{"id":11344,"date":"2025-08-27T22:47:32","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T21:47:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=11344"},"modified":"2025-08-27T22:48:36","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T21:48:36","slug":"x-men-21-annotations-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=11344","title":{"rendered":"X-Men #21 annotations"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>X-MEN vol 7 #21<\/strong>
\n“Upstarts II”<\/strong>
\nWriter: Jed MacKay<\/strong>
\nPenciller: Netho Diaz<\/strong>
\nInkers: Sean Parsons with JP Mayer & Livesay<\/strong>
\nColourist: Fer Sifuentes-Sujo<\/strong>
\nLetterer: Clayton Cowles<\/strong>
\nEditor: Tom Brevoort<\/strong><\/p>\n

COVER:<\/strong> The X-Men fight the Upstarts.<\/p>\n

This issue is a sequel to issue #4 (“Upstarts”), hence the title.<\/p>\n

PAGES 1-5.\u00a0<\/strong>Jen talks with Kid<\/em> Omega<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Jen Starkey.<\/strong> She debuted in issue #4 when the X-Men rescued her from the Upstarts. She claims here that she was lonely and miserable in Detroit prior to being attached – she stops short of saying that she was actively suicidal, but says she considered just letting the Upstarts kill her. She seems to think that no one will have missed her, and seems slightly surprised that nobody wondered why she had just left her life behind. (From the X-Men’s point of view, of course, this is just a genre convention. The same question didn’t arise with Ben Liu, recruited in issue #2, because they faked his death to stop people being afraid of his powers.)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Even allowing some room for exaggeration, we can probably take it from this that Jen was unemployed. Is she still paying rent?<\/p>\n

Anyway, this is evidently meant to establish why her relationship with Hank means so much to her, and why she was taking his desire for solitude so badly in the previous issue (about an hour ago, for her). She doesn’t seem to feel the same connection with the rest of the Factory inhabitants – she asks Quentin whether she counts as an X-Man, and seems less than reassured by his answer that any mutant living at the Factory qualifies. Despite her generally quiet behaviour, her strength of feeling about all this is so extreme that Quentin seems genuinely to experience it as the equivalent of her yelling and screaming.<\/p>\n

In issue #4, Jen’s powers had apparently only just emerged. Practically her first line of dialogue was to tell Temper that “You don’t understand. There isn’t a world for me, not like this” – though in context that appeared to be more a comment about her physical change. Her decision to stay in the Factory wasn’t shown on panel; however, the Beast claimed that “She was too frightened to stay in Detroit.” In issue #6, she justified her decision to say ono the grounds that “I can’t go back to Detroit. Not looking like this… and the Upstarts are still out there.” She may have thought that that was the easier explanation to give.<\/p>\n

That said, Psylocke seemed to take Jen’s explanation at face value in issue #15, when she sad that Jen had “been living in terror since the Upstarts came for her.” But these aren’t mutually exclusive. Jen is conspicuously keen to go after the Upstarts here, so apparently she’s gaining confidence in that regard.<\/p>\n

Kid Omega.<\/strong> He starts off simply annoyed by Jen, but makes his usual sincere if clumsy attempt at sympathy when he realises that she’s upset. Her apparent depression seems to come as news to him, so apparently he really is making a sincere effort not to read the mind of someone who’s broadcasting her thoughts very loudly. One can see why that might be annoying after a while.<\/p>\n

His initial line is to offer a cynical line about how every mutant at the Factory is an X-Man (“our bar for membership is shockingly low”), but he claims to be able to identify with her loneliness, and implies that this was how he felt before taking on his Kid Omega persona in New X-Men<\/em> #134. That storyline involved the “riot to get a girl to notice me” that he mentions.<\/p>\n

Magik.<\/strong> With Cyclops still in jail after last issue, she regards herself as being in charge, at least in terms of dealing with the Upstarts. She cites that fact that she was in charge “the last time we went after the Upstarts” – presumably referencing issue #4, and she did indeed lead that mission. For what it’s worth, the X-Men also went after the Upstarts (well, one of them) in\u00a0Psylocke<\/em> #7, but fortunately Magik was in charge that time as well, so it fits either way.<\/p>\n

PAGES 6-7.\u00a0<\/strong>Sugar Man abandons Fitzroy.<\/em><\/p>\n

We already established in issue #4 that Sugar Man was aware of the adult-activated mutants and that he was sponsoring Fitzroy’s Upstarts in order that they could capture one for him. Sugar Man didn’t know at the time who was responsible for these new mutants. Fitzroy apparently still doesn’t, referring to “whoever’s been making them” (and mentioning that they seem to have stopped, at least for now).<\/p>\n

This is a little odd, since in the previous issue Agent Lundqvist\u00a0did<\/em> know that 3K were behind the adult mutants. That seemed to suggest that 3K had publicly claimed responsibility, but we didn’t see them do so in\u00a0Hellfire Vigil<\/em> and if they had, Fitzroy ought to know too. Of course, it’s possibly that Fitzroy knows that 3K has\u00a0claimed<\/em> responsibility but isn’t sure whether to believe them.<\/p>\n

Anyway, Sugar Man’s plan is to lure in the X-Men in the hope that they’ll bring Jen with them – by flagging up the Upstarts’ location. By luck more than design, this actually works; it seems rather more likely that the Sugar Man has just given up on his plan and wants rid of the Upstarts, since he’s hardly given them the greatest of incentives to capture Jen and hand her in. Nonetheless, Fitzroy does genuinely seem to be trying to complete the assignment later in the issue (albeit only after Quentin stops him from escaping).<\/p>\n

PAGES 8-18.\u00a0<\/strong>The X-Men fight the Upstarts.<\/em><\/p>\n

Curiously, Magik only brings Kid Omega, Jen and Juggernaut – no Psylocke or Temper, even though both were in the building last issue.<\/p>\n

As in issue #4, the Upstarts are Fitzroy and three obscure members of O-Force from\u00a0X-Statix<\/em> #1: Ocelot, Orbit and Orifice. Kid Omega psychically blocks Fitzroy from teleporting away, but apparently that doesn’t stop him from using his portals for other purposes – or perhaps Kid Omega simply doesn’t finish the job beause Orbit successfully interrupts him.<\/p>\n

Fitzroy assumes that Jen can be more or less ignored in planning the fight, which obviously plays into her anxieties. On seeing the other X-Men taking a beating, she decides that she is a proper X-Man and changes into a new reptile form to help. Fitzroy seems to instinctively understand her more than the X-Men do, which is interesting; he plays to her sense of enjoying her power over others.<\/p>\n

Fitzroy refers to the combination of his and Orifice’s powers as a “mutant circuit”, a common term from the Krakoan era – it seems likely that he’s using it to mock the X-Men with their own jargon.<\/p>\n

Fitzroy refers to Magik having to “slow down to teleport”, which would make some sense; she doesn’t really fight like someone who can jump around instantaneously, and traditionally the stepping discs used to steadily rise up from the ground.<\/p>\n

Juggernaut apparently kills Ocelot in cold blood after he’s defeated – who explicitly positioned himself as a serial killer in issue #4 and seriously injured Kid Omega a few pages earlier. He claims to be delivering on a threat which Ocelot would naturally have taken to be hyperbole. There’s a distinct sense that Cain is sensitive about being told that he’s gone soft. This is a debatable reading of the character; Cain was never presented as a killer even at the height of his time as a villain. The scene ends with this point, so we don’t get to see how Magik, Quentin or Illyana react.<\/p>\n

PAGES 19-20.\u00a0<\/strong>The Sugar Man arrives at the Spire<\/em> Vile.<\/em><\/p>\n

This is the former headquarters of Tarn from\u00a0X-Men<\/em>\u00a0Red<\/em> and the home of his followers in the Locus Vile. Tarn died in\u00a0X-Men Red<\/em> #3; this is what Sugar Man is referring to when he says that “your boss got himself dead in the arena a little while ago”. According to Sugar Man, nobody has been willing to put themselves forward as a replacement. The Locus Vile were all about mad science body-modificaiton experiments, so it’s understandable that Sugar Man finds them interesting.<\/p>\n

There’s nobody else around but the skeletons, so presumably the “you” that Sugar Man addresses is the Spire itself.<\/p>\n

The current status quo of Arakko is a little obscure.\u00a0X-Men: Heir of Apocalypse<\/em> left matters with Apocalypse in charge, but the place was last seen in\u00a0Power Man: Timeless<\/em>, where it was attacked by an Inhuman called Aeron the Knife. Some people seem to have read that story as intending to wipe out Arakko, but from the issues that are available on Unlimited, I don’t think that’s the intention – I think it’s just meant to be a random attack from the cosmic villain of the week and the dialogue gets a little carried away. Mind you, issue #4 isn’t on Unlimited yet, and based on the three that I’ve read, I’m absolutely not willing to spend money to find out how it ends – it really is a bit of a slog.<\/p>\n

Anyway, it’s interesting to see another Arakko element showing up in this book just after Bei is added to the cast.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

X-MEN vol 7 #21 “Upstarts II” Writer: Jed MacKay Penciller: Netho Diaz Inkers: Sean Parsons with JP Mayer & Livesay Colourist: Fer Sifuentes-Sujo Letterer: Clayton Cowles Editor: Tom Brevoort COVER: The X-Men fight the Upstarts. This issue is a sequel to issue #4 (“Upstarts”), hence the title. PAGES 1-5.\u00a0Jen talks with Kid Omega. Jen Starkey. […]<\/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,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-annotations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11344","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=11344"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11347,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11344\/revisions\/11347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}