X-Men #21 annotations
X-MEN vol 7 #21
“Upstarts II”
Writer: Jed MacKay
Penciller: Netho Diaz
Inkers: Sean Parsons with JP Mayer & Livesay
Colourist: Fer Sifuentes-Sujo
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Tom Brevoort
COVER: The X-Men fight the Upstarts.
This issue is a sequel to issue #4 (“Upstarts”), hence the title.
PAGES 1-5. Jen talks with Kid Omega.
Jen Starkey. She debuted in issue #4 when the X-Men rescued her from the Upstarts. She claims here that she was lonely and miserable in Detroit prior to being attached – she stops short of saying that she was actively suicidal, but says she considered just letting the Upstarts kill her. She seems to think that no one will have missed her, and seems slightly surprised that nobody wondered why she had just left her life behind. (From the X-Men’s point of view, of course, this is just a genre convention. The same question didn’t arise with Ben Liu, recruited in issue #2, because they faked his death to stop people being afraid of his powers.)
Even allowing some room for exaggeration, we can probably take it from this that Jen was unemployed. Is she still paying rent?
Anyway, this is evidently meant to establish why her relationship with Hank means so much to her, and why she was taking his desire for solitude so badly in the previous issue (about an hour ago, for her). She doesn’t seem to feel the same connection with the rest of the Factory inhabitants – she asks Quentin whether she counts as an X-Man, and seems less than reassured by his answer that any mutant living at the Factory qualifies. Despite her generally quiet behaviour, her strength of feeling about all this is so extreme that Quentin seems genuinely to experience it as the equivalent of her yelling and screaming.
In issue #4, Jen’s powers had apparently only just emerged. Practically her first line of dialogue was to tell Temper that “You don’t understand. There isn’t a world for me, not like this” – though in context that appeared to be more a comment about her physical change. Her decision to stay in the Factory wasn’t shown on panel; however, the Beast claimed that “She was too frightened to stay in Detroit.” In issue #6, she justified her decision to say ono the grounds that “I can’t go back to Detroit. Not looking like this… and the Upstarts are still out there.” She may have thought that that was the easier explanation to give.
That said, Psylocke seemed to take Jen’s explanation at face value in issue #15, when she sad that Jen had “been living in terror since the Upstarts came for her.” But these aren’t mutually exclusive. Jen is conspicuously keen to go after the Upstarts here, so apparently she’s gaining confidence in that regard.
Kid Omega. He starts off simply annoyed by Jen, but makes his usual sincere if clumsy attempt at sympathy when he realises that she’s upset. Her apparent depression seems to come as news to him, so apparently he really is making a sincere effort not to read the mind of someone who’s broadcasting her thoughts very loudly. One can see why that might be annoying after a while.
His initial line is to offer a cynical line about how every mutant at the Factory is an X-Man (“our bar for membership is shockingly low”), but he claims to be able to identify with her loneliness, and implies that this was how he felt before taking on his Kid Omega persona in New X-Men #134. That storyline involved the “riot to get a girl to notice me” that he mentions.
Magik. With Cyclops still in jail after last issue, she regards herself as being in charge, at least in terms of dealing with the Upstarts. She cites that fact that she was in charge “the last time we went after the Upstarts” – presumably referencing issue #4, and she did indeed lead that mission. For what it’s worth, the X-Men also went after the Upstarts (well, one of them) in Psylocke #7, but fortunately Magik was in charge that time as well, so it fits either way.
PAGES 6-7. Sugar Man abandons Fitzroy.
We already established in issue #4 that Sugar Man was aware of the adult-activated mutants and that he was sponsoring Fitzroy’s Upstarts in order that they could capture one for him. Sugar Man didn’t know at the time who was responsible for these new mutants. Fitzroy apparently still doesn’t, referring to “whoever’s been making them” (and mentioning that they seem to have stopped, at least for now).
This is a little odd, since in the previous issue Agent Lundqvist did know that 3K were behind the adult mutants. That seemed to suggest that 3K had publicly claimed responsibility, but we didn’t see them do so in Hellfire Vigil and if they had, Fitzroy ought to know too. Of course, it’s possibly that Fitzroy knows that 3K has claimed responsibility but isn’t sure whether to believe them.
Anyway, Sugar Man’s plan is to lure in the X-Men in the hope that they’ll bring Jen with them – by flagging up the Upstarts’ location. By luck more than design, this actually works; it seems rather more likely that the Sugar Man has just given up on his plan and wants rid of the Upstarts, since he’s hardly given them the greatest of incentives to capture Jen and hand her in. Nonetheless, Fitzroy does genuinely seem to be trying to complete the assignment later in the issue (albeit only after Quentin stops him from escaping).
PAGES 8-18. The X-Men fight the Upstarts.
Curiously, Magik only brings Kid Omega, Jen and Juggernaut – no Psylocke or Temper, even though both were in the building last issue.
As in issue #4, the Upstarts are Fitzroy and three obscure members of O-Force from X-Statix #1: Ocelot, Orbit and Orifice. Kid Omega psychically blocks Fitzroy from teleporting away, but apparently that doesn’t stop him from using his portals for other purposes – or perhaps Kid Omega simply doesn’t finish the job beause Orbit successfully interrupts him.
Fitzroy assumes that Jen can be more or less ignored in planning the fight, which obviously plays into her anxieties. On seeing the other X-Men taking a beating, she decides that she is a proper X-Man and changes into a new reptile form to help. Fitzroy seems to instinctively understand her more than the X-Men do, which is interesting; he plays to her sense of enjoying her power over others.
Fitzroy refers to the combination of his and Orifice’s powers as a “mutant circuit”, a common term from the Krakoan era – it seems likely that he’s using it to mock the X-Men with their own jargon.
Fitzroy refers to Magik having to “slow down to teleport”, which would make some sense; she doesn’t really fight like someone who can jump around instantaneously, and traditionally the stepping discs used to steadily rise up from the ground.
Juggernaut apparently kills Ocelot in cold blood after he’s defeated – who explicitly positioned himself as a serial killer in issue #4 and seriously injured Kid Omega a few pages earlier. He claims to be delivering on a threat which Ocelot would naturally have taken to be hyperbole. There’s a distinct sense that Cain is sensitive about being told that he’s gone soft. This is a debatable reading of the character; Cain was never presented as a killer even at the height of his time as a villain. The scene ends with this point, so we don’t get to see how Magik, Quentin or Illyana react.
PAGES 19-20. The Sugar Man arrives at the Spire Vile.
This is the former headquarters of Tarn from X-Men Red and the home of his followers in the Locus Vile. Tarn died in X-Men Red #3; this is what Sugar Man is referring to when he says that “your boss got himself dead in the arena a little while ago”. According to Sugar Man, nobody has been willing to put themselves forward as a replacement. The Locus Vile were all about mad science body-modificaiton experiments, so it’s understandable that Sugar Man finds them interesting.
There’s nobody else around but the skeletons, so presumably the “you” that Sugar Man addresses is the Spire itself.
The current status quo of Arakko is a little obscure. X-Men: Heir of Apocalypse left matters with Apocalypse in charge, but the place was last seen in Power Man: Timeless, where it was attacked by an Inhuman called Aeron the Knife. Some people seem to have read that story as intending to wipe out Arakko, but from the issues that are available on Unlimited, I don’t think that’s the intention – I think it’s just meant to be a random attack from the cosmic villain of the week and the dialogue gets a little carried away. Mind you, issue #4 isn’t on Unlimited yet, and based on the three that I’ve read, I’m absolutely not willing to spend money to find out how it ends – it really is a bit of a slog.
Anyway, it’s interesting to see another Arakko element showing up in this book just after Bei is added to the cast.
“Mind you, issue #4 isn’t on Unlimited yet, and based on the three that I’ve read, I’m absolutely not willing to spend money to find out how it ends”
There’s nothing in issue 4 that suggests Arrako is destroyed.
MacKay did a really bad job of explaining the villains’ powers this issue, I was confused about why Orbit’s balls caused Quentin to throw up. It took me some googling to find out that Orbit has the power to induce vertigo, as opposed to be merely tripping over his balls. Of course. this is information that should be in the recap page but the decision was made to fill the recap page up with pictures of Magneto, Temper and Psylocke who aren’t even in the story.
“This is a debatable reading of the character; Cain was never presented as a killer even at the height of his time as a villain.”
Well, there is that retcon that he wiped out an entire village, which unfortunately became the basis for Kid Juggernaut’s origin.
As someone who liked the Arakko stuff (mostly), it was interesting to see Sugar Man there. Though I’d think Sinister would have pillaged Tarn’s lab after Tarn’s death.
Juggernaut was involved in Black Tom’s plot in the X-Force/Spider-Man crossover of 1991 in which Tom, uh, blows up part of the World Trade Center. People had to have died in that attack, and Cain didn’t bat an eye. Also, in X-Men 102, weren’t Juggernaut and Black Tom hired to kill the X-Men? Although Juggernaut isn’t usually depicted as outright evil, I find it believable that he’d kill someone.
I hope we get some clarification on Arakko’s current status. I’m happy to have Apocalypse not be used in stories for a little while, I just want a clear set-up for the Arakki.
“This is a debatable reading of the character; Cain was never presented as a killer even at the height of his time as a villain”
I seem to recall an issue of X-Men Legacy where Cain genuinely believed he had murdered Charles and appeared to be quite happy about it only to later learn that it was all in his head, courtesy of Charles.
Part of me was a little disturbed to see Juggernaut kill Ocelot but…
At this point, the list of X-Men who -haven’t- killed an enemy is pretty dang low. Juggernaut’s not exactly innocent, Ocelot was a clear and present threat to Cain’s teammates, and he’s a C-list character at best. Frankly, as long as this doesn’t become a thing which jeopardizes his more heroic tendencies, I’m happy to give him a pass on this one.
Cain did plan to murder Xavier, but that was the point of the character. He wanted to murder his step-brother (Cain), but otherwise wasn’t portrayed as a homicidal character.
Although, now we know that Juggernaut is the most evil character in the Marvel Universe. Come on, Juggs. Even Dr. Doom cried over the WTC being brought down, but Juggernaut was laughing over it. Plus, it must have been a controlled explosion which brought the towers down, as Juggernaut ran into that tower to bring it down, and it feel straight down. No dust or anything like that. It just crumbled straight down with hardly any other damage. Thanks for showing the “Truthers” the facts a decade prior, Liefield,
Geez, I need to proof-read my comments. It was supposed to say “Cain, get it?”, as that was why Lee gave Juggernaut the name Cain Marko. Now, it looks like I’m saying that Cain was Cain’s step-brother’s name.
Also, “feel” should read “fell”, but that’s an obvious typo.
Hmm. Well, I guess Paul’s right about the part about it being debatable, at least.
Juggernaut has at least demonstrated in X-Men Legacy that if he hates someone enough, he’ll kill them. Maybe he’s never hated anyone as much as he’s hated Charles. Maybe it isn’t possible for him to hate anyone as much as he hated Charles (although that would be an assumption). I’d like to think that for most, seething, boiling, bubbling, hate still wouldn’t be a justification for a kill.
I’m talking about premeditated kills, obviously. Not a road rage kill, or a crime of passion your spouse cheated on you and you flipped over it kill, or a you chew your food with your mouth open and I can’t take it anymore kill.
Well, if someone starts sacrificing their lambs while you’re stuck sacrificing your vegetables, it can lead to that sort of murderous insanity against one person. I mean, we never heard about Cain killing anyone else in the Bible. He went out and married some Neanderthals and helped increase the species, like a good citizen.
I mean, that’s why dinner forks are designed the way they are. Dual-purpose. Either for eating or for poking multiple holes in a person’s neck if they chew their food with their mouth open. Whatever the case happens to be.
I think terraforming Mars was a big mistake for a “world outside your window” setting. It was meant to be a trading hub on a galactic scale. And everyone on Earth was completely unaffected? Nobody set up a shuttle service, or even a communications system for Earth? I used to follow the Mars rover on Twitter, it once quoted an obscure Beastie Boys lyrics to me*. But having the galaxy a phone call away, even if it’s only at certain times of the year, has done nothing to Earth society?
That said, offhandedly killing everyone in a niche comic would be even worse. Plus the planet is still terraformed even if the Arrakans are dead. Which, they’re probably not. But who knows?
*I know it was actually some nerd working for NASA, but you get my drift
@Mike Loughlin- It’s possible that nobody died when Tom blew up the World Trade Center. What happened was this- Tom and Cain were holding a couple dozen people, including Sunspot, hostage in the World Trade Center. When X-Froce came to rescue them, Tom triggered an explosion. Assuming that the authorities evacuated the World Trade Center and the surrounding area because of the hostage situation, the only people were in danger were the hostages. It’s possible Cable telekinetically protected the hostages somehow. (Neither X-Force nor the public knew about Cable’s telekinesis yet but it’s possible he did it without anyone noticing.)
@Chris – Incidentally, I know you botched your original post (I too wish there were an edit feature), but yes, I was already aware who Cain was based on. I’m not, nor have ever been religious, but I’m familiar with the broadstrokes of the story.
But to my mind, if you want Marvel Cain to be based that closely to his biblical counterpart, then I think you have to concede that he’s someone capable of murdering someone out of envy or hate or whatever. Not just his
stepbrother.
You pointed out that biblical Cain never
murdered anyone again (or not so far as the story indicated). Again, only being familiar with the broadstrokes, I would imagine that was probably because his boss came down pretty hard on him.
But Cain Marko doesn’t really need to worry about that (not while living, at least), so it’s not difficult for me to believe that Cain is capable of snuffing the life out of someone like a very persistent collection agent (for example).
And here I was, stabbing people who chewed with their mouth open with a butter knife! Next time, I’ll know which utensil to reach for.
@Michael: it’s certainly possible the WTC was evacuated before the explosion, but that wasn’t clear in the comics themselves. I prefer the idea that people were evacuated. Either way, Cain didn’t say, “let’s get all the non-hostages out of here” or something. Come to think of it, he threatened to kill X-Force, “especially Shatterstar” after Shatterstar stabbed him in the eye. I didn’t think he was exaggerating at the time. Anyway, I still think Cain is capable of murder.
@Mike Loughlin
Yes, definitely a fork. A serrated knife, if one happens to be present, might be more tempting, but you’ll want to consider the clean-up factor. With a knife like that, there’s liable to be a spray of blood. All over the food. All over the tablecloth. All over you. All over grandma’s knitted doilies. You don’t want that. With a fork, they’ll just dribble out slowly.
You’d want to kill someone too if they stabbed you in the eye with a big sword. It’s be bad enough with a butter knife, nevermind a big sword.
If the guy told you he stand himself with the sword all the time and you’re being a real baby, you may rethink killing him and realize this is someone you want to take to the pub. A pub in Australia to play knifey-spoony.
I imagine the Biblical Cain stopped killing people, if only because there were only three other people alive at the time. It’d be hard to develop the habit.
OK. The autocorrect is the problem. It’s changing what I write after the fact and it’s ruining the comedic effect.
It should read he stabs himself, not “stands” himself. Apparently, the autocorrect doesn’t recognize “stabs” as a word.
Of course, it’s “It’d be bad enough” or “it’s bad enough”, but that’s another obvious typo.
Si-That makes you really ponder that “mark of Cain” thing given him by Yahweh. I mean, surely he could have simply told Adam and Eve to not kill their eldest son. I doubt Adam and Eve needed a certain mark in order to recognize their kid.
“The autocorrect is the problem. It’s changing what I write after the fact and it’s ruining the comedic effect.”
You sure it’s not the jokes themselves ruining the comedic effect?
BA-DUM-CHA!
Thanks! I’ll be here all week!
@Si – Shows you how much I know about the Bible.
Nah. Your understanding is good enough. The story is very flawed. It’s probably because the story of Adam and Eve is supposed to be an origin story for the Semitic people rather than all of humanity. After Cain murders Abel, God curses him and said that he must be a wanderer. He is afraid that others will kill him (who? his parents?), so God puts a curse upon Cain that if anyone murders him, they will be cursed sevenfold. Then, Cain goes ahead builds the first city (for who? To live in by himself?). It’s also revealed that Cain eventually reproduced, but again, there are supposedly no other females than his mother. Which…sure, but God’s punishment was supposed to be that Cain was separated from his parents. So, did he sneak back while God was busy and sleep with his mom?
Yeah, trust me, your interpretation is fine.
@Chris V
Wow. I’m surprised the Bible is as popular as it is given, at the risk or offending someone, that story sounds like something Chuck Austen would’ve written.
I believe it’s usually explained that people lived for thousands of years back then, so Adam, Eve, and the often forgotten third son Seth had many, many children between them. As the priest’s daughter I used to know explained, yes it was a whole heap of incest, but people were perfect back then so it didn’t matter.
Yeah, Adam did live something like 800 years.
I guess it depends on the timeline. It says that Cain built the first city (the guy was a hard worker building a city himself) after the birth of his first son…with…well, someone…
So, if there were only four people alive, and Cain killed Abel, at which point God punished him by casting him out from his family, Cain would have built the city while Seth was still a small child.
See? The Bible can be just like Marvel Comics.
In Juggernauts appearances hes always saying how hes gonna kill so and so or maim and injure everybody.
@Daly – Yeah, but I’m always saying I’m going to go the gym, but I never do.
I bit the bullet and got the 4th issue of Power Man: Timeless. There is absolutely no mention of Arakko anywhere in it. Also, it’s terrible. How can you write a story about a Luke Cage who is also Iron Fist, and also the Hulk, and also the Sentry, and make it so po-faced?
I presume a good many comics readers know about Cain and Abel via Sandman or even their House of Mystery/Secrets days. Cain even has the Mark of Cain which Lucifer reveals when Dream sends Cain an envoy to Hell.
There was also that time in Thor #411, where Juggernaut threw a bus full of people up at Thor who was weakened at the time and barely managed to catch it and let them down safely.
Thor was outraged on Juggernaut’s “utter disregard for human life” there.
“How can you write a story about a Luke Cage who is also Iron Fist, and also the Hulk, and also the Sentry, and make it so po-faced?”
Ugh. The premise alone sounds terrible to me.
Although I sort of like the idea of Luke Cage as Iron Fist (but not with the Hulk and Sentry also thrown into the mix).
They should just do that book. A book with Luke Cage as Iron Fist. They could call it “Power Man is Iron Fist”
I imagine a guy with infinite momentum could do things in a crowded area that make throwing a packed bus seem mild. I’m glad they never went there in the stories.
But this, along with him casually ripping off Maggott’s arm, makes me wonder where they’re going with the character. Hopefully it’s something the story will actually comment on, and not just violence for its own sake.
While we can assign a lot of the blame for Cain’s early behavior on his own bad attitude, hatred of his brother, and general circumstances, I think we can also toss in some Cytorrak influence to explain any particularly egregious instances (like the WTC incident in X-Force.)
I mean, Cytorrak makes it pretty clear that his avatar is supposed to destroy stuff and make people afraid in his name, and Cain was pretty good at that for the longest time. But we’d also see some more humanizing moments (like the bar fight with Piotr in Uncanny 193, and his general friendship with Black Tom…)
Of course, he’s been on a very slow redemption arc with good days and bad days for a few decades now, which involves him repudiating Cytorrak’s power/influence to some degree or another, which might mean that as he asserts his own independence, he’s less prone to murderous actions and random acts of wanton violence.
But stuff like tearing Maggott’s arm off, killing Ocelot, might be Cytorrak giving him nudges in moments of weakness (i.e. moments of conflict/intense danger). (How we reconcile all of this with Kid Juggernaut, the kids seen in 8 Deaths of Spider-Man, I dunno.)
That’s my theory on how to say “Cain Marko is trying to be a better person and channel his destructive persona and power into more productive pursuits as a member of the X-Men, but he’s still vulnerable to Cytorrak’s influence, and he’s never exactly been one for restraint anyway. It’s just a good thing that he’s got friends who try and mitigate the damage except dammit Illyana, stop being a bad influence. Maybe it’s a bad idea to let a demon sorceress partner with the avatar of a god of destruction. Ooops.”
I was very impressed by the way Cyttorak was portrayed in Avengers Academy, the way he uses his avatars, and the reason why characters can use the power for good and not lose it. Very tidy marriage of continuity with a logical explanation, that doesn’t invalidate anything.
I don’t like the chances of any of the lore appearing outside of that one comic, which is a shame.
I don’t know how to spell Cyttorrakk.
@Si- We saw in the solicits for Age of Revelation 2 that Cain has become Illyana;s demon knight in Age of Revelation.
My big problem with the writing in the bible is that (based on my somewhat limited knowledge) the main plot point is Jesus’ resurrection, but after that happens Jesus just…wanders off, never to be seen or heard of again. Really anti-climactic.
@Si, I take it that you mean “Avengers Academy Infinity”? The Marvel Fandom wiki implies so.
Cyttorak has been used as a power source with hardly any strings attached for so long that one should probably take into account that mystical potentates such as him do not operate with a human perception of time.
On the other hand, he has been hands-on remarkably often by mystical potentate standards, particularly since the time he first met Cain Marko. While also being oddly indifferent to the doings of his own Scions in last year’s Spider-Man comics.
Nor has he shown any interest in acknowledging the existence of Kurt Busiek’s Exemplars from comics of the years 1999-2000. That is difficult to separate from the meta-level perception that X-Editorial is likely undermotivated to deal with the characters, perhaps in part because that would involve requesting permission from other Editors.
Those are probably unavoidable counterforces that come from the insistence in having a shared universe. People will try to have their cakes and eat them too, so Cyttorak only “sort of” interacted with Spider-Man last year and he is only “sort of” involved with Kid Juggernaut, Malphegor and the patrons of the other Exemplars, while the X-Books merrily go on with barely any acknowledgement of those events. But after a while it becomes distracting and difficult to ignore.
It would not kill the X-Offices to bring back the Exemplars, that is what I am saying. They could certainly contribute to some fine stories again, while also providing excellent opportunity for developing the character of Cain Marko.
BTW , the Exemplars last appeared in Si Spurrier’s most recent Black Knight series where Dane Whitman permakilled Carnivore with the OG Ebony Blade . Also , Cytorrak is canonically mostly amoral rather immoral , he’s like a bored teenage edgelord with ADHD who doesnt really care if his avatars are heroic or villainous so long as theyre always physically active
“See? The Bible can be just like Marvel Comics.”
It certainly seems to have a lot of cover variants from what I’ve seen.
@Dave: you have to stay with the Bible until the end. After the credits, there’s a line that says, “Jesus will return in Book of Mormon.”
@Mike Loughlin: I believe you’re thinking of the post credits scene in the Quran.
I’m just not a fan of the spinoffs and interquels… Jesus Presents: The Acts of the Apostles and Jesus Presents: the Pauline Letters. They really overestimated the appeal of the supporting characters. But they knocked it out of the park when they came back for Bible: Book of Revelations. What a way to wrap up the entire universe.
@GRT: it’s tricky with the various Jesus fandoms. So many of them don’t consider his Qu’ran appearances canon, while those that do utterly reject the end of New Testament part IV: John. At least both sides agree that Book of Mormon isn’t canon, although that one does have a cult following.
Side note: anyone else find New Testaments 1-4 really repetitive? It’s like the same story every time.
[posting a follow-up to an earlier discussion here so it doesn’t get lost]
“Come to think of it, I think a meta story about a comic book series getting canceled halfway through its first issue would be kind of hilarious.”
The main conceit of season 3 of the show Staged (with David Tennant and Michael Sheen) is that season 3 is cancelled after two episodes, with the remaining episodes set in some level of the “real world” dealing with the aftermath.
I don’t recall the specific issue number, but I thought that issue of “Tales to Admonish” where God banishes Adam and Eve was excellent. I totally did not see that coming.
@Karl_H
I’m an idiot. I read that quote you had in there without immediately recognizing it as my words and thought, “Hey, I think that would be pretty funny too!”
Well, I’m going to have to check that show out.
@Moo: And then the very next issue had that big twist just after the scene with the two brothers offering sacrifices to God.
I wasn’t a big fan of Bible: Numbers. Parts of that seemed less like a story arc and more like it should have been published as the Official Handbook to the Abrahamic Universe.
Bible: Book of Job was basically torture porn, and it wasn’t labeled for mature readers. More people should have been up in arms, *children* could have read that!
[…] #21. (Annotations here.) With “Age of Revelation” approaching, I assume that X-Men is currently engaged in a […]