{"id":10017,"date":"2024-04-17T21:28:50","date_gmt":"2024-04-17T20:28:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=10017"},"modified":"2024-04-17T21:28:50","modified_gmt":"2024-04-17T20:28:50","slug":"fall-of-the-house-of-x-4-annotations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=10017","title":{"rendered":"Fall of the House of X #4 annotations"},"content":{"rendered":"

As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>FALL OF THE HOUSE OF X #4<\/strong>
\n“The Turn”<\/strong>
\nWriter: Gerry Duggan<\/strong>
\nArtists: Jucas Werneck & Jethro Morales<\/strong>
\nColour artist: Bryan Valenza<\/strong>
\nLetterer: Travis Lanham<\/strong>
\nDesign: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen<\/strong>
\nEditor: Jordan D White<\/strong><\/p>\n

COVER \/ PAGE 1.<\/strong> Moira and Cyclops fight.<\/p>\n

PAGE 2.\u00a0<\/strong>Paul Neary obituary.<\/p>\n

PAGE 3.\u00a0<\/strong>Data page (!). The opening quote is Magneto’s line “Promise me you’ll watch Charles… Three began Krakoa. Moira betrayed us. I… deserted my post. Now Charles is alone with his dream.” This is from Magneto’s death scene in\u00a0X-Men Red<\/em> #7, which has since been positioned as foreshadowing for Professor X caving to Orchis’ demands in\u00a0X-Men: Hellfire Gala 2023<\/em>. That in turn ties to Professor X’s role in this issue, of which more later.<\/p>\n

PAGES 4-6.\u00a0<\/strong>Apocalypse leads his forces against Orchis.<\/em><\/p>\n

Up in the sky are the two crossed space stations from the previous issue.<\/p>\n

Apocalypse and his forces have arrived in time to save Krakoa from Orchis. Krakoa has been on the run from them ever since issue #1. As Apocalypse points out, Krakoa feeds off mutant energy, which wasn’t a problem when it had a whole mutant population and could take trivial amounts from each one. Without the mutants around, he’s been starving, so Apocalypse needs to offer up some life force.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Apocalypse’s objection to machine – “the weapon of cowards” – fits reasonably with his depiction in the Krakoan era but sits more awkwardly with his use of the massive Ship back in his\u00a0X-Factor<\/em> days. That said, he didn’t really use Ship as a\u00a0weapon<\/em> so much as a resource, so you can make a case that his objection is specifically to the weak resorting to outside aids in combat.<\/p>\n

Apocalypse dismisses the final version of the Quiet Council as “the pampered and perfumed so-called leaders of the mutant nation”, and claims that they let Krakoa starve “while they played both sides” (Sebastian Shaw, presumably) “or his in mansions” (Emma Frost) “or scurried about like rats in tunnels” (the X-Men). This is a bit harsh on Professor X, who did in fact go straight back to Krakoa and stayed there. While it’s understandable that the remaining mutants haven’t tried to liberate Krakoa until now, there is some force in Apocalypse’s point that nobody has shown much concern for Krakoa the living creature.<\/p>\n

PAGE 7.\u00a0<\/strong>Recap and credits.<\/p>\n

PAGE 8.<\/strong> Magik rescues Cyclops from Nimrod.<\/em><\/p>\n

Cyclops attacked Nimrod at the end of the previous issue.\u00a0X-Men<\/em> #33 continued the scene, in which Cyclops tried to telepathically call for help from the X-Men, and Nimrod then beat him up and left him lying. The final panel of that scene shows Nimrod departing through a portal, saying “Come and see, if you dare. It matters not.” The art here shows him just teleporting away, but it’s the same basic idea.<\/p>\n

There was no obvious reason for Nimrod to leave Cyclops behind in X-Men<\/em> #33, but this issue clarifies that he was intending to blow up whoever came to rescue Cyclops. That makes some sense, since Nimrod did realise in\u00a0X-Men<\/em> #33 that Cyclops was calling for help. Not quite sure when he planted the bomb, but maybe it was already built into the security systems – we established last issue that the Summers House had previously been converted for Orchis use.<\/p>\n

PAGE 9.\u00a0<\/strong>Omega Sentinel tells Nimrod that Professor X is offering a deal.<\/em><\/p>\n

This comes out of nowhere – the last we saw of Professor X was in\u00a0Rise of the Powers of X\u00a0<\/em>#3, where he apparently accepted Rachel’s plan to defeat Enigma by resurrecting the Phoenix, and then shot Rachel. It seems reasonably to assume there’s more to this than meets the eye.<\/p>\n

PAGE 10.\u00a0<\/strong>Data page: a transcript of Professor X’s pitch to Nimrod.<\/p>\n

Professor X’s claim that “My dream was Krakoa” is probably another clue that there’s a scam going on here; in\u00a0Immortal X-Men<\/em> and\u00a0Rise of the Powers of X<\/em>, he’s been very clear that he sees Krakoa’s mutant separatism as a compromise of his values.<\/p>\n

The deal which Professor X offers to Nimrod is to get the mutants to stand down and stop resisting the AI ascension as long as they let the mutants live in peace. He implies that he will force the vast majority of mutants to acquiesce in this plan. Nimrod accepts with the clear indication that he’ll kill the X-Men if they stand in his way, and Professor X agrees to that.<\/p>\n

Nimrod proposes “a garden menagerie on Earth”. This is clearly a reference to the Preserve from Moira MacTaggert’s sixth life, as seen in various issues of Powers of X<\/em>. We were told in issue #3 that Sentinel City was a device to wipe out life on Earth so that AI can ascend to become a Dominion. We haven’t really been told\u00a0why<\/em> that’s necessary, or why it doesn’t matter if Krakoa sticks around – but maybe the mutant island is too trivial to worry about.<\/p>\n

PAGES 11-14. <\/strong>Apocalypse starts killing mutants who offer themselves up as energy sources for Krakoa.<\/em><\/p>\n

This is presented as an echo of the “Crucible” ritual which Apocalypse instituted on Krakoa, in which depowered mutants died in order to earn the right to resurrection. Apocalypse appears to see this as having magical significance over and above the mere fact of life energy being absorbed.<\/p>\n

Kintar<\/strong>, the first Arakkii warrior to offer his services, is a new character. He seems to be saying that he’s an old warrior who welcomes the chance to go out with a bang.<\/p>\n

Wrongslide<\/strong> is the reincarnated version of Rockslide who came back as a blank slate after dying in Otherworld during the “X of Swords” event. He was moved over to the cast of\u00a0X-Men Red<\/em>, where he never really got a chance to do much.<\/p>\n

Despite the dialogue here, the sun is not “going nova”; rather, its light is being focussed by Sentinel City.<\/p>\n

PAGE 15. <\/strong>The X-Men take stock on their space station.<\/em><\/p>\n

The team here is Emma, M, Colossus, Rogue, Psylocke (Kwannon), Gambit, Cyclops, Magik, Quicksilver and Manifold.<\/p>\n

The X-Men evidently aren’t in on whatever Professor X is doing, but that was also the case back in issue #1, when he pulled away Rasputin to help with the battle against Enigma.<\/p>\n

The “red triangle defence” is the psychic defence technique that the X-Men used to resist Professor X’s attempt to force them through the gates in\u00a0X-Men: Hellfire Gala 2023<\/em>.<\/p>\n

PAGE 16.<\/strong> Professor X approaches Cyclops telepathically.<\/em><\/p>\n

Professor X is at the very least going through the motions of presenting his deal with Orchis at face value, though it’s not clear for whose benefit. His deal with Orchis is explicitly paralleled with Xavier caving to Orchis’ demands in\u00a0X-Men: Hellfire Gala 2023<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The “softball field” is probably meant to evoke the trope of the Claremont-era X-Men playing baseball in their downtime (which in fact only happened four times). Perhaps the location is some sort of hidden code to flag to Cyclops what’s happening.<\/p>\n

PAGE 17. <\/strong>Professor X stops the US Space Force from interfering with the Orchis device.<\/em><\/p>\n

Professor X invokes the “no more mutants” line from\u00a0House of M<\/em> that kicked off the Decimation era, though his “no more humans” is heavily caveated (“at least for now”).<\/p>\n

PAGES 18-19.\u00a0<\/strong>Cyclops gives orders to the X-Men.<\/em><\/p>\n

Cyclops’s speech balloons on page 18 again evoke the red triangle defence.<\/p>\n

PAGES 20-23. <\/strong>Apocalypse kills Wrongslide.<\/em><\/p>\n

Wrongslide clearly signals that he expects the real Rockslide to be resurrected in his place, so chalk that one up as a likely reset button at the end of the Krakoan era.<\/p>\n

PAGES 24-27.\u00a0<\/strong>The X-Men fight the Orchis AI forces on Sentinel City.<\/em><\/p>\n

Specifically, Nimrod and Omega Sentinel – but not Moira, even though she’s on the cover.<\/p>\n

Storm has been absent from the story until now because she’s been occupied in\u00a0Resurrection of Magneto<\/em>. But she and Magneto both returned to Earth to join that fight in Resurrection<\/em> #4.<\/p>\n

PAGE 28.\u00a0<\/strong>Trailers. The Krakoan reads RISE OF THE POWERS OF X.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition. FALL OF THE HOUSE OF X #4 “The Turn” Writer: Gerry Duggan Artists: Jucas Werneck & Jethro Morales Colour artist: Bryan Valenza Letterer: Travis Lanham Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen Editor: Jordan D White COVER \/ PAGE 1. Moira and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-annotations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10017"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10017\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10019,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10017\/revisions\/10019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}