As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.

LEGION OF X #6
“Holding the Line”
Writer: Si Spurrier
Artist: Rafael Pimentel
Colourist: Federico Blee
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Design: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen
Editor: Sarah Brunstad

COVER / PAGE 1. An arrangement of hexagons with three showing Uranos and the rest showing the regular cast – Legion, Mother Righteous, Zsen, Nightcrawler, Pixie, Juggernaut and Banshee (in his “Ghost Rider” form). The significance of the hexagons isn’t obvious, since the Hex have nothing to do with this story – for that matter, Mother Righteous, Zsen, Pixie and Juggernaut aren’t in this issue either.

PAGE 2. The Progenitor confronts Legion.

Since the Progenitor is still in its day of judging people, we’re during A.X.E.: Judgment Day #4.

“Universe destroyer. Universe creator.” It’s not immediately obvious what the Progenitor is referring to here; he might mean Legion’s role in the events that created the “Age of Apocalypse” timeline, or the “Age of X” arc from Mike Carey’s X-Men run.

PAGE 3. Uranos attacks Mars.

This is basically a recap of the premise of X-Men Red #5. As established in Eternals, all Eternals are compelled to destroy “excessive deviation”, but have a degree of flexibility in how they interpret that remit; it was apparently intended to cover Deviants who succumbed to madness and became dangerously uncontrollable.

PAGE 4. Data page showing the aftermath of Uranos’s attack… which to be honest comes across as a lot more localised than it looked in X-Men Red.

PAGE 5. Recap and credits. Perhaps because of the flashback structure, instead of being told when the story happens, we’re told that “This issue is best experienced after reading A.X.E.: Judgment Day #1 and X-Men Red #5-6.”

PAGE 6. Isca turns on the Great Ring and Nightcrawler teleports her away.

This is a version of pages 4-5 of X-Men Red #5. In that version, after Isca turns on the Ring, Sobunar points out that Isca’s mutant power is not to lose, and Nightcrawler concludes that he needs to take her off the board. He’s then just shown teleporting her away. In this version, Nightcrawler challenges her to combat but then tricks her into shaking his hand as a contest of etiquette, allowing him to teleport her away.

PAGE 7. Nightcrawler dumps Isca in the ocean.

This is, by now, the standard way of defeating Isca – define the victory conditions very narrowly so that you get her to do what you really wanted. There is some force in the criticism that, for a character thousands of years old, she seems never to have encountered rules lawyers until a week last Thursday.

In the X-Men Red version of this sequence, Nightcrawler and Isca also appear above the ocean, “where Isca dislocates Nightcrawler’s arm” – as indeed she does here, providing the excuse for his surrender.

PAGES 8-13. Legion fights Uranos.

As Legion points out in his narration, he rarely gets involved directly in displays of raw power, but naturally there’s a limit at which he’s going to intervene. Legion also explains that his objective in fighting Uranos wasn’t to defeat him but to keep him distracted while helping Nightcrawler to evacuate (by lending him extra power to teleport people to safety).

Apparently he and Uranos are evenly matched, which begs the question of whether Legion might have been able to beat him if he hadn’t been diverting his attention to save the bystanders. Probably he could – after all, Uranos was eventually defeated by Magneto.

“Lost from memory. From time itself.” “Been there, done that.” That was how Legion’s X-Men Legacy solo series ended, though obviously it didn’t stick.

“If you mean Ruth…” Blindfold. Legion assumes Uranos is making the point that Ruth gives him less reason to risk death. But Uranos is instead making the point that Legion is actually socially acceptable and valued in Krakoa/Arakko (mainly the latter) in a way that he never has been before – and we’ve seen in previous issues that Legion has started to harbour vague hopes of political power. However, Uranos rightly plays on Legion’s disdain for Professor X by reminding him that Krakoa is, at root, still his father’s project.

PAGES 14-15. Banshee saves Legion.

This is the first time that Legion’s seen Banshee in the Ghost Rider-esque form given to him by Mother Righteous. Banshee – in the voice of the “Spirit of Variance” – encourages Legion to look inside himself and rise to leadership. But bear in mind that they work for Mother Righteous, and political power is the dream that she’s trying to sell Legion.

PAGES 16-17. Legion and Banshee defend the Altar.

As Legion points out, the Altar is a psychic space designed as more of a playground, and not really suited to accommodate vast amounts of angry, traumatised types (at least not when they become the dominant emotion). Significantly, Legion seems more focussed and more determined when defending the people of the Altar – his people – than he was when defending Krakoans.

PAGES 18-19. Legion meets with the Great Ring.

Somewhere around the end of X-Men Red #6, just before Magneto and co set off to join the fight against Uranos.

“When you came to Krakoa, you said you didn’t trust me.” In Way of X #2. He was rejecting Magneto’s invitation to join a “project” involving “several other Omega-level mutants” – i.e., the terraforming of Mars from Planet-Size X-Men #1. At this point, however, Legion is thrilled to be straightforwardly endorsed by his father’s old counterpart – an alternative father figure.

Magneto dies in A.X.E.: Judgment Day #5.

PAGE 20. Data page, simply running the “Magneto Was Right” quote that used to appear on Che Guevara-style T-shirts in the Morrison era. Here, of course, the idea is that Magneto’s trust in Legion was vindicated, but with the wider implication that Legion seems more aligned with Magneto’s worldview than his father’s.

PAGES 21-22. The Progenitor passes Legion.

“No resurrection for members of the Great Ring.” Magneto and Storm agreed to this rule in X-Men Red #4.

“I rule me.” Legion’s motto from his X-Men: Legacy series.

PAGE 23. Trailers.