{"id":5160,"date":"2020-02-28T22:54:57","date_gmt":"2020-02-28T22:54:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=5160"},"modified":"2020-02-29T21:07:00","modified_gmt":"2020-02-29T21:07:00","slug":"x-force-8-annotations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=5160","title":{"rendered":"X-Force #8 annotations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.<\/em> This isn’t an issue in need of much annotation, but hey, it’s a vehicle for an open thread.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This post has been edited to add the data pages, now that they’ve been included in the digital edition.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

COVER \/ PAGE 1.<\/strong> Domino and Colossus, facing opposite directions, with blood and bodies everywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 2-5.<\/strong> Domino stops the anti-Domino from killing a politician.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apparently the minister was intending to support pro-mutant legislation. Well, they are offering very quick trade deals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The anti-Domino seems to be removing her own ear to use as a weapon. We saw something similar in the autopsy of the Xeno soldiers who attacked Krakoa in issue #1, and the next scene confirms the link.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

PAGES 6-7.<\/strong> Recap and credits. The story is “Game of Dominoes” by Benjamin Percy, Bazaldua and Guru-efX.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 8-9.<\/strong> Domino, Sage and Cecilia Reyes autopsy the anti-Domino.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

She’s one of a number of cloned soldiers incorporating strands of Domino DNA (apparently giving them Domino’s powers but not making them mutants – since if they were mutants, they’d surely be easier for the X-Men to track). Killing the duplicates somehow helps to restore Domino’s own powers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Only one in 10,000 plants have four leaflets…”<\/strong> Apparently there’s a study that concluded that the frequency of four-leaf clovers was actually one in 5,000, but hey, the 10,000 figure is often cited and the difference doesn’t matter to the plot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 10-11.<\/strong> Domino and Colossus talk.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You could<\/em> call this flirtation, but Colossus’s dialogue is more heavily depressed and suicidal, apparently figuring that he would be somehow free of his baggage upon resurrection. He specifically suggests that they could be resurrected without those memories. Even if the X-Men were willing to do that, though – and by all appearances they aren’t – is this really simpler than just asking a telepath to erase the unwanted memories? At any rate, Domino doesn’t want to lose her painful memories, which are too important to her sense of self.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 12.<\/strong> A mystery person tests the gate in St Petersburg.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

He’s either in league with the Russian authorities, or somehow able to stop them noticing him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 13.<\/strong> Sage traces Domino by searching for clovers.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This really is ludicrous pseudoscience, as even Domino feels obliged to point out. Does it fit the tone of this book to ask us to believe that Sage can scan for four-leafed clovers from space?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 14. <\/strong>Data page. It’s a Quiet Council proposal for a “social venue”, the hope being that the mutants will hook up and breed, as per the “make more mutants” law. This seems a bit odd – it’s not as if we’ve seen much on Krakoa besides <\/em>endless socialising and partying. Anyway, Black Tom goes ahead and makes the thing without waiting for further approval.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 15-21.<\/strong> Domino and Colossus board the bad guys’ train and discover blood, organ tanks, and more Domino soldiers.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Domino’s back story as a failed attempt to create a super-soldier dates back a while, but the clearest account of it is probably in flashbacks in the opening arc of the last Domino<\/em> solo series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Domino dies in action – Benjamin Percy seems particularly prone to killing off his characters now that he has the option to do so – and makes Colossus promise not to interfere with her memories when she’s revived. Evidently this is where she gets rid of those skin grafts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We’re probably meant to take it that all the Domino soldiers were killed too (though it’s not actually shown), but perhaps resurrection into a new body will also sort out her power loss. At any rate, if the cloning just splits her power among the soldiers (which is the implication, given that it comes at her expense), you have to wonder what the point is of making so many.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 22-24.<\/strong> The bigger baddie seizes control of XENO.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finnegan, the XENO leader’s henchman, doesn’t last long against this guy. He’s kept in shadow, but no doubt we’ll find out more about him next time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Page 23 is a data page with Beast’s notes on the outgoing XENO leader, the Man with the Peacock Tattoo. The main new information is Beast’s theory that the man’s mask is made of “labradorite”, which is “said to be a stone with a magic connection to transformation and protection.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Labradorite is indeed an iridescent stone, though Beast is massively overstating how rare it is<\/a> (assuming that Marvel Universe geology matches the real world). The sort of people who believe in healing crystals do indeed think that labradorite has special properties, for whatever that may be worth to you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 25-26.<\/strong> The Krakoan trailer text reads NEXT: WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition. This isn’t an issue in need of much annotation, but hey, it’s a vehicle for an open thread. This post has been edited to add the data pages, now that they’ve been included in the digital edition. COVER \/ PAGE 1. […]<\/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-5160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-annotations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5160","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=5160"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5160\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5167,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5160\/revisions\/5167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}