{"id":4914,"date":"2019-12-13T20:01:09","date_gmt":"2019-12-13T20:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=4914"},"modified":"2019-12-13T20:01:09","modified_gmt":"2019-12-13T20:01:09","slug":"x-force-3-annotations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=4914","title":{"rendered":"X-Force #3 annotations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

COVER \/ PAGE 1.<\/strong> Marvel Girl wearing the Cerebro helmet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 2-3.<\/strong> Flashback to the bad guys removing skin from Domino to graft onto their lab-grown Reavers.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is an intentionally horrific sequence accompanied by the lead bad guy – still unnamed – explaining that humans succeed by recognising their limitations and designing tools to transcend them. It’s all part of the general Hickman-era theme of mutants versus post-humanity (natural evolution versus technological progress). As we’ll see later, the damage which Domino takes in this story also seems to play into a revamp (probably short-term) of the character.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 4-5<\/strong>. Recap page and credits. This is “The Skeleton Key” by Benjamin Percy and Joshua Cassara. The title refers back to the lead bad guy’s line in the previous scene that Domino is a “walking skeleton key that will help us pick the lock of evolution”. That seems to point to something a bit more ambitious than merely sneaking past Krakoa’s defences – perhaps something akin to Grant Morrison’s U-Men, who tried to upgrade themselves using stolen mutant body parts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

PAGES 6-8.<\/strong> Wolverine and Kid Omega rescue Domino and get attacked by a giant lab-grown meat monster.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Murder No Man”<\/strong> is the second law of mutantdom, as per House of X <\/em>#6. Since the discussion in that issue was specifically about the injustice of killing normal humans, who can’t be resurrected, it probably doesn’t <\/em>apply to lab-grown creatures – and in any event, it’s “murder”, not “kill”, which might be taken as carrying a whole load of tacit exceptions like self-defence. Note Wolverine calls it, rather dismissively, a “commandment”, recognising that it’s more quasi-religious than anything else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kid Omega does<\/em> call it a law but also describes it as “exactly why Krakoa will never work.” Leaving aside the fact that Kid Omega is being obnoxiously harsh here (partly as a response to what’s been done to Domino), this puts him in a very small list of characters who don’t seem to buy into the Krakoan dream. But the main point of difference between the two is that Kid Omega takes all this as a sign that humans are uniquely terrible, while Wolverine sees it as just the shared awfulness of mutants and humans alike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 9-11.<\/strong> Beast and Marvel Girl discuss death.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This scene reads a little oddly in the grand scheme of things. Beast talks as if bringing Xavier back is specifically Jean’s plan, when surely it’s just what you’d expect given the set-up on Krakoa. More straightforwardly, Beast worries that mutants will become reckless without a fear of mortality; this ought to have been an issue already, but Xavier was a potential single point of failure in the whole system. So if they can show that resurrections can be carried out without him being involved at all, the mutants really should be able to hang around forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jean gives us a not-desperately-interesting anecdote about how she doesn’t fear death because she used to play in cemeteries as a child. Her argument seems to be that the fear of death makes us selfish and stands in the way of co-operation. It’s all a bit strained – aren’t there plenty of other things (even plenty of fears) that make people selfish besides just the fear of death? At any rate, Jean is clearly the truest of true believers in the as-advertised Krakoan project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 12-13.<\/strong> More of the fight with Kid Omega, Wolverine and the big monster.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Self-explanatory, really.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 14-15.<\/strong> Somebody murders the fifth assassin.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Healer is dutifully trying to save the final assassin’s life. After he wanders off, a shadowy big guy comes in and apparently smothers the guy to death. Subplot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 16.<\/strong> Data page, explaining that the fifth assassin’s death was assumed to be of natural causes given how badly hurt he was to start with. Afterwards, the Krakoan medics attempt an autopsy and his body blows up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quite why Healer – who is just a guy with healing powers – would be doing autopsies might be open to question. The line about him being “fast-tracked for resurrection” also gives away that Xavier’s resurrection goes just fine, making it an odd pacing choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 17-18.<\/strong> Professor X makes his great return from the dead in a public appearance with Magneto in Washington Square Park.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Washington Square Park.<\/strong> The mutants seem to have turned the Washington Square Arch into a gate to Krakoa, which feels… arrogant?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professor X.<\/strong> Presumably this is indeed Professor X, restored from back-up by another telepath (i.e. Jean), exactly as House of X <\/em>told us to expect. Based on this scene alone, it might<\/em> not be. He doesn’t use his powers in this issue. We don’t see him unmasked. There’s wiggle room here for a story in which he turns out to be an impostor wheeled out by the mutants for show. But the following data page seems clear that it’s Xavier. (Any lingering doubt will be removed when we see the next resurrection take place.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Magneto confirms later, the general line in this press conference is to deny the rumours that Xavier had ever been assassinated. It’s not clear how those rumours started, but presumably mutants off Krakoa mentioned it – the Marauders learned about it in their series – or perhaps one of the villains released word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 19.<\/strong> Data page on “the Cerebro Sword”, a “mind blade” (as the small print has it). It’s a sword made by Magneto out of the remains of the previous Cerebro (destroyed by the assassin’s bullet in issue #1). It’s presented here as simply a symbol, but apparently it still holds data and works to some extent, which seems odd. It seems a strange choice that this apparently metaphorical sword is only described on a data page rather than shown to us. At any rate, it gets a whole page, so presumably it’s going to be important down the line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 20-21.<\/strong> Wolverine, Domino and Kid Omega catch up on the plot.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Domino’s recap largely comes from the data page in issue #2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 22-25.<\/strong> Professor X briefs his new X-Force, while the man with the peacock tattoo gives a similar briefing to his organisation, XENO.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Pointe.<\/strong> We’ve seen it mentioned before, and it appears to be a place where Xavier can meet with his deniable-ops guys in relative secrecy. Other than Professor X and Magneto, those present are Domino, Kid Omega, Wolverine, Beast, Marvel Girl and Sage. Beast and Marvel Girl, as traditional Silver Age superheroes, are the most curious choices to be here – though it’s somewhat more in line with the more proactive\/aggressive approach Jean was taking to world affairs in X-Men: Red<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Domino<\/strong> has some sort of plant growth over all of the parts of her body that had been stripped away, and her missing eye is now glowing yellow. It’s not clear whether this is permanent or just part of her recovery. There’s an echo of the original Cable to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kid Omega<\/strong> seems to be checking his mobile phone, which surely wouldn’t go down well with the official Krakoan ruels on technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

XENO<\/strong> are apparently an anti-mutant group aiming both to carry out experiments on mutants, and to promote anti-mutant disinformation. There’s mention of “an army of dummy accounts and chat groups online”, so it’s all very 2019. “Xeno” just means “foreign” or “other”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The man with the tattoo seems to be telling us that the Krakoans managed to get Weapon X-style projects shut down as part of the price for Krakoan drugs – and this is where all of the laid-off anti-mutant science maniacs have wound up instead. The hulking henchman Finnegan can be seen in the crowd on the last page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 26-27.<\/strong> Trailers. The Krakoan reads (you’ll never guess) “NEXT: XENO”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition. COVER \/ PAGE 1. Marvel Girl wearing the Cerebro helmet. PAGES 2-3. Flashback to the bad guys removing skin from Domino to graft onto their lab-grown Reavers. This is an intentionally horrific sequence accompanied by the lead bad guy – still […]<\/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-4914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-annotations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4914","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=4914"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4919,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4914\/revisions\/4919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}