{"id":5122,"date":"2020-02-19T21:24:55","date_gmt":"2020-02-19T21:24:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=5122"},"modified":"2020-02-19T21:24:55","modified_gmt":"2020-02-19T21:24:55","slug":"new-mutants-7-annotations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=5122","title":{"rendered":"New Mutants #7 annotations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

COVER \/ PAGE 1:<\/strong> The New Mutants on a parade float in the Shi’ar capital. Look, there’s Murd Blurdock and someone who might be Yondu on the left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 2-5.<\/strong> Roberto recaps the plot – or rather, explains how the New Mutants defeated the Shi’ar Death Commandos.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Issue #5 ended with a cliffhanger, in which the Shi’ar Death Commandos blew up the New Mutants’ ship, in an attempt to assassinate Deathbird. The meta joke is that Roberto is so self absorbed that he’s oblivious to the fact that issue #6 featured the earthbound cast, and cheerfully regales us with a “recap” of how the cliffhanger was resolved, a story we’ve never actually seen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The do-nothing Gen X-ers.”<\/strong> Chamber and Mondo. It’s always been a little unclear what these two are doing in the series, given that they aren’t part of the original New Mutants team and barely know any of the other characters. From what little we’ve seen of them, they seem to have been wondering the same thing. As for Sunspot, whose whole agenda here is to get the band back together, he seems somewhat baffled by their presence too – and he looks down on them as minor characters. (Probably fair in relation to Mondo, but Chamber’s a more prominent character than, say, Karma.) It doesn’t play out in the course of this issue, but presumably it’s heading somewhere. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Death Commando leader with the bird mask<\/strong> is called Black Cloak, not that it really matters. The “destructo birdspear” is his signature weapon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deathbird.<\/strong> Sunspot apparently imagines all these events as contributing to his romance with Deathbird which looks to be entirely in his mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 6-7.<\/strong> Recap and credits. The story is “Spoilers” by Jonathan Hickman and Rob Reis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 8-9.<\/strong> Xandra, Gladiator and Oracle await the arrival of Deathbird.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oracle’s dialogue is obviously ironic, given that she’s the traitor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Guardians die …<\/strong> but another is always raised to take the fallen’s place.”<\/strong> Hickman’s Avengers<\/em> run established that there are plenty of reserves trained to take over the identity of any member of the Imperial Guard who dies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 10-12.<\/strong> As the New Mutants arrive at Chandilar, they interrogate surviving Death Commando Sega<\/em>, and learn about Oracle’s power.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sega<\/strong> was described as a coward in issue #5, so it’s possibly no surprise that he’s so easy to break in interrogation. But who knows – maybe being turned into a liquid or solid form really would be a horrific form of torture for him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wolfsbane<\/strong> seems to have a really short attention span throughout this issue, which is out of character. It’s hard to tell whether it’s a plot point or just a joke that doesn’t land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 13-16.<\/strong> Deathbird attacks Oracle on sight, and a big fight breaks out.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We get to see some more members of the Imperial Guard here, to even the numbers with the New Mutants. Oracle and Mentor have appeared in previous issues. The big guy in black and yellow is Quasar<\/strong>. The red woman in the white leotard is Hussar<\/strong>. The woman in black and white with the yellow cape is Manta<\/strong>. The data page suggests that Earthquake, Starbolt<\/strong> and Flashfire<\/strong> are here too, but I don’t see them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 17.<\/strong> Data page. The rules for deciding which side wins the fight, if you really want to – though it doesn’t matter, since…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 18.<\/strong> Xandra stops the fight.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pretty routine plotting here. Deathbird explains that she has a legitimate issue with Oracle. Oracle confirms that Deathbird is telling the truth. And Xandra demonstrates her rulership credentials by taking control of the situation – albeit in one of those totally absurd decisions that require you to assume some very unusual cultural factors at play. But for whatever reason, Xandra’s “punishment” for Oracle is to appoint her as a mentor. (We clearly aren’t finished with the Shi’ar – is it possible that Xandra was in on Oracle’s plans, and she’s trying to bail Oracle out now that it’s all gone wrong?)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mondo has been carrying the flower (which is used to grow a portal back to Krakoa) since issue #2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 19-23.<\/strong> With the Krakoa\/Chandilar portal established, everyone comes for drinks at Sam and Izzy’s apartment.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aside from the regular cast, recognisable guests at the party include Wolverine, Storm, Magneto, Nature Girl, Eye Boy, the Beast, Kid Omega and Cyclops. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cannonball <\/strong>makes clear – entirely predictably – that he will not be leaving his job, wife and child to come back and join the New Mutants. But he does now have a direct link to Krakoa through the gates, so he and Bobby are now back in regular contact – and as we find out later, Bobby is sticking around. So while this scene plays as if we’ve actually been wasting our time for several issues, in fact several things have changed: the X-Men now have a direct link to the Shi’ar Empire; control of the Shi’ar Empire is shifting from Gladiator to Xandra, Deathbird and Oracle; and Sunspot has become infatuated with Deathbird and set up home in space. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gladiator <\/strong>tells Cyclops that the Shi’ar owe the mutants a favour, presumably for preventing Deathbird’s assassination. Cyclops immediately calls it in by placing a Krakoan gate on Chandilore (“that island that looks like it’s floating in space”). I don’t believe we’ve heard of Chandilore before, but presumably it’s going to be significant. Gladiator reacts as if the X-Men have simply asked for a portal to a particularly attractive garden, but one attractive enough not to make it a waste of his favour – so presumably it’s quite special.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Xandra.<\/strong> She tells Wolfsbane that she has the power to turn into a ball of light. In fact, in Mr & Mrs X <\/em>she was a more powerful psychic and illusionist, so she seems to be lying for some reason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 24-26.<\/strong> Sunspot and Cannonball hang out and Sunspot reveals that he’s bought the building.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For whatever reason, Sunspot really does seem to be determined to press his case with Deathbird.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition. COVER \/ PAGE 1: The New Mutants on a parade float in the Shi’ar capital. Look, there’s Murd Blurdock and someone who might be Yondu on the left. PAGES 2-5. Roberto recaps the plot – or rather, explains how the New […]<\/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-5122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-annotations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5122","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=5122"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5124,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5122\/revisions\/5124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}