Exceptional X-Men #6 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
There are a ridiculous number of new titles out this week – eight ongoing titles in total, plus one miniseries – so I won’t be doing annotations for all of them.
EXCEPTIONAL X-MEN #6
Writer: Eve L Ewing
Artist: Carmen Carnero
Colour artist: Nolan Woodard
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Editor: Tom Brevoort
THE CORE CAST:
Axo. He’s the only cast member sympathetic to the stated goals of Sheldon Xenos’ Verate app. He identifies with Xenos as a fellow visible mutant and feels that his teammates don’t know what this is like. He’s receptive to Xenos’ attempts to befriend and mentor him, and inclined to trust him. He understands why people are sceptical about the data privacy issues, but makes an impassioned argument (no doubt informed by his connection with Xenos) that everyone else is being too insular and paranoid in dismissing the possibilities offered by a fellow mutant and his technology.
Axo uses his powers to save Xenos from two apparent muggers; they turn out to be stooges at the end of the issue, but Axo’s powers apparently don’t pick up on this. It’s possible that the whole thing is an act and that Axo doesn’t realise this, but the idea seems to be that their true emotional state is consistent with what they seem to be doing. It’s still a risky play by Xenos, since Axo uses his powers to make them talk about how much they hate what they’re doing. Luckily, their answers are consistent with both their cover story and the truth.
Bronze describes him as “Mr Cynical”, “Captain Sarcasm” and “eye-roll king”, which isn’t exactly how he’s been written to date, but he seems to recognise (and be comfortable with) this description of himself.
Bronze and Melée mostly spend the issue voicing the obvious arguments against Verate’s collection of DNA and exploitation of people’s insecurities – this is Axo’s issue.
Kate Pryde. She’s in favour of the teens establishing boundaries between themselves and Emma, and in favour of them getting jobs together for team bonding. She’s delighted to be kissed by Nina but worries about whether a relationship with her will be poisonous to someone normal.
Emma Frost. The kids are concerned that they’re financially dependent on her, and Emma seems taken aback that this is a concern. Nobody seems to dispute that Emma is spending money on the kids, but it’s not at all obvious what she’s spent it on, other than the costumes that she gave them. After all, they live at home, and the dance studio was loaned free of charge by Priti.
She opposes the kids getting jobs because she wants them to focus on their training – she’s not interested in normalcy, or at least regards it as an impossible goal. When asked by Kate whether they’re “capable of normalcy”, she hesitates before saying that she’s not the one to ask.
Iceman. He’s there for the training sequence at the start.
SUPPORTING CAST:
Priti. Kate’s flatmate is starting to look too good to be true (and it seems to be intentional). Having given the kids her dance studio, she now offers them all internships with her consulting firm. When they show up, she seems to be under the impression that they’ve been given a brief about Verate to think about, and barrels through their protests that they have no idea what she’s talking about.
The consultancy firm seems to be fairly well established – there are plenty of other people around. But she’s working for Xenos, and she steers Bronze and Melée away, to let Xenos talk to Axo alone. She could, of course, just be getting rid of them because they’re being embarrassingly critical of the client, and that’s clearly meant to be the surface reading. But she wasn’t bothered by their obvious lack of preparation, Xenos’ entire plan seems to be to insinuate himself with Axo, and like I say, Priti seems a little bit too good to be true. I’m leaving her in “supporting cast” for now, but… well.
Mr Luna (Axo’s father) and Ana Luna are Axo’s immediate family. There’s no mention of a mother. The father seems entirely pleasant and supportive and is clearly disappointed that Axo doesn’t want to spend family time with them, but doesn’t push the point. Little sister Ana has health problems, presumably also the sort of thing that Verate is advertised as helping with.
Dani is also hanging around at the Luna family home. We last saw her in issue #2 when Axo went to watch her play soccer (she had two lines of dialogue). Ana really likes her. Her mother works late and she’s responsible for putting younger sisters to bed, though apparently they’re old enough to be left at home on their own. She’s obviously a regular presence in the Luna household and you could infer that she’s either an actual or potential girlfriend for Axo, but they don’t really act towards one another in a way that suggests any particular intimacy.
Nina. Having previously invited Kate to a school soccer game for a date, she now offers a relative’s 90th birthday party. Kate is delighted.
VILLAIN:
Sheldon Xenos. Xenos is the Chicago-based mutant entrepreneur behind the Verate app (or at least, we assume he’s a mutant – he certainly has massive visible horns). Presumably this is public knowledge – he has no apparent concerns about being seen in public – but if so, it’s odd that we haven’t seen people associate the app with mutant ownership in previous issues. You’d think it would come up more.
He claims to be motivated by a desire to help people, driven by his own genetic experiences. But at the very least, this version of events is clearly pitched to be the story that Axo wants to hear. Xenos is quite clearly trying to manipulate Axo into accepting his mentorship. That said, it could be partially true – nothing in this issue outright contradicts his stated claims about his goals for the app. In terms of what we’ve seen on the page, it’s even possible that his motivations are purely commercial and no more sinister than any other data harvesting operation… but common sense tells us that’s not how X-Men stories work.
The name of the app is pronounced as something closer to “verity”.
I’m rather baffled as to what Xenos’ plan with the fake mugging. It didn’t seem to accomplish anything, it doesn’t change Axo’s mind at all, and was an unnecessary risk to take with the guy with confession powers. It also requires Axo to take on faith that the couple seemingly responsible for a series of armed muggings are just going to stop now, which isn’t exactly Mr. Cynical.
“Sheldon Xenos” contains the letters of his real last name, which would be a (debatably) subtle clue if the cover preview for next issue didn’t spoil it.
The next issue image makes it clear that Sheldon Xenos is Mr. Sinister. I wonder if he’s just a disguised Sinister or if there’s more to it.
This seems to be an interesting take on Sinister. I wonder if some of what Xenos told the kids reflects Sinister’s true motivations. His son did die of genetic defects. after all. Of course, if Sinister does want to “perfect” the world, I doubt his idea of a perfect world is a world most people would want to live in.
Agreed that Priti is definitely working with Sinister knowingly. In hindsight there were clues before that something was up with Priti. She recognized Emma as Kitty’s former principal in issue 3, not as Emma Frost- everybody thought that was odd but in hindsight she was repeating what Sinister told her about Emma.
The interesting thing is that Priti was introduced as an old friend of Kitty that Kitty hadn’t seen in years. I’m wondering if this is the real Priti- Sinister could have kidnapped the real Priti and replaced her with a clone. Kitty wouldn’t know the difference if she hadn’t seen her in years. OTOH, it’s possible that she’s got a dying relative or something and Sinister offered to use his advanced genetics knowledge to cure her.
Why did Bobby eat the chips in his ice form? Why not turn to human? Wouldn’t the chips be tastier in his human form? That scene had no purpose but to make a joke about the bag being cold.
I was wondering what was going on with the fake muggers too. Axo seemed to be able to sense they were going to attack, so his powers were definitely working. Maybe it’s just that their answers were consistent with their cover stories and the truth. Or maybe “Xenos” has some advanced technology that can manipulate Axo’s powers somehow.
Well, darn. You gave it away. I thought Foggy Nelson was up to no good again after MasterMahan’s clue.
Xenos made an origami swan, and Priti ushered everyone out except Axo. The next panel showed the origami swan in close-up. I figured that was Xenos’s cue to Priti. While it doesn’t rule out mind control, I think Priti is in some sort of cahoots with Xenos.
I like that Axo is making decisions based on both his status as a visible mutant and Ana’s illness. It’s believable, as are his friends’ objections. I don’t necessarily want to read a storyline about a cure for mutation, but I want to see where this story leads.
> Why did Bobby eat the chips in his ice form? Why not turn to human? Wouldn’t the chips be tastier in his human form?
Is he stuck in ice mode again, after the whole Fall of X thing?
@SanityorMadness- We’ve seen him turn human a couple of times since the series started- in the bonus page of issue 1 and when he claimed to have grown up with Kitty.
I’m glad if Xenos is Sinister, because there’s already a weirdly high number of wealthy mutants (most of whom don’t have mindreading or inventor powers). They don’t have a 1% do much as a 15%.
I know we’re coming up on a year under the new era, but am I the only one who thinks it’s still a little too soon for a Sinister story given how prominent he was all during Krakoa and essentially being the big bad of its last two arcs?
Sheldon Xenos
Essex… Holonnd? Hold on…n?
Anyway. Another good issue! Again, great art, these characters are so expressive and believable. And they dress like real people, which is… surprisingly rare in superhero books.
I’m really miffed Exceptional got the branding but not the increased release schedule of Uncanny and Adjectiveless. And after lucking out on skipping Raid on Graymalkin it’s now getting sucked into Manhunt. I rather doubt that will improve anything.
I’ve quickly lost my patient with this title. While I appreciate the focus on establishing the new characters, nothing seems to be happening to move the plot forward. This series, for lack of a better word, is boring. If it could balance out the characterization with some excitement it would perhaps read better for me, but I don’t think I’ll be sticking around after X-Manhunt.
Ah, I was going off of issue numbers and didn’t realize a some of these books double-ship. It’s more like six months! No wonder it seems like Sinister’d barely gone away.
Krysiek
Essex H? London
Until proven otherwise, Xenos (and all other mystery figures in From The Ashes — I’m looking at you, Dr. Ellis!) is secretly Romulus…
Romulus IS Mr. Sinister…
It all makes sense now.
Romulus IS Mr. Sinister…
It all makes sense now.
Is he Tank as well?
Is he Tank as well?
It’s a shame: I like do much of this comic, but it just doesn’t work in terms of pacing. It being announced as one of three core titles didn’t help in the slightest, because it makes the discrepancy in timing and narrative momentum all the more glaring.
I like all the stuff around Exo, though the single moment in the entire issue that really shines is the small exchange between Kitty and Emma.
That bring said, if I step back and imagine this as an 1980s comic, I’m struck by just how much more could be done within this limited allotment of pages.
Cut Iceman, reduce the more redundant interactions between the three teens, give us a hint at Frost’s intentions, point to the ongoing disconnect from the other team books – throw some side material in there, with glimpses of trouble to come, even.
Without any of that variety, the book just feels flat and excessively linear.
Giving time for everything to settle would be fine, in the abstract – but after six issues?
It’s s bit boring, indeed. Which is frustrating: the characterization is there, and the art is impeccable.
Tank is the Hoyle Instruction Card of the Sinister set. Who is of course Romulus as well.
Add me to the ‘can we see what Emma’s agenda is that she hinted at early on’ list.
Also, Kitty is pretty well-adjusted for someone suffering from PTSD.
Still, this and the non-Mojo issues of NYX are the series I’ve been following. I tried X-FACTOR for a while but it just didn’t grab me.