{"id":10437,"date":"2024-10-09T22:30:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-09T21:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=10437"},"modified":"2024-10-09T23:59:38","modified_gmt":"2024-10-09T22:59:38","slug":"exceptional-x-men-2-annotations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=10437","title":{"rendered":"Exceptional X-Men #2 annotations"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"\"<\/a>EXCEPTIONAL X-MEN #2<\/strong>
\nWriter: Eve L Ewing<\/strong>
\nArtist: Carmen Carnero<\/strong>
\nColour artist: Nolan Woodard<\/strong>
\nLetterer: Travis Lanham<\/strong>
\nEditor: Tom Brevoort<\/strong><\/p>\n

THE MAIN CAST:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kate Pryde<\/strong> is still “Kate”, despite giving her name to Trista as “Kitty” in the previous issue. She doesn’t want to get dragged back into the mutant world by mentoring Trista, and when she stumbles upon some more mutant teenagers, she decides that the solution is just to introduce them to one another and leave them to get on with it. Such is her enthusiasm for the mundane world, she actually wants to go and watch a complete stranger’s high school soccer game. When asked about her own interest in sport, she defaults to talking about dance, but awkwardly acknowledges “some martial arts stuff”.<\/p>\n

Kate does step in to calm the situation and get Thao and Alex to safety when a fight breaks out, but immediately gives Thao a dressing down for escalating the situation.<\/p>\n

Trista Marshall<\/strong> is pestering Kate to remain friends with her, and seems to be looking for a mutant mentor.<\/p>\n

Thao<\/strong> and Alex<\/strong> are the two new members of the core cast, making their in-story debut (though they were on the cover of issue #1). Thao is playing in the Senn High School soccer team – remarkably, this is a real school, shown in its actual colours<\/a>, although they stopped short of using its bulldog logo. She’s unwilling to tolerate Alex being bullied, and starts frantically making the “Midnight M” sign at him. When he doesn’t respond – and doesn’t seem to want her help – she charges in anyway to fight the bullies. This is apparently fairly normal behaviour for her.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Thao seems to have phasing powers somewhat similar to Kate’s, although she turns invisible when phasing, and can apparently get stuck in an object at least for short periods without harm. She can’t control her powers.<\/p>\n

Alex apparently doesn’t go to the school, but has come to watch his friend Dani play. He’s a visible mutant thanks to his skin and eye colour, which seems to change from page to page – but less commonly from panel to panel. A pale gold skin tone seems to be his default state. He’s an empath who just wants to be left in peace, but his powers cause some people around him to start uncontrollably rambling about their inner lives and hang-ups.<\/p>\n

Alex seems to have no interest in the mutant community, and doesn’t recognise the Midnight M sign (which he takes to be some sort of gang sign). He seems to broadly agree with Kate that Thao caused a pointless fight. He used to play chess, but quit when he became a visible mutant – it seems like he doesn’t go out much, though he’s more socially isolated than actually afraid to be seen in public.<\/p>\n

The basic dynamic is fairly clearly set up on page 21 when the three teenagers meet for the first time. Thao wants to be an activist. Trista wants a mutant social circle. Alex finds being a mutant a bit of a nuisance. All three wind up going back to Kate anyway.<\/p>\n

Emma Frost <\/strong>shows up at the end of the issue – after briefly looking in on Kate a couple of times during the story – to take the teens off Kate’s hands. But other scenes suggest her main interest is actually in roping Kate into some project. Still, Emma’s interest in training young mutants has generally been played as sincere since the 1990s, so it’s probably not just<\/em> a means to an end.<\/p>\n

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

Nina<\/strong> is Kate’s date – the same girl she failed to meet last issue when she got the date wrong. She mentioned last issue that she was working on the date they’d agreed, which is why they’ve rescheduled. Nina takes Kate to watch her cousin Grace<\/strong> play high school soccer, which is tremendously useful in terms of getting Kate to the plot but, um, is this something people actually do in America?<\/p>\n

Dani <\/strong>is the girl that Alex came to watch play football. She’s broadly minded to leave Alex to deal with things his way.<\/p>\n

Lulu’s Tavern has another barman who we didn’t see last issue, and doesn’t get a name.<\/p>\n

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

Page 5.<\/strong> Kate is apparently monologuing to camera again, as she did twice in the previous issue.<\/p>\n

Page 7 panel 1: “Vamos otra vez… peleano con el pu\u00f1o al aire…<\/em>” <\/strong>“Let’s go again, fighting with our fists in the air.” This is the song Alex is listening to:<\/p>\n