{"id":5457,"date":"2020-08-06T21:34:38","date_gmt":"2020-08-06T20:34:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=5457"},"modified":"2020-08-06T21:34:38","modified_gmt":"2020-08-06T20:34:38","slug":"empyre-x-men-2-annotations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=5457","title":{"rendered":"Empyre: X-Men\u00a0#2 annotations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

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EMPYRE: X-MEN #2<\/strong>
“Growing Strong”<\/strong>
by Gerry Duggan, Ben Percy, Leah Williams & Lucas Werneck<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So far as the writing is concerned, Empyre: X-Men<\/em> is basically a jam session for the writers of the regular X-books. So this isn’t a particularly serious book – as if that wasn’t obvious from the mutants vs zombies vs plants vs old women set-up – and we can take this one pretty quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 1 \/ COVER.<\/strong> Angel and Magik face off against a Cotati.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 2-3.<\/strong> Recap and credits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

PAGES 4-13.<\/strong> Lots of fighting, the boys get ensorcelled, and Hordeculture join forces with the X-Men.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sven.<\/strong> Hordeculture’s yoga and water aerobics instructor from the local YMCA was mentioned in X-Men<\/em> #3 too. Hordeculture hold him in high regard. Maybe we’ll meet him one day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Burke Williams<\/strong> is a Californian spa chain<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hordeculture’s phermone spray<\/strong> is… off-gimmick? They’re botanists, not all-purpose mad scientists. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Magik is gonna become the number one cause of death for women with pre-existing conditions over the age of 65.”<\/strong> Hordeculture are normal humans, so she’s really not meant to kill them. Mind you, her line to M on the next page kind of suggests that she’s serious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Hands, touching hands, reaching out, touching me, touching you…”<\/strong> The bridge into the chorus from Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline”<\/a>. A top ten hit in America in 1969, and in the UK in 1971.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“None of you better want to make out.”<\/strong> Callback to New Mutants <\/em>#5, where Magik offered that as an option to the Shi’ar Death Commandos. Evidently she draws the line at zombies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We should call in Sunfire to blast this place from orbit.”<\/strong> Not sure Sunfire would be the first name that sprang to mind for somebody to scour a city, but he’s probably powerful enough to be it. We’re seen very little of him in the Krakoan era, but he did have a blink-and-you’ll-miss-him cameo in X-Force<\/em> #1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The X-Men killed a billion broccolis once.”<\/strong> Presumably the D’bari, also sometimes known as the Asparagus People – though they were killed in X-Men<\/em> vol 1 #135 by Dark Phoenix, rather than the X-Men. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“May I ask why I can’t read your mind?”<\/strong> Hordeculture’s minds were also shielded from Emma Frost in X-Men<\/em> #3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Isn’t your power to think clearly?” <\/strong>Not really, no. M’s wide range of powers does include high intelligence, but it’s not this specific.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Limbo<\/strong>. It’s been a while since Magik’s called in the troops from Limbo. Apparently we’re going through a phase where Limbo is nicely under control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 14-17.<\/strong> Explodey Boy stops the Cotati from blowing up their ship.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 18-19.<\/strong> Everyone tries to fight the growing seedpod.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

M, Madrox and Hordeculture members Lily and Edith get stuck on the other side of the barrier here, which effectively happens off panel, and really isn’t at all well conveyed for an important plot point. Magik helpfully points it out again on page 25.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 20-22.<\/strong> Black Tom Cassidy is called in.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Black Tom Cassidy<\/strong> is a regular in X-Force<\/em>, where his bond with the vegetation of Krakoa (and its effect on his mental health) is thoroughly established. His trick here of linking to the Krakoan fragments still on Angel’s costume is new, but not particularly out of line with what he’s done before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 23-29.<\/strong> More battling.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Black walnut trees.<\/strong> The factoid about black walnut trees releasing toxic chemicals to stop competitors from getting a foothold is true. The technical term is allelopathy, and it’s not unique to black walnut trees, though they are particularly associated with it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I forgot about the draw! Krakoa feeds on psychic energy!”<\/strong> I’m not sure I understand what Magik means by “draw”. But I guess the idea is that the Cotati seedpod is able to harm M because she’s a psychic… and Krakoa’s a plant too… and it feeds on mutant energy, which is kind of the same… no, it doesn’t really make sense, does it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Magik<\/strong> appears in her Soulsword armour for the first time in years<\/em> here. The significance isn’t immediately obvious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 30-32.<\/strong> Magik calls in the psychics of Krakoa to help.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I suppose the idea is that she’s going to try and overload the Cotati thing with the psychic energy that she infers it took from M? None of this is really all that clear. Anyway, there’s a bunch of randoms in this scene, most of them wearing X-Men uniforms (which is odd, since most inhabitants of Krakoa have worn their own costumes or just regular clothes). The recognisable characters are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n