X-Men United #5 annotations
X-MEN UNITED #5
“Shadow Play”
Writer: Eve L Ewing
Artist: Eduardo Pansica
Colour artist: Brian Reber
Letterer: Joe Sabino
Editor: Tom Brevoort
COVER: The Shadow King manipulates Cyclops, Wolverine (Laura), Emma Frost and the Beast. This is a puzzling cover, since neither Wolverine nor Beast is actually in the issue.
There seems to have been some change of plan since this issue was solicited, since although the solicitation copy did describe something recognisable as this story, it also promised more about Lourdes Chantal and someone called Justina LaGuardia, neither of whom appears in this issue at all.
Amazon is billing this series as ending at issue #10.
THE X-MEN:
Five issues into the series, we finally get a clear explanation of whether people physically travel to Graymatter lane, as a discussion among the students about the whereabouts of the missing teachers includes Scout saying that “their bodies are back wherever they left them when they entered the campus”. Except… the very same scene has Rift opening a portal to send people direct from Graymatter Lane to a location in the physical world which isn’t where they came from. That’s happened several times in this series, but… how?
Iceman, Rogue, Cyclops and Emma Frost spend the whole issue still in the fantasy-world illusion that was created for Iceman’s team-bonding exercise last issue, though any pretence of actually treating it as a gameworld has naturally fallen by the wayside. The main thrust of their scenes involves Emma arguing that she needs to go in and take control of Ben’s mind in order to shut down the scenario, and Scott assuring Emma that he trusts her to do this. (Ben himself is unconscious by this point.)
It’s a scene that rather hinges on the X-Men treating this sort of psychic exercise as a much greater dilemma than they normally seem to, all the more so because the B-plot has Sophie Cuckoo using her powers on the other students without seeking consent and simply making the case that it’s a regrettable necessity – though there’s something to be said for the idea that it ought to be treated this way more routinely. Perhaps the idea is meant to be that Emma is more than usually inhibited from interfering with one of Scott’s rookies until she has his endorsement. Also, Ben has made his discomfort with telepathy very clear.
STUDENT MENTORS:
Bronze. Kitty’s Lockheed clone Marigold has taken to perching on her shoulder. She displays consistent confidence in the staff and defends the institution against criticisms from cynical students.
Sophie Cuckoo. She strongly objects to the idea of calling in the Avengers to deal with the missing staff, on the grounds that this is a mutant issue. Axo promptly sides with her, though at least one character expresses some doubt that he’s actually devoted much independent thought to it.
Sophie has no reservations about using her psychic powers to shut down the students who are under an obvious psychic attack, which is perfectly reasonable, not least because they’re about to hurt people. She does apologise for the invasion of privacy afterwards, but in a way that makes clear that she’s simply expressing sympathy.
Melée. One of the three characters who seem to take control of the situation when the leaderless students are squabbling – not Sophie, interestingly, but then she’s never really been a leader. (The other two are Ransom, who’s always presented as a leader figure in his home book Uncanny X-Men, and Scout, who’s probably the most experienced person in the room aside from Sophie.)
Rift. Somehow or other, he can teleport people from Graymatter Lane to the Factory and Haven House.
OTHER STUDENTS:
Ben Liu. He panics at the thought of allowing Emma to control his mind, but it all becomes academic when he’s knocked out.
Deathdream. We get a repeat of the end of the previous issue from his point of view, in which the Shadow King threatens him and seems to try to pull him into a portal of some sort. However, Deathdream somehow escapes and makes it back to Graymatter Lane by using the same “key” that he was given to get there in the first place. Since Emma isn’t able to force her way past the Shadow King, it seems like the defences are somehow set up to focus on the teachers rather than the students.
Once back at Graymatter Lane, Deathdream seems uncharacteristically shaken by the experience (which is clearly intentional, since Jitter picks up on it). He says that everyone else is still in danger, but seems particularly concerned about saving his mentor Rogue.
The Shadow King calls him “Hashimoto Hotoru”, and I’m fairly sure that’s the first time that a full name has been given for him.
When he’s falling through the portal, captions read “Sick on a journey / In my dream staggering / Over withered fields.” Despite the captions showing musical notes as if this was a song, it’s actually an English translation of the final haiku by Basho Matsuo (1644-1694).
Mariama LaChance. The bullied Parisian girl that was recruited in issue #1. The recap page names her as “Mal Chance” (“bad luck”) – “Mal” was the name that the bullies called her by in issue #1, but Trista also uses it here, so apparently it’s her standard name. She lashes out at Trista at one point in what seems to be panic, although the Shadow King might well also be influencing here. She seems to have a lot of self-loathing. She regards Trista as her “first real friend” and believes that she is a “monster among monsters”.
A whole bunch of other students also appear in the school:
- Ransom. As noted above, he’s one of the students who takes the lead, which makes sense given his normal role in Uncanny.
- Jitter. Briefly possessed by the Shadow King.
- Calico. She’s put in charge of the group sent to Haven House.
- Wolf Cub. He was due to have a training session with Wolverine, presumably as a follow-up to the disastrous training event in issue #1.
- Match. A perennial recognisable background character (he’s the one with his head on fire), who’s been around since 2004 without ever really doing very much. This is his first post-Krakoa appearance.
- Trance. The nondescript one with the brown hair – she’s in one panel trying to subdue Ms Marvel during the brawl. Again, she’s a perennial background character from the 2004 generation of students, and this is her first post-Krakoa appearance.
- Loa. The one with the tattoo-style markings – she’s in the Haven House team, so we might see more of her next time. She’s basically another background character from the same generation as Match and Trance, though she did have a significant role in Namor: The First Mutant in 2010-11. Once again, this is her first appearance post-Krakoa.
- Indra. The purple guy. He’s also from the same generation of students, but he’s been used a bit more prominently, particularly in X-Men Legacy. This is only his second appearance post-Krakoa (the first being X-Men: The Wedding Special).
- Icarus. Cannonball’s brother, with the red wings. This is his first appearance post-Krakoa.
- Loolo. The girl from Arakko who was living with the Morlocks in NYX. She was also in issue #1.
- Ms Marvel. Currently appearance in Inglorious X-Force. Ms Marvel’s first instinct is to deal with the disappearance of the staff by calling in the Avengers – rather than, say, X-Force…
- Scout. Currently appearing in Generation X-23. Surprisingly commanding in this story.
- Galura. Karma’s girlfriend from the Krakoan era. Again, she was in issue #1.
VILLAINS:
The Shadow King. He’s the presence that Deathdream sensed at the end of the previous issue; he apparently attempts to pull Deathdream into his void, but fails. Presumably, he’s also responsible for the disappearance of all the other adults in Graymatter Lane. He only appears in this story as a shadowy presence and a voice, though he does identify himself as the Shadow King at one point. He’s trying to win over Mariama LaChance by preying on her insecurities and offering himself as a friend and protector, and he briefly gets Jitter, Scout and Ms Marvel to attack the others in a fit of paranoia before Sophie shuts them down.
The last time we saw the Shadow King was in the Resurrection of Magneto miniseries, where he was a disembodied spirit attacking Storm and Magneto as they attempted to return to life. The obvious angle here would be that he’s trying to escape his current condition via Greymatter Lane – which would tend to suggest that Scott was right all along about this being a terrible idea.
“and someone called Justina LaGuardia”
Justina Laguardia was the mutant from the backup story in Giant-Size X-Men 1 last year who had the abiltiy to duplicate other people’s abilities but stronger.
“The last time we saw the Shadow King was in the Resurrection of Magneto miniseries, where he was a disembodied spirit attacking Storm and Magneto as they attempted to return to life”
No, the last time we saw him was in Wolverines & Desdpools where he tried to possess Ellie. The dialogue in that issue made clear his defeat was temporary. (And since Ellie is currently trapped in a black hole, he presumably has given up any interest in her.)
” Ms Marvel’s first instinct is to deal with the disappearance of the staff by calling in the Avengers – rather than, say, X-Force…”
In fairness, it’s said that “all of the adults are missing”. It’s possible that includes the adult members of X-Force as well as the adult members of the X-Men.
Ms. Marvel being one of the students is a bit odd, since she’s the most experienced hero of those present. On the other hand, Kamala recently developed a new power which she is still learning to control.
Icarus was said to be in the White Hot Room in the Infinity Comics.
Note that the recap page refers to “tapping into Ben Liu’s dormant reality-warping abilities”- apparently that’s their way of acknowledging that Ben shouldn’t be able to manipulate reality like he was last issue.
Note that the letters page claims that Melee, Bronze, Axe and Rift aren’t teachers- they’re merely “sophomores. students who have been part of this program of Kitty’s and Emma’s for longer than anybody else” and that they “aren’t truly on any higher ground than any of the other younger mutants”.
The division of students and student mentors gets more bizarre the longer this series goes. Loa and Trance were involved in the defense of Utopia, which was three mutant nations ago now, but they’re outranked by high school students who’ve been in two fights.
At this rate, I would expect to see Cannonball and Havok along the students next.
This series is utter nonsense and confusing on so many levels, as people have noted.
From the extreme vagueness of just how Greymatter Lane works, where it is, how people access it, how they travel via it–all of this is so poorly explained and developed.
I mean look, if you want it to be a shared experience on the psychic plane, that’s fine, we can get behind that. But it has such unclear relations to the real world–like, sometimes people literally teleport to other real world locations, sometimes there’s time travel, sometimes they get sucked into a fantasy setting–wtf even is the underlying principle?
And as noted, the whole teacher vs student mentor vs student divide. Given how many of the students were part of -actual- formal schooling during the Xavier Academy years, vs Kitty and Emma’s trio who have been around for all of five minutes… Loa even hung out at the Avengers Academy! Give her some respect!
Ewing is making a lot of very odd decisions for this series and once again, I blame editorial for not having a tighter grip on things.
I just noticed that Shadow King is Ahmal Farouk on the cover. Last I read, they were very separate and Amahl was a nice guy. Though I’m probably out of the loop.
Gotta go with the Shadow King’s only reliably recognizable look, right?
Though it wouldn’t surprise me if everyone just “forgot” or overlooked the development on Krakoa.
“Gotta go with the Shadow King’s only reliably recognizable look, right?”
Granted. You could say one doesn’t recognise the name but his fez is familiar.
In the astral plane the Shadow king can self identify as anyone or anything so he may choose to still look like Faruk, as his most recognizable form. And I would also help weaken scouts resolve if she is one of the leaders has someone who was key to them splitting in new mutants.
Also it’s more likely to sell comics then an shapeless dark cloud.
This was the first issue of this series that basically worked for me. The logistics of Greymatter Lane make no sense and I’ve given up hope they ever will, but the logic of action was sound. Teachers separated from the students fight for their life, the students take action and are immediately in danger, the enemy is in their midst – this works. Also, it was the first time Ewing actually used most of the awkwardly large cast and even balanced them out.
This is a marked improvement. The series is apparently already dead, so too little, too late, but nice to see nevertheless.
We know why #4-5 have the five X-Men in a fantasy setting; it is because Ben Liu is using his powers to create that setting, as previously accorded with Iceman.
I, too, blame editorial for not having a tighter grip on things.
But I acknowledge that this is an ongoing mainstream franchise that has to work under the often conflicting demands of restoring a measure of viability while marching on without a break. So I blame the 2019-2024 editorial for breaking things, not nearly so much the 2025-on one for having a hard time matching and gluing the pieces with the train in movement.
As for why the train is not stopped for the duration… I somehow doubt anyone at the creative level has the autonomy to make that decision. I believe that there is a certain degree of automatism in the market regarding the X-books now.
Perhaps ironically, actually stopping the franchise for a while (as was done multiple times with the Legion of Super-Heroes and here at Marvel with the Avengers, Fantastic Four, Thor and Spider-Man) may well be perceived as an indication of editorial failure with more clarity and intensity than anything that either Jordan White or Tom Brevoort might ever do or refuse to do.
Apparently Eve L Ewing wants to work with an assortment of characters and explore some of the often unaddressed cravings and tensions that exist among them.
That is a very welcome, badly needed niche of the X-books, mostly because it is so often neglected to the point of despair. For instance, I want to know more of what is in Sophie Cuckoo’s head these days. These are supposed to be characters, not stylized biological drones to be taken from a shelf and mixed to taste in order to build team book rosters.
Take Ms. Marvel in this issue. I can see that from a certain perspective it is odd that she is considering involving the Avengers as opposed to her own so-called team. But that may well be the point. Kamala is supposed to have good relations with non-mutant heroes and that is just forgotten most of the time.
Meanwhile, X-Force Volume Way Too Many is a team that is essentially at odds with itself, and her role there is essentially that of an involuntary lynchpin/MaGuffin with a personality very much at odds with the team premise. It goes pretty much unexplored in what is supposed to be her current home book, but she is expected to have reservations about the whole setup and to want to restrict the involvement of that group in situations that may involve many other people.
I have to wonder how many readers noticed.
As someone who doesn’t have an encyclopedic knowledge of minor X-characters from the past 20 years, it would have been nice to have a summary of each student and maybe a few words about their motivations, powers, etc. The X-books are particularly bad about having a dozen random characters stand around and do nothing while the recognizable ones get the spotlight.
The fact that all the adults are missing came out of nowhere. Some set-up would have been nice. Maybe it was referenced last issue and I forgot, but that plot point seemed to come out of nowhere.
I’d literally forgotten who “Mal Chance” was and had no idea why she was getting such a focus in this issue. Even a websearch of the name turned up nothing. And I have a pretty good memory for obscure X-characters.
@Luis- When were the Avengers and Spider-Man stopped? The Fantastic Four and Thor were stopped for a few years but the Avengers and Spider-Man have only been halted for a couple of months to relaunch.
1997 and 1998, respectively.
I suppose I feel those events as full interruptions, while many of the current X-Readers may find them unremarkable.
It is certainly true that the X-books have gone through comparable phenomena several times since. It stands to reason that the current readership isn’t too bothered by their occurrence.
The books weren’t stopped though. They were relaunched: Spider-Man for an event, and Avengers for a second volumn. The Scarlet Spider four month pause with Spider-Man was the equivalent of X-Men’s Age of Apocalypse or Age of Revelation. With Avengers, that was supposed to be the new, ongoing status quo for the title until things fell apart with the Image deal, and Marvel relaunched the Avengers for a third volumn. I’d hardly say either counts.
The only reason FF actually was stopped for a time was due to movie rights issues after the Disney acquisition. The new bosses didn’t see the same monetary value in keeping FF around as they saw in continuing to publish the X-Men (under the same circumstances). Although, Marvel tried to replace the X-Men so they could possibly phase out the X-Men like the FF due to the movie rights.
Thor is the only title Marvel has been willing to shelf the book for a period for the reasons you were making reference.
It is all in the expectations and what is given.
Avengers was not just stopped, but for all intents and purposes erased retroactively and replated by imposters, perhaps forever. It was considerably more unpalatable than just being cancelled. It was quite tense there until the creator teams for Return were announced.
Spider-Man by Byne and Mackie wasn’t quite so drastic, but sometimes it felt awfully close.
Of course, not everyone feels those events quite the same way.
A note about the art, I typically associate Eduardo Pansica with DC New 52 titles and the Leah Williams’ Power Girl series. He did some issues of Geoff Johns’ Geiger last year.
I think Panscia is a more serviceable artist than Palma. I probably am a bit bias because Panscia’s style aligns more closely with Ivan Reis, which I adore.