{"id":10042,"date":"2024-04-25T23:02:24","date_gmt":"2024-04-25T22:02:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=10042"},"modified":"2024-04-25T23:02:24","modified_gmt":"2024-04-25T22:02:24","slug":"x-men-forever-2-annotations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=10042","title":{"rendered":"X-Men: Forever #2 annotations"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"\"<\/a>X-MEN: FOREVER #2<\/strong>
\n“Quiet Council”<\/strong>
\nWriter: Kieron Gillen<\/strong>
\nArtist: Luca Maresca<\/strong>
\nColour artist: Federico Blee<\/strong>
\nLetterer: Clayton Cowles<\/strong>
\nDesign: Tom Muller, Jay Bowen & Kat Gregorowicz<\/strong>
\nEditor: Jordan D White<\/strong><\/p>\n

COVER \/ PAGE 1:<\/strong> Rachel, Cannonball, Jubilee, Exodus and Arakko fight a Stark Sentinel.<\/p>\n

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

PAGES 3-5.\u00a0<\/strong>Mother Righteous’ homunculus dissolves, and Professor X sends a message to the White Hot Room.<\/em><\/p>\n

This scene takes place roughly alongside page 6 of\u00a0Rise of the Powers of X<\/em> #4. The two issues interweave, so you might want to look at the annotations for that issue.<\/a><\/p>\n

“Sinister’s dead.”<\/strong>\u00a0Fall of the House of X\u00a0<\/em>#3.<\/p>\n

“Xavier murdered Rachel.”\u00a0<\/strong>Rise of the Powers of X<\/em> #3.<\/p>\n

“Xavier freed me to @#$% over Rasputin, who’s also dead.” <\/strong>Rise of the Powers of X\u00a0<\/em>#4.<\/p>\n

“Bring Rachel back. She’ll be furious, and rightly so.”<\/strong> Professor X makes clear that he killed Rachel in\u00a0Rise<\/em> #3, and Rasputin in\u00a0Rise<\/em> #4, so that they could be resurrected in the White Hot Room – the only way that they could readily travel there. That begs the question of why he didn’t just tell them that, but of course then Mother Righteous would have known what he was doing.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

“Tell her team I’m sorry. They didn’t understand the road their words have led me to take.”<\/strong> “Her team” is the X-Men squad from\u00a0Dead X-Men<\/em>. In\u00a0Rise\u00a0<\/em>#3, they stop Professor X from killing young Moira (and thus erasing Krakoa from the timeline) by convincing him of the importance of Krakoa, but apparently that’s set him on a path they didn’t have in mind.<\/p>\n

“Our deal!” <\/strong>On page 12, Hope asks Destiny about her “deal” with Professor X. Destiny gives a partial answer that it has something to do with her and Mystique’s son Nightcrawler, but declines to explain further (“I’m not going to tell you before Raven”). In this scene, Professor X indicates that whatever he had promised to do, he isn’t in a position to act on it, but that if he did, it would not leave Destiny with a “clear mind”.<\/p>\n

“And I fear you need a clear mind to survive Raven.”<\/strong> Last issue, Professor X tried to relay a message from Destiny to Mystique. Mystique replied that she wasn’t speaking to either Professor X or Destiny, and Destiny concluded that Mystique had read “the book”. We don’t know what that is yet.<\/p>\n

“[A]ll the X-Men who have died in Orchis’ purges.”<\/strong> All the X-Men who died during Fall of X get resurrected here, even if they’re only off panel. Note, though, that this isn’t a general resurrection of mutants who died during this period. Of course, that doesn’t mean that the Five didn’t resurrect a few other mutants while they were at it, or in the weeks leading up to this series.<\/p>\n

PAGE 6.\u00a0<\/strong>Recap and credits.<\/p>\n

PAGES 7-8.\u00a0<\/strong>Mr Sinister is resurrected.<\/em><\/p>\n

“The New Arbor.”<\/strong> The Arbor was the resurrection location on the original Krakoa. Evidently the Five have established a new operation here. Exodus helpfully confirms that there was indeed a Cradle in Atlantic Krakoa, so that the Five have access to everything they need for the purpose.<\/p>\n

Although Hope describes the resurrectees as “All the X-Men Orchis has killed since we’ve been gone”, Mr Sinister and Rasputin don’t fall into that category, so there were at least some others on the list.<\/p>\n

“The least is to be last.”\u00a0<\/strong>Exodus is referring to Jesus’ statement that “The first will be last, and the last first” (Matthew 20:16)<\/p>\n

“I told you… We must be on the same side.”\u00a0<\/strong>A recurring theme with Destiny and Sinister running back to\u00a0Immortal X-Men<\/em> #1.<\/p>\n

PAGES 9-11.\u00a0<\/strong>The Quiet Council in Exile discuss the plot with Rachel.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Orchis is beat, but the AIs have made a move…”\u00a0<\/strong>In\u00a0Fall of the House of X<\/em>.<\/p>\n

“I’d have known earlier if my brain wasn’t messed with by Enigma.”<\/strong>\u00a0Immortal X-Men<\/em> #18 revealed that Enigma had prevented Mr Sinister from seeing some of the information on deleted timelines that had been gathered by his Moira Engine.<\/p>\n

“Xavier is joining the AIs for two purposes…”<\/strong> As seen in\u00a0Rise of the Powers of X<\/em> #4.<\/p>\n

The Quiet Council in Exile.<\/strong> As Sinister points out, none of the group are actually heroes, with the possible exception of Hope – who views herself as a soldier rather than a hero, and is not especially bothered by the thought of some of the cost falling on humans rather than mutants. Sinister sees mutants as an object of interest, and Exodus is fairly described by Sinister as a “mutant supremacist”. It’s a slightly less fair characterisation of Destiny, but she and Mystique were incontrovertibly villains for most of their career.<\/p>\n

“He is martyring himself … for the chance of a new Krakoa. He won’t be alone in that.”<\/strong> The other martyr Exodus has in mind is apparently Hope, for reasons we’ll come to at the end.<\/p>\n

“Your timeline where you were whipped like a dog to hunt your peers?”\u00a0<\/strong>Rachel’s timeline is the “Days of Futures Past” Sentinel-dominated apocalypse.<\/p>\n

“Would you have gone as far as Bishop did?”<\/strong> Referring to the 2008-2010\u00a0Cable<\/em> series where Bishop was committing assorted atrocities as he pursued Cable and baby Hope through time, in an attempt to alter history (which he believed would ultimately cancel out everything that he was doing, but\u00a0still<\/em>). Exodus would certainly disagree with Bishop’s agenda – he worships Hope, after all – but he clearly endorses the commitment.<\/p>\n

PAGE 12.\u00a0<\/strong>Hope, Destiny and Exodus leave together.<\/em><\/p>\n

Hope’s mother<\/strong> was killed by the Purifiers when they tried to murder Hope immediately after her birth, in\u00a0X-Men: Messiah Complex<\/em> #1 (2007). In Uncanny X-Men <\/em>#526, she was eventually identified as an Alaskan firefighter called Louise Spalding.<\/p>\n

“Cable’s my dad in every way that matters.”<\/strong> Because Cable raised her from infancy to adolescence in the 2008-2010\u00a0Cable<\/em> series.<\/p>\n

Hope’s biological father has never been identified, but there’s no particular reason to think that he was any more notable than her mother.<\/p>\n

Chlorophil\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0Kafka<\/strong> are the two mutants farming tubers in the foreground – minor pre-existing background characters who have been used repeatedly in this storyline as ordinary Krakoans in the crowd. Kafka picks up on the obvious implication of the X-Men’s plan: if they’re going to use up all their resources on sending the name characters back to Earth, does that mean the ordinary Krakoans are going to be stuck in the White Hot Room forever?<\/p>\n

PAGES 13-15.\u00a0<\/strong>Rachel discusses her plan with Prodigy.<\/em><\/p>\n

Prodigy is basically correct that Enigma planned to get Phoenix off the board – or at least, Enigma claims in\u00a0Rise<\/em> #4 that this was his plan.<\/p>\n

“I’m Askani, Protector of the timelines.”<\/strong> This refers to Rachel’s role in Besty Braddock:<\/em> Captain Britain. <\/em>Much like Mother Righteous in\u00a0Immortal<\/em>, Rachel’s approach to solving the problem is symbolic and semi-mystical, in line with the basic nature of the White Hot Room. She’s going to kill the already-dead Jean in a weird paradox which is going to kickstart the Phoenix. Presumably, the Phoenix is “at the end of its existence” because of Mother Righteous’s botched attempt to sacrifice it to kickstart her own failed ascension, in\u00a0Immortal<\/em> #18.<\/p>\n

Prodigy clarifies that while the Krakoans are living people who’ve been physically transported to the White Hot Room, Jean isn’t. She’s in the White Hot Room because she’s dead and her spirit has gone to Phoenix Heaven. Basically, everyone’s been physically transported to an afterlife dimension except for Jean who got there the traditional way.<\/p>\n

The Krakoan text on the wall behind Prodigy reads LIFE and FIRE.<\/p>\n

PAGES 16-17.<\/strong> Kafka and Exodus.<\/em><\/p>\n

Exodus confirms that if the Phoenix is successfully restored, the way back to Earth will be closed off, and all the background characters will be stuck there to build a new life in the White Hot Room. The obvious tease is that this is how Krakoa gets taken off the board – but it might still be misdirection.<\/p>\n

PAGES 18-20. <\/strong>Sinister opens a portal for the resurrected X-Men to return to Earth.<\/em><\/p>\n

And boy, it’s a broad definition of X-Men. We see rather more of the resurrectees in this issue compared to\u00a0Rise<\/em> #4. In page 18 panel 1 we \u00a0have:<\/p>\n