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

LEGION OF X #7
“The Hand That Mocked Them, And The Heart That Fed”
Writer: Si Spurrier
Penciller: Netho Diaz
Inker: Sean Parsons
Colourist: Federico Blee
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Design: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen
Editor: Sarah Brunstad

COVER / PAGE 1: Beast, Lost, Jean Grey, Vox Ignis, Pixie and Blindfold reacting in horror, while a thorned and horned Nightcrawler looks to be in pain.

PAGES 2-4. Nightcrawler briefs the Legion.

The two characters heading through the gate into the Altar are Maggott and Blob. Maggott’s getting an unusual amount of page time these days, albeit mostly as a background character.

The recognisable Legion members are Lost, Dr Nemesis, Chamber, Pixie and Fabian Cortez (standing separately from the others, but behind Kurt – without knowing his background, he’d look like a completely normal second in command). There are a couple more that don’t seem familiar, though I feel sure I ought to recognise the unnamed woman with the black hair and the cape. I’m completely blanking on her, though.

“Memorial service for Magneto.” He died during the recent Judgment Day crossover.

The Topaz Legion appeared briefly in the previous issue (the Judgment Day tie-in) when Nightcrawler evacuated them to the Altar. They seemed like fairly traditional militaristic Arakki, with their spokescharacter vigorously insisting that it was just a tactical regrouping and that they would be returning to battle at the earliest opportunity; they’re not conventional residents of the Altar.

Angel’s call for assistance is tremendously vague, for reasons that will become clearer when we reach the end of the issue.

PAGE 5. Recap and credits. The title is a quote from Percy Bysshe Shelley’s “Ozymandius”; it’s one of the more obscure lines in the poem, but the usual interpretation is that the hand is that hand of the sculptor who created the statue that the poem describes, and the heart is that of Ozymandius himself.

PAGES 6-10. Warlock arrives in the Altar.

I’m not quite sure why Warlock would appear in the astral plane as a human – after all, he’s not a human, and as a shapechanger, if he wanted to appear human, he could do so quite easily in the real world. Perhaps it’s more about how the other characters see him in this world – he appears more like them because the barriers to communication with him are slightly lower. Traditionally, Warlock is essentially impenetrable to psychics – not so much because they can’t read his mind but because it’s too alien for them to understand what they’re seeing.

The Phalanx and the Technarchy. Warlock is recapping here the basic nature of the Technarch (his own race) and the Phalanx (the related 90s villains) as explained by Jonathan Hickman in Powers of X #2. Per the relevant data page: “If a Phalanx encounters a society that is worth consuming by adding to its intelligence needs, then Ascension occurs. If a Phalanx encounters a society that is not worth adding to its collective, then it will seed that society with a ‘Techno-Organic virus.’ This virus will eventually produce a Babel Spire that will summon a Technarch to remove / repurpose that societal waste from the universe. Note: Technarchs do not know that they were manufactured to serve the Phalanx cause.”

The bit about the Phalanx constructing a “Babel Spire” to bring the Technarch to a planet comes from the “Phalanx Covenant” crossover in 1994, where it was a key plot point. The Phalanx were originally presented as Technarch creations, hence Warlock’s reference to it as a common misunderstanding. Warlock’s description of the process still seems at odds with Powers of X #2, since he claims that the Technarchy actually get summoned when a society is encountered which is too valuable for mere consumption. That takes the position back closer to the “Phalanx Covenant” set-up. On the other hand, part of the idea here is to establish that the familiar techno-organic incarnation of the Technarchy is just one variant, with assorted equivalents existing on other planes, including the astral plane

Warlock claims that his “unique perceptions” allow him, unlike most Technarch, to understand the true nature of their role and resist what would otherwise be his core programming. Cypher seems to claim credit for this, through their close connection (which dates back to the original New Mutants run). Notionally, Warlock is a mutant, his mutant power being a capacity for empathy that his race otherwise lacks. Presumably that’s also a factor here.

Magus, Warlock’s father, was reported dead by Legion in issue #1.

Loimophagia is an invented word, but it would make sense from the Greek roots as meaning “consumption by pestilence” or something along those lines. Matholiturgical is also an invented word and would presumably mean something along the lines of “to do with a mathematical form of public worship”.

PAGE 11. Data page. This sticks rather closer to the details of Powers of X #2, with the Babel Spire being a feature of basic consumption, applying to societies that are not of interest. Warlock’s dialogue seems slightly at odds with this to me, but that might be deliberate.

The final paragraph, talking about how some cultures believe absorption into the Phalanx will be a form of transcendence, is referring most obviously to the far-future culture seen in Powers of X.

PAGES 12-14. Nightcrawler asks Mr Sinister for help.

Nightcrawler continues to play down his new horns, but he must be fairly worried if he’s willing to go within a mile of Mr Sinister. Curiously, he turns to Sinister before his regular ally Dr Nemesis, which says something about how wildly erratic he perceives Nemesis to be. Presumably that tacit slight is one of the reasons why Nemesis is so wound up here. His mutant power has indeed been described (by him) as “self-evolved intellect”, which seems to boil down to being some kind of instinctive genius, a bit like Forge. Sinister seems to find all this more amusing than anything else.

 

PAGES 15-16. Vox Ignis speaks to Nightcrawler before his resurrection.

Vox Ignis’s message – which he doesn’t expect Nightcrawler to consciously remember – is to protect Legion and support him to avoid disaster. But remember that Vox Ignis is relying on information from Mother Righteous, who doesn’t exactly seem like the most trustworthy of sources.

PAGES 17-18. Mother Righteous monitors Legion’s astral defences.

Vox Ignis rightly points out that the Altar came under direct attack during “Judgment Day”, so that it makes perfect sense for Legion to put up some defences. Mother Righteous, you suspect, would prefer Legion remained rather more easily manipulated for now. For his part, Legion seems to see the defences as a disappointing compromise on the communal psychic dimension that he had wanted to create.

PAGE 19. Dr Nemesis examines Nightcrawler.

Nemesis seems to do better than Sinister because the issue here has magical elements – though there’s a mutant component to it too. We’ll presumably find out who it is next issue.

Since Nightcrawler has only just been resurrected, it’s not obvious why his gloves and boots are torn in this scene. His costume has also developed shoulder spikes that he didn’t have before. On the last story page, his tail seems to be growing some thorns too. It’s curious that neither of the others comments on this.

PAGES 20-22. The Legion meet Black Knight at X-Corp.

This is Jackie Chopra, the new Black Knight who shares the identity with her father, introduced in Spurrier’s Black Knight miniseries from last year. We don’t find out yet what she was doing at X-Corp, but at any rate, Angel seems to have a more serious case of Nightcrawler’s problem.

PAGE 23. Trailers.