{"id":10874,"date":"2025-03-12T23:26:35","date_gmt":"2025-03-12T23:26:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=10874"},"modified":"2025-03-12T23:26:35","modified_gmt":"2025-03-12T23:26:35","slug":"x-men-13-annotations-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=10874","title":{"rendered":"X-Men #13 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 #13<\/strong>
\n“X-Manhunt, part 4: Gods and Monsters”<\/strong>
\nWriter: Jed MacKay<\/strong>
\nPenciller: Netho Diaz<\/strong>
\nInker: Sean Parsons<\/strong>
\nColourist: Fer Sifuentes-Sujo<\/strong>
\nLetterer: Clayton Cowles<\/strong>
\nEditor: Tom Brevoort<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

Cyclops.<\/strong> He spends most of the issue unconscious. Despite the recap claiming that Storm “badly injur[ed]” him in the last chapter, the ice on his face doesn’t seem to do any lasting damage.<\/p>\n

Psylocke.<\/strong> She takes command when Cyclops is unconscious. She has a grudge against Professor X for possessing her in issue #9 (during “Raid on Graymalkin”), but she’s more aggrieved by Storm for sheltering him. In part, that’s because Professor X is a danger to those around him, something that Storm doesn’t know (more on that below), and she’s brought him into a populated area – but mainly she views Storm as someone who’s bought into her goddess schtick and “can’t imagine being wrong”. This is a dubious reading of Storm’s character, but it’s a plausible view for Psylocke to hold of her.<\/p>\n

At any rate, Psylocke certainly isn’t intimidated by Storm’s persona or reputation, and feels entirely comfortable lecturing her. Admittedly, even in taking the moral high ground, she threatens to kill Maggott , and claims that “we are just monsters”; the lecture gets Storm back to her senses, but doesn’t exactly her convince her of Psylocke’s moral standing.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Magik.<\/strong> She can tell that Storm is possessed, but can’t identify Eternity as the entity involved – though she describes it as “bigger” and “worse” than a demon.<\/p>\n

Temper.<\/strong> She gets the ice off Cyclops’ face, and helps to fight Storm.<\/p>\n

Kid Omega.<\/strong> He can shield the X-Men from Professor X’s “telepathic bleed”, but either his power or his skill level doesn’t extend to doing the same for the whole surrounding population. His psychic combat with Professor X doesn’t initially go well. According to the Professor, as omega mutants, they’re equally matched in power – so the deciding factor ought to be skill and experience, where he has the advantage. This results in Quentin being reverted to his initial appearance, before he became a teen revolutionary, and being manhandled by a school full of Professors – and he seems quite panicked about it.<\/p>\n

However, Quentin has a fallback plan: the same “thoughtform” of Cassandra Nova that he fought in issue #5, when he encountered it as a trap in Ben Liu’s mind. In that issue, it attacked him with the same deluge of worms and such forth that we see here. Quentin has kept in reserve, and if he’s to be believed, he’s done so specifically as a weapon against the Professor.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, Quentin does<\/em> beat the Professor in psychic combat, though more through pre-planning than improvisational skill. Also, to be fair, the Professor’s got a tumour and may not be on absolutely top form.<\/p>\n

The Juggernaut.<\/strong> He refuses to stay down in the face of cosmic Storm, claiming that he had worse beatings from his father Kurt Marko. He can reconstitute his damaged armour simply by re-summoning it – this is presumably still the magical armour he acquired in Juggernaut<\/em> vol 3, even though the design has changed. However, he needs Magik to remind him that this is possible.<\/p>\n

The Beast.<\/strong> Acts like any other member of the field team in this story. He helps to defeat Professor X once Quentin has him on the ropes.<\/p>\n

GUEST STARS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Professor X.<\/strong> According to the X-Men, he has a “telepathic bleed” which is “driving insane” everyone around him, though Quentin can block it. This presumably explains the hallucinating guard in chapter 1 of the crossover. We didn’t see any signs of this problem in chapters 2 and 3, though. That’s not a major issue in chapter 3 since almost nobody was around, but chapter 2 was set in New York. Psylocke tells us at the end of the issue that the effects of the “bleed” weren’t even noticeable to Storm because of her strong psychic defences, and presumably some of the NYX<\/em> cast might be in that category too – though in that case, would Quentin really need to innoculate anyone? Still, it didn’t seem to affect random New Yorkers, nor is there any sign of the hallucinations that the Professor himself was suffering in chapter 1.<\/p>\n

He claims to acting in accordance with his “responsibilities”, and while he’s very aggressive in his psychic attack on Kid Omega, he does repeatedly make clear that he would accept a surrender. In their psychic battle, he condescendingly lectures Quentin and turns him into a schoolboy again – it’s not clear whether this is a tactical move to play on Quentin’s personal weaknesses, or whether it’s just Professor X being arrogant.<\/p>\n

The sight of Cassandra Nova panics him into tearing off his Cerebro helmet, at which point he can be relatively easily subdued by whacking Magneto’s telepathically-shielded helmet on his head and injecting him with a knockout drug.<\/p>\n

Storm.<\/strong> She remains in bombastic cosmic mode until being brought to her senses by Psylocke, but we’ve mostly covered that scene.<\/p>\n

Maggott.<\/strong> He went into a cocoon after being healed by Eternity in the previous chapter (something that wasn’t actually shown), and he stays there for the whole of this issue.<\/p>\n

X-Factor.<\/strong> They show up right at the end, to lead in to their own chapter. The roster here is Forget-Me-Not, Cecilia Reyes, Granny Smite, Angel, Pyro<\/strong> and\u00a0Xyber<\/strong>. Since this is meant to be a serious crossover, they actually post dramatically and confidently. Don’t worry, they’ll screw up in their own book.<\/p>\n

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

Magneto.<\/strong> Remains at the Factory with the supporting cast, and has his helmet borrowed by Magik.<\/p>\n

Xorn.<\/strong> For the first time in this series, he says that he thinks he ought to be helping the field team – though to be fair, he was going to defend the Factory against O*N*E in issue #10. Magneto’s counter argument is that Xorn’s powers are too dangerous – if Xavier drove him mad and made him remove his protective helmet, then it could be catastrophic. But can’t Quentin innoculate him against that?<\/p>\n

Ben Liu.<\/strong> Ben also wants to get into action, just as he did in issue #10. Magneto makes a similar argument about his powers being too dangerous given his single-handed attack on San Francisco in issue #2, and given his lack of experience, this might be a more reasonable concern.<\/p>\n

Jennifer Starkey.<\/strong> She’s still in the avian form that she changed into in issue #11. She’s now wearing a generic X-Men uniform. (Ben is also wearing something yellow, but it looks more like a shirt. It’s hard to tell with so many other people in the way.)<\/p>\n

Glob Herman. <\/strong>Stands next to everyone else and has no dialogue.<\/p>\n

FOOTNOTES<\/strong><\/p>\n

Page 4 panel 1: “Utopia” was the X-Men’s island base (and self-proclaimed nation state) in San Francisco bay during the Decimation period. “New Tian” is more obscure: it was the mutant puppet nation in the western USA which existed when the USA was taken over by HYDRA during Secret Empire\u00a0<\/em>in 2017.<\/p>\n

Page 9: The “Xavier Institute for Higher Learning” is what the school was called during the New X-Men<\/em> run where Quentin debuted as a student.<\/p>\n

Page 12 panel 2: “Sarnios’ Storm of Swords” is a spell that’s shown up in several Jed MacKay stories, originally in Black Cat<\/em> #3 and later in his Dr Strange run.<\/p>\n

Page 13: Quentin is drawn as he first appeared in New X-Men<\/em> #134; he gets his signature haircut at the end of that issue.<\/p>\n

Page 16: Quentin’s crucifixion echoes the cover of Uncanny X-Men<\/em> #250.<\/p>\n

Page 22 panel 4: “I hear you like to settle things with knives” refers principally to Storm’s fight with Callisto in Uncanny X-Men<\/em> #170.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition. X-MEN vol 7 #13 “X-Manhunt, part 4: Gods and Monsters” Writer: Jed MacKay Penciller: Netho Diaz Inker: Sean Parsons Colourist: Fer Sifuentes-Sujo Letterer: Clayton Cowles Editor: Tom Brevoort THE X-MEN Cyclops. He spends most of the issue unconscious. Despite the recap […]<\/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-10874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-annotations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10874","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=10874"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10874\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10877,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10874\/revisions\/10877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}