{"id":5683,"date":"2020-10-01T23:08:49","date_gmt":"2020-10-01T22:08:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=5683"},"modified":"2020-10-01T23:08:49","modified_gmt":"2020-10-01T22:08:49","slug":"x-factor-4-annotations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=5683","title":{"rendered":"X-Factor #4 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-FACTOR vol 4 #4<\/strong>
“X of Swords, part 2”<\/strong>
by Leah Williams, Carlos Gomez & Israel Silva<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

COVER \/ PAGE 1.<\/strong> The Five recoil in horror from a newly resurrected mutant… which is not really what happens in the issue, but it’s close enough, I guess. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“X of Swords” seems to be an old-school 90s crossover where the secondary titles get overrun by somebody else’s plot. This is an issue of X-Factor <\/em>by virtue of the writer and the prominent role for Polaris, but that’s about it. The book doesn’t even keep its logo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 2.<\/strong> Chadwick Boseman tribute page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 3.<\/strong> Siryn and co arrive back on Krakoa.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you’re not familiar with the characters, then from left-to-right in the bottom panel, this is Archangel, Apocalypse, Siryn, Rictor and Beast.They’re retreating from the battle we saw in X of Swords: Creation<\/em> #1. Rictor and Apocalypse have evidently been infected by the Horseman Pestilence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 4.<\/strong> Credits, with the modified layout used for “X of Swords” tie-ins. The small print on the left reads “X-Factor crossover” (!). The small print on the right reads “Mutants of the world unite”, which is normally X-Men<\/em>‘s line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 5.<\/strong> Recap page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 6-7.<\/strong> Apocalypse yells at Rictor as best he can, and more mutants return through the External Gate.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Why %$\u00a3@& bother…”<\/strong> Rictor is presumably figuring that there’s no real need to fight the infection because he can just die and be resurrected in a healthy body. Logically, he’s got a point. Apocalypse is very keen that he shouldn’t do that, giving a hazy mutant-pride rationale. But Apocalypse also says “I did not ask for this connection to you.” That suggests a more direct concern that if Rictor dies, something will happen to him. It’s not immediately clear what connection Apocalypse means, particularly if it’s involuntary – Apocalypse has spent most of Excalibur<\/em> actively working to get Rictor on his side, with great success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The plague.<\/strong> In X of Swords: Creation<\/em>, an infected messenger showed up at Saturnyne’s citadel and (so we were told) the attendants who brought him in both died from the plague. Here, nobody suffers any immediate ill effects from approaching Apocalypse or Rictor. Mind you, Saturnyne’s attendants were probably exposed for much longer, and the X-Men have healers around who may be able to nip it in the bud. But maybe it’s a plot point – who knows? Apocalypse and Rictor do get carried to the Healing Gardens telekinetically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The three rescuers are medic Cecilia Reyes<\/strong>, translator Cypher<\/strong>, and X-Factor<\/em> regular Prestige<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next group to come through are M, Havok<\/strong> and Polaris<\/strong>, who were also in the mission squad from Creation<\/em>. The guy in red accompanying them is Z-list villain Unus the Untouchable<\/strong>, who they rescued in that issue; the body belongs to Rockslide<\/strong>, killed by Summoner in the same issue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 9.<\/strong> Saturnyne closes the External Gate.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apparently she could have done this whenever she wanted, which begs the question of why she didn’t destroy it immediately. Presumably everything that’s happened so far is all part of a series of events that she wants to play out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two women with her are White Priestesses<\/strong>, basically Saturnyne cultists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Both Arakko and Krakoa have their oracles in play.”<\/strong> As we’ll see, Saturnyne has given one character from each side a message with the clues they need to decipher. In Krakoa’s case, it’s Polaris, who would not normally be seen as an oracle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 10.<\/strong> Krakoa isn’t happy about the closing of the gate.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In X of Swords: Creation<\/em>, Krakoa made it very, very clear that he wanted the gate to remain open, presumably in the hope of being reunited with his literal other half, Arakko.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 11.<\/strong> Data page on Roma’s kingdom. This seems to be the first in a series of data pages profiling the ten provinces of Otherworld, as neither Roma’s world nor Merlin’s (profiled later) has any direct impact on this issue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roma and Merlin, in their Otherworld incarnations, both date back to the 1970s origin story of Captain Britain. For a while, the official Marvel line was that Merlin was a separate character from the Arthurian wizard (who had appeared in Black Knight<\/em>), but they seem to have drifted away from that over the years. Roma has rather stronger connections with the X-books, having been responsible for resurrecting the X-Men and setting up their Australian era back in the late 1980s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Merlin hasn’t been seen in Otherworld in quite some time, but the data pages basically tell us that he and Roma split from one another after the destruction of the Captain Britain Corps, and set up rival fae kingdoms, with Roma’s being a thriving anarchy, and Merlin’s an authoritarian industrial grind. It’s not something with immediately obvious roots in Merlin’s past, and to be honest it sounds crashingly heavy handed. Then again, there is<\/em> a passing mention that it’s the fae’s nature that allows them to thrive under anarchy, and there’s an obvious contradiction in saying that Roma “rules” an anarchy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 12.<\/strong> Roma and Rachel try without success to get past Saturnyne’s psychic blocks.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

No idea why Saturnyne refers to Polaris as “the rabbit”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 13-15.<\/strong> Rictor and Apocalypse in the Healing Gardens.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The guy treating them is the Healer<\/strong>. He too is relaxed about Rictor dying, because he can just be resurrected – and Apocalypse is even more furious about it here, attempting to kill the Healer for no particularly clear reason beyond anger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Prestige intervenes telepathically, she appears in Apocalypse’s mind as all four of the original Horsemen of Apocalypse (who are leading the Arakko forces).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 16.<\/strong> The Merlin data page. Aside from the points already mentioned, the suggestion that Roma and Merlin were sharing power in six-month blocks might go some way to explaining the hazy continuity around who’s actually running Otherworld at any given time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Merlin is described as a “Hierophant”, i.e. a priest, and his world is a Holy Republic. So it’s not just an industrialised nightmare; it’s some sort of religious dictatorship. What’s unclear is who or what he worships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 17-28.<\/strong> The Five resurrect Rictor and … well, try to resurrect Rockslide.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the longest uninterrupted scene in the issue by far, which helps push the importance of a key point. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Five, if you’re just joining us, are the five mutants who combine their powers to resurrect dead mutants: Egg<\/strong> (who makes the eggs), Proteus<\/strong> (who warps reality), Elixir<\/strong> (the healer), Tempo<\/strong> (who accelerates time to make the process workable) and Hope<\/strong> (who… kind of coordinates the whole thing). Although they do speak from time to time, they’re generally a peaceful presence on the fringes of stories, and it’s unusual to see them getting directly involved in the drama as they do here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Five duly attempt to resurrect both Rictor and Rockslide within an hour. Although they say they’ve never done this before, they must have come close when they resurrected Apocalypse in Excalibur<\/em> #6, so Professor X isn’t being too unreasonable. Rictor’s resurrection goes smoothly enough, though he loses all his direct memories of what happened to him in Otherworld (since he was out of range of Cerebro and couldn’t be backed up). By the way, it seems clear enough at this stage that we’re meant to accept that resurrection somehow or other restores the soul (which is an established thing in the Marvel Universe), and that resurrectees are not mere copies. This is what distinguishes these resurrections from mere lab cloning by Mr Sinister, and presumably it’s something to do with the contributions of Proteus and\/or Egg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rockslide is another matter, because he died in Otherworld. Otherworld being magic, this apparently messes up the normal rules and replaces him with a potential alternate Rockslide, as explained at length later in the issue. We get a page of all of the various Cerebro back-ups shorting out simultaneously – helping to sell the importance, this includes a very rare cameo by Moira MacTaggert<\/strong>, who hasn’t been seen on panel since Powers of X <\/em>#6.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Five don’t initially realise that this is the problem, and destroy a whole batch of eggs in the belief that they must be corrupted. This is going to stop them insta-reviving characters for a little while, no doubt handily for the plot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 29.<\/strong> Data page. Hope and Polaris submit a report summarising the previous scene. At this point they still seem to be taking the “corrupted eggs” theory seriously, but they evidently drop it soon after.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 30-33.<\/strong> The Quiet Council discuss their response.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ruling body of Krakoa. Around the table, starting at the bottom and working clockwise, are Professor X, Magneto, an empty seat (belonging to the hospitalised Apocalypse), Mr Sinister, Exodus, Mystique, Kate Pryde, Emma Frost, Sebastian Shaw and Nightcrawler. The two other seats, obscured by dialogue, belong to Jean Grey and Storm. Cypher is sitting in the foreground with his back to us, acting as translator for Krakoa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new Rockslide is here, and we’re told that he’s some sort of other potential Santo, but we really don’t get to find out anything about what makes him different. He seems co-operative enough, but Emma understandably pushes back against the idea that he’s merely changed. She’s quite insistent that even if a new Rockslide has been created, the original has still died. Emma presumably gets this speech because she’s both hard-headed enough not to fudge the point, and protective of her students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Holding part of the original Rockslide’s body prompts Polaris to access Saturnyne’s cryptic message, with clues for the X-Men to use in finding the swords they need. We’ll back come to it, since it gets a whole data page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 34<\/strong>. <\/strong>Data page. An update of the memo, trying to explain the rather complicated idea of what’s happened to Rockslide. It’s all couched in terms of theory. The memo specifically notes that new Rockslide is in obvious physical discomfort, but for some reason is insisting that he’s fine – that’s a point made several times during the issue in various ways, so it’s presumably significant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 35-36.<\/strong> Professor X and Magneto update Apocalypse.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s a short scene, but this is surely the most critical that Professor X has been towards Apocalypse, or any of the villains on the Council, during the Krakoa era. Magneto seems pretty unimpressed too. The data page at the end of the issue seems to say that Apocalypse actually makes a quick recovery from this, since he goes in search of one of the swords.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, Polaris fulfils the other part of her role by creating the “casting circle” for the tournament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 37.<\/strong> Another data page. The Krakoans are being told not to go to Otherworld, which seems like good advice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 38-39.<\/strong> Polaris explain<\/em>s the plot by introducing the casting circle.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is obviously going to be a big deal in “X of Swords”, so Polaris has to explain it in some detail. Basically, once they have the ten swords they need, they’ll be able to open the portal to Otherworld again. One of them is Magik’s Soulsword, which they already have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mutants who gather for the unveiling in page 38 panel 2 are someone unrecognisable in a stock X-Men uniform, Wolverine, Cypher, Cyclops, Magneto, Magik, Emma Frost, Mystique, Nightcrawler and Beast. In the final panel, it seems to be Iceman, two unknowns, Archangel, the girl in the stock uniform, Havok, Wolverine, Cypher, another unknown, Cyclops, Anole, Emma, Magik, Magneto, someone blonde, Nightcrawler, Beast, Exodus and Mystique.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Polaris used the original Rockslide’s body to form the circle. Aside from the obvious angle that his sacrifice must not be in vain and so on, both the Avalon Gate and the External Gate to Otherworld were empowered with rocks containing energy taken from mutants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Polaris says that only she could understand Saturnyne’s message, because it was written “using the Earth’s geomagnetic spectrum”. I’m not sure how that stops Magneto from reading it, but you get the general idea – for whatever reason, Saturnyne has chosen to communicate in a rather esoteric way, via unlikely natural forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 40.<\/strong> Data page: Cypher goes through the eight clues that Polaris delivered earlier. (Two of them relate to two swords, which makes ten.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  • The first one does indeed relate to Magik and her Soulsword. It refers to Magik’s back story, which involves her being snatched to Limbo as a child and returning as a teenager, as seen in Uncanny X-Men<\/em> vol 1 #160 and the Magik<\/em> mini.<\/li>
  • In the second one, the beacon stationed in space is presumably something to do with SWORD’s orbiting base, which we saw in X of Swords: Creation<\/em> #1. Cable isn’t really “a young man, born old”, but he’s a teenager who’s replaced a much older version of himself through convoluted time travel shenanigans.<\/li>
  • The third one must refer to the alien Warlock, currently posing as Cypher’s cybernetic arm. Warlock’s eccentric speech patterns were full of “self-friend” and such like. Warlock was also named as one of the swords in Creation<\/em>. The second sentence (“Out of one comes many, into many comes one”) is more obscure, but might be something to do with the risk of infection through Warlock’s transmode virus, which can turn other creatures into techno-organic beings like him.<\/li>
  • The fourth, as Cypher says, is obviously Storm, who was both a “goddess” in early life, and the queen of Wakanda during her marriage to the Black Panther. The reference to vibranium (Wakanda’s unique rare metal) confirms that, as do the references to tempests and the like.<\/li>
  • The fifth clue is impenetrable, but we’re told that Wolverine interprets it as something to do with the Muramasa Blade (which again was listed in X of Swords<\/em>). The Muramasa Blade was a magical sword which was forged using a part of Wolverine’s soul. Large parts of Daniel Way’s Wolverine: Origins<\/em> series involved people chasing around after it. However, it was broken during that story, and the parts were melted down into bullets in All-New Wolverine<\/em> #28.<\/li>
  • The sixth clue clearly relates to the Braddock twins. “As above, so below”, aside from being a standard magical trope, is the small print used in Excalibur<\/em>. The “hero destined to brandish what the earth hath swallowed” presumably refers to the Sword of Might, which was mentioned in Creation<\/em>. It’s one of the magical artefacts used to empower Captain Britains, who are given a choice between the Amulet of Right over the Sword of Might. The Amulet is the correct choice (duh), but if you choose the Sword you get to be a cursed hero instead. In Excalibur<\/em> #6, Brian found that after a period of mind control by Morgan Le Fey, he had become connected to the Sword instead of the Amulet. At his request, the Sword was buried beneath Excalibur’s lighthouse in Excalibur<\/em> #7. But if Brian is the hero destined to brandish this sword, then that makes Betsy “an echo doomed to yearn for what the stars hath forsworn”. A repeated theme in Excalibur<\/em> is whether she’s really a legitimate claimant to the title of Captain Britain, or just someone well-meaning who’s picked up the amulet. As Cypher points out, Brian’s not a mutant; his powers are supposed to be magical in origin, even though both of his siblings are mutants.<\/li>
  • The seventh clue isn’t terribly meaningful on its own, but if Gorgon is dealing with it then it presumably relates to Grasscutter and Godkiller – two swords mentioned in Creation<\/em>, and last seen in a Secret Warriors<\/em> storyline where he was involved.<\/li>
  • The final clue presumably just refers to Apocalypse, who has been “forsaken” by his children (the Horsemen). It’s not quite so obvious why he’s “a husband betrayed”, but we’ve been led to expect more of his long-separated wife Genesis in the course of the story.<\/li>
  • Why yes, this 22-part crossover does have a lot of side quests, doesn’t it?<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    PAGE 41.<\/strong> Trailers. The Krakoan reads NEXT: MURAMASA, referring to the next part of the crossover (in Wolverine<\/em> #6).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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