{"id":5231,"date":"2020-03-28T20:53:37","date_gmt":"2020-03-28T20:53:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=5231"},"modified":"2020-03-28T20:53:37","modified_gmt":"2020-03-28T20:53:37","slug":"giant-size-x-men-nightcrawler-1-annotations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=5231","title":{"rendered":"Giant-Size X-Men: Nightcrawler #1 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> Nightcrawler sees Phoenix and Thunderbird in the X-Men’s overgrown mansion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 2.<\/strong> Establishing shots of the Mansion.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the X-Men’s traditional base, now abandoned and overgrown with Krakoan plant life, which we last saw in House of X <\/em>#1. Panel 1 is the front of the Mansion; panel 2 is Xavier’s study; panel 3 is the Danger Room; panel 4 is Cerebro; panel 5 is the main hall, with the Krakoan gate in the middle. Normally in the Hickman era the Krakoan foliage is portrayed as lush and positive, but here (when it comes directly up against a symbol of traditional X-Men-ness) it’s a sign of dilapidation. An unanswered question is precisely why<\/em> the X-Men have abandoned the Mansion entirely. You’d think they’d have more attachment to it than this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

PAGE 2.<\/strong> Nightcrawler and his team arrive in the Mansion.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From left to right, this is Magik, Eye-Boy, Cypher, Nightcrawler<\/strong> and Lockheed.<\/strong> Magik and Cypher are regulars in New Mutants<\/em>, Lockheed in Marauders<\/em>, and Nightcrawler surely needs no introduction. Eye-Boy, a regular in Wolverine and the X-Men<\/em> and latterly Generation X<\/em>, is making his first significant appearance of the Hickman era, though he did have a cameo in New Mutants<\/em> #7. This is an investigatory team rather than a high-power one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The X-Men are here because not only have there been repeated failed attempts to access the gateway, but Krakoa has detected a mutant in the vicinity each time. It’s not really clear why this is billed as a Nightcrawler solo story, to be honest; plenty of characters could have filled his role here. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 3.<\/strong> Credits. The story is “Haunted Mansion” by Jonathan Hickman and Alan Davis (who are co-credited as writers).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 4-8.<\/strong> Lockheed lashes out at the apparent ghost of Thunderbird.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The guy in shadow is the original Thunderbird<\/strong>, or at least seems to be (his face remains in shadow). Thunderbird is the X-Man who got killed in X-Men<\/em> vol 1 #95, almost immediately after joining the team. He’s been mentioned before in the Hickman run as a DNA source used by Mr Sinister. Nightcrawler knew him, but Lockheed didn’t, so presumably he’s just recognising “Thunderbird” as a threat or a ghost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 9-11.<\/strong> Nightcrawler and co come upon Phoenix (Rachel Summers).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is Phoenix in her costume (and hairstyle) from Excalibur<\/em>, when she and Nightcrawler were teammates. Oddly, Nightcrawler says that she looks like a Hound. Phoenix’s back story involves her coming from a dystopian future in which she was enslaved and forced to hunt other mutants – a Hound. Phoenix’s Excalibur-era costume does<\/em> resemble her Hound outfit with the spikes, which was clearly intentional, but the colour was different. Perhaps Nightcrawler only sees her at first in shadow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlike Thunderbird, the real Rachel is alive and well on Krakoa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 12-14.<\/strong> Nightcrawler and co follow Phoenix underground.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ve no idea what Rachel’s saying – if you know of an established cypher for this font, let me know. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 15-16.<\/strong> Cypher discovers an alien antimatter drive.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The creature which approaches him at the end is a Sidrian Hunter.<\/strong> The Sidri are an alien race of bounty hunters who first appeared in Uncanny X-Men<\/em> #154. The ones seen in that issue were much bigger than these, though – they stood about as high as the X-Men – but the Sidri always had the power to merge into a single larger body, and smaller ones were seen in later issues. Perhaps the Sidri’s natural size is much smaller and they simply gang up together to form the larger fighters that the X-Men fought before. We’re also told later that these are all hatchlings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sidri showed up again in Uncanny X-Men<\/em> #168, at which point some of them had attempted to colonise the lower levels of the Mansion (much as they do here). Their only other X-Men appearance was in X-Men<\/em> vol 4 #18-19, when they tried to capture Deathbird’s unborn child. That story did<\/em> feature some Sidri of the size we see here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In previous stories, the Sidri are a silent, faceless horde. They’re barely characters, more a swarm – hence their hive mind portrayal in this issue. Note that the Sidri also get a passing mention as a hive mind in this week’s X-Men,<\/em> and that hive minds seemed to be quite a big deal in Powers of X<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 17-21.<\/strong> Nightcrawler and co catch up with Rachel, who turns out to be a bunch of Sidri.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Sidri’s incoherent flashback, they’re remembering their first battle with the X-Men in Uncanny<\/em> #154 (hence Corsair being there). Apparently this is another<\/em> set of Sidri who were left behind, on top of the ones previously seen in Uncanny<\/em> #168.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 22.<\/strong> Cypher tries to make friends with the Sidri.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 23.<\/strong> Nightcrawler sends Magik to retrieve Cypher.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both fairly self-explanatory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 24-25.<\/strong> Magik discovers Cypher’s secret.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It turns out that Cypher’s techno-organic arm isn’t a techno-organic arm at all – it’s Warlock<\/strong>, being worn by Cypher. Quite why is a story for another time, but it might suggest that Cypher has his doubts about everything that’s going on on Krkaoa. Except Cypher already had the techno-organic arm when he first arrived on Krakoa, as seen in flashback in Powers of X<\/em> #4. All very curious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 26-30.<\/strong> Cypher reveals that the Sidri have captured Lady Mastermind.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apparently the ghosts are due to Lady Mastermind lashing out with her powers to send a message… though quite why she’d do it in this way is a little difficult to follow. Lady Mastermind<\/strong> (Regan Wyngarde) is an illusionist, and the daughter of Silver Age villain Mastermind. She was briefly a member of the X-Men during the Mike Carey run, but ultimately betrayed the team. Naturally, she’s welcome on Krakoa. But in this story, she’ s mainly here because of her convenient powers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cypher’s peace deal with the Sidri involves letting them nest in the abandoned Mansion, in return for keeping the gateway clear for use. It’s a rather unsatisfactory ending, and Nightcrawler’s attempt to give the final page a bit of resolution feels rather forced to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 31-33.<\/strong> Trailers. The Krakoan reads NEXT: MAGNETO.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition. COVER \/ PAGE 1. Nightcrawler sees Phoenix and Thunderbird in the X-Men’s overgrown mansion. PAGE 2. Establishing shots of the Mansion. This is the X-Men’s traditional base, now abandoned and overgrown with Krakoan plant life, which we last saw in House […]<\/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-5231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-annotations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5231","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=5231"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5233,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5231\/revisions\/5233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}