{"id":5589,"date":"2020-09-11T20:19:15","date_gmt":"2020-09-11T19:19:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=5589"},"modified":"2020-09-11T20:19:15","modified_gmt":"2020-09-11T19:19:15","slug":"x-force-12-annotations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=5589","title":{"rendered":"X-Force #12 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

X-FORCE vol 6 #12<\/strong>
“The Cerebro Sword”<\/strong>
by Benjamin Percy & Bazaldua<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

COVER \/ PAGE 1:<\/strong> X-Force face off against Russian forces led by the “Russian doll” supersoldiers from previous issues. This is symbolic – nothing like it happens in the issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 2-3.<\/strong> Mikhail Rasputin talks to the dying Kid Omega.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we’ll see later, Mikhail is going to hand Omega’s body over to XENO to exploit in the same way as Domino’s. He seems aware that Kid Omega can be resurrected, but presumably thinks there’s something useful to be done with the body – even though Domino’s resurrection seemed to cut off XENO’s clones from using her powers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

“Why would you choose your country over your people?”<\/strong> In true Krakoan style, it doesn’t seem to occur to Kid Omega that Mikhail might regard his people as, well, Russia. But for whatever reason, Mikhail goes rather further than that, insisting that he is some sort of embodiment of Russia – what he means by that is less than clear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 4-5.<\/strong> Recap and credits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 6-7.<\/strong> Beast sets Sage to work on tracking down the attackers.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sage was attacked by the “Russian doll” soldiers in the previous issue, during the raid where they stole the Cerebro Sword.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Healer isn’t a bio-tech kind of guy, so presumably this bio-pack is something that Forge had already knocked up for use by Krakoa’s medics. Beast is obviously not being very sympathetic in pressing the injured Sage into service, but in fairness to him, he has reason to believe that time is short if they’re going to track the attackers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quite what Sage is seeing on the video screen is unclear – it seems to be a brick wall tagged with Mikhail’s name, but why?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 8-9.<\/strong> Mikhail brings Kid Omega’s body to XENO.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This clarifies a scene from issue #8. The man with the Peacock Tattoo is indeed in charge of XENO. The guy who interrupted the meeting in that scene was evidently Mikhail Rasputin, who is not the power behind the throne, but an uneasy ally, throwing his weight around thanks to a combination of raw power and financial muscle. Obviously, XENO’s anti-mutant agenda sits very awkwardly with Mikhail, and their relationship is barely functional at best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The big guy who gets a new arm is Finnegan, the tattooed man’s bodyguard from earlier issues. As in previous issues (and echoing themes from Power of X<\/em>), XENO are all about human ingenuity providing technological solutions which will outclass the evolutionary edge of mutants. Obviously, where Mikhail is concerned, it’s not going well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 10-11.<\/strong> Beast imprisons Omega Red.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We’ve seen examples of weird Krakoan wildlife in this series before. Omega Red was granted amnesty on arriving on the island in Wolverine<\/em> #1. So far as we know, he isn’t working for Mikhail (though he is <\/em>working for Dracula). As we’ll see later, the Beast has decided on a policy of internment for mutants from Russia until he figures out what’s going on – though the only ones we see him arrest are the high-profile characters, not the various refugees who were rescued at the start of the series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beast’s policy is not remotely heroic behaviour. In itself, that might not be an issue on Krakoa – but it also runs entirely counter to the “all mutants welcome”, utopian vibe that Krakoa is going for. Does Beast really think the Quiet Council are going to go for this? (Is his hope that it’ll be so wonderfully successful that he’ll prove his point before they get a chance to shut it down?) The Beast is essentially a villain in this story, and it seems increasingly as if the remit of X-Force has simply encouraged him to approach matters as if the rules don’t apply to him. In a sense this is what characters like Wolverine have often done – but the Beast does it in ways that readers are less likely to root for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 12-14.<\/strong> Mikhail kills Finnegan.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mikhail expressly disavows Krakoa as a representative of mutantkind – he regards it as just a state like any other, and not a particularly good one. From his point of view, he seems to be allying with anti-mutant forces in order to find people who’ll work with him against Krakoa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 15-18.<\/strong> X-Force come to fetch Colossus for questioning.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So far as Wolverine and Domino know, the Beast just wants to ask Colossus about his brother – which is reasonable enough in itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kayla<\/strong>, with her water-control powers, is a new character from the previous issue, who seems to be forming some sort of relationship with Colossus in the Savage Land. Domino was obviously not happy about her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It wasn’t long ago we were fighting broken mirrors of myself.”<\/strong> Domino’s referring to issues #7 and #8.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 19.<\/strong> Beast parades Colossus in front of the people of Krakoa.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those recognisable in the crowd:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  • Three of the Stepford Cuckoos<\/strong>, up in the back left.<\/li>
  • There’s a guy with a baseball cap who’s probably meant to be Adam X<\/strong>, but that’s probably an error given this week’s X-Factor<\/em>, where he’s in the Mojoverse.<\/li>
  • Below him is Pyro<\/strong> (with a smudged version of his skull tattoo).<\/li>
  • From left to right among the main group: Trinary<\/strong>, making her usual massive contribution to the proceedings.<\/li>
  • Random<\/strong>, with the bandana. We saw him arrive on Krakoa in House of X <\/em>#5, and this is his first appearance since then.<\/li>
  • Gorgeous George<\/strong>, who seems to be showing up remarkably often in these crowd scenes for such an obscure villain.<\/li>
  • Psylocke<\/strong><\/li>
  • Lady Mastermind<\/strong>, with the impractical top.<\/li>
  • I’m not entirely sure who the girl with the pinkish hair is, but from the general pattern of her costume and the bandage effect on her boots, I think<\/em> it’s a miscoloured Hope Summers<\/strong>.<\/li>
  • Above her, in the black, is Joanna Cargill<\/strong> (Frenzy).<\/li>
  • Next to Hope is Fish<\/strong>, one of the mutants that the Marauders rescued from Brazil.<\/li>
  • Above him is Gentle<\/strong>.<\/li>
  • Over Gentle’s shoulder, in the white, Christian Frost<\/strong> from Marauders<\/em>.<\/li>
  • The Toad<\/strong>, crouching on a rock.<\/li>
  • The guy with the X shaved into the side of his head is Bedlam<\/strong>, who’s shown up in Krakoa crowd scenes before.<\/li>
  • Next to him, with the headband, is Karma<\/strong> from New Mutants<\/em>.<\/li>
  • Behind her is Rockslide<\/strong>.<\/li>
  • An unusually tall Cable<\/strong>.<\/li>
  • Jubilee.<\/strong><\/li>
  • The guy behind her with the red costume is Tag<\/strong>, an obscure member of the 2000s-era Hellions. <\/li>
  • Kylun<\/strong> from Excalibur<\/em>.<\/li>
  • In the cowboy hat, Outlaw<\/strong>, a supporting character from Gail Simone’s Deadpool<\/em> and Domino<\/em> stories.<\/li>
  • The Banshee<\/strong>, obviously.<\/li>
  • Cannonball<\/strong>, in the back row. There are several generics to his right – or at least people I don’t recognise.<\/li>
  • Storm<\/strong>, in the foreground.<\/li>
  • Nightcrawler<\/strong>, crouching in the bottom right.<\/li>
  • The Angel<\/strong>, behind him.<\/li>
  • And Slipstream<\/strong> from X-Treme X-Men<\/em>, over his shoulder. Two cameo appearances in as many issues! Keep this up, and maybe he’ll get a line of dialogue one day. <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    PAGE 20.<\/strong> Data page. The Beast explains his plan to intimidate the Krakoan public into staying in line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    PAGE 21.<\/strong> Wolverine breaks up the gathering.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Unsurprisingly, Wolverine wants nothing to do with this sort of heavy-handed manipulation. But as we’ll see later, he was perfectly fine with privately<\/em> interrogating Russian mutants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    PAGES 22-23.<\/strong> Mikhail hands Kid Omega’s body over to XENO.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The Cerebro Sword is made from the remnants of the Cerebro that was destroyed in issue #1, hence still containing data within it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    PAGE 24.<\/strong> Wolverine asks Marvel Girl to read Colossus and Omega Red.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    PAGE 25.<\/strong> Data page from the scribe. This one is an account of the scene where X-Force collect Colossus for questioning – but in this version it’s only Beast, and there are two paragraphs in strikethrough at the end where Colossus kills Beast. The significance of these pages remains obscure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    PAGES 26-27.<\/strong> Trailers. Again, the Krakoan text reads NEXT: X OF SWORDS.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition. X-FORCE vol 6 #12“The Cerebro Sword”by Benjamin Percy & Bazaldua COVER \/ PAGE 1: X-Force face off against Russian forces led by the “Russian doll” supersoldiers from previous issues. This is symbolic – nothing like it happens in the issue. PAGES […]<\/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-5589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-annotations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5589","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=5589"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5589\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5609,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5589\/revisions\/5609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}