{"id":10963,"date":"2025-04-09T22:36:48","date_gmt":"2025-04-09T21:36:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=10963"},"modified":"2025-04-09T22:36:48","modified_gmt":"2025-04-09T21:36:48","slug":"uncanny-x-men-13-annotations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=10963","title":{"rendered":"Uncanny X-Men #13 annotations"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>UNCANNY X-MEN vol 6 #13<\/strong>
\n“The Dark Artery, part 1: Machinations of Dread”<\/strong>
\nWriter: Gail Simone<\/strong>
\nArtist: David Marquez<\/strong>
\nColour artist: Matthew Wilson<\/strong>
\nLetterer: Clayton Cowles<\/strong>
\nEditor: Tom Brevoort<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

Gambit.<\/strong> Sadurang claims that the Left Eye of Agamotto will corrupt him over time, eventually leading him to kill his family and friends. We don’t know whether that’s true or not, but it’s at least consistent with what we’ve seen so far – Rogue was claiming as early as issue #2 that the Eye was “affecting him somehow”.<\/p>\n

In narration, he says that he had a “hard time growing up” as a visible mutant due to his eyes. He says that the nurse cried at his birth when she saw him; I’m not sure that’s been said before, but Gambit<\/em> #1 (1999) does say that the Thieves Guild “cursed the babe as an abomination” because of his eyes. He’s privately hurt by people’s reactions to his eyes, but feels that if he hadn’t been a mutant he would have been a nobody – maybe a low-level criminal enforcer.<\/p>\n

Rogue.<\/strong> Appears in two panels. She is cold.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Deathdream.<\/strong> He feels drawn to the “Dark Artery” in the swamp near Haven, and rounds up his fellow Outliers (but not any of the other X-Men) to investigate. He seems surprised that the other Outliers can’t hear this call, so apparently it’s not just the usual experience he has with his powers – but since it’s death-related, there must be some power-related reason why it’s resonating particularly with him.<\/p>\n

The Dark Artery manifests as a large obsidian tomb with an X-like configuration (at least from some angles). A door leads down into an underground tomb. The top level has eleven apparent coffins arranged in a circle around a table with Henrietta’s diary on it (see below). Lower levels are less salubrious, with corpses propped up in alcoves. As Calico points out, this thing makes no physical sense, because there isn’t any obsidian in the area and an underground graveyard can’t be built underneath a swamp.<\/p>\n

He’s either heard of the Dark Artery before or has some instinctive knowledge of what’s calling him – though at the same time he says he’s not sure where they’re going. He claims that “It has been our secret for three hundred years” – “our” apparently meaning mutants, given the flashback scenes. He also knows that the torches have been burning for the whole 300 years. He regards the Artery as a “beacon” (not an experience anyone else seems to share) and as “like a morgue”, though “not one of the fun ones” (an unusual example of Deathdream using a death reference to imply something negative). He believes that the dead are watching them.<\/p>\n

He knows that the Man-Thing is associated with the Artery, and is familiar with the mantra about fear burning at the Man-Thing’s touch. He seems typically oblivious to the fact that his teammates are going to be frightened by the location.<\/p>\n

Ransom.<\/strong> He’s picked up on the relationship between Jitter and Calico. He’s typically supportive of Calico when she starts to panic.<\/p>\n

Jitter.<\/strong> She can use her powers to read Latin.<\/p>\n

Calico.<\/strong> She acts as if Ransom was sleeping practically naked even though he seems to be wearing a T-shirt and shorts. She raises perfectly sensible questions about how the Dark Artery makes sense as a building, and seems at first to take that in stride, before having a panic attack. She feels she lets the others tell her what to do, but once assured that she’s free to go – and that she’s “still a mutant”, something she seems to see as more a question of identity than biology – she pulls herself together and sticks with the group.<\/p>\n

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

Henrietta Benjamin.<\/strong> Also known as “Henry”. She wrote the diary that Ransom finds in the Dark Artery, but more to the point, she appears in five pages of flashbacks.<\/p>\n

The precise time frame for her flashback isn’t given, but when riding the Chicago elevated railway, she refers to it as “Mr Yerkes’ iron marvel”. “Mr Yerkes” is\u00a0 Charles Yerkes Jr (1837-1905), a financier who was involved in developing Chicago’s elevated railway system. Since she apparently thinks of elevated railways as new, that would suggest it’s fairly close to 1892, when the first elevated railway line opened. However, she also refers to the Chicago Elevated Railways Collateral Trust, which was formed by a merger in 1911.<\/p>\n

According to Henrietta, she’s a schoolteacher from Chicago who has never been more than three miles from her home before. She’s a mutant – or rather, she calls herself a “mutate”, but the obvious implication is that it’s the same thing. We don’t know what her powers are, but her eyes glow red at one point (which seems notable given that Gambit gets a monologue about his eyes in this story). There’s an underground community of mutates who leave signals for one another by carving them into signs, and use the same “Midnight M” hand signal that we’ve seen in various post-Krakoa stories. The signal is unreliable, since it’s also known to members of the Service (see below).<\/p>\n

Her mother was also apparently a mutant and “died alone”. She’s travelling to Haven in order to honour her mother’s wish “to be interred with our kind, at the Artery in Lousiana”. Since she’s only carrying a medium-size bag and a small box, the implication is that she’s carrying her mother’s ashes, but we’re not told this directly. Since Henrietta is black and this is still a segregated era, the journey is not a straightforward one. kl<\/p>\n

Ember.<\/strong> The horse refuses to follow Calico into the Artery and waits at the door.<\/p>\n

Marcus St Croix<\/strong> and\u00a0Alice St Croix <\/strong>know about the Artery, and know that Deathdream is being drawn to it.<\/p>\n

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

Sadurang.<\/strong> Back in issue #1, Gambit stole the Left Eye of Agamotto from him, and agreed to return it in a year if Sadurang left him alone until then. Sadurang shows up in this issue, in well under a year of Marvel time, but claims that he’s simply trying to persuade Gambit to vary the deal. As noted above, Sadurang claims that the Eye will drive Gambit mad by the end of the year and offers to take it off his hands – for no consideration, but he claims to be doing Gambit a favour. That said, Sadurang also drags Gambit to the Savage Land to have this conversation with him, so he’s leaning on him rather hard.<\/p>\n

Samurand claims to like him because they both “have simple wants and … do not apologise.” He approves of Gambit trying to fend off the Savage Land dinosaur without killing it, which he regards as “admirable”.<\/p>\n

Sadurang mentioned in issue #1 that he would head to Antarctica and become an “ice drake” (basically an ice dragon), and he has indeed changed form here. The idea is apparently that Sadurang changes form depending on where he lives at the time.<\/p>\n

The Service.<\/strong> Two members – Jacob Miller and a sidekick called Andrew – appear in Henrietta’s flashback. Miller wears a suit with a prominent S symbol on the lapel, openly introduces himself as a member of the Service, and seems to take it as read that this makes him an authority figure. We’re not told what the official remit of the Service is, but it’s abundantly obvious that they’re interested in mutants, and they’re not seriously trying to hide it. Miller’s approach is basically to harass Henrietta and tail her in the hope of finding more mutants.<\/p>\n

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

The Man-Thing.<\/strong> He has something to do with the Dark Artery, and shows up right at the end.<\/p>\n

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