Uncanny X-Men #11 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
UNCANNY X-MEN vol 6 #11
“X-Manhunt, part 1: Echoes of Madness”
Writer: Gail Simone
Artist: Javier Garrón
Colour artist: Matthew Wilson
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Tom Brevoort
This is part of the “X-Manhunt” crossover, which ships its first three chapters in a single week. It doesn’t come up in this issue, but part two establishes that One World Under Doom is also in full flow at this point. The plot of that series basically involves Doom getting all national governments to pledge allegiance to him, presumably through magical means, which is why the normal day-to-day authorities are continuing to operate.
THE X-MEN:
Rogue. Despite running the cuddly X-Men team, she’s becoming worried that everyone is treating their training exercise as a game, and that it’s actually making people complacent – the Outliers in particular. In classic Claremont fashion, her solution to this problem is to have Gambit chuck an exploding card at one of the group in the middle of a training session which has been specifically described to the kids as a game. Gambit sides with her on this, and doesn’t even seem particularly bothered about it. Wolverine says that he understands but seems a bit less convinced.
Jubilee is furious and tells Rogue that she’s acting like Cyclops. Nightcrawler is too preoccupied with aftercare to comment directly, but completely misreads Rogue’s concern earlier in the issue; he assumes that she’s worried the kids will get hurt and tells her what fun they’re having.
Ransom, Deathdream, Jitter and Calico (with Ember) only appear in the training scene, and get left behind for the mission to Graymalkin. Even before Rogue blows up the game, Calico is easily defeated, and Deathdream just tries to hide behind a post. Ransom gets picked off by Logan. Jitter – who gets targeted by Rogue – was the last one standing at the time, but also the only one who seemed to be doing reasonably well. She’s reduced to tears.
Ember really does seem to be glaring at Rogue afterwards.
SUPPORTING CAST
Professor X. Somehow, even while imprisoned in Graymalkin, Professor X becomes aware of the attack on his daughter Xandra (of whom more below), and is extremely distressed about it. Xandra is apparently making a conscious effort to call him for help, but the contact leaves him in tears, with an elevated heartrate, and “like his brain is overheating”. All this seems like a callback to Lilandra’s debut in X–Men #97, which similarly involved him picking up on her psychic signal and being driven slightly mad by it.
He seems to be driven to the conclusion that while he was (past tense) a good man, he has never been a good father – which seems likely to be more of a comment on his strained relationship with his son Legion, but Xandra would be entitled to make many of the same complaints.
Even while sedated, he’s able to contact fellow inmate Sarah Gaunt, who helps him to escape. He then hallucinates that the five X-Men who’ve come to speak to him are the original team, and fights his way past all of them to waltz out of the building on a mission to save Xandra. Corina Ellis understandably assumes that this is something to do with his tumour, but by this point he’s been affected by both Xandra’s psychic message and Ellis’s own attempts to sedate him, so there are other factors at play. Also, his hallucination about the X-Men seems to have something in common with the subplot about the guard hallucinating that his family are Sentinels. Certainly, Professor X shows no signs of hallucinating the next two chapters.
While hallucinating, he takes great offence at being challenged or questioned, and dismisses the attempts to tell him about his tumour as lies. We’re told that it’s a “mutant tumour”, whatever that means – isn’t that a bit like telling us that he has mutant knees?
His narration is described as being from his “final journal”, but despite the lined-paper captions, it seems to be something that he imagines himself writing while imprisoned in Graymalkin.
Xandra Neramani. As established back in her first storyline (Mr & Mrs X #1-5), Xandra is the genetic child of Professor X and Lilandra Neramani, created using their DNA at a point when they were both meant to be dead. She became the new Shi’ar Majestrix in New Mutants vol 4 #2. I think Xandra’s only significant interaction with Professor X to date was when he arranged for her resurrection in X-Men Red vol 2 #4. We last saw her in Alpha Flight vol 5 #2 (the Fall of X miniseries) when she was providing asylum to Canadian mutants.
Xandra is also a powerful telepath, but apparently the Secret Alliance rebels have sufficiently powerful “psi-restraints” to make that academic.
Deathbird. She’s been guarding and mentoring Xandra since New Mutants vol 4 #2. She fights loyally as Xandra’s last line of defence against the Secret Alliance.
VILLAINS:
The Secret Alliance. These guys are new. They’re Shi’ar rebels – or possibly rebels from Shi’ar dominated worlds, but from the look of it, they’ve all got the Shi’ar feathers on their heads, albeit in a wider range of styles than we’re used to seeing. They seem to be zealots, and they regard Xandra as a “bastard abomination” and a “false empress” – presumably because she’s genetically engineered, or possible because she’s a hybrid and only half-Shi’ar.
Corina Ellis. She asks Captain Ezra for an update despite having a daily report from the Perimeter system – there’s a definite implication that she doesn’t trust what Perimeter is telling her. When Professor X starts acting oddly, and she doesn’t get an immediate explanation from the technicians, her first response is to sedate him.
The next thing we see her do is calling Rogue for help – and we established in issue #5 that they could get in touch. Rogue is obviously a strange person to call, because in “Raid on Graymalkin” Rogue was the one arguing for breaking Professor X out. It would be more natural to call Cyclops’ team, who were arguing for leaving him in jail. But to be fair to Ellis, X-Men #11-12 end with Cyclops’ team learning that Professor X has escaped while they were busy teaming up with Alpha Flight to fight aliens – so quite possibly Ellis does try the other X-Men team first.
Captain Ezra. Mostly there to deliver exposition to Ellis. He trusts Perimeter more than she does and seems to be trying to steer her away from wasting his time with this stuff. His instinct is to refer to Scurvy as Phillip, but he corrects himself before Ellis picks up on it.
Scurvy. He doesn’t appear in this issue, but we’re told that he’s “still in the sick bay in recovery from the Raid.” Presumably that’s referring to the “Raid on Graymalkin” crossover and specifically his defeat at the hands of Professor X in issue #8… but if so, that means we’re still before Sentinels #4-5 (which follow issues #9-10 of this series due to Larry Trask’s plotline, and show Scurvy active as usual). That seems to be possible, but it’s awkward.
If Scurvy dies, Ellis wants his brain removed for “proper postmortem study” (which isn’t entirely unreasonable given that his tumour has implications for other major characters, but it’s fairly obvious that she hasn’t asked him).
Other Graymalkin staff. There’s a “virus of some kind going around” which has eleven of the guards calling in sick. One of them has a Professor X-style hallucination that his family are Sentinels and (it’s implied) kills them all.
Sarah Gaunt. Still in Graymalkin, where she was imprisoned in issue #5. She has enough power to help Professor X escape her cell. Since she hates the guy, her initial reaction is not to help. But when she learns that he’s trying to save his daughter, she relents – this refers to her own obsession with motherhood and her lost child.
FOOTNOTES:
Page 24 panel 2: Rogue fought to free Professor X during the “Raid on Graymalkin” crossover.
So are we thinking the whole Xandra scenario is just another hallucination? Or is she really in danger?
My gut reaction is that it’s real, but I have no reason for it.
The disconnect between chapter one and two is wild. (Two and three follow almost naturally).
Did we see the ‘how dangerous would the world’s most powerful psychic be with a brain tumor?’ idea before in an x-book? It’s basically how Xavier was portrayed in the Logan movie, so it’s not original, but maybe unprecedented in comics?
Except, well, chapters two and three have zero hallucinations. NYX has an incredibly cold Xavier – I’d say top10 most asshole moments for him, and that’s a high bar to clear – but nothing in the book tries to excuse his behaviour by invoking hallucinations or, for that matter, tumors.
When I saw “mutant tumor” I figured it was like, literally some sort of tumor that was a mutant. Just like John Sublime was a sentient bacteria, the mutant tumor is something which, I dunno, infects telepaths and maybe it’s also sentient?
I’ve heard weirder.
After three parts of this crossover, I’m not entirely sure what’s going on, or why. Xavier seems to actually be on a mission to revive someone from the dead and is using his former students and friends to accomplish this while hiding his true intentions.
My guess, oddly enough? Lilandra. I bet he’s got her backed up in Cerebro and will find a way to resurrect her by the time this is over.
Meanwhile, Rogue may need therapy because her actions in reminding the new kids of the danger they might face does speak a little of hard-earned trauma…
This one was kind of a mess, and I suspect this crossover (coming only a couple months after the last crossover, which also involved Xavier…) is likely going to be a whole series of messes as the writers of many of these books try to set up their final issues to wrap up the plot, while also advancing the Xavier story.
Did we really need yet another training sequence for the kids, in yet another danger room adaptation? Could this space have been better put to use explaining some of the many plot holes that would cause Rogue’s team to be willing to immediately pick up and head back to Greymalkin to help out again?
I do wonder if we’ll see the Uncanny bunch show up again later in the crossover, or if this was their moment and it’s going to be just conflicts involving the Alaska crew from here on out…
I read this issue and NYX 9 back to back, and I agree that the portrayals of Xavier and his issues don’t mesh well. The most interesting part of this issue was Brevoort answering a somewhat over-the-top letter (from Shane)taking him to task for how he responded to a letter in a previous column (from James) that compared Krakoa to MAGA.
Brevoort mentioned that other people responded negatively to his prior response, so the issue must have been his phrasing. He said he was sorry for any upset he caused Shane, but James had a right to the X-books, which… I don’t think anyone was disputing that, and Shane didn’t call for silencing James’s voice. It was an odd, unforced “both sides” moment. Unfortunately, it was more compelling than the comic itself.
I’m so tired of morally-dubious Xavier. Every other superhero that has been around as long as him gets redeemed and reset every few years it seems, but not Chuck. Bald prejudice, obviously.
Xavier was redeemed by Gillen near the end of the Krakoa era. He even turned himself in to be rehabilitated after they decided to make the stupid decision to have Xavier pretend to align with Nimrod. Marvel had the perfect out for Xavier’s past actions after the Hickman reveal, due to Xavier being manipulated by Moira. As Moira even wrote in her diary, she broke him.
One reason why Xavier would get treated differently is that he was dead for a stretch of time after the character was so severely tore down (not counting Onslaught). By the time he was resurrected, Marvel was starting to prepare for Hickman’s revamp, and Xavier (or X) needed to be portrayed as mysterious and creepy leading in to House of X.
I think the problem is that no one knows what to do with Professor X anymore. He’s only served a purpose while the school exists, where he could now serve as a principal figure. Outside that, the eldest generation taught by Xavier are old enough to be the teachers/mentors to the next generation now. Morrison’s run showed that the future of the school belonged to Scott and Emma, and we’ve seen the school being run with no Xavier. He’s outlived his usefulness. He’s better dead, but Hickman needed to bring him back.
They need to reposition the Professor X from the Morrison run, but again, the stupid decision at the end of the Krakoa era precludes that version of Xavier being used anytime in the foreseeable future. We’re back to post-Onslaught Xavier.
I’m not sure where they’re going with the tumour plot, but it’s the kind of story that’s ruined by the whole “solved for death” thing in Krakoa. Xavier was probably reborn more than anyone else, thanks to Proteus using his bodies, and nobody noticed? Nobody accidentally healed it as part of the process of rebuilding his body from a yolk?
I’m all for throwing continuity to the wind if there’s a good story to be told, but this seems too soon.
“but if so, that means we’re still before Sentinels #4-5 (which follow issues #9-10 of this series due to Larry Trask’s plotline, and show Scurvy active as usual). That seems to be possible, but it’s awkward.”
No, it’s not possible. Sentinels 5 features Xavier as a prisoner and it ends with Trask telling Ellis that he had a precognitive vision that the children of the atom would hunt their father. That obviously refers to the story that starts this issue. So Sentinels 5 has to take place before Xavier escapes.
It’s possible that Scurvy recovered from his battle with Xavier. the events of Sentinels 4-5 happened and he had a relapse. It’s possible the footnote last issue was wrong and Seninels 5 takes place before Road to Graymalkin- Trask could have regained his medallion and come to some truce with Ellis. It’s possible that Sentinels 4-5 take place in the “eight hours” between Corina Ellis being told Scurvy was still in sick bay and between Xavier escaping, although that’s awkward.
Am I the only one that thinks the psychic virus might be caused by Scurvy and not Xavier? They have the same tumor.
Xavier sees Jubilee as a woman in Cyclops’s costume. In Uncanny X-Men 5, Harvey X had visions of the future and one of them was a woman in Cyclops’s costume. So now we know what Harvey saw.
(Incidentally, another one of Harvey’s visions looked like it could have been Xavier wearing Magenta’s helmet. Maybe he puts on Magneto’s helmet to keep his telepathic powers from going out of control due to the tumor.)
I think Xavier’s tumor being a “mutant” tumor is meant to explain why Xorn couldn’t heal Harvey X and can’t heal Xavier.
A lot of readers didn’t think that the way Kurt was frozen “mid-jump” with the two halves of his body in different places made sense.
Chris V – I’m gonna pitch my Professor X solo series. Charles Xavier, middle-aged paraplegic, flying around in his big yellow space chair solving mysteries and making street-level supervillains cry and feel bad about their life choices.
I think my favourite Xavier was Morrison’s pacifist interventionist. He had no issue with jumping into people’s brains and changing stuff for personal gain, but what he was actually doing was healing trauma and granting enlightenment. Pretty much the exact opposite of the current/recent version.
A thought just occurred to me, inspired by Trevor’s comment:
Could the whole tumor plot, or even this whole crossover, be in service of paralyzing Xavier again? I think it’s reasonable to assume that, as we get near the X-Men joining the MCU, they’re doing their best to make the comics match what people will see on screen. And Xavier pretty much needs to be in a wheelchair for that to happen. Better to the get him back there now than to just have him fall down some stairs off screen during a reboot.
Another weird thing- why did Ellis call the X-Men in the first place? The story makes it seem like Sarah decided to help Xavier escape and then as soon as he got out the door the X-Men were there. So did Ellis call the X-Men BEFORE Sarah decided to help Xavier? Why? Ellis couldn’t have known Sarah would do that.
@Trevor: “Chris V – I’m gonna pitch my Professor X solo series. Charles Xavier, middle-aged paraplegic, flying around in his big yellow space chair solving mysteries and making street-level supervillains cry and feel bad about their life choices.”
Coming soon from Marvel: Pale-as-a-Ghost Rider
@Si: “I think my favourite Xavier was Morrison’s pacifist interventionist. He had no issue with jumping into people’s brains and changing stuff for personal gain, but what he was actually doing was healing trauma and granting enlightenment. Pretty much the exact opposite of the current/recent version.”
Agree, and I also liked Mike Carey’s unmoored Xavier, going from character to character and making amends (or not) for past actions. Basically, doing something other than leading and making bad decisions. The Krakoan era should have ended with his death, probably as a self-sacrifice.
I’m getting the feeling that Perimeter is going to be the real villain in UXM. There’s a close up panel focussing on the eye changing colour from blue to red when Ellis comments about how she doesn’t believe its reports that everything is fine.
Never buy an operating system whose logo is that close to being the Eye of Horus.
My brain initially read that as Perlmutter.
@Mike Loughlin: Alternatively, why not just use Xavier as a villain?
He could be out there, keeping hismelf safe ith his telepathy, but doing unscrupulous things in the name of his “dream.”
It’d be an interesting conflict for the X-Men, who’d not only have to reckon with one of their founders going so wrong (as so many real-world movements must reckon) but also with what to do with Xavier if they do capture him….or, worse, if his manipulations have some pragmatic benefit, but exposing the way he did it might amplify anti-mutant prejudice.
What do you do about someone who shares your goals, but is willing to use unacceptable means?
Omar: I don’t think we’ve had Xavier and Magneto completely exchange positions yet, so that would be novel.
Is Legion currently alive/in his right body? Last I recall I think he was hanging out in Nightcrawler’s mind pretending to be a Bamf or something? We know he’s mixed up in the upcoming Ms Marvel time travel stuff, so if X is resurrecting someone, is it putting him in position?
@Omar Karindu: As with Beast, I think Xavier would work as an extremist who goes too far and becomes the type of person he used to fight against. I could even see Xavier and Magneto teaming up to follow Magneto’s old path. I’d read an “Age of Xavier” AU story- this time, someone goes back in time and removes Moira from reality, maybe? At a juncture critical to the formation of Krakoa?- in a heartbeat.
@Joe I, Mike Loghlin: Yeah, both of those options sound good. If Xavier and Magneto end up on opposite sides, you’d get character development for both of them as they navigate this new relationship.
Xavier might well still think of Magneto as a dangerous insurgent, creating bad publicity for mutants in contrast to his own behind-the-scenes, subtle manipulations of minds and perceptions. Or he might justify himself by noting that it has always taken both of them, operating in their own ways, to make real change happen.
But if it’s Magneto and Xavier doing the renegade thing, it’d build nicely on the idea from the Morrison era that both Charles and Magneto should really get out of the way for a new generation of mutant leaders and for new ideas. (This arguably goes back even further with Xavier, given ow may times even Claremont tried to either write him out or show that he was hopelessly out-of-touch witht he state of things.)
But in this case, they’re the sclerotic old guard refusing to let go of their presumed influence, station, and righteousness well after everyone else has moved on.
Either way, it’s be quite interesting to see things like Rogue reacting to Xavier going renegade, given her idolization of him. And how would this more ruthless Xavier interact with Cyclops and wolverine, both characters who’ve had their share of “doing what must be done” moments, but arguably without Xavier’s manipulativeness or the insidious implications of telepathic powers?
And would evil Xavier start dating evil Moondragon? 🙂
It did seem that both of those ideas, to an extent, were being set up when Hickman left the title.
Xavier was being portrayed as the “true believer” in Krakoa, while Magneto had lost faith, and was beginning to admit that Xavier had been correct. Also, it seemed that it was Xavier and Magneto (now that Moira was gone) who were standing in the way of a future for mutants, while Emma was being positioned to replace the “old guard”.
Maybe it could have ended up as an inverse of the end-point of Morrison’s run, where Xavier accepted that it was time to step aside while Magneto only served a purpose dead.
While I enjoyed Xavier’s epiphany under Gillen that he was the only one who had to give up anything for the sake of Krakoa, it would have been interesting to see those other ideas pursued.
You know, there’s also a potential story in Rogue becoming disillusioned with Xavier. Think about it: for years her biggest weakness was that she had a mental block that prevented her from controlling her powers. Xavier was the best possible person to fix that and he just didn’t. I’m surprised that nobody’s pointed that out to her yet.
And, yeah, I know there was a lot of time when Xavier was in space or Rogue was in Australia. They were still together in the Mansion for a while.
Especially since, in the end, he did, over in Mike Carey’s Legacy run. (The ‘Salvage’ story arc). I think he apologized at the time, but I don’t remember – either for never taking the time to do it properly or for not doing it because he believed it’s on her to overcome this.
[…] X-MEN #11. (Annotations here.) We have the first three parts of “X-Manhunt” this week, which is the sort of thing that […]