Unbreakable X-Men #2 annotations
UNBREAKABLE X-MEN #2
“Burial At Sea”
Writer: Gail Simone
Artists: CF Villa with Mario Santoro, Davide Tinto, David Marquez, R.B. Silva, Alessandro Cappuccio & Ramon Rosanas
Colourist: Espen Grundetjern
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Tom Brevoort
COVER: Basically an image of the cast looking dramatic. That looks to be Shuvahrak in the background, though she’s largely obscured by the logo.
PAGES 1-3. Henrietta comforts Remy after he fends off the zombies.
We established last issue that Rogue had turned into a giant statue as a side effect of using her powers to defeat Galactus, and that Remy had lost his eyesight afterwards. This is a continuation of the final scene from the previous issue, where the “Tormented” from the Penumbra attacked Haven House, and Gambit was driving them away from the “Unbreakable” memorial which commemorates Rogue. It reads a little oddly, since the previous scene was paced as if he’d already finished dealing with them, but apparently there are more. As in Rogue Storm #2, Gambit can still aim acceptably by sound alone.
The previous issue didn’t give any particular reason for Gambit losing his sight. He said last issue that it had happened “with time”, but in this scene he says it started when Rogue was transformed. The prevailing theory seems to be that his eyes were damaged in the flash of light in that scene, but Gambit prefers the emotional/symbolic explanation that he had nothing worth looking at without Rogue. Gambit’s narration also plays up his eyes as symbols in themselves, as the one thing that makes him a visible mutant; this has also come up in regular Uncanny X-Men.
Henrietta offers some sympathetic comments on the topic of survivor’s guilt, presumably referencing the way that she herself has long outlived contemporary mutants.
PAGES 3-6. Henrietta tells the X-Men that Shuvahrak is escaping.
Henrietta (and by extension the X-Men) don’t know why Shuvahrak and the Tormented are escaping. We saw in the previous issue that she was woken by Galactus, who had himself just woken from his undersea coma.
Within the Penumbra, we get a clear view of Shuvahrak for the first time; up to this point, she’s been more of a shadowy, immobile statue. She seems to be a sort of giant sea monster, with the lower body of a fish. The inhabitants of the Penumbra appear to be worshipping her, or at least begging for mercy. Shuvahrak then goes to join Galactus on the sea bed.
The original “Dark Artery” arc, in Uncanny X-Men #13-16, strongly implied that Shuvahrak was Greta, the mutant who had created the Penumbra as a place to punish humans who had betrayed mutant relatives. Henrietta refers here to Shuvahrak wanting revenge for what happened to her daughter, which accords with the back story given for Greta in Uncanny #15: her husband drove their mutant daughter to suicide. However, Henrietta also tells us that Shuvahrak now wants revenge on mutants as well, “because she feels her own kind betrayed her.” Presumably, this is to do with other mutants – such as Henrietta – working to keep her contained in the Penumbra.
PAGES 7-8. The X-Men set out to collect the other Outliers.
Apparently the original Outliers have taken a vow to reunite if Shuvahrak ever got free. By this point in the future, the Outliers are apparently seen as enough of a force to be worth rounding up for a fight with a cosmic entity, though admittedly there aren’t many options.
Somewhere along the line, Dome has picked up teleporting powers, along with her force fields. No clear reason is given for this.
“Even with a full squad and the Man-Thing, we barely touched Shuvahrak.” Ransom is referring back to Uncanny #15-16.
PAGE 9. Gambit fails to recruit Sadurang.
For some reason, Gambit doesn’t go to any of the Outliers, but to Sadurang in Shanghai. As in Uncanny #13-14, Sadurang is generally respectful towards Gambit, but declines to get involved with Shuvahrak, regarding it as a risk not worth taking.
PAGE 10. Ransom recruits Deathdream.
Deathdream is hanging around a cemetery in Istanbul. In present day Uncanny, Deathdream is terribly excited about his brotherly relationship with Ransom, but evidently they’ve fallen out somewhere along the line.
Nonetheless, this seems to flatly contradict Amazing X-Men #1, where Deathdream was hanging around with the ghosts at the X-Men Mansion, and still looked as young as he does in contemporary Uncanny. In this version, he’s clearly older. The reference to him “c[oming] back to life, one last time” might be an attempt to smooth this over by implying that he’s somehow respawned in Istanbul after his decapitation in Amazing, but it really doesn’t make sense, and it’s hard to read this as anything other than a serious continuity error.
PAGE 11. Temper recruits Jitter.
With training, Jitter is able to copy skills permanently instead of just for one minute, but at the cost of having people’s voices in her head – a problem that Rogue also used to have. She confirms here that she is indeed copying the abilities of specific people when she uses her powers (even if we’ve seen her define them as things like “world’s best dancer”, rather than naming someone).
PAGE 12. Spider-Girl recruits Calico.
Calico is still horse themed, and apparently spends a lot of her time ignoring the current problems of the world and going riding in other dimensions. She seems to have an entire herd of Embers, though it’s not clear how she’s created them, and she only actually brings one with her in the next scene. She and Jitter, who are clearly a couple in present day Uncanny, have also obviously broken up, though the final scene of the issue makes clear that they’re still in love. It may simply be that Jitter wanted isolation because of her trouble with her powers.
PAGES 13-16. Shuvahrak emerges from the Penumbra and is confronted by the X-Men.
Evidently Shuvahrak has returned to the Penumbra after her encounter with Galactus – perhaps just to smash up the Dark Artery in revenge for being imprisoned.
PAGES 17-20. The X-Men fight Shuvahrak.
Ransom is presented rather more clearly as an effective leader in this issue, with everyone deferring to him in combat. He’s certainly the best placed to do it.
“Been told she will be the last mutant.” Gambit seems to be off-handedly confirming that Dome is the Endling, or at least that she’s been identified as a likely candidate – this has been a subplot in Uncanny X-Men from the outset, with the original implication that one of the Outliers was the Endling. The significance of being the Endling remains unclear, but this might explain why Galactus was trying to recruit her as a herald in the previous issue.
“He was called the first mutant for a long time.” It’s not really obvious why Namor the Sub-Mariner is of particular interest to Shuvahrak – as far as we know, he’s never really taken any interest in her at all, and he’s rarely been very bothered about mutant affairs. It seems more likely to be something to do with Galactus’ current whereabouts in the ocean. However, Marvel did indeed market Namor as the first mutant for a while back when the X-Men franchise as at its peak and attaching the “mutant” label was thought to help literally any character. Even though his origin story has him as a human/Atlantean hybrid, the rationale for calling him a mutant was that his flight power couldn’t logically be attributed to either parent.
Calling him the “first” mutant was a meta reference. In the Marvel Universe, he obviously isn’t really the first mutant; never mind the likes of Apocalypse, even Henrietta is probably older. However, since Namor debuted in Marvel Comics #1 – the first comic in the Marvel Universe – he was quite literally the first mutant, albeit by retcon.
“Evidently Shuvahrak has returned to the Penumbra after her encounter with Galactus”
I’m far from certain, but I took the earlier part that showed Shuvahrak going to Atlantis as a figurative (though I guess it’s all figurative) depiction of what was coming, even though it was coming later in the same issue. I don’t think it makes any sense, whatever was happening.
That Endling ‘reveal’ was certainly off-hand.
This would be a hell of an issue (or story) for someone who wasn’t already reading Uncanny. And even for those of us who do, we still don’t know what Calico’s power is.
“The reference to him “c[oming] back to life, one last time” might be an attempt to smooth this over by implying that he’s somehow respawned in Istanbul after his decapitation in Amazing”
Gail Simone has said on twitter that Deathdream surviving was due to his powers and the age thing will be explained. The real problem is how he got to Istanbul. In Amazing X-Men, he was in Westchester County and needed a teleportation device to send Scott’s team to Philadelphia. But in this issue, he’s in Istanbul. So Deathdream can’t travel from Westchester to Philadelphia under his own power but can somehow travel from Westchester to Istanbul- a much longer distance- under his own power?
It’s nice to get some confirmation that we’re supposed to view Shuvharak as evil, since issues 13-16 seemed to portray her as more tragic than evil.
So, I too had thought for a long time that Namor’s “mutant” status was something they bolted onto him during the late ’80s / early ’90s——in much the same way that they retconned Cloak & Dagger into being mutants (which never made much sense to me).
That is, until I read Fantastic Four Annual #1, where Reed cites to the United Nations that Namor is “possibly the first known mutant of our time”:
https://www.tumblr.com/imperiuswrecked/690900655869689856/tenoch-has-got-me-curious-about-namor-like-a-good
Notably, this comic came out on July 2 1963—the same release date as X-Men #1.
(The tumblr account linked here missed that September 1963 was the *cover date* of X-Men #1, and not the actual release date. Included the link mostly for the panel from FFA #1.)
@Don Alsafi Namor being the first mutant is brought up in X-Men (1963) #6. Magneto tries to recruit him for the original Brotherhood.
I don’t want to sound mean – but for me this run is the second worst run of an X-Men title, behind Austins and maybe Milligans x-men run.
I found myself skipping pages to the end.
I have been reading X-books since the early 90s. Fatal Attractions was my first crossover. I have bought every issue of uncanny and x-men since. the only title I ever dropped was x-treme x-men towards the end of that run. once I was in, I was in! but this series is just…….not it.
I don’t think I will get the next issue.
Even by X-Men standards, Spider-Girl dips into her native tongue a lot. “Shi-shi nai nai” apparently means pee and go to bed, but Google’s not really helping with “big for naddin.”
Hopefully she’ll develop a second personality trait.
“…second worst run of an X-Men title, behind Austins and maybe Milligans x-men run.”
Milligan’s run was poor, but worse than Casey’s?
No, not at all. I think I’m one of the few people who enjoyed Milligan’s run. I didn’t love it or anything, and I can see why many (most?) people didn’t enjoy it, but it wasn’t deserving of the same level of dire hatred as Austen.
The trick to enjoying Milligan’s X-Men is that it’s not to be taken seriously. Milligan’s writing has gone steadily downhill since the early-2000s, but I used to share in Milligan’s sense of humour. It was much more subtle and not satirical like his much-better-received X-Statix.
“Who…or what…is Golgotha?”
“Bizarre Love Triangle” (with apologies to New Order).
The Milligan penned chapters of the crossover with Black Panther must stand as the funniest issues of X-Men. I can still get a good laugh reading Milligan completely taking the piss writing that story. Now, admittedly, “funny” isn’t often an adjective used to describe the X-Men comics.
“I don’t want to sound mean – but for me this run is the second worst run of an X-Men title, behind Austins and maybe Milligans x-men run.”
I’ve always maintained that Chuck Austen’s run was genuinely bad and pure nonsense… but Rosenberg’s misery porn run prior to HoX/PoX was downright infuriating. Compared to those, both Casey and Milligan were idiosyncratic but not all that bad.
And to put this series that far down just feels like some sort of personal disconnect on your part. I mean, I get it, we all have our particular tastes, and not every run is a home run (or even a full 9 innings) but…
TBH, even over the past few decades (going back to the ’90s, eh?) there has been an absolute heap of X-Men related titles and a lot of those deservedly do earn their place on the junkheap of history. The Brotherhood, whose writer remains a thing of lore and mystery (I know, I know, it was eventually revealed somewhere). Mutant X, which was just insane. The current Storm run, some might say…
“The Brotherhood, whose writer remains a thing of lore and mystery (I know, I know, it was eventually revealed somewhere).”
The late Chip Zhukovsky.
Interestingly enough, Mutant X and the Brotherhood were written by the same person. Howard Mackie, which was eventually revealed as a postmodern experiment done by the pseudonymous Chip Zdarksky, whose real name is Hozdard Machipkie. The truth is finally revealed.
Shi shi nai nai” is a taunt. Think “suck eggs” or “eat shit.”“Naddin” means “nothing,” so the full phrase is like “they’re all bark and no bite.”
“Chee-hoo” should be read like “Nice!” or “Impressive!” You might think of it like that whistle people do sometimes to show they’re impressed. And “cherreh” is “cool!”
Spider-Girl is joining a long line of X-Men with expanded vocabularies — including Rogue, Gambit, and Nightcrawler.
Dis use of pidgin by Remy shouldn’t be considered as speaking no other languages, cheri. Non?
Rogue, she doesn’t even use “y’all” properly, sugah.
Far too many completely dire X-Men runs for me to negotiate a place for Simone’s anywhere near the bottom. I’m content with just labeling it Not Good.
For me, just counting Uncanny X-Men and X-Men (vol. 2), not any of the spin-offs, starting with the “All-New, All-Different X-Men”, my canon includes original Chris Claremont, Grant Morrison, Mike Carey, and Jonathan Hickman. All of the rest, it never happened.
While not part of my canon, if I had to reread any other Uncanny/X-Men writers, I’d choose Kieron Gillen’s first run for fifth, then Peter Milligan’s run as my sixth. The Milligan wasn’t great, but I’d still rank it higher than the remainder of Uncanny/X-Men’s history.
I seem to greatly enjoy British writers working on X-Men…
Mutant X will always have a place in my heart for giving us Paul’s reviews of Mutant X.
@Don Asalfi: thanks for sharing that! That Tumblr has a really nice and comprehensive tale down of Sabra’s character history and general use as the most obvious and lazy kind of Zionist propaganda – even more flagrant than I would have imagined.
There’s also a really take on how Krakoa completely failed, as metaphor/allegory at least, because all of the nepharious undertones of Hickman’s writing were pretty much dissolved into the mush that was “Krakoa is so fantastic”.
Including the pit, the ethnostate concept, the bizarre imperative (law, actually) to procreate, general capitalist militarism, etc.
Also, what does it say of me that I kind of want to see folks list their “worst of” X-Men Runs? Or Paul’s, for that matter: that review of the “communion waffer” plot twist is stuck in my head to this day.
I’d agree with Claremont, Hickman, and Carey as decisive runs. But there’s too much that I like sprinkled throughout Joe Kelly’s hyper-brief stint, and I’m *sure* there has to be a more positive outlook than this…
As someone who never got into 1990s X-Force, X-Man, original and ongoing revivals of X-Factor, Cable, and lots of secondary series, I do wonder what people hold as their “standard”.
Mind you, Wood’s run might figure in the worst, but it does stand as one of the most imminently forgettable…
OK. I’ll take the challenge, but I’m sure I’m forgetting some things…
X-title spin-offs I’d unhesitatingly recommend:
Claremont’s New Mutants
Claremont’s Excalibur
Claremont’s brief Wolverine (vol. 1 #1-10)
Alan Davis on Excalibur
John Francis Moore on X-Force
Peter David on X-Factor (all versions)
Lobdell/Bachalo on Generation X
Darko Macan on Cable (aka Soldier X)
Rick Remender on Uncanny X-Force
Zeb Wells and Dan Abnett on New Mutants
Si Spurrier on Legion
Peter Milligan’s X-Force/X-Statix if you would include it is an obvious pick.
If you had to read something for X-Man, it’s undoubtedly Warren Ellis’ X-Man at the end of the series, but it’s not really a necessity.
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