{"id":10416,"date":"2024-10-02T22:19:02","date_gmt":"2024-10-02T21:19:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=10416"},"modified":"2024-10-02T23:42:48","modified_gmt":"2024-10-02T22:42:48","slug":"x-men-5-annotations-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=10416","title":{"rendered":"X-Men #5 annotations"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"\"<\/a>X-MEN vol 7 #5<\/strong>
\n“Psychic Rescue in Progress”<\/strong>
\nWriter: Jed MacKay<\/strong>
\nPenciller: Ryan Stegman<\/strong>
\nInkers: JP Mayer, John Livesay & Ryan Stegman<\/strong>
\nColourist: Marte Gracia<\/strong>
\nLetterer: Clayton Cowles<\/strong>
\nEditor: Tom Brevoort<\/strong><\/p>\n

THE X-MEN:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Psylocke.<\/strong> She’s still in a relationship with Greycrow, which started in Hellions<\/em> during the Krakoan era and was still in place as of the X-Men: Blood Hunt – Psylocke<\/em> one-shot. However, this is the first time we’ve seen Greycrow in this series. She claims that what they have in common is being used as living weapons, and that she joined the X-Men in order to have a purpose to apply herself to. She tries to persuade him to join the X-Men, but his refusal – and his return to crime – are evidently not dealbreakers for her. Her nightmare in the “Black Bug Room” sequence is the thought that she’s only good for killing.<\/p>\n

Quentin Quire.<\/strong> He doesn’t get on very well with Psylocke, who clearly finds him intensely irritating. Still, the two of them are reasonably co-operative on the “psychic rescue”. For all his bravado, his personal nightmare is an image of Sabretooth, so evidently he isn’t brushing off his decapitation in “Sabretooth War” as much as he claims. This Sabretooth also mocks Quentin for everyone else he cares about leaving him – interestingly, Wolverine makes the list.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The basic idea is that Quentin and Psylocke need to work together to defeat Cassandra’s trap, because Quentin has the power, but Psylocke has the skill to do it without damaging Ben Liu’s mind. You could question whether Psylocke really is a more skilled and trained psychic than Quentin, but hell, she’s been around in one form or another for long enough, and I’m willing to buy that she’s got more innate discipline than he does.<\/p>\n

Cyclops. <\/strong>Shows up to give Psylocke and Quentin their orders. The psychic rescue in this issue is presumably the same one that he mentioned as being in progress in the previous issue, so the two must take place at roughly the same time.<\/p>\n

The Beast<\/strong> also shows up right at the end, but doesn’t say anything. (He’s filling out the composition in a homage to the last page of New X-Men<\/em> #121, taking Wolverine’s space.)<\/p>\n

SUPPORTING CAST: <\/strong><\/p>\n

Greycrow.<\/strong> He lives in a cabin in Alaska, presumably not very far from the Factory. He’s reverted to crime, though of a fairly low level sort. Psylocke has clearly been trying to persuade him to come to the Factory, and he doesn’t give any particular reason for declining the offer; he seems more interested in trying to persuade Psylocke to stay with him. He seems momentarily unhappy when Psylocke says that the X-Men give her purpose, presumably because of the implication that he doesn’t. He appears in Psylocke’s nightmare in the “Black Bug Room” sequence, but mainly in order to represent her fear that both of them will be unable to escape their role as weapons.<\/p>\n

Amy Voght<\/strong> doesn’t appear, but is mentioned as someone that Greycrow is paying to teleport him around the world “to rob banks.” This is presumably the former Amelia Voght from the Acolytes, who was last seen as a member of S.W.O.R.D. in\u00a0S.W.O.R.D.\u00a0<\/em>#5 (2021).<\/p>\n

Ben Liu.<\/strong> According to his memories, Ben Liu was working in finance until he underwent some sort of alien abduction experience – depicted as a strange glowing eye \/ flower thing in the sky, which might not be accurate. He was given mutant powers against his will by 3K, in what seems to have been extremely traumatic – although his condition might also be a side effect of Cassandra Nova leaving a trap in his mind, or even a deliberate feature to lure telepaths in.<\/p>\n

VILLAINS:<\/strong><\/p>\n

3K<\/strong>, from issue #1, are indeed turning normal humans into mutants, though we still don’t know why. Cassandra Nova <\/strong>is the first person to be confirmed as a member. The last time we saw Cassandra was in Marauders<\/em> #10 (2023) when she was stranded in the distant past of Threshold. Apparently, either she found some means of time travel or she’s had a very long wait.<\/p>\n

Technically, Cassandra herself doesn’t appear, but some sort of echo of her has been left in Ben Liu’s mind as a booby trap. It repeats the same “Black Bug Room” psychic attack that the real Cassandra used on Cyclops in New X-Men<\/em> #116.<\/p>\n

REFERENCES:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Page 4 panel 5: “I was made to be a tool, John Greycrow. Just like you were.”<\/strong> Kwannon was raised from birth by the Hand to be an assassin, as covered most obviously in Fallen Angels<\/em> vol 2. Greycrow’s back story is significantly less extreme, but he’s apparently been either a soldier or mercenary since at least World War II: see Weapon X<\/em> #14 (2003).<\/p>\n

Page 6 panel 4: “Sabretooth cut my head off and carried it around in a box.”<\/strong> Correctly footnoted to Wolverine<\/em> #41, though it extends through to Wolverine<\/em> #50. Quentin dies in that issue and presumably is among the characters resurrected in Rise of the Powers of X<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Page 8 panel 3: <\/strong>The landscape that Quentin and Psylocke see as they enter Ben’s mind includes the illusory alien ships that Ben conjured up in issue #2.<\/p>\n

Page 9 panel 4: “You’re not supposed to talk during a psychic rescue.”<\/strong> This issue is a homage to New X-Men<\/em> #121 (2002), in which Jean Grey and Emma Frost attempt a “psychic rescue” on Professor X, and which is almost entirely silent. Cassandra Nova was also the villain in that issue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition. X-MEN vol 7 #5 “Psychic Rescue in Progress” Writer: Jed MacKay Penciller: Ryan Stegman Inkers: JP Mayer, John Livesay & Ryan Stegman Colourist: Marte Gracia Letterer: Clayton Cowles Editor: Tom Brevoort THE X-MEN: Psylocke. She’s still in a relationship with Greycrow, […]<\/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-10416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-annotations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10416","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=10416"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10416\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10420,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10416\/revisions\/10420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}