X-Force #32 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-FORCE vol 6 #32
“The Hunt for X, part 3: Kraven Kills”
Writer: Benjamin Percy
Artist: Robert Gill
Colourists: GURU-eFX
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Design: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen
Editor: Mark Basso
COVER / PAGE 1. Kraven fights Omega Red.
PAGES 2-4. Kraven enters Arbor Magna.
Kraven’s narration recaps his origin story from Amazing Spider-Man vol 5 #16 (2019) and subsequent issues. Basically, he’s one of a number of clones that Kraven created in a last ditch attempt to give himself a son. For most purposes this Kraven is just a reset version of the original, but he does have the added wrinkle of being a nature obsessive who is in some sense unnatural).
Arbor Magna is remarkably undefended considering its importance. Granted, there’s a major crossover on at the moment, but shouldn’t the Five at least be there, taking shelter because of their vital role? (Honestly, this arc feels like it would have worked better without taking place in the margins of the crossover.)
PAGE 5. Recap and credits.
We’re told here that it’s after Judgment Day #3. If so, it’s the day when the Progenitor is testing everyone (which fits with the Wolverine arc).
PAGES 6-9. Sage and Omega Red assess the damage.
The island shouldn’t literally be under attack at this very moment in the crossover, but apparently it is. On the other hand, his egotistical insistence that he’s “the centerpiece of our defence efforts” and “irreplaceable” is all the more ironic when you bear in mind that he’s been invisible in other books. Nobody else thinks he’s all that important.
Sage takes this to be an attack by the Eternals, which seeks to place this in the early part of Judgment Day #4 when Druig is still in charge.
The words written in Krakoan on the displays – and boy, it’s been a while since we had a lot of this – are not important. They read X-FORCE (twice), ETERNALS, DANGER, MISSION (twice), ALERT, TOP SECRET and ANOMALIES.
Page 8 is a data page in which Sage explains the plot. Note that she scores out the bit about having been at the Green Lagoon, presumably to cover up her drink problem if this gets read in future (though it reads a bit oddly, since it’s not like it’s a handwritten draft).
PAGES 10-12. Kraven stalks bit players.
The guy who gets decapitated on page 10 after fighting off a couple of generic Eternals is Maggott, of course. Most of the characters on page 11 are generics, but the guy with the red wings on pages 12-13 is Icarus, the younger brother of Cannonball.
PAGE 13. Deadpool’s head falls into Black Tom’s possession.
PAGES 14-16. Kraven breaks into the Pointe.
Once again, the Beast’s confidence that he’s stayed in the correct, safe place turns out to be completely unwarranted.
Page 16 is a data page recapping the premise of the Shadow Room – i.e., it’s the Danger Room but with added danger.
PAGES 17-20. Deadpool gets a temporary body and fights Omega Red.
Black Tom grows him a body, and let’s not ask awkward questions about how he controls it or breathes or anything. But, understandably enough, Deadpool is immediately distracted by wanting revenge for his treatment by Omega Red in issue #30.
PAGE 21. Wolverine returns to Krakoa.
He’s coming straight from Wolverine #25, also out this week. Presumably it’s Kraven who answers his message.
PAGES 22-24. Wolverine arrives at the Pointe and is challenged to enter Kraven’s Shadow Room scenario.
Either this is a complete sidebar to the crossover, or the fact that Wolverine and Beast both have more important things to do will be part of the point. We’ll find out next time, I guess.
PAGE 25. Trailers.
“If so, it’s the day when the Progenitor is testing everyone (which fits with the Wolverine arc).”
And fits with the previous issue of this series, where Kraven tried to get his judgment.
Funny how there’s a Krakoan language but a lot of the places, like Arbor Magna, have Latin names. I assume Pointe is French.
Arbor Magna is undefended because the Five (as Sage later notes) are “underground”: they’re being hidden because they’re the vital ones. (Arbor Magna is just where they do their work.)
When Wolverine returns, he thinks he’s seeing the island under attack again, but what he’s actually seeing is the Uni-Mind manifesting during Judgment Day #4, I think. (Which is why this is still during the Progenitor’s 24 hours.)
And nobody has even told Beast much about what’s going on; I think at this point they’ve figured out that the kind of help he has to offer is the kind they can do without…
That, or Percy doesn’t follow / know / care what’s actually going on in the event.
The X-writers have a group chat to try and keep this stuff straight but there are always limits to what you can do to co-ordinate with a comic that hasn’t been written yet. And ultimately it’s the editors’ job to try and get the details to line up.
On the whole the X-books are pretty well co-ordinated but there are non-obvious problems that still slip through. The most glaring one lately is that the assassination of Xandra takes place both before the Hellfire Gala and after it, depending on whether you’re reading Marauders or X-Men Red.
@Paul: hmm, that’s not how I read it! Mutant immortality is outed the morning of the day of the Gala. Sunspot is resurrected in the middle of that day in X-Men Red #4, and learns that while he was dead, Xandra has been killed and immortality has been made public. (His last backup was two days earlier, so this has happened in a pretty tight time frame.) Xandra and then Kate are resurrected in time for the Gala in Marauders #5.
Also, my earlier comment was wrong: I now see that Logan comes back from the Arctic while Uranos and his machines are attacking Earth in Judgment Day #4 (a sequence that flies by pretty quickly).
You might well be right there – particularly if you build in a delay for Oracle to actually react, call the meeting etc.