{"id":5151,"date":"2020-02-27T23:38:13","date_gmt":"2020-02-27T23:38:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=5151"},"modified":"2020-02-28T08:04:57","modified_gmt":"2020-02-28T08:04:57","slug":"giant-size-x-men-jean-grey-emma-frost-annotations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=5151","title":{"rendered":"Giant-Size X-Men: Jean Grey & Emma Frost 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> Jean Grey and Emma Frost, as part of some sort of psychic imagery. Cyclops and Wolverine’s faces are visible in the background, each with an X in place of their mouths – presumably to do with the silence gimmick that takes up most of the issue. Logan’s hands and claws are clearer in the original art, but they’re partly obscure by the logo. There’s also a big evil face in the top left that’s harder to place, but resembles what we see in the snake within Storm’s mind later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jean is wearing her early 90s costume but in her late-60s colour scheme. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 2-3.<\/strong> Recap and credits. The recap page refers to Storm fighting Orchis (in X-Men<\/em> #1) and the Children of the Vault (in X-Men<\/em> #5). The story is “Into the Storm” by Jonathan Hickman, Russell Dauterman (who gets a co-writer credit) and Matthew Wilson. The small print on the credits page is the usual from X-Men<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 4-6.<\/strong> Two young mutants find Storm lying unconscious.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not quite sure what the symbolic opening panel is adding, with everyone staring directly at the camera.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

PAGES 7-10.<\/strong> Emma and Jean prepare themselves to enter Storm’s mind.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This issue is a homage to New X-Men<\/em> #121, in which Jean and Emma attempted a psychic rescue on Professor X. That issue was part of the “Nuff Said” month of silent issues. You don’t need to know the original story in order to follow this one, but you’ll get more out of it if you do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Krakoan sign reads SILENCE – PSYCHIC RESCUE IN PROGRESS. The same sign appeared, in English, at the start of the original story. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Again, we’re reminded of the three-way relationship between Jean, Scott and Logan. In the original story, Jean gives Scott a peck on the cheek, and then makes the “sh” sign. This time, she kisses Logan (though she’s holding hands with Scott as she arrives), and it’s Emma who puts her finger to her lips.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 11-25.<\/strong> Jean and Emma make their way through Storm’s mind to find her.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The page of symbolic swirling mirrors a similar page in the original story. That story, however, proceeded to a sequence of Jean and Emma trying to rescue Charles from a symbolic tower; this story goes in Storm’s direction instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On page 12, the symbol over the tree is Storm’s head-dress from her original costume. On page 14, Jean and Emma find two lions, one of them with a mane resembling Storm’s hair. It’s not entirely clear if the other one represents a different side of Storm’s personality or someone else, but it seems to be the former. Of possible significance, the original New X-Men <\/em>story includes a three-page flashback to Charles Xavier and Cassandra Nova as twins in the womb, which seems to be paralleled in giving Storm a double here. (Edit:<\/strong> Or, of course, maybe they\u2019re meant to be panthers, in which case the other one presumably represents T\u2019Challa – they do seem to be holding their heads in a yin-yang symbol of sorts in their first panel.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lions ask whether Jean and Emma are friends, apparently not recognising them. The women respond by showing images of their past with Storm. Jean shows an image of herself embracing Storm in Uncanny X-Men<\/em> vol 1 #242, where they were reunited for the first time after Jean’s return from the dead. That issue is part of the Inferno crossover, which is why Storm is wearing an odd, tattered version of her costume and has ridiculously big hair. Emma has no such heartwarming memories to share, so she offers that time she swapped bodies with Storm in Uncanny X-Men<\/em> #152. Predictably, the lions are unimpressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Page 23 alludes to Storm’s claustrophobia, which ties back to being trapped in the building where her parents were killed. It’s been one of her signature hang-ups since the 1970s. Presumably the idea is that Storm’s mental defences are based on the concepts that she herself finds most horrifying. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the original story, Emma is sidelined by the psychic defences at an early stage and Jean effectively completes the “rescue” on her own. This story is entirely different – Emma remains by Jean’s side throughout, and despite the very different attitudes of the two women, they work consistently as a team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 26-31.<\/strong> Jean and Emma reach an egg which contains Storm’s personality, but is surrounded by technology.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Storm has been infected with a nanovirus by the Children of the Vault, presumably when fighting them in issue #5. This rather disturbing sequence shows Storm’s persona freed from the egg, but badly corrupted by the virus, which is turning her into a machine. Again, post-humanity and machine upgrades are a big theme of the Hickman run, and generally a Very Bad Thing Indeed – on top of the obvious horror of the scene itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 32-33.<\/strong> Emma and Jean report their findings.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a direct imitation of the ending of New X-Men<\/em> #121 (which also ended on a one sentence plot synopsis, and “We need to talk”).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 34-35.<\/strong> The Krakoan trailer text reads NEXT: NIGHTCRAWLER. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition. COVER \/ PAGE 1. Jean Grey and Emma Frost, as part of some sort of psychic imagery. Cyclops and Wolverine’s faces are visible in the background, each with an X in place of their mouths – presumably to do with the […]<\/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-5151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-annotations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5151","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=5151"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5151\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5155,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5151\/revisions\/5155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}