing
Artist: Stefano Caselli
Colourist: Federico Blee
Letterer: Ariana Maher
Design: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen
Editor: Jordan D White
COVER / PAGE 1: Cable, still with a twinkle in his eye even in adverse circumstances.
PAGES 2-3. Destiny’s warning is relayed to the Great Ring.
The lead-in for this scene is on page 9 of A.X.E.: Judgment Day #1, where Magneto, Cable and Nightcrawler decided that they would relay Destiny’s warning about an imminent Eternal attack to the Great Ring, while Storm joined the Quiet Council meeting on Krakoa. Abigail Brand wasn’t seen in that issue, so presumably Magneto and co went out of their way to alert her – partly because of the seriousness of the problem, and partly because this whole affair is completely unrelated to any of her schemes.
Immortal X-Men #5 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
IMMORTAL X-MEN #5
“Meditations on the X”
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Michele Bandini
Colourist: David Curiel
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Jordan D White
COVER / PAGE 1. Exodus in action above Krakoa (with what looks to be one of the Hex visible on the ground below). Obviously, it’s Exodus’s turn for his spotlight issue.
PAGES 2-3. Flashback: Exodus has a vision of the Phoenix in the desert.
Black Knight: Exodus. The flashbacks in this issue heavily reference the 1996 one-shot Black Knight: Exodus by Ben Raab and Jimmy Cheung, because it’s Exodus’s origin story. In the original story, the Black Knight (Dane Whitman) and Sersi attempt to return to the mainstream Marvel Universe from the Malibu Ultraverse. They wind up stuck in the time of the Crusades, with Dane possessing the body of the period Black Knight, Eobar Garrington. (I’ll come back to that.)
A.X.E.: Judgment Day #1 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
A.X.E.: JUDGMENT DAY #1
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Valerio Schiti
Colourist: Marte Gracia
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Tom Brevoort
COVER / PAGE 1: Well, that’s the X-Men on the left, the Avengers in the middle and the Eternals on the right. In the background, the looming Celestial that forms Avengers Mountain.
PAGE 2. An ordinary day in New York.
This is the voice of the Machine, originally presented as the Eternals’ artificial intelligence, but which presents itself in the current Eternals series as “the Great Machine that is Earth”. It serves as the narrator of Eternals.
The woman with green hair on the bottom left might be Polaris, not that it really matters.
Knights of X #4 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
KNIGHTS OF X #4
“The Seat of the Self”
Writer: Tini Howard
Artist: Bob Quinn
Colourist: Erick Arciniega
Letterer: Ariana Maher
Design: Tom Muller
Editor: Sarah Brunstad
COVER / PAGE 1. Betsy walks towards an (empty) Siege Perilous, surrounded by shards with images of the rest of the cast.
PAGE 2. Arthur’s forces continue their attack.
PAGES 3-4. Recap and credits.
PAGES 5-6. Jim Jaspers makes a portal to Mercator for the remaining Knights of X.
The sacrifice. We established last issue that Apocalypse’s grimoire predicted that a sacrifice would be required in order to get into Mercator; Rictor spent most of last issue thinking it could be him, until Gambit got killed in action instead. As Meggan reminds us, we established during “X of Swords” that mutants who die in Otherworld can’t be resurrected, except as rebooted blank slates.
