{"id":12020,"date":"2026-05-21T22:38:45","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T21:38:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=12020"},"modified":"2026-05-21T22:38:45","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T21:38:45","slug":"inglorious-x-force-5-annotations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=12020","title":{"rendered":"Inglorious X-Force #5 annotations"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>INGLORIOUS X-FORCE #5
\n“Death War – part 2”
\nWriter: Tim Seeley
\nArtists: Roi Mercado & Michael Sta. Maria
\nColour artist: Romulo Fajardo Jr
\nLetterer: Joe Caramagna
\nEditor: Mark Basso<\/strong><\/p>\n

COVER:\u00a0<\/strong>Archangel, with the Death mask he wore as one of Apocalypse’s Horseman, perches on his teammates’ gravestones.<\/p>\n

X-FORCE:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Archangel.\u00a0<\/strong>According to Mr Sinister (who’s probably telling the truth about this), he experimented on Archangel at the tail end of the Krakoan era, surreptitiously giving him the life-giving powers that he demonstrated in issue #4. He calls Warren’s new persona “Blood Angel” and claims that when fully activated, he’ll be able to bring about “true, everlasting resurrection”. For some reason, to activate this power, Warren needs to take Sinister’s hand. We’re not told directly why Sinister needed to involve Warren in this, but it’s probably reasonable to assume that Sinister is tapping the power of Apocalypse’s Death Seed in some way.<\/p>\n

The Blood Angel persona seems to be something of a puritan – he calls Hellverine a “demon” and “unclean”, then shoots him out of the sky with some sort of eye beam. The beams actually extinguish Hellverine’s flame and knock him out for a while. Sinister claims that Blood Angel could cure Cable of the techno-organic virus.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

As suggested last issue, the Warren Worthington persona goes to a sort of waiting room while any version of the Archangel persona (including Blood Angel) is in control. However, Warren seems to be able to retake control when sufficiently motivated. The waiting room seems to contain a sofa, a floating orb which is presumably the Death Seed, and a floating diamond which is Sinister’s logo. Sinister claims that the Archangel persona possesses Warren in the same way that Hellverine is possessed by his demon.<\/p>\n

After he saved her life with his Blood Angel powers in issue #4, Warren has become mentally linked to Tabitha, who can enter his waiting room mentally. Both Warren and Tabitha disagree with\u00a0Cable’s theory that Warren only feels truly free as Archangel (which was Cable’s recruitment pitch in issue #1). Tabitha’s theory is that Warren uses Archangel as a way of keeping himself aware of his dark side, and thereby retaining his self-control when exercising his wealth and financial power. Warren seems to agree and rejects the power over life that Sinister is trying to offer him, apparently using the Death Seed to purge it. It’s not obvious how this power is any worse than what the mutants were doing on Krakoa, but at least that power wasn’t concentrated in one individual, which seems to be Warren’s real concern. Nonetheless, the thought that Warren might be able to use this power to bring back resurrection for mutants generally doesn’t seem to be an issue for anyone.<\/p>\n

Somewhat out of nowhere, Warren asks to kiss Tabitha in response to her insights. See below.<\/p>\n

Cable.\u00a0<\/strong>After the mission, he reveals to the team why he formed them – possibly because he’s now exonerated all of his suspects to his satisfaction, and possibly because Sinister taunts him for his own manipulative nature. Rather than concluding that\u00a0he<\/em> might be the potential killer, Cable concludes that his “one of us” note must have meant that Kamala’s killer was someone in the wider X-community. But in fact, without being aware of it, he seems to be partly under the control of some sort of plant-life virus-thing, which I don’t think we’re meant to recognise. It seems to be trying to use Cable to affect the future.<\/p>\n

Ms Marvel.\u00a0<\/strong>Sinister claims that she’s “swimming in more genetic potential than [her] teammates”, presumably because of her Inhuman side. For some reason he also calls her Madame Marvel. As usual, she’s the peacemaker, and\u00a0argues for giving Sinister a chance to explain himself, given that his plan really does seem to be to resurrect people.<\/p>\n

Boom-Boom.\u00a0<\/strong>See above re her connection to Warren. She seems interested in his advances, but that might be\u00a0because<\/em> of their link – and it might also play in to her rejection of Akihiro last issue.<\/p>\n

Hellverine. <\/strong>He claims that he’s been holding back until now, though he might be trying to assert his masculinity in front of Tabitha.\u00a0When Blood Angel somehow subdues his demon side, he’s able to turn back to human form and fight normally.\u00a0The fire returns soon enough.<\/p>\n

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

Domino<\/strong>. According to Domino, the reason why she’s been keeping watch on the team throughout this series is that Cable asked her to, because he was worried about his memory glitches and wanted her to keep an eye on him. That must have happened during issue #1, after the scene where he gathers his senses in the Adirondacks base, and before he starts recruiting the team members.<\/p>\n

She claims to have spotted something that suggested the techno-organic virus was running out of control without him knowing. She says that she confronted him about it, he wouldn’t listen and she shot him (in the techno-organic parts) in an effort to prove how the virus would react. This is the scene that Tabitha interrupted at the end of issue #4.<\/p>\n

Mr Chubby Cheeks<\/strong>. Domino is now just calling her squirrel “Cheecks”.<\/p>\n

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

Mister Sinister.\u00a0<\/strong>Sinister claims that he’s gone back to opposing Apocalypse, and that Cable ought to be his ally. He seems to think that Apocalypse is planning some sort of mass slaughter (“assault on biological diversity and the art of genetic study”) and regards this as getting in the way of science. This is all a little odd. It\u00a0does<\/em> fit with Sinister’s back story, in which he’s given powers by Apocalypse but later turns on him and embarks on schemes to thwart Apocalypse’s rise. But Apocalypse isn’t on Earth right now, he’s on Arakko – and there’s nothing to suggest that he’s coming back. Nobody raises this point. Conceivably, Sinister might view Revelation as Apocalypse’s agent.<\/p>\n

Sinister claims that his plan is to offer immortality to everyone who was resurrected on Krakoa. (It’s not clear why they have to have been resurrected there first.) He presents this as a scientific endeavour and as something that will annoy Apocalypse, but when pressed accepts that he expects “an occasional service” and co-operation with his experiments in return for resurrecting people.<\/p>\n

Archangel destroys his body using the Death Seed, but he makes clear that he’ll simply jump to a new one.<\/p>\n

The Nasty Boys. <\/strong>Archangel restores them to life permanently using the Blood Angel power before rejecting it.<\/p>\n

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

I don’t do this section for every book, but\u00a0Inglorious X-Force\u00a0<\/em>kind of calls for it…<\/p>\n