X-Men #11 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-MEN vol 7 #11
“Live Capture”
Writer: Jed MacKay
Penciller: Netho Diaz
Inker: Sean Parsons
Colourist: Fer Sifuentes-Sujo
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Tom Brevoort
THE X-MEN:
Cyclops. He takes the X-Men to intercept an approaching spacecraft before it reaches Merle, not because he assumes it must be a threat but because he doesn’t want to unnecessarily aggravate the locals even more. When it turns out to be Corsair, he greets him warmly and hugs him, but immediately wants to know what Corsair’s current scheme is.
When alien mercenaries show up in pursuit of Corsair, Cyclops’ first reaction is to blame his dad for leading them to the X-Men’s doorstep and expecting the X-Men to bail him out. This is a more muted version of how their relationship was played in Phoenix (where Corsair was wildly out of character). In this version, however, Cyclops’ distrust of Corsair turns out to be a disastrous error, since the mercenaries are actually after Cyclops, and Corsair was just trying to get there first in order to warn him. To be fair to Scott, it also doesn’t seem to occur to him that aliens would have any interest in him, rather than Corsair.
Kid Omega. Cyclops says he “stole” the Marauder from Kate Pryde, who doesn’t know about it yet; Kid Omega insists that he “salvaged” it, and claims that he’s using the term in a legally accurate way. All of this is new – the X-Men already had the Marauder in issue #1 of this series, and its previous appearance was in Marauders vol 2 #12, when nothing had happened to it. Obviously the X-Men didn’t have access to it during “Fall of X”, but we don’t have any details of how it wound up in Quentin’s hands. Given that Kate has been trying to live a normal life over in Exceptional X-Men, she wouldn’t have wanted it anyway, and it’s unlikely that she would have taken any calls trying to explain what had happened to it.
If Kid Omega is serious about claiming that he “salvaged” the vessel – and he actually knows what the term means – then he’s implying that he saved it from some sort of physical peril. As he points out to Corsair, the Marauder is psychically controlled (this was indeed established in Marauders), so it makes sense that he would be particularly well placed to pilot it.
Psylocke. She seems to be getting on better with Kid Omega these days – her jokes at him seem to be in good spirits.
Magik. She’s cheerful and ironically bratty while playing cards with Juggernaut on the Marauder, but she hasn’t forgiven Corsair for abandoning the New Mutants in New Mutants #1 (2019), and decks him on sight. In that issue, the New Mutants hitch a lift to the Shi’ar Empire with the Starjammers. They wind up screwing up an attempted heist by the Starjammers, who do indeed abandon them to the Shi’ar authorities.
Juggernaut and Temper are there, but don’t contribute much to the plot.
SUPPORTING CAST:
Corsair. As noted, he’s come to Earth to try to warn Cyclops that aliens are after him. His relationship with Cyclops here is much as it was shown in Phoenix – where Cyclops didn’t trust him an inch – but in this version it’s undeserved. As far as we can tell, Corsair has no ulterior motive here beyond helping his son against the mercenaries.
Jennifer Starkey. She’s actually a shapechanger with the power to change between at least two (and almost certainly more) forms. She took a fish-like form on her first appearance because she was near water when the Upstarts attacked her, but by thinking about flying she can also turn into a bird-like form. Her first reaction to this news is to ask whether she can change back to her original form, but Beast isn’t sure whether that’s even possible.
The Beast. He instinctively thinks of Jennifer as a scientific puzzle rather than a person, and she has to prompt him to call her by her first name. But he’s making some progress in understanding her.
Magneto appears in the background of page 12 panel 4.
Alpha Flight show up at the end, working for Department H. We last saw Alpha Flight in the “Fall of X” Alpha Flight miniseries, where they were trying to sabotage the pro-Orchis Canadian government from within, and ultimately wound up going to jail. Presumably they were released after the fall of Orchis. The team members seen here are mostly unnamed, but they appear to be:
- Vindicator. This would normally be Heather Hudson She’s wearing a black and white version of the costume. In the Alpha Flight miniseries, Heather had become the new Nemesis, using a magic sword that was draining her life force. She was in a coma at the end of the mini, so it’s possible that this might be someone else in the costume.
- Guardian. Presumably James Hudson as usual. He was in jail at the end of Alpha Flight.
- Puck. He was also in jail at the end of Alpha Flight.
- Marrina. The woman with green skin and hair and all-black eyes is presumably Marrina, who wasn’t a member of the last Alpha Flight team, but was helping them evacuate refugee mutants to Chandilar. The wings are new, but she’s changed appearance from time to time in the past.
- There’s also a white bird, which is probably Snowbird, but might also just be a bird. Again, Snowbird was in jail at the end of the last series.
VILLAINS:
Well, so far, it’s a bunch of random alien mercenaries, mainly Skrulls and Badoon. Their “ship” is a lobotomised Acanti, a race first seen in Uncanny X-Men #156, where they were being enslaved in a similar way by the Brood.
FOOTNOTES:
Page 4: “Flark” is Marvel’s all-purpose swearing substitute in Guardians of the Galaxy.
Page 5: Jennifer Starkey was rescued from the Upstarts in issue #4, her debut. In that story, she’s already in her aquatic form when we first see her, but she does talk later in the issue as if this is a sudden and recent development.
Page 8: “O*N*E’s visit earlier” is presumably the one from the previous issue.
The “X-Drive” was previously mentioned in issue #2; it lets Magik teleport the entire Marauder over long distances.
Page 11: “Scourge of the Spaceways” was originally the name of a space opera series which existed in the world of Robert A Heinlein’s book The Rolling Stones (1952).
A flark, according to Rocket Raccoon/Al Ewing, is a disgusting facial parasite. But he had great fun with terms like “flark my old boots”, which would suggest otherwise.
I’m still working under the theory that Corsair has been remolded as an actual scoundrel because Starlord stole his traditional role.
Several readers felt that Scott saying “normally none of our never mind” was awkward.
I realize that MacKay was stuck with Stephanie Philips’s depiction of the relationship between Scott and Corsair. (Or maybe it was Breevort’s idea.) But still Scott’s assuming that the bounty hunters were after Corsair seemed contrived. Corsair’s crash landed before on the X-Men’s doorstep trying to warn them of legitimate menaces like Deathbird. And the Skull and Badoon have both fought the X-Men before, so it’s not like Scott should assume that they would never attack the X-Men unless it was Corsair’s fault.Plus, it would have just taken a second for Quentin to either read Corsair’s mind and find out who the villains were after or read the minds of the people on the ship and find out who they were after.
Considering how different Vindicator and Marrina look, I’m wondering if Alpha Flight are really Skrulls. MacKay DID point out that some of the mercenaries were Skrulls.
We are expected to believe that something happened to Alpha Flight since their latest series.
See how Guardian’s fists are in flame. He apparently gained new powers.
It’s not hard to believe that Alpha Flight would have been released and enlisted back into traditional government service following the fall of Orchis and things going back to relatively normal. Maybe it’s part of their parole to serve as an official team again.
Heather does tend to change costumes occasionally, and if she was separated from the Nemesis sword, that would be a good enough reason for a change.
Marrina, as a bit of a shapeshifter, could presumably grow wings, although she’s traditionally been an aquatic humanoid, not an avian. But… *shrug*
Guardian’s flaming fists are indeed new, but not out of line with what his and/or Heather’s suits have been capable of in the past.
Notably, while these are all classic members of the team (or people adopting the classic personas), we’re still missing a few like Shaman and Sasquatch (though with Walter and Doc Samson having exchanged bodies, we can handwave that.) The big exception though is the lack of any mutants in this iteration.
(Mainly Northstar and Aurora, last seen also acting as renegades during the Fall of X… since Akihiro and Wild Child are accounted for elsewhere, but there are still a fair number off the grid at the moment.)
@The Other Michael- Percy has said that Daken will be appearing in Hellverine, which is probably why she’s absent.
That should be “Aurora will be appearing in Hellverine”
I’m annoyed that Temper’s power seems to have become converting cold to heat and visa versa. Surely “moves heat around” isn’t that hard to understand.
It’s an odd situation when the plot twist is that someone is acting in character.
That was Temper’s power when she was hanging around with the time displaced O5. She could set Iceman’s ice alight but apparently not make ice herself. Straight-up “able to shift temperatures up and down” is oddly never used for super characters.
I believe Drs Langkowski and Samson got untangled in the Gamma Flight spinoff of Immortal Hulk. I know for a fact that Rick Jones got reset to factory standard there, and while I don’t specifically recall the Sasquatch situation getting reverted, I’m pretty sure that Ewing and Frasier were putting all the toys back the way they found them.
Rick is back to normal or maybe enhanced in an other way as per Venom, I hope not if it had to be one of the choices I would prefer Luke, but there all bad options.
Samson is still Doc Sasquatch, he has been in other books such as Daredevil since immortal finished.
But there is nothing stopping Walter experimenting on himself to regain powers.
@Alastair- it’s fairly clear that the new Venom isn’t Luke. The consensus among fans is that the new Venom is probably MJ.
Always good to see Alpha Flight again. It would be nice if MacKay picked up on their continuity from the mini-series. That team felt like the most promising AF grouping in a while, and I was hoping Ed Brisson would get another crack at them.
I’m not optimistic given the somewhat random changes on display here, but it’s just a cameo. Next issue should give us a better idea. Extra points if Northstar and Aurora show up, of course.
I’m not a fan of Cyclops’ reaction to Corsair. I know their big reunion was a long time ago now, but isn’t Scott supposed to be happy that his father is back in his life? Immediate distrust seems not only out of character, but also like it might open old wounds.
Why couldn’t Corsair open with, “SCOTT, THEY’RE AFTER YOU! I’M HERE TO WARN YOU!”
Maybe the X-Men wouldn’t listen or maybe they wouldn’t have time to process before the Acanti whale/ship attacked, but I hate the trope of characters not saying vital information immediately just to generate drama.
I have concluded that this current Venom is probably Paul. It would best explain his not being Eddie Brock while also having conflicted and confused feelings about Dylan and parental roles.
Boy, Marvel is going out of its way to make Paul appear unlikable.
@luisdante. I think they are leaning in to it they know that the fanbase is never going accept Paul even if they don’t think Peter and MJ will get back together. So if they try and make him Mr perfect it’s just going piss people off even more.
New Corsair in Phoenix feels a lot like Finn’s dad in Adventure Time. Now picturing Scott building a giant tower into space to find Corsair and tear off his arm.
I’m assuming that you guys mean that Venom is now “our” Paul, and that that explains the weeks where the X-Axis reviews were off-schedule….
A fake Paul would explain how the Paul on the last podcast liked a Fantastic Four book.
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