{"id":10067,"date":"2024-05-08T22:38:06","date_gmt":"2024-05-08T21:38:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=10067"},"modified":"2024-05-08T22:38:06","modified_gmt":"2024-05-08T21:38:06","slug":"x-men-forever-3-annotations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=10067","title":{"rendered":"X-Men: Forever #3 annotations"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"\"<\/a>X-MEN: FOREVER #3<\/strong>
\n“Unhappy in Their Own Way”<\/strong>
\nWriter: Kieron Gillen<\/strong>
\nArtist: Luca Marseca<\/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> Destiny and Mystique fight, while Nightcrawler tries to intervene.<\/p>\n

PAGES 2-3. <\/strong>Krakoa releases Cypher.<\/em><\/p>\n

Cypher<\/strong> was spirited away by Krakoa in Immortal X-Men<\/em> #13 and hasn’t been seen since. The only reason Krakoa gives in that issue is “I must protect him.” (Hope is able to understand that by copying Cypher’s powers, but then she loses contact with him, so she can’t ask Krakoa to elaborate.) Obviously, Krakoa anticipated the fall of Krakoa; they explain here that they could “sense the changing of the seasons”, though whether that’s a vague precognitive power or something else isn’t clear. It’s also a pun on “fall”, of course. Cypher has apparently slept peacefully through the whole “Fall of X” phase. It’s ambiguous whether he’s been within Krakoa itself or concealed somewhere on the island where Professor X couldn’t locae him.<\/p>\n

“They tell me about the gala…”<\/strong> X-Men: Hellfire Gala 2023.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

“…and the hell that followed.”<\/strong> The whole of “Fall of X”, basically.<\/p>\n

“They tell me that they’ve been on the run and they were shot to pieces.”<\/strong> In Fall of the House of X<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The recognisable characters in the double page spread seem to be Exodus, Archangel and Apocalypse in the sky, and Pixie, Chamber, Mr Sinister, Transonic, Proteus, Fabian Cortez and Greycrow on the ground, along with a couple of characters who can’t really be identified in this level of detail.<\/p>\n

PAGE 4. <\/strong>Recap and credits. The title, “Unhappy in Their Own Way”, refers to the opening line of Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina<\/em> (1877): “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Principally, that refers here to Nightcrawler, Destiny and Mystique, but we’ll see that it can also refer to Hope.<\/p>\n

PAGE 5. <\/strong>Sebastian Shaw relays the Sentinel back door code to Emma Frost.<\/em><\/p>\n

We first saw Shaw’s assistant – Siobhan, but he insisted on calling her Tessa – in Immortal X-Men<\/em> #14. She was wearing the same clothes in that issue. I don’t recall anything in the past to suggest that she was an AI, but then there wouldn’t have been, would there?<\/p>\n

Obviously, with Orchis collapsing over in Fall of the House of X<\/em>, Shaw has decided to switch sides back to the mutants – either he because he expects them to win or because he think they’re the best option available.<\/p>\n

PAGES 6-7. <\/strong>Cypher shuts down the Stark Sentinels with Shaw’s code.<\/em><\/p>\n

Destiny was unable to see the future while she was in the White Hot Room because it’s outside the normal timestream. Now that she’s back in the real world, she can see “no way to win”. Two caveats are worth noting there. First, it’s not obvious that she would<\/em> be able to see Enigma’s defeat, because the plan to bring it about involves further events taking place outside the timestream, and thus beyond her view. Second, she doesn’t actually say that she’s referring to the battle against Enigma. Destiny’s other overriding concern throughout Gillen’s run has been an obsession with being with Mystique for as long as possible; to lose Mystique would also be devastating to Destiny. (That said, she does seem to assume that Cypher is talking about the same subject as she is.)<\/p>\n

PAGE 8. <\/strong>Shaw restores his powers.<\/em><\/p>\n

In Immortal X-Men<\/em> #14, Shaw injected himself with Orchis’ cure for the mutant gene in order to prove his loyalty. Apparently he always had a fallback plan to restore his powers if needed.<\/p>\n

“If I die, you’ll find that Krakoa’s ownership has passed to you.”<\/strong> Shaw became owner of Krakoa – the physical island – in Immortal X-Men<\/em> #14 as part of his deal with Mother Righteous, which apparently magically sorted out the conveyancing. (Don’t ask which country’s land law this purported to take place in, given that Krakoa had been recognised as an independent country immediately before the Gala…)<\/p>\n

“I can’t believe you trusted Fisk with the money over me.”<\/strong> Emma did indeed arrange to transfer her (or Krakoa’s) assets to Wilson Fisk as a human ally, in X-Men<\/em> #26.<\/p>\n

PAGE 9. <\/strong>Hope sends a message to Krakoa.<\/em><\/p>\n

Issue #2 ended with Jean Grey and the Phoenix being resurrected, but the Phoenix going into some sort of panic. Rather than set after it with the pistol she had at the end of that issue, Hope has a better idea: she gets the background Krakoans to join in sending a Morse code SOS by tapping Atlantic Krakoa in unison. Apparently Pacific Krakoa can detect this, so there are still ways of communicating with the exiled Krakoans after all.<\/p>\n

PAGE 10. <\/strong>Cypher receives the message.<\/em><\/p>\n

Obviously, the Krkoan reads “SOS”.<\/p>\n

Manifold<\/strong> has been helping the Arakko forces to travel to Earth over in Fall of the House of X<\/em>, where Emma has been co-ordinating everything telepathically – hence, she’s easily able to send him over.<\/p>\n

The Six<\/strong> were the group seen in SWORD<\/em> vol 2 #1 who combined their powers to retrieve mysterium – an exercise which also involved them making contact with the White Hot Room. The group members were Manifold, Fabian Cortez, Armor, Risque, Peeper and Wiz-Kid. Cortez was later kicked out and replaced by Khora, but she’s not here, and Cortez takes his original place with the group when we see them later.<\/p>\n

Note that Destiny is more interested in rounding up Nightcrawler and dealing with her family crisis than she is in dealing with the White Hot Room.<\/p>\n

PAGE 11. <\/strong>Nightcrawler arrives.<\/em><\/p>\n

Nightcrawler has been with the regular X-Men over in Fall of the House of X<\/em>. That’s the Hopesword he’s carrying, and more of that later.<\/p>\n

Nightcrawler learned that Mystique and Destiny were his biological parents in X-Men Blue: Origins<\/em> #1.<\/p>\n

PAGE 12. <\/strong>Mystique attacks Destiny.<\/em><\/p>\n

Mystique regained her memories of Nightcrawler’s origins after resisting Professor X’s psychic control during the Hellfire Gala. In X-Men Blue: Origins<\/em> #1, she told Nightcrawler that Destiny had had a vision of Azazel – a mutant Satan impostor who was previously meant to be Nightcrawler’s father – dominating the world.<\/p>\n

To avert that, Destiny engineered the creation of Nightcrawler as a child that Azazel would believe was his own, thus putting Nightcrawler in a position to thwart Azazel’s schemes (in Uncanny X-Men<\/em> #428-434). In Mystique’s account, Destiny always sees Kurt as principally a tool for altering the future and has no real interest in him as a person; Mystique finds that unacceptable. The story ends with the two of them visiting Professor X, where Destiny asks to have all of their memories of Kurt erased. Mystique insists on retaining her memory of the fact that Kurt is her child, and Professor X complies with this request, while warning Mystique that her mind will invent new stories to fill in the gaps (hence explaining away a bunch of earlier stories which are being retconned out).<\/p>\n

In issue #1, Mystique read a book that Destiny had written with further predictions – confirmed on the next page to be the set of prophecies that she started writing in Immortal X-Men<\/em> #3. We now learn that the book disclosed that Destiny had regained her knowledge of Nightcrawler’s origins, but chose not to share it with Mystique. That’s what Mystique is angry about.<\/p>\n

PAGES 13-15. <\/strong>Destiny explains herself.<\/em><\/p>\n

Destiny’s explanation is that when she had her first batch of visions after being resurrected, she saw various futures in which she learned about Nightcrawler. By seeing those futures, she likewise gained knowledge of what had happened – but note that she hasn’t recovered her actual memories of the events. Destiny insists that Nightcrawler would have died anyway if he hadn’t been allowed to follow the course he did.<\/p>\n

The flashback in page 13 panel 2 is a repeat of a panel from X-Men Blue: Origins<\/em> #1.<\/p>\n

Destiny also explains that she didn’t tell Mystique about these visions – or any other ones – because Enigma would have overheard, and would have learned about the future timelines that Destiny now knew about. The book was intended to be read by Mystique in the event of Destiny’s death; we’ve established already that Enigma apparently doesn’t listen in to people’s thoughts, and presumably Destiny was comfortable that he either wouldn’t be aware of the contents of her book, or at least wouldn’t be able to break the code without reading her mind.<\/p>\n

“Xavier promised to clear it.”<\/strong> This is the deal that Destiny made with Professor X, as mentioned last issue.<\/p>\n

Once again, Destiny’s dialogue here strongly suggests that she is more concerned about the loss of Mystique than she is about the cosmic threat.<\/p>\n

PAGES 16-18. <\/strong>The Hopesword is passed to Hope.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Six are able to open a portal to the White Hot Room but the presence of actual Krakoans in this normally-conceptual realm is causing htem problems. According to Destiny, this is also the cause of Jean’s problems (when she was transported to the Room to be reborn following her death in X-Men: Hellfire Gala 2023<\/em>).<\/p>\n

The Hopesword was presented in Legion of X<\/em> and Uncanny Spider-Man<\/em> as an embodiment of Kurt’s own hope, conjured from his body by Margali Szardos. As we’ll see later, this issue presents it as Legion in artefact form. In Uncanny Spider-Man<\/em>, however,\u00a0 Legion was hanging around Kurt as an invisible Bamf that only Kurt could see, though the real Legion was said to be inside Kurt himself. Legion wasn’t even there when Margali created the sword in Legion of X<\/em> #10 – he was off fighting the Technarch in a different plotline.<\/p>\n

This looks a lot like a continuity error, but if we want to square it all away, let’s say that Legion has been using his powers over time to reinstate Kurt’s soul to its previous state, and decanting himself into the sword – something that would at least make reasonable sense for him to try and achieve.<\/p>\n

As in the previous issue, Hope is resigned to sacrificing herself as part of the plan to resurrect Phoenix, at the very least by being marooned in the White Hot Room with the rest of the background characters; this fulfils her messianic role. We’re also reminded once again that Hope sees Cable as her real father, and never knew her parents – something that she also mentioned in the rpevious issue. Cable himself drops in to say goodbye.<\/p>\n

PAGES 19-20. <\/strong>Hope and Legion start their hunt for Phoenix.<\/em><\/p>\n

Hope is more comfortable with a large gun because it echoes her father figure Cable. Quite how shooting the Phoenix advances matters, I confess I don’t quite follow.<\/p>\n

In his narration, Enigma reminds us that he learned about this plan to resurrect the Phoenix from Mother Righteous, as shown in Rise of the Powers of X<\/em> #4. Enigma can’t interfere with the White Hot Room directly because it’s outside time, but his solution is to interfere with Hope’s personal history.<\/p>\n

PAGE 21.<\/strong> Flashback: Enigma approaches Louise Spalding.<\/em><\/p>\n

This is the first time we’ve seen Enigma in physical form, with his crown symbol on his forehead in place of the usual card suit. Louise Spalding, a firefighter from Anchorage, has previously been identified as Hope’s mother, and she was brought up in a previous issue.<\/p>\n

PAGE 22. <\/strong>Trailers. The Krakoan reads PHOENIX.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition. X-MEN: FOREVER #3 “Unhappy in Their Own Way” Writer: Kieron Gillen Artist: Luca Marseca Colour artist: Federico Blee Letterer: Clayton Cowles Design: Tom Muller, Jay Bowen & Kat Gregorowicz Editor: Jordan D White COVER \/ PAGE 1. Destiny and Mystique fight, […]<\/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-10067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-annotations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10067","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=10067"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10067\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10070,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10067\/revisions\/10070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}