Exceptional X-Men #10 annotations
EXCEPTIONAL X-MEN #10
Writer: Eve L Ewing
Artists: Carmen Carnero & Federica Mancin
Colour artist: Nolan Woodard
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Editor: Tom Brevoort
Quite a short one for annotations, to be honest.
THE CORE CAST
Emma Frost. The end of the previous issue apparently involved Emma sacrificing herself to free Axo from Sinister’s machine (not something that was terribly clear from the previous issue), and then Emma’s mind being sucked into Sinister’s mindscape. She believes that she made a heroic sacrifice for Axo, and is rather put out by him coming after her – she claims he’s overshadowing her, but obviously her sacrifice would be in vain if he got killed too. She does make a point of getting him to safety first, before following back to the real world.
She claims that a major event in her personal development was meeting Kitty Pryde as a teenager and being shaken by the level of confidence she had. (Emma’s own back story has her only becoming that assertive later on.) The flashback shows Emma with Kitty in a Hellions costume. This is not actually the first time that Emma met Kitty – which would be X-Men #129 – but rather a scene from New Mutants #16, when Kitty was briefly at the Massachusetts Academy. That’s the first story where they spend an extended amount of time together.
Axo. Somehow, he knows that reconnecting himself to Sinister’s machine will restore his mental link to Emma and temporarily give him the fuller telepathic powers that he needs to help her. He’s right, but it’s not obvious how he knows this. Once inside Sinister’s mindscape, however, he’s able to defeat the child version of Sinister that they meet through the power of empathy, which apparently cuts through to Sinister’s inner child; Emma seems to lack the emotional instincts to use this angle so effectively. He’s also able to single handedly subdue the monstrous clone animals that Sinister has as guard dogs, again simply by calming them down. Basically, he comes across here as wildly powerful.
Bronze and Melée. For the final showdown with Sinister, they insist on being at the forefront. Melée is initially hostile to Axo putting himself in more danger, but quickly accepts that she put herself in harm’s way to help him. The three trainees firmly declare themselves to be X-Men here.
Kate Pryde and Iceman are also there.
SUPPORTING CAST
The animals kept in Sinister’s lab turn out to include a little dragon thing which is apparently Lockheed. Though obviously it could be a clone. If it’s the real Lockheed, we haven’t seen him since the end of the Krakoan era – he was in X-Men #35 along with everyone else.
VILLAINS
Mr Sinister. This Mr Sinister’s mental landscape is a sort of goth Alice in Wonderland, where he appears as a child version of himself called “Nathaniel”. This version seems to have no awareness of an outside world and doesn’t recognise Emma or Axo. He seems to enjoy evil pastimes, but immediately welcomes Emma as a companion – albeit one who can help him with his favourite things.
Everyone who appears in this world wears a version of Sinister’s own costume. Emma’s is a dress. Axo looks like Dracula.
In the real world, his lab’s automatic defences include a pack of sabretooth-type clones which serve as guard dogs. This seems wildly impractical, but that’s Sinister for you.
As in the previous issue, Emma claims that Sinister is a match for her telepathy even when she’s at her best – presumably a comment on this particular version of him, since his psychic power levels have varied wildly over the years.
Eventually, Sinister’s body explodes in a shower of goo – much like Axo’s clone did in issue #8. This being Sinister, we can’t be entirely sure that this is even the original or prime Sinister, if there is such a thing. If it’s a duplicate then that might explain how he had time to set up an entire business as a cover.
The fact that Sinister explodes into goo plus the fact that we never saw what happened between Emma and Sinister before they both suddenly woke up makes me think this plot isn’t over yet.
Sinister’s penchant for cloning means we can never be sure it’s the real one, what his agenda is, or what else he’s been involved in. For all we know, this could even have been one set up pre-Krakoa and operating independently since. Or post-Krakoa. And any writer who wants can always retcon things later. Like Byrne with Doombots and Starlin with Thanos.
Not a bad issue though. It’s nice seeing the younger characters pass a rite of passage like this in defeating a classic X-Villain.
I’m amused by the implication that Axo might now have a pet sabredog.
I think they are risking burning Sinister out as a compelling character, if you can never be sure if he’s just a clone or if the story actually matters. If there’s 30-odd Mister Sinisters all doing awful things somewhere, what’s the point in defeating just one of them? What’s the point in beating all 30 of them, if everyone knows there’s really 31 and the next story won’t even acknowledge whatever compelling plot points the current story makes? Yes bad guys always come back, but it’s a mistake lampshading the fact.
Likewise using him so soon after the whole Krakoa business. It’s like an 80s cartoon. “Ah, we finally defeated Mister Sinister, now onto our next mission, defeating Mister Sinister!”
Maybe I missed something but, I thought after the Sinister 4 retcon, all Sinister’s are considered clones, right? The only prime one now is the original Nathaniel Essex who became Enigma.
It predates that reveal. Hickman showed that Sinister dwelt in the Bar Sinister with a hive of Sinister clones. After Xavier and Magneto met with the apparent Sinister-Prime to plant the idea that Sinister should collect samples of every mutant’s DNA, we saw a different Sinister kill this version of Sinister-Prime and take his spot in the hive.
@NS, The Sinister 4/5 woke up after the original Nathaniel Essex’s death. Mr. Sinister as we know him is a clone, but there’s always been a Main Sinister that we’ve been following since his introduction/pre-Krakoa. The others don’t clone themselves, so they’ve been the same since Essex died. Each of the Sinister 4/5 do have their own distinct personalities, looks, and goals (especially Mother Righteous since she’s a clone of *Rebecca* Essex instead)
Oh yes, Xavier and Magneto met Sinister at Bar Sinister, the location from Hickman’s Secret Wars that was never a thing in 616.
And people are surprised the Imperial Hulk doesn’t behave like he does in his ongoing at the moment. 😉
Is this child Nathanial a version of Scott’s Childhood friend who Claremont has intended to be Mr. Sinister. Not sure how we could get to this version of his origin with everything that has come before but it would be fun if someone tried.
“Quite a short one for annotations, to be honest.” I’m less than shocked that Exceptional has not much happening.
Sinister & his clones is basically an equivalent to Ultron nowadays.
After Magneto is done using his sentinel as a Pacific Rim Jaeger, he should hike over to bar Sinister and do a reverse Genosha on it.
Anyone else bewildered by Emma’s tearful goodbye scene in Sinister’s mindscape only for her to be revealed as alive and well a couple pages later?
@Jordan , its the return of traditional Done-In-One ReCompressed StoryTelling like in the era of Stan and Jack LOL
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