X-Force #21 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-FORCE vol 6 #21
“Fear of a Green Planet”
by Benjamin Percy, Joshua Cassara, Robert Gill & Guru-eFX
COVER / PAGE 1. X-Force fight Man-Slaughter.
PAGES 2-9. Flashback: X-Force encounter a Man-Thing.
More fully: Sage despatches X-Force to the Warroad site on the coast of Washington, which is spilling chemical and nuclear waste into the sea. Their job is to clean up the spill because, apparently, it could somehow threaten Krakoa. (It’s not really made clear why this is any more of a concern for Krakoa than any other global environmental issue, but perhaps X-Force are just feeling especially heroic today.) They encounter a Man-Thing-type creature, which they mistake for a bad guy, but which is actually trying to save the locals from mutated sea creaturs.
As usual, there’s an obvious parallel between the visuals for Krakoa (complete with red spherical things in the plantlife) and the long-established design for Man-Thing, particularly in the grimier style which this book tends to favour, and which plays down Krakoa’s island-paradise tropes.
Warroad is not, as far as I can tell, a real facility in Washington. There’s a town called Warroad in Minnesota, which doesn’t seem to have any particular significance here. Washington State does have a significance, because it was the setting for various scenes in Weapon Plus: World War IV – more on which below.
The Man-Thing. Kid Omega says that he “feel[s] the burning touch of fear”. That refers to the old tag line that “Whatever knows fear, burns at the Man-Thing’s touch!” But the character seen here isn’t the Man-Thing.
Jackson Strode. As we’ll see later in the story, this “good” Man-Thing is Jackson Strode, a character whose only previous appearance was in Benjamin Percy’s one-shot Weapon Plus: World War IV. That issue revealed that Strode was the Weapon Plus Project’s reluctant Weapon IV, who had been given a stolen version of Ted Sallis’s Man-Thing serum. He eventually fled after realising that he was never going to be cured no matter how many missions he did. In the earlier story, he could change back into human form, though he was having increasing difficulty in doing so. According to the data page at the end of the issue, he can no longer do so.
Timeframe. The opening caption says that this takes place “months ago”. This is… odd. To explain: Kid Omega is wearing his new costume, which he picked up in issue #17. Issues #17-19 run through without interruption. So there are really only two places for this scene to go: either it takes place after issue #20 (and it isn’t a flashback at all), or it takes place between issues #19-20.
But the gap between issues #19-20 can’t be months. It falls between “X of Swords” and “Hellfire Gala”, and Planet-Size X-Men #1 tells us that that’s only 2-3 weeks. So whichever slot you opt for, it seems that we’ve jumped several months down the line from the Hellfire Gala. That might be intentional – but it means we’ve jumped entirely past any consequences that the Beast suffered after his Terra Verdean schemes were exposed last issue. By all appearances there were none, perhaps because those in the know worry more about the blowback if they push the argument too far – particularly given some of the maniacs on the Quiet Council.
PAGE 10. Recap and credits. Do I need to point out that the title refers to “Fear of a Black Planet” by Public Enemy? It’s an album from over 30 years ago, so I guess I’d better.
PAGES 11-16. Sage briefs the Beast.
Basically, someone is using plant-style technology to control mutant allies and make them do incriminating things and/or sever their ties with Krakoa. There’s a very, very obvious parallel with what the Beast was doing in Terra Verde last issue. This seems as if it’s heading towards a position where the Beast is ultimately driven to concede that he’s got it all horrendously wrong, not because he’s realised the moral implications, but simply because he’s forced to accept that he has himself contributed to the spread of this dangerous technology by trying to take advantage of it when he could have just wiped it out. From a conventional heroic standpoint, this ought to be the very least of the issues with what the Beast has done.
Multiple discovery is indeed a real concept, the idea being that sometimes the conditions are right for a discovery to be made, and therefore several people are going to hit on the idea at around the same time. The crossbow is indeed one of the examples given in the Wikipedia entry (citation needed), though it’s not a particularly clear case of the same idea being developed simultaneously (the northern Canadian crossbow seems to be several centuries distant from the Chinese one, for example).
Ted Sallis’ Man-Thing serum. Ted Sallis is the original Man-Thing, and the traditional account has him being transformed by a serum of his own devising. However, this story – which treats the serum as a purely scientific thing – sits awkwardly with the recent Curse of the Man-Thing miniseries, which retcons Man-Thing’s origins. According to that story, the Man-Thing serum didn’t actually work until Sallis made a deal with Belasco, and so it’s actually a combination of science and magic. Still, maybe the people who’ve adapted the serum figured out how to make it work the way Sallis always intended.
PAGE 17. Data page. Sage is tracking appearances of the benign Man-Thing.
PAGES 18-22. X-Force try to talk to Jackson Strode.
Presumably they figure that if they can examine him, they can work out how to cure (or at least block) the other infectees. This particular Man-Thing has somehow retained his regular personality.
PAGE 23. Weapon Plus.
The clear implication is that this is a sequel to writer Benjamin Percy’s 2020 one-shot Weapon Plus: World War IV. That issue revealed that the Weapon Plus Project’s Weapon IV was a super-soldier created using a stolen version of Ted Sallis’s Man-Thing serum. His name was Jackson Strode, and he eventually fled after realising that he was never going to be cured no matter how many missions he did. This is presumably the “good” Man-Thing seen elsewhere in the issue, although he’s not drawn in quite the same way. In the earlier story, he could change back into human form, though he was having increasing difficulty in doing so. According to the data page following this scene, Strode can no longer do that. Strode is a monumentally obscure character, but to be fair, none of his back story is really necessary to follow this story.
Dr Bloodroot is a new character.
PAGE 24. Data page: Cecilia Reyes’ notes on the new Man-Thing.
“Man-Slaughter” is the name given to Jackson Strode in the solicitation copy for Weapon Plus: World War IV, though it doesn’t appear in the story itself.
PAGE 25. Trailers. The Krakoan reads NEXT: ROOT OF THE PROBLEM.
Man-Thing himself is an example of multiple discovery, if its creators and the creators of Swamp Thing are to be believed.
I believe the X-Men and Doom Patrol are also often cited as examples.
(Looking at my unfinished X-Men/Man-Thing crossover exploring the concept of multiple discovery) Well played, Percy. Well played.
X-Force is a decent book, good enough to keep reading, but it’s definitely the Krakoa book that I get the least excited about. I want to see where the Beast and Sage stuff is headed, but beyond that… I mean, this issue is a great example of why X-force can be a bit of a letdown. Love Cassara’s art tho.
It’s a shame it’s not really an ensemble book. Characters disappear into the background for much too long for the ensemble to work. Colossus and Domino are afterthoughts at this point. And back when they were in the spotlight, Quentin was just filling out the space.
…and Jean was also a main character in this book, which I’ve only now remembered.
Also it’s telling that the X-Men #1 discussion is over 60 comments by now and X-Force’s comment section will go up to three. I assume most of us have read it, but… unless Beast is actively terrible in an issue, there’s just not much to this title, is there?
I liked it. Nice set up so far and I’m interested to see how this all plays out.
I will agree that I do wish the characters got more equal time with regards to plots and characterizations (is Colossus gone for good?) but overall I’m still enjoying this title.
It’s a good gauge of a comic to see how many people have anything to say about it here. You have the good ones with over 50 comments, the really bad ones with 30+ comments, and then ones like this that are ok but just not that interesting.
Oh then you have the comics that are so forgettable they have a huge comment section but all the comments are about something else entirely, unrelated to the comic. So yeah, I think Magik is asexual. She’s well aware of her beauty, and that of others, and will often use sexuality as a weapon, but she’s never actually interested in anyone, be it a relationship or a casual fling.
…I’ll bite. Has she never been portrayed in a relationship, queer reading of her friendship with Kitty notwithstanding?
Though I guess even taking that into account there’s a difference between asexual and aromantic.
I was interested in the Black Tom subplot, but I don’t think we’ve seen him in about ten issues now.
It seems like Percy doesn’t know how to juggle multiple plots well. Characters and storylines just disappear from this book for ages.
@Krzysiek Ceran I don’t think so, but I haven’t taken it seriously enough to double check. It’s just a bit of casual headcanon that was useful for the gag.
And honestly, queer subtext in a Claremont comic just means the character is female. I think he’s maybe given too much credit there.
Claremont wrote Kitty and Illyana as two very close female best friends.
Male readers don’t understand the subtext of close female friendships and read it as sexual.
It also appeals to certain physical impulses in some males, if you know what I mean.
I really do give Claremont a lot of credit for the Kitty/Illyana friendship. I think a lot of women could really relate to those characters, that the close bond between them feels very real, in the way they felt about a lot of their close female friendships when they were younger.
However, yes, almost every woman Claremont wrote was (at least) latently bi…except Jean, of course.
In the case of Kitty/Illyana, I think people want to read in to the text.
Also, they wouldn’t preclude Illyana from being able to have a loving relationship with another person, no.
Sex is not love.
*Also, this discussion…not “they”!
Stupid no edit function…grr.
It should be noted that nuclear waste is never stored on a coast or with chemical waste.
As for Claremont writing women as inherently bi, the only ones I can think of are Mystique/Destiny and Storm/Yukio. It seems to be other writers making that assumption when they write them. He had Karma holding hands with Cypher, then another writer had her as a pink-haired lesbian at a New Mutants reunion.
Don’t know the chronology on that one, but it was Claremont who wrote Karma as obviously gay in Mekanix.
Claremont also wrote a very suggesting scene between Rogue and Storm right before Gyrich used Forge’s Neutralizer against both, during the Romita Jr. run.
For my money, Claremont’s take on Storm is that she is either bisexual or pansexual.
It has also been noted that he wrote Kitty in Excalibur as at least arguably attracted to Saturnyne.
Ceran-That was after.
It was issue #75 of X-Force by John Francis Moore where Karma showed up at the Burning Man festival.
I guess she was supposed to be a lesbian in that story. It was ambiguous.
She had short, pink hair and said she was at the festival with her two girlfriends.
People jumped on that line, but it may have been innocent. Women call their friends “girlfriends” all the time with no sexual connotations.
I’m not sure if Moore ever revealed he definitely wanted Karma to be seen as a lesbian.
“As for Claremont writing women as inherently bi, the only ones I can think of are Mystique/Destiny and Storm/Yukio. It seems to be other writers making that assumption when they write them. He had Karma holding hands with Cypher, then another writer had her as a pink-haired lesbian at a New Mutants reunion.”
Yeah, I saw it that way as well, except for the part any flirting between them. Then again, I don’t remember CC writing Karma as flirting with anyone.
People see what they want to see, regardless. A lot of people have headcannoned Storm’s jealousy of and being threatened by Stevie and Kitty’s friendship as Storm really lusting after Stevie, so…whatever.
“It has also been noted that he wrote Kitty in Excalibur as at least arguably attracted to Saturnyne.”
Eh, lots of girls Kitty’s age have girl crushes on older women they idolize/see as a mentor. That doesn’t make it a real adult style attraction.
“She had short, pink hair and said she was at the festival with her two girlfriends.
People jumped on that line, but it may have been innocent. Women call their friends “girlfriends” all the time with no sexual connotations.”
Yeah, Dani and her also chat in the issue about whether Dani was ever interested in Cannonball/Sam, and when Dani asked Karma, her reply was “Oh, definitely not my type”. Also she invites Dani to look her up the next time Dani is visiting NCY and that Karma is staying in the Village…
“Eh, lots of girls Kitty’s age have girl crushes on older women they idolize/see as a mentor. That doesn’t make it a real adult style attraction.”
There’s a scene where Kitty sucks the icing off Courtney/Sat-Yr-9’s finger. Alan Davis said somewhere about it that he’s not sure if Claremont wrote the scene as gay but he definitely drew it as such.
Also I kind of regret that my little joke about derailing the comments really did derail the comments, but I’m also kind of proud.
Regardless of Moore’s intent, once he wrote that scene Karma would have to be a lesbian from then on or Marvel would be accused of queerbaiting.
Like I said, Claremont did have Karma holding hands with Doug Ramsey in a scene with the New Mutants at a movie.
Davis interpreted it as gay, but Claremont’s intention seems to have been Sat-Yr-9 trying to corrupt Kitty into her clone. At the end of the issue, she puts on a pair of sunglasses that make her look almost like Sat-Yr-9’s twin. When Davis took over the writing, he didn’t have any sexual tension between them.
“Male readers don’t understand the subtext of close female friendships and read it as sexual.”
This reading doesn’t line up with reality. It isn’t primarily straight male readers who read the queer subtext, it’s queer readers (especially queer women). Straight men mostly seem to share takes like this one.
Claremont himself has said that he intended for Kitty and Rachel to be together- whether you believe him or not is your business, but the extreme closeness and longing in Kitty’s relationships with other girls in CC’s comics has always read as queer to some of us. Not to mention that Sat-yr-9 seduction scene, or the stuff in Mekanix.
I’m not saying I think Kitty has literally had sex with Rachel or Illyana, but I think those relationships have always been tinged with romance and longing.
I’m not speaking of all Kitty’s relationships, my contention was specifically in reference to her and Illyana.
Girls do have intensely close bonds with other girls their own age. They are very important to young females.
Regardless of if Kitty is bi or a lesbian, it doesn’t mean she cannot have close friendships with another female her own age which doesn’t involve sex.
Especially considering the age of both Kitty and Illyana when those Claremont stories were written.
I’m just popping up to remind that Claremont wrote the then-14-year old Kitty as having sexual urges in the Brood Saga where she as literally as the comics code would allow urges Colossus that she doesn’t want to die a virgin (when they all find out they have Brood embryos implanted) and Piotr delicately turns her down and consoles her.
“So yeah, I think Magik is asexual. She’s well aware of her beauty, and that of others, and will often use sexuality as a weapon, but she’s never actually interested in anyone, be it a relationship or a casual fling.”
There was a scene somewhere post-Krakoa where a variety of characters are shown reacting to a handsome/studly male character, and Magik says something along the lines of “yum” or “hubba hubba”, and I remember thinking it was out of character. So I tend to agree on the asexual notion.
Ceran-I don’t deny that females of that age are entirely capable of having sexual urges.
She obviously had a huge crush on Piotr.
It’s just, look at her environment. She was surrounded by almost all males. The only female figure in her life (Ororo) was an adult.
Of course she would feel a longing for Illyana…as a girl her own age.
You have to wonder about her parents. I think it was written that Xavier messed with their minds.
Still, they put their early-teen daughter at an academy filled with older males.
It would seem like they might be concerned about there not being any female students around Kitty’s age attending the academy.
It was Phoenix-as-Jean who messed with their minds. Unless that too was retconned to be Xavier years later.