{"id":5032,"date":"2020-01-16T20:35:07","date_gmt":"2020-01-16T20:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=5032"},"modified":"2020-01-17T20:39:13","modified_gmt":"2020-01-17T20:39:13","slug":"fallen-angels-5-annotations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=5032","title":{"rendered":"Fallen Angels #5 annotations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

COVER \/ PAGE 1.<\/strong> Pin-up art of Psylocke and Cable. Is it just me, or is Psylocke’s left arm bent at a very strange angle?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 2-3.<\/strong> X-23 recruits Cable, Husk and Bling! as her squad.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cable has been in this book all along; he’s a bit shaken by his encounter with the wraith thing from the previous issue, but mainly he wants to stop Apoth from “ending all difference”, which he considers genocidal. Despite this being the penultimate issue, however, he’s joined by two characters we haven’t seen before in this book. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Husk.<\/strong> This is the first time we’ve seen Paige Guthrie since she was killed and resurrected during House of X<\/em>. She’s a weird character to use in this book. Psylocke and X-23 are here because they don’t really function well as part of Krakoan society; Cable is a bit of an outsider too, given his very different background and recent arrival in this timeline. But Husk has always been a very enthusiastic team player, even during her periods of instability. She seems to be here because she understands Krakoa’s policy to be that mutants no longer take action against threats that only affect humans, and she’s not comfortable with that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Bling!.<\/strong> This is the first time we’ve seen Bling! in the Krakoa era; she was last seen in Age of X-Man: NextGen<\/em>. Before that, she was a main character in the last run of Generation X<\/em>. Roxy Washington was created by Peter Milligan and Salvador Larroca, and debuted in X-Men<\/em> #171 (2005); she’s supposed to be the daughter of two famous rappers, but nobody’s ever really done anything with that. Bling! isn’t exactly an obvious fit for this book either; she’s a recognisable face who’s hung around on the fringes of the X-Men for over a decade with relatively few chances to take centre stage. The only reason she gives for joining the group is that she doesn’t trust Krakoa – she gives no reason why not. Maybe we’ll get to it. The common theme here seems to be not so much an inability to fit in on Krakoa, but a distrust of the place and its attitude (in a population which mostly seems to be suspiciously on board with the whole radical agenda). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We’re not X-Force. We’re unofficial.”<\/strong> An obvious question is why<\/em> the Apoth affair has to be dealt with by an unofficial team. Presumably the official Krakoan line is that they leave it to the humans and the other superhero teams to deal with threats to humans. Most likely, this is partly a matter of the X-Men choosing their priorities, and the Quiet Council not wanting rogue Krakoan vigilantes screwing up their diplomatic policies. Still, there’s no obvious reason why the X-Men wouldn’t at least pass on a warning about Apoth to the Avengers or the Fantastic Four (and while he may not be a threat to the mutants on Krakoa, due to their technological isolation, he’s still a threat to mutants living in the wider world).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 4-5.<\/strong> Recap and credits. This is “Sensei” by Bryan Hill and Szymon Kuranski.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 6-7.<\/strong> X-23 reports back to Psylocke.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Psylocke’s vision.<\/strong> For whatever reason, X-23 has apparently waited until now to discuss with Psylocke the vision that she had at the end of the previous issue. According to Psylocke, her vision was of some sort of opposite of Apoth (or maybe the side of him that disapproves of his actions) which is trying to give her a chance to defeat him. She largely declines to try and make sense of it beyond that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Psylocke brings up the topic of God, and then says that as a child, she would have called the vision “kami”. In other words, it’s something that would have been venerated in Shinto, presumably the religion that she was raised in. So she seems to be comparing her vision to a religious experience, though she may simply mean that it’s the sort of thing she would have interpreted that way in the past – but Apoth has also been keen to draw religious parallels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 8-12.<\/strong> Mr Sinister gives Psylocke a device which can track Apoth when he’s nearby.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Sinister, the Overclock devices contain a gateway through which Apoth can access users’ minds, and he has allowed Psylocke to reverse the process. He claims<\/em> that this has to be tested through some insanely dangerous and incredibly painful test, which Psylocke signs up for without hesitation – either because she doesn’t believe him or she has something of a death wish. Either way, it does<\/em> work, and she sees Apoth and the wraith causing rioting in Dubai. Asked why she’s bothering with any of this, Psylocke makes a cryptic comment that her conscience is driven by her new sense of purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 13.<\/strong> Flashback. Kwannon’s teacher invites Kwannon to kill her as a final lesson.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The teacher’s role is complete, and her death is partly intended to cement Kwannon as a killer. Going back to the butterfly motif, this is presented as Kwannon’s metaphorical emergence from the chrysalis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 14-15.<\/strong> Data page. An extract from the teacher’s journals, making the same basic point: she’s raised Kwannon to make her into a killer for the Hand. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I am the reflection of Bishamon.”<\/strong> Bishamon is a Japanese war god, though usually presented as a noble and heroic protector figure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 16-17.<\/strong> Psylocke considers approaching Captain Britain, but doesn’t.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Psylocke indicates here that she can still feel Betsy and will “forgive” her once they are finally separate. Obviously part of the idea here is Psylocke’s resentment at the idea that she’s very closely similar to the woman who she sees as having stolen her identity; it undermines her sense of individuality, even though she seems to realise that she can’t really hold any of this against Betsy, who had no hand in it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 18-22.<\/strong> X-23 trains with the team, and Psylocke introduces her to the team.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“She always this dramatic?”<\/strong> The problem is that Psylocke’s tone is the tone of the whole series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“My daddy died in a coal mine.”<\/strong> EDIT: As pointed out in the comments, this is wrong, at least if you take it literally – Paige’s father died of black lung (pneumoconiosis). That was established back in Marvel Graphic Novel<\/em> #4, the first appearance of her big brother Sam. Somebody may be confusing it with the mine collapse which takes place in that story (but which befell Sam, not the father).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 23-24.<\/strong> Magneto approves of Psylocke’s mission and gives her a jet plane.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“When I was a boy in the camps…”<\/strong> Magneto is implicitly comparing his own traumatic childhood to Psylocke’s as a formative event. He sticks to the official line that the Krakoans have no interest in saving humanity for itself, but given what we know about the significance of posthumanity in House of X<\/em> and X-Men<\/em>, he probably has wider reasons for approving of Psylocke going after a rogue AI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Magneto appears to have been keeping a fully functional hi tech jet buried under Krakoan soil, where there isn’t supposed to be regular technology. The Krakoan authorities must surely know about this; Krakoa itself would notice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 25.<\/strong> Apoth prepares to face Psylocke and co.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Basic set-up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 26-27.<\/strong> Trailers. The Krakoan reads NEXT: APOTH.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As always, this post contains spoilers, and the page numbers go by the digital edition. COVER \/ PAGE 1. Pin-up art of Psylocke and Cable. Is it just me, or is Psylocke’s left arm bent at a very strange angle? PAGES 2-3. X-23 recruits Cable, Husk and Bling! as her squad. Cable has been in […]<\/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-5032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-annotations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5032","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=5032"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5032\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5035,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5032\/revisions\/5035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}