{"id":11309,"date":"2025-08-13T23:03:19","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T22:03:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=11309"},"modified":"2025-08-13T23:03:19","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T22:03:19","slug":"x-men-20-annotations-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=11309","title":{"rendered":"X-Men #20 annotations"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>X-MEN vol 7 #20<\/strong>
\n“A Civilized Discussion”<\/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

COVER:<\/strong> Cyclops and Agent Lundqvist in jail.<\/p>\n

PAGE 1.\u00a0<\/strong>Cyclops arrives for his meeting with Lundqvist and is immediately punched in the face.<\/em><\/p>\n

This is the third issue to feature an extended conversation between Cyclops and Agent Lundqvist – the first was in issue #3, and also took place in McDade’s Diner, and the second was in issue #10. Cyclops came off comfortably better in each of those arguments, which is at least one reason why Lundqvist doesn’t want to argue with him again.<\/p>\n

Note that Lundqvist sets his gun aside at the start of the fight – evidently this is about asserting status rather than actually trying to hurt Scott. Scott seems to take the situation accordingly, and doesn’t use his optic beams – he claims towards the end of the issue that he believes Lundqvist is trying to provoke him into using his powers, though Lundqvist denies this.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

PAGES 2-3.\u00a0<\/strong>Kid Omega, Magik and Juggernaut work on rebuilding the Marauder.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Marauder was shot down by 3K in issue #14. Its back story comes from Gerry Duggan’s\u00a0Marauders<\/em>, and specifically issue #24 of that series. Its shape-shifting properties are previous established from that series. Kid Omega evidently believes that the core AI should be able to rebuild itself from random materials.<\/p>\n

The “wreckage” which Juggernaut brings in is presumably mostly from the damage that the giant twin monster did to Magneto’s piloted Sentinel in issues #17-18. The “spare Sentinel crap we have lying around” refers to the Factory’s previous function as a Sentinel factory. It’s possible that they’ve also raided parts from Beast’s Quinjet (though it seems unlikely that Juggernaut would call that “wreckage”).<\/p>\n

Kid Omega previously claimed to have “salvaged” the Marauder – and Cyclops implied that he had stolen it – in issue #11. We still don’t know the details.<\/p>\n

Kid Omega seems quite attached to the Marauder. Even though we haven’t seen much of this AI as an active character, the ship functions by psychic control, and Kid Omega has spent most of the series as its main pilot. So he has a much stronger engagement with it than we do.<\/p>\n

PAGES 4-5.\u00a0<\/strong>Lundqvist complains about being kept out of the loop.<\/em><\/p>\n

Lundqvist says that “I thought you and I had an understanding after last time. That maybe I didn’t much like you, but I could count on your sense of what’s right.” That would be issue #10, in which Cyclops gave Lundqvist a lecture on brinksmanship and threatened to annihilate Washington if the US government didn’t back off – though he also made clear that he was giving Lundqvist the ammunition to justify<\/em> leaving him alone. Lundqvist’s characterisation of that conversation here is interesting; it may suit his ego to view it as an understanding, or perhaps he really was more persuaded than he appeared.<\/p>\n

3K made their public debut with an address to mutantkind at the end of X-Men: The Hellfire Vigil<\/em>. Lundqvist says that they followed this by releasing a press release and manifesto – we didn’t see that in\u00a0Vigil<\/em>, but it would seem a natural thing to do.<\/p>\n

According to Lundqvist, 3K have claimed responsibility for the “mutant contagion”. This relates to the series-long plotline about 3K turning adult humans into new mutants; in issue #3, we learned that this had spawned a conspiracy theory about mutants being contagious. 3K didn’t claim responsibility for this in\u00a0Vigil<\/em>, so apparently this must have been in their press release. It’s not entirely clear what 3K have claimed – whether they’re still putting it forward as a contagion, or whether they’ve openly claimed credit for turning humans into new mutants. Lundqvist’s dialogue seems to suggest the former, and given 3K’s mutant-nationalist stance, it would seem odd for them to openly claim credit for creating “artificial” mutants. On the other hand, if 3K\u00a0didn’t<\/em> explain what they were doing, that begs the question of how Lundqvist (or his staff) have figured it out.<\/p>\n

Lundqvist is, of course, absolutely correct that the X-Men have known about 3K creating new mutants pretty much from the start of the series, and have chosen not to share that with him.<\/p>\n

PAGE 6.\u00a0<\/strong>Temper and Psylocke talk.<\/em><\/p>\n

Temper refers to her romantic subplot with Ransom from\u00a0Uncanny X-Men<\/em>, which has cropped up (in passing) in both “Raid on Graymalkin” and “X-Manhunt”, and advanced somewhat in the\u00a0Vigil<\/em> one-shot. Reasonably enough, she stops short of calling Ransom her “boyfriend”.<\/p>\n

Psylocke refers to the\u00a0Uncanny<\/em> team as the “opposing camp”, even though the teams seem to be on good terms these days, but it looks like she’s just teasing.<\/p>\n

Temper knows that John Greycrow is a bank robber, and apparently doesn’t much care. Presumably this is common knowledge among the X-Men. Psylocke goes through the motions of being slightly evasive on this point.<\/p>\n

Temper has also picked up on the romantic subplot with Beast and Jen Starkey which featured in issue #18 and the\u00a0Vigil<\/em> one-shot.<\/p>\n

PAGES 7-8.\u00a0<\/strong>Beast and Jen talk.<\/em><\/p>\n

They refer to Wyre’s invitation to Beast to join 3K, from issue #18. Beast hasn’t told anyone about that, and Jen has evidently decided to respect that. Beast is generally depressed about the whole thing, as 3K’s increasing prominence makes the invitation hard to ignore.<\/p>\n

PAGES 9-10.\u00a0<\/strong>Scott and Lundqvist fight.<\/em><\/p>\n

The “mutant problem” that “almost flattened” Merle is presumably the giant mutant twin monster from issues #14-18.\u00a0Somehow, Lundqvist has learned that Ben Liu was in Merle during that story – the X-Men were still under the impression that Liu’s survival was a secret in\u00a0Vigil<\/em>, which takes place alongside issue #19. As Lundqvist says, the X-Men faked Liu’s death in issue #2 after he caused chaos in San Francisco.<\/p>\n

It’s not altogether clear how Lundqvist found this out, but Ben did make a semi-public appearance in that story by persuading Rose Ellen Cobb to confront the twin. Perhaps she reported him, or maybe he was simply spotted by the local authorities. At any rate, this is the first point where Lundqvist has actually seemed to be one step ahead of Scott.<\/p>\n

PAGES 11-12. <\/strong>Glob Herman and Ben Liu play basketball.<\/em><\/p>\n

Specifically, they’re playing the basketball variant H-O-R-S-E<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The “evil school” that Glob attended is the Hellfire Academy, from\u00a0Wolverine and the X-Men<\/em> #20-23 (2012-13). The teacher he speaks to is Taskmaster.<\/p>\n

Ben Liu correctly thinks that Lundqvist knows he’s alive. Given that Ben has been complaining throughout this series about being kept in reserve when he wants to help, is it possible that Ben himself has forced the issue?<\/p>\n

PAGES 13-15.\u00a0<\/strong>Chief Robbins tasers Scott and Lundqvist.<\/em><\/p>\n

Lundqvist correctly points out that Scott’s X-Men (and Scott especially) sided with the US government in recapturing Professor X during X-Manhunt.<\/p>\n

Lundqvist knows that “X-Manhunt” ended with Professor X leaving Earth and, perhaps more surprisingly, believes the X-Men on this. Again, that might be seen as supporting his claim that he thought (however bizarrely) that he was starting to develop some sort of relationship of trust with Scott. Scott, however, evidently regards Lundqvist as a pointless distraction.<\/p>\n

He correctly identifies Jen Starkey as another 3K creation. The Upstarts broadcast was in issue #4.<\/p>\n

Chief Robbins, who has been extremely reasonable throughout this series, jumps straight to tasering both men despite them offering to talk to her. She seems rather panicked by the whole situation.<\/p>\n

PAGE 16.\u00a0<\/strong>The other X-Men have dinner.<\/em><\/p>\n

PAGES 17-20.\u00a0<\/strong>Cyclops and Lundqvist in jail.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Lundqvist claims that he has nothing against mutants, but specifically hates Cyclops. He then gives us a reference to\u00a0Battle Royale<\/em>, the thrust being that Lundqvist believes O*N*E’s role to be levelling the playing field against those mutants who are dangerously powerful. He claims to have no concerns about the mutants with low-level powers, and the implication is that his issue with the X-Men is more about them conducting themselves as above the law. Cyclops dismisses all this as rationalisation, but it’s fair to say that we haven’t really seen Lundqvist dealing with low-powered civilian mutants and what he says here is at least\u00a0consistent<\/em> with his appearances to date.<\/p>\n

Lundqvist’s point about Cyclops being pressed into service by Professor X without really getting a free choice is not a new one, and indeed formed part of Cyclops’ own complaints about Professor X in recent issues; note that Scott doesn’t reply.<\/p>\n

Obviously, we don’t know who the new leader of O*N*E is. A “Director Talyn” has previously shown up in\u00a0Deadpool \/ Wolverine<\/em>, but it’s unclear whether she’s meant to be the overall leader of O*N*E or just someone with a senior position.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

X-MEN vol 7 #20 “A Civilized Discussion” Writer: Jed MacKay Penciller: Netho Diaz Inker: Sean Parsons Colourist: Fer Sifuentes-Sujo Letterer: Clayton Cowles Editor: Tom Brevoort COVER: Cyclops and Agent Lundqvist in jail. PAGE 1.\u00a0Cyclops arrives for his meeting with Lundqvist and is immediately punched in the face. This is the third issue to feature an […]<\/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-11309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-annotations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11309","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=11309"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11309\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11311,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11309\/revisions\/11311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}