{"id":4812,"date":"2019-10-17T21:58:02","date_gmt":"2019-10-17T20:58:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=4812"},"modified":"2019-10-17T23:24:51","modified_gmt":"2019-10-17T22:24:51","slug":"x-men-1-annotations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=4812","title":{"rendered":"X-Men #1 annotations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers are going by the digital edition.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

X-MEN:<\/strong> This is the fifth volume of just-plain-X-Men<\/em>, although confusingly the legacy numbering continues from the last run of Uncanny X-Men<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

COVER (PAGE 1): <\/strong>The residents of the Summers House (plus the visiting Corsair) in the Blue Area of the Moon. More of that inside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 2-3:<\/strong> A flashback to Charles Xavier giving Scott Summers a pair of ruby quartz glasses to control his optic beams. It’s a metaphor for Xavier giving Scott the confidence to embrace what makes him superhuman, of course – plus, there’s a parallel being drawn with the leader of Orchis, Killian Devo, but we’ll come to that. Scott’s visor can be seen sitting on a stand in the corner of the room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Scott seems unsure that the glasses will work, but it was established way back in the 1960s “Origins of the X-Men” back-ups that Scott got his ruby quartz glasses at the orphanage, long before he met Xavier. (The original explanation was that he was given them to control headaches; a 1980s retcon brought Mr Sinister into the picture,) So if this is meant to be the first time Scott uses ruby quartz, it’s a retcon. Maybe he’s just unsure about trusting a new pair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 4:<\/strong> Laid out like one of the House of X \/ Powers of X <\/em>data pages, but it’s a typical Marvel recap page with headshots of the cast. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 5: <\/strong>Credits, still in the HoXPoX <\/em>style. The Krakoan text above the X (simply reads “X-Men”, and the word above the credits is “one”. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The issue title is “Pax Krakoa”, playing on “Pax Americana” (the notion that American dominance brought comparative world peace in the latter 20th century). Basically, it’s positioning Krakoa as a superpower. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The small print in the bottom right reads “Mutants of the world unite”, referring to the famous line from the Communist Manifesto (“Workers of the world unite, you have nothing to lose but your chains”). That fits both with the mutant liberation theme, and with the theme of individuals becoming part of a larger whole. Not subtly, but it does.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 6-17:<\/strong> Cyclops, Storm, Magneto and Polaris attack “the last Orchis stronghold on Earth”, bring it down, and liberate the people who Orchis were holding in stasis tubes – all of whom are mutants except for one…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Orchis.<\/strong> Orchis were the main villains in House of X<\/em>, where they were trying to build Sentinels in space in what they apparently considered an act of self-defence against humans. HoX <\/em>played up the parallels with the X-Men and the vicious cycle of escalation rather more, and made them come across as somewhat more sympathetic and understandable. This bunch, in contrast, are demented extremists. Base leader Dr Mars rejects the idea of wiping the database to stop it falling into X-Men hands, and opts instead for a suicide scheme of turning everyone into an ape. We don’t actually see what happens to the apes (Magneto deals with them off panel), but presumably that precious database falls into the X-Men’s hands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The last Orchis stronghold on Earth.”<\/strong> The term “stronghold” is significant as part of Hickman’s cosmology of cosmic societies from Powers of X<\/em>, though that’s not something Storm herself would recognise in using the term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cyclops and Storm.<\/strong> Storm’s a bit zealous at the start of this scene, isn’t she? Granted that these guys are Sentinel builders, she keeps talking about Orchis as “conquered people”. She also berates Orchis for keeping people in stasis – “How little they must think of themselves to treat others this way” – despite having voted to do something broadly similar to Sabretooth in House of X <\/em>#6.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cyclops gives a somewhat more measured inspirational speech about how the X-Men are winning because mutants are the future and no amount of Orchis science and technology is going to stop that. In the context of the wider Hickman project, this is dramatic irony – Powers of X <\/em>tells us that in fact, a technology-driven posthumanity always wins in the end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The stasis tubes.<\/strong> Most of them hold mutants, though they all seem to be new characters. The two gold and silver figures are specifically drawn to our attention in the next scene, so they’re probably important – otherwise they seem to be randoms. We’re not told why Orchis were holding them, but presumably some sort of experimentation was in mind. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The unnamed non-mutant. <\/strong>This is Serafina, a character from Mike Carey’s run. She was one of the Children of the Vault (as Storm seems to realise) – a community who had been locked inside a sealed vault where time was accelerated relative to the outside world, so that 6,000 years passed for their society while 30 years passed outside. This is why Polaris detects “massive atemporal development”. Although the Children were said to be a separate species on account of their genetic drift, their actual superpowers were attributed to advanced technology. In other words, they’re posthumans, just like Powers of X <\/em>warned about. Serafina, in particular, had technology interfacing powers, making her the most posthuman of all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Serafina claims here that she emerged from the Vault “before [she] was fully cooked”, because “wild gods [were] loose in the world”. The Children’s actual motivations in the Carey stories weren’t always entirely clear, but broadly they seemed to believe that they were the rightful inheritors of the world. Note that Magneto – who knows what happened in Powers of X <\/em>– suggests that the wild gods are mutants, and wants to chase after her until Cyclops overrules him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Serafina did not have the photo-negative look when we last saw her. That’s new, and it’s a plot point. Nor does the story give any clue of what Orchis wanted with her, bearing in mind that she’s not a mutant – though maybe they just couldn’t tell the difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 18-22.<\/strong> The X-Men bring the liberated mutants back to Krakoa and Dr Cecilia Reyes checks over them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cecilia Reyes.<\/strong> A mutant doctor who’s been a member of the cast on and off since 1997. Basically the go-to X-Men medic these days, if the injuries aren’t exotic enough to call for a full-blown scientist character. Reyes is basically a non-combatant; her power is a force field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Magneto.<\/strong> The children of Krakoa idolise him, and he rather enjoys the adulation. This doesn’t seem entirely healthy – and note that he gets much more attention than the other X-Men, perhaps because he’s willing to play along.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Polaris and Cyclops.<\/strong> Scott invites Lorna to join the Summers family reunion, pointing out that Alex will be there; the significance here is that Lorna and Alex were a couple for years. Scott talks about the birth of his son. That’s Cable, of whom more later. It’s the second somewhat-inspirational speech Scott has given in this issue, and Lorna politely questions how much of it is for show. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 23-26.<\/strong> Killian Devo arrives on the Orchis Forge to take charge of the operation. Generally, this scene takes us much further back to the parallels between the X-Men and Orchis which we saw in House of X<\/em>. Devo talks about the Orchis Forge as a refuge (in similar terms to Krakoa) and uses the same “Look at what they have done” line, in reference to the Orchis dead, that House of X <\/em>used about mutants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Killian Devo.<\/strong> This is the first time we’ve seen him, but in the data pages of House of X <\/em>#1, he was named as Orchis’s director. He’s said to be 63, and before he was in Orchis, he was affiliated with STRIKE (a UK organisation from Captain Britain <\/em>which was broadly aligned with SHIELD). He clearly sees Orchis as the good guys, cheerfully rattling off all the reputable organisations where his staff worked in the past, and grudgingly conceding that there are also ex-HAMMER and -Hydra staffers (whom he considers a “lesser evil”). He personally designed the Orchis refit of the station, but hadn’t arrived by the time the X-Men attacked – he does seem to feel some personal responsibility for the deaths that ensued. Karima indicates that, despite the X-Men’s attack, the Orchis Forge is still conducting some sort of “experiment” (our attention is drawn here to the former location of the Mother Mold), for which Devo is necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Devo also appears to be somewhat posthuman – he has cyborg arms and has some sort of visor fitted to his head. He tells us later that this allows him to see despite natural blindness. Visually, there are parallels both with Xavier and Cyclops, in terms of the permanent eye-covering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 27-31.<\/strong> At the Summer House, the Summers family entertain the visiting Starjammers. Aside from the actual content, one thing to notice here (and throughout) is the shift of scale from House of X<\/em>. That book was concerned with the huge social changes brought about by Krakoa; X-Men <\/em>shifts focus down to the level of smaller groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Summer House.<\/strong> A home for the Summers family next to the Blue Area of the Moon. We’ve seen it before in House of X <\/em>#3, when the X-Men set off for their attack on the Orchis Forge. It was mentioned in Powers of X <\/em>#5 as the location of one of Xavier’s back-up “cradles”. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, Cyclops has chosen not to have his home on Krakoa itself, though the Summer House is a Krakoan habitat with a link to the main island. We’re told later that the Summer House is on the Blue Area of the Moon; its main significance for the X-Men context is that this is where Jean Grey “died” as Dark Phoenix. Which seems like an odd place to set up home. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Summers family.<\/strong> Traditionally portrayed as one of the most important mutant bloodlines. We’ll come back to the history of individual characters if it turns out to matter in future issues, but the permanent residents are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n