X-Men #18 annotations
X-MEN vol 7 #18
“Invitation”
Writer: Jed MacKay
Artist: Emilio Laiso
Colourist: Fer Sifuentes-Sujo
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Tom Brevoort
THE X-MEN
Cyclops. His prediction last issue that the 3K X-Men would fall apart once their leader was taken out proves to be correct. He claims to recognise this sort of internal tension from his years leading Wolverine (presumably referring mainly to the 70s and early 80s stories, which is really when Wolverine was troublesome as a team member).
Magik, Juggernaut, Psylocke and Temper help wrap up the 3K X-Men but don’t get much more to do.
SUPPORTING CAST
The Beast. Wyre has come to offer him membership in 3K. This Beast, of course, is a copy of the Krakoan Beast who was restored from a much earlier back-up, and therefore doesn’t remember any of the previous Beast’s activities in X-Force and Wolverine during Krakoa. But a key part of his character is now the fear of ending up like that again. Wyre’s pitch to the Beast is that he clearly is a monster and should embrace it and join 3K. Presumably this is at least in part mind games, since if they’re even vaguely aware of the Beast’s status quo – and Wyre’s dialogue suggests that he is – then they must know that he’s unlikely to buy into this idea right away. However, he doesn’t throw away their business card just yet…
Beast is willing to go with Wyre in order to stop him killing Jennifer Starkey, but that’s on the basis that he thinks he’s being kidnapped; Wyre refuses to take him on that basis.
Magneto. His improvised Sentinel mech is nearly defeat by the twin monster.
Ben Liu. His attitude to the twin and her mother is fairly aggressive. He more or less shoves Rose in front of the monster, berates her for having “listened to too many podcasts” (presumably meaning her anti-mutant radicalisation) and tells the monster to stop whining and grow up. Somewhere in there, he talks about how the X-Men saved him and can help the twin too, but boy, he’s an angry guy. At best, it’s a tough love approach. Of course, Ben’s been getting increasingly frustrated about not being allowed into the field throughout this series. But he does avoid making any attempt to use his powers here.
Rose Ellen Cobb. Despite her anti-mutant campaigning, she’s immediately willing to apologise to the twin and gives her a name. She implies that she became radicalised against mutants as a result of the “mutant plague” story which was spread using footage from issue #2 – Ben’s first appearance. (Ben looks slightly more sympathetic towards her on hearing that – she doesn’t know it has anything to do with him.)
Ben suggests that killing Rose would make her a symbol for the Gene Nation and the Sapien League. The Sapien League were a short-lived anti-mutant militia who appeared in the post- House of M period. They were last seen in Avengers Annual #1 (2021) which, as it happens, was a Jed MacKay story. Gene Nation are a strange reference: they were Marrow’s pro-mutant terrorist group, last seen in Weapon X #21 (2004).
Rather histrionically, he also says that it would be a propaganda coup for anti-mutant forces that was “the biggest favour since Bolivar Trask” (the scientist who created the first Sentinels).
Jennifer Starkey. She makes a brave effort to save Beast from Wyre – Beast himself seems too rattled to fight back at all – but naturally gets nowhere.
VILLAINS
The 3K X-Men. With their leader Schwartzchild unconscious, they do indeed fall apart. Cassandra described them last issue as ex-SHIELD, but in fact it’s more complex than that. According to Psylocke, they’re actually former Orchis members – which is weird, since in issue #16 they were being fed propaganda about how the X-Men were “sapiens-loving running dogs”. So if these guys are ex-Orchis, they’ve made some remarkable changes in worldview. Of course, they may just be aligning themselves with whatever it suits them to believe right now.
As Psylocke reminds us, House of X established that Orchis drew its membership from factions within both AIM and SHIELD, and this is why the 3K X-Men struggle to work together. While everyone seems to respect Schwartzchild, his second in command Timebomb is a former AIM member. Ex-SHIELD agent Galatea rejects her leadership, as does Psychovore. Galatea’s objection doesn’t seem to be moral – she just thinks that Timebomb looks down on her. Which is true, since Timebomb openly regards Galatea as a moron.
In the other camp, Constellation is loyal to Timebomb – he’s apparently British and used to be a member of STRIKE, the UK SHIELD spin-off that Betsy Braddock was once associated with. As for Juice, he simply makes ineffectual efforts to get his teammates back on the same page.
Galatea and Timebomb both refer to this mission as a “test”.
Wyre. His role isn’t to attack or abduct the Beast, but simply to headhunt him for Orchis. He dismisses his time with Alpha Flight as a “crisis of faith”, and claims that in all other respects he’s always recognised himself as a monster. This is an odd take on the character, since what Wyre is describing here as an anomaly actually accounts for most of his published appearances – is there more going on here than meets the eye?
At any rate, he claims that offering Beast membership in 3K is a privilege, not a threat. He won’t take Beast unless he really wants to go.
On leaving, Wyre declares that the objectives of his “testing” have been completed. It’s not clear whether he knows what happened to his X-Men after he separated from them, but it seems as if from Wyre’s point of view, the point of all this was mostly to make themselves known to the real X-Men.
Astra. She’ll be responsible for teleporting the 3K characters away, but we don’t see her.
Robin Cobb. The twin is given a name by her mother, apparently the one that had always been intended for her. Consistent with the last couple of issues, this is very important to her and leads to her taking a more normal human form. She’s largely minded to reconcile with her mother, but (with some prompting from Cassandra Nova) can’t forgive her sister for usurping her. Ultimately, she leaves with Cassandra, apparently willingly
“Wyre. His role isn’t to attack or abduct the Beast, but simply to headhunt him for Orchis.”
I’m confused by this line in the annotations. Is Orchis actually back, or was that a misprint?
I assume that was a typo for 3K
Note that Illyana uses her demons to attack- I think the point of making her Maddie’s “consultant” was so to explain how she could command the demons of Limbo.
Many readers were disappointed because the solicits made it sound like this issue would reveal the Chairman’s identity and he doesn’t even appear in the issue.
The fact that the Chairman wants Beast to join 3K of his own free will seems to suggest that the Chairman might be Dark Beast.
Sure, the 3K team lost, but in the process proved themselves to be true X-Men. After all, what’s more X-Men than severe interpersonal drama?
@Michael: huh, I was thinking the Chairman was Krakoa-era Beast.
Krakoa-Beast would make more sense than Dark Beast – as Sinister put it, AoA Hank isn’t even the darkest Beast anymore
Re: the 3K X-Men – issue 1 established that in addition to being ex-Orchis, they’re all members of the Fourth School cult, which would explain their equal disdain for humans and mutants.
“(presumably referring mainly to the 70s and early 80s stories, which is really when Wolverine was troublesome as a team member).”
I read that as more of a reference to Schism. Which might be the sort of dynamic that Brevoort has been attempting to replicate with his “Two X-Men teams are semi-opposed for Reasons [which don’t actually need to make any sense].”
3K doesn’t have disdain for mutants though. They believe that mutants are the future and that evolution needs a jumpstart.
In issue #16, one of the 3K X-Men was growing suspicious of 3K due to the fact that Wyre was spouting pro-mutant/anti-human rhetoric, when Wyre is a human.
Sublime’s “Third Species” cult also didn’t hate mutants. They believed that humanity needed to upgrade itself by merging with mutants to become a truly superior third alternative.
I mean, yes, the U-Men were dissecting mutants, but they didn’t subscribe to a hatred of mutants like the anti-mutant groups.
Sublime had an anti-mutant agenda but was manipulating the “Third Species” cult.
I find myself wishing that 3K would just get on with it. They just don’t seem especially threatening or interesting. I feel like the preview about Doug is implying he’s the Chairman talking about the ‘great work’ but the chairman definitely didn’t look like a gold Apocalypse. It’s been 18 issues – let’s move.
MacKay has put many pieces on the Board – 3K, Fitzroy’s Upstarts, the adult-onset mutants Ben and Jennifer, Wyre’s X-Men, which is a big enough thing to warrant a separate mention – and he had to get two crossovers over with, let’s not forget that.
I think that’s quite reasonable for 18 issues. This last story was a bit overlong, but other than that I’m rather enjoying the pace.
I would, however, like for this team to get out of Alaska more.
Three of those pieces revolve around the same plot: 3K.
If you remove the cross-overs, it’s still fifteen issues worth of content. It’s all been building up simmering plots with very little momentum.
People complain about Extraordinary X-Men’s pace, but each issue (before this Sinister fight) had been revolving around characterization, while X-Men has been mostly each issue about teasing a bigger fight. I’d rather read something like EXM.
X-Men reminds me of the “Factor Three” plot-line from the 1960s. It was long and drawn out. The reveal was disappointing (old Silver Age X-Men foes). Factor Three weren’t an interesting enough concept as a hook for that many issues. Yes, the Mutant Master was truly a creation of genius, but Thomas didn’t need to take so many issues to work up to the Mutant Master.
“Yes, the Mutant Master was truly a creation of genius, but Thomas didn’t need to take so many issues to work up to the Mutant Master.”
This is why I kinda hope that the Chairman is the Mutant Master, somehow returned. It would be such a deep, deep ass-pull, and it would be hilarious after the flop-thump of Wyre and Astra reveals.
I’m intrigued by the 3K X-Men, and that cover is beautiful (reminds me of Frank Quitely), but yeah — the pace of this book puts me off. Is any Chairman reveal going to be worth the wait?
This story dragged, even though I liked the scenes with Robin and the fact that 3K is trying to recruit Beast. Cyclops letting the 3K X-Men fight amongst themselves didn’t work for me. They gave the enemy time to regroup, even if they ended up fighting each other instead. Not one of them noticed the X-Men were just standing around? Not one of them attacked? I know Cyclops is supposed to be a tactical genius, but the way that scene played out strained credulity.
@nr- and now the preview for issue 22 has Doug coming to the X-Men for help. So that would suggest he’s NOT the Chairman?
I thought this was an excellent Issue, especially after the previous one left me underwhelmed. Laiso isn’t as exciting as Stegman or Diaz, but he’s got some cool layouts and could definitely grow in this style. I know that Stegman can’t be on this book forever and the art will have to switch up eventually, especially with how often this ships.
But I was moved by this one. The ongoing threads with the new mutants are coming into focus for me. I like how Mackay took his time building them in the background. The way this book balances so many characters and long-term threads is truly impressive. Few X-Books have ever sustained that delicate balance.
Close to a year in of Brevoort and this along with Exceptional remain my only must-reads. I’m likely done with Storm and Phoenix. Nothing new has garnered much interest from me. I’ve been the bullish one on From the Ashes, but the only two of the books I that I enjoyed are still continuing and remaining their early quality. And it certainly doesn’t see like anything exciting is coming down the pipeline…
It was interesting seeing Cassandra winning over Robin at the end by talking about how unforgivable it is for your twin to take everything from you in the womb, including your body.
Cassandra is manipulative and evil (and an alien parasite etc) but that part is technically her own backstory too.
Fetus-Charles defeated her and she had to rebuild from a miscarried fetus in the sewer instead of growing up alongside Charles or whatever. She CAN relate.
I definitely liked the issue.
[…] #18. (Annotations here.) End of the arc, and five issues feels like it was too long. Particularly as we still don’t […]