{"id":5065,"date":"2020-02-03T20:28:02","date_gmt":"2020-02-03T20:28:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=5065"},"modified":"2020-02-03T20:28:02","modified_gmt":"2020-02-03T20:28:02","slug":"x-men-5-annotations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=5065","title":{"rendered":"X-Men #5 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> Storm and Armor in generic action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 2.<\/strong> A flash forward to Cyclops realising at the end of the issue that his plan has gone wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 3-4.<\/strong> Credits. This is “Into the Vault” by Jonathan Hickman and RB Silva. The recap picks up on the Serafina storyline from issue #1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 5-9.<\/strong> In Ecuador, Wolverine pursues Serafina, but she mind-controls<\/em> some locals to delay him, and slips back into the Vault.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Children of the Vault.<\/strong> We covered this in issue #1, but the Children of the Vault (and Serafina in particular) are a community who were locked into a vault where time ran more quickly, the idea being that they would emerge with vastly advanced technology developed over thousands of years. They were supposed to emerge after an apocalypse and become the new rulers of Earth, but came out early and decided to conquer the world anyway, as its destined inheritors . This makes them “post-human” villains, of the sort that Powers of X <\/em>presented as very important to Hickman’s mythos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The original Vault was in Chile, but in X-Men<\/em> vol 2 #193 they retreated to a new Vault in Ecuador, which is the one seen here – located in the abandoned Sentinel factory used by Cassandra Nova in New X-Men<\/em> #114. The Children of the Vault appeared later in another Mike Carey story, so apparently at that time their new Vault lacked the time-dilation effect (or they’re incredibly long lived, which is definitely possible). By the time of this story, it’s evidently back in effect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Serafina still has the negative-colour effect that we saw in issue #1. She didn’t have that in her previous appearances, and the reason for it has yet to be revealed. It may simply be a sign of her further development since the last time we saw her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 10-11.<\/strong> Serafina enters the Vault.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not exactly data pages, but the first of several pages in this issue showing people surrounded by computer imagery and text as they enter the vault. We’ll come back to this in a later scene, because it’s important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 12-14. <\/strong>The X-Men brief Darwin, Synch and X-23 on their mission to the Vault.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mission team get the new version of generic X-Men outfits (though Synch’s costume is in the red and yellow colours of his old team, Generation X).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The World.<\/strong> As the X-Men point out, the Vault was basically the same concept as the World, from Grant Morrison’s New X-Men<\/em> run, where advanced humans like Fantomex were created by allowing evolution to run at high speed. You wonder if there’s some reason for bringing the World up, as it doesn’t otherwise figure into the story, and you wouldn’t normally go out of your way to make a concept seem less distinctive. At any rate, the difference between the two is indeed one of emphasis: the World is about evolution, the Vault about posthumanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Posthumanity.<\/strong> Xavier describes the Children of the Vault as “the single greatest existential threat to mutantdom.” This is surely based on what he’s learned from Moira, since based purely on their track record, the Children of the Vault are mid-ranking villains at best. Interestingly, none of the senior X-Men present query this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Darwin.<\/strong> One of the “X-Men” who were retconned into history by X-Men: Deadly Genesis<\/em>, and who got trapped on Krakoa while trying to rescue the real X-Men. He finally emerged from suspended animation in that story to join the team for real, but didn’t last much beyond the Ed Brubaker run. His last major appearance was in Peter David’s X-Factor<\/em> in 2013, in which he appeared to have taken on some extra mystical abilities as a harbinger of death. From the look of it, that’s finally worn off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Darwin’s mutant power is basically to adapt so as to survive anything – he’s got little in the way of offence but he’s virtually unkillable. That’s why he and the power-copying Synch have been selected for this unusual job – it’s assumed that somehow or other, Darwin’s powers will let them cross the time dilation barrier and survive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Synch.<\/strong> His return from the dead has been mentioned before, but this is the first time we’ve seen him at any length. There’s more about him on the data page that follows. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

X-23.<\/strong> Since this issue ties up Laura in a subplot, presumably we’re after Fallen Angels<\/em> #6. Laura has been selected on the basis that her healing powers will let her survive the time dilation barrier – in other words, she’ll be torn apart but they figure she’ll get back up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the first time in quite a while, X-23 identifies herself as “Wolverine”. She was using that identity during the period when the real Wolverine was believed dead, but seemed to have dropped it when he returned and her title was re-named X-23<\/em>. Many people thought this was a retrograde step (not so much that she gave up the “Wolverine” name but that she went back to “X-23”). Logan expressly endorses her using the codename.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Resurrection.<\/strong> In theory, if all goes smoothly, the trio are meant to sneak into the Vault, get the information, and engineer the re-opening of the Vault so that they can get out. Even if that takes ages inside the Vault, it should be very little time in the outside world. But if they don’t come out… well, these are very long-lived characters, and the X-Men won’t be able to verify that they’re dead, so they won’t be able to resurrect them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or rather, as previous data pages have explained, they wouldn’t be willing<\/em> to resurrect them, because it would risk having multiples of the same character wandering around. And nobody on Krakoa really wants to be confronted too directly with the implications of that<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wolverine.<\/strong> He says he’d go on this mission “but I’ve got something pressing that can’t wait.” He’s not likely to be making excuses, so we should probably assume that’s a reference to something.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 15.<\/strong> A data page on the resurrection of Synch. The general thrust is that Synch was one of the first mutants to be resurrected, and that the time gap (from his perspective) was traumatic. Synch was killed in Generation X <\/em>#70 back in 2000; he was prioritised for resurrection because he could be a fallback member of the Five. The solution to his trauma was to bring back his teammate Skin (who died in Uncanny X-Men<\/em> #423 in 2003). This apparently explains the somewhat random selection of resurrected mutants on Krakoa: some of them are there because of what they bring to the table, others are there to help mitigate the culture shock for their contemporaries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nonetheless, despite Synch’s genial and relaxed demeanour, we’re being told very clearly that he’s not entirely well, and that time distortion had something to do with it. So sending him into the Vault to undergo yet further time dislocation seems like an undesirable move.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We’re also told that Synch came back better than before, and that the Five are not accurately re-creating mutants, but fixing their minor imperfections in the bargain. He’s not much<\/em> different, physically. But he’s different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 16-17.<\/strong> The Vault computer continues to address Serafina.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Broadly speaking, the computer seems to be saying that Serafina was sent out of the Vault on a reconnaissance mission along with Sangre, Perro, Aguja and Fuego (all established members of the Children of the Vault). Only Serafina survived. Based on her report, the computer decides that more development is needed before the Children will be ready to take on the humans and mutants, and conquer the world. It then sets about upgrading Serafina and “restoring” the four deceased mutants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are three main things that you’re meant to pick up on here. One is pretty obvious: the Children of the Vault are a direct parallel with the X-Men (a theme that came up a lot in House of X<\/em>). Serafina’s mission was a mirror of Synch, Darwin and X-23’s. And her dead teammates are apparently being restored from back-up just like the mutants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second is that this computer is talking in the same font as the computer whose small print adorns the data pages. That surely can’t be coincidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The third – and the one most likely to be missed – is that the Children of the Vault now strongly resemble the Children of Tomorrow, from Hickman’s Ultimate Comics Ultimates<\/em> (sic). The Children of Tomorrow were the same basic idea: a post-human community which developed within a time bubble (this time, under the direction of the Maker – and Xavier’s new resemblance to the Maker has not gone unnoticed by readers). The computer face which appears before Serafina is very<\/em> similar to the computer from the City of Children of Tomorrow. The computer also lists job titles for the Children of the Vault. This parallels the Children of Tomorrow, who had no names, only job titles. In particular, “Judge”, “Builder”, “Sword”, “Knife” and “Teacher” were Children of Tomorrow, and their names appear again here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Children of Tomorrow were very, very bad news indeed. Hickman’s run was at the tail end of the Ultimate imprint, when you could smash things up without worrying too much about the consequences, and so their 12-issue storyline was apocalyptic from start to finish, with the City spreading over most of Europe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 18-22.<\/strong> The X-Men cause a distraction so that their team can get into the Vault.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pretty self-explanatory. Note that the X-Men realise that it’s unusual for Serafina to be alone but – despite the circumstances in which they found her, as a prisoner of Orchis – they don’t think to wonder what happened to her companions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 23-24.<\/strong> The Vault computer detects the invaders immediately and begins a response.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

PAGE 25.<\/strong> Three months later, there’s no word from the team…<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The best guess is that they’ve been gone for centuries, within the time bubble. It’s all gone horribly wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 26.<\/strong> Trailer page. The Krakoan text reads NEXT: SOMETHING OWED. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition. COVER \/ PAGE 1. Storm and Armor in generic action. PAGE 2. A flash forward to Cyclops realising at the end of the issue that his plan has gone wrong. PAGES 3-4. Credits. This is “Into the Vault” by Jonathan Hickman […]<\/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-5065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-annotations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5065","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=5065"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5065\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5071,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5065\/revisions\/5071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}