{"id":5788,"date":"2020-10-22T21:32:22","date_gmt":"2020-10-22T20:32:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=5788"},"modified":"2020-10-22T21:32:22","modified_gmt":"2020-10-22T20:32:22","slug":"x-men-13-annotations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=5788","title":{"rendered":"X-Men #13 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-MEN vol 5 #13<\/strong>
“X of Swords, Chapter 10”<\/strong>
by Jonathan Hickman, Mahmud Asrar and Sunny Gho<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

COVER \/ PAGE 1:<\/strong> Apocalypse and the original Horsemen stand over defeated opponents, with Apocalypse carrying his two swords.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

PAGE 4.<\/strong> Data page on Grasscutter and Godkiller. These two swords have nothing in particular to do with this issue; it’s just part of the series of data pages on the contest swords which have been scattered through the stories to date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Grasscutter<\/strong> is not original to Marvel. It’s a legendary Japanese sword which represents the virtue of valour; its actual name is Kusunagi no Tsurugi<\/em> (literally, “grass-cutting sword”). The real thing is supposed to be one of the Imperial Regalia of Japan, though by tradition the Regalia are only seen by the Emperor himself and certain priests. In the original legends, Grasscutter was discovered inside the body of a dragon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The account of its origins given here – and the whole history of its sister sword Godkiller – comes from a storyline in Secret Warriors<\/em> #10-21, also a Jonathan Hickman story. The “mutant [who] raised them up” is Gorgon. That storyline ended with both swords seemingly being destroyed, which seems like it might have been worth mentioning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 5.<\/strong> Banshee in the Healing Gardens.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Banshee is recovering from the injuries he sustained in X of Swords: Creation<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note that in the establishing shot of Krakoa, the volcano (which contains the closed portal to Arakko) is smoking very conspicuously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The narrator describes Krakoa as “home” and “paradise”, which is pretty standard, but also as “an open grave” – apparently due to the impermanent nature of death on Krakoa. It’s another reminder that however much the X-Men may insist that resurrection is a wonderful triumph over death, there’s something really quite wrong about the whole thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 6-9.<\/strong> Hope helps the Healer to heal Apocalypse.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Self-explanatory, really. This leads into Apocalypse retelling the story of Okkara again…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 10-11.<\/strong> Apocalypse begins his story.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We’ve seen versions of this story before, in Powers of X<\/em> #4 (as told by Krakoa) and in the previous issue (as told by the unreliable Summoner).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It was ancient before that word existed, but not yet old in the way they were old.”<\/strong> This is always the opening line. By the way, for those wondering about where this fits into Apocalypse’s timeline, the X of Swords Handbook<\/em> says unambiguously that Apocalypse was still born in ancient Egypt, and that the events surrounding Okkara happen after that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next two lines of dialogue are also straight repeats from the previous tellings<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The living ikons of Okkara – the twin elementals of life – were the first to fall.”<\/strong> At this point, Apocalypse deviates from the previous accounts. This is the first we’ve heard of “the living ikons of Okkara”, but the art shows what appears to be two green people, one male and one female. The suggestion may be that one of these goes on to become the persona of Krakoa, and the other one becomes the persona of Arakko.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The One Hundred and the White Sword.<\/strong> The One Hundred are presented here as ancient Egyptian warriors. Apocalypse tells us on the next page that they went through the portal – without him – to take the war to the enemy. He describes the White Sword as their champion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apocalypse says he doesn’t know what the Hundred did on the other side of the rift. This is disingenuous – Summoner told him last issue. He said that when the ancestors of the Arakko mutants arrived in Amenth, they found the place a desolate wasteland, with their enemies already largely slaughtered by “the White Sword and his One Hundred Champions”. Summoner said that later in life, the White Sword – also called Purity – lived alone, resurrected his One Hundred every day, and rode out every day for another day’s fight with the Amenthi daemons, in which the rest of the army would invariably die. Purity himself is apparently an External, and thus immortal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fairness to Apocalypse, Summoner is not a reliable source, so he doesn’t know <\/em>that this account is true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Genesis<\/strong> is Apocalypse’s wife, and we’ve seen her before in X-Men <\/em>#12. In the next scene, she stresses herself as a “mother”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 12-16.<\/strong> Annihilation sues for peace and makes her offer.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apocalypse is sitting in the forerunner of the current Quiet Council room. Note that instead of Okkara having a single tree face behind them, it has two – one for Arakko and one for Krakoa. He says that the Amenthi “split the world”, so it’s possible this is a recent thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apocalypse is joined by the four Horsemen, Genesis, and a Summoner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Annihilation<\/strong> has been seen before in the previous issue, in Summoner’s account. As there, she’s the goddess ruler of the Amenthi forces. It appears from this version of events that Annihilation takes the form of a mask which is worn by one of its followers, and rapidly consumes and destroys their body. The data page later in the issue clarifies that this effect depends on the strength and power of the wearer, and clearly this particular follower isn’t up to much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hoork<\/strong> and Dai-Damun<\/strong> are new, and are basically there to talk themselves up before being summarily despatched by Genesis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 17.<\/strong> Apocalypse continues his story.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Until her sister Isca the Unbeaten turned.”<\/strong> Summoner mentioned Isca in the previous issue, but didn’t say that she and Genesis were sisters – he may not have known. According to Summoner, Isca’s power was that she cannot be beaten – which compelled her to switch sides and join the Amenthi. The idea is that Isca is unbeatable in a very narrow and literal sense – her powers don’t allow her to achieve any particular goal or guarantee success for her side, but merely ensure that she doesn’t end up on the losing side when the chips are down. Also, she apparently can’t turn off her power or choose to ignore its steer. So if Isca changes side, it indicates that they’re in trouble. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Except of course if Isca changed sides this <\/em>early then the war went on for centuries – so Summoner’s account doesn’t entirely make sense. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 18-19.<\/strong> Apocalypse bids farewell to Genesis.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The basic idea is that Genesis and the Horsemen lead the forces of Arakko through the portal to hold off the Amenthi while En Sabah Nur – apparently deemed to weak to join them, for reasons not entirely clear – remains behind to try and steer the development of mankind to ready it for the day when the Amenthi overcome Arakko and attack Earth again. In other words, this is a retcon attempting to justify Apocalypse’s obsession with making the world fitter and stronger – he’s been trying to get everyone ready to fight the Amenthi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 20.<\/strong> Data page on Annihilation, which speaks for itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 21.<\/strong> Apocalypse is ready to go and get his sword.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 22.<\/strong> Data page on Apocalypse’s Scarab blade. We’re told it was made by Isca from “the melted and recast blades of the vanquished Uhari royal vanguard”. The Uhari are an undersea race from Hickman’s Fantastic Four<\/em> run.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 23-26.<\/strong> Apocalypse retrieves the sword.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Temple of the Horsemen.<\/strong> We’ve seen this place before in the X-Men page in Marvel Comics <\/em>#1000 – though in that page Apocalypse was thinking about the Horsemen rising from their tombs, which doesn’t really bear much resemblance to the storyline we’re seeing now. Then again, the timeline in House of X <\/em>#2 said that in one of Moira’s previous lives, she and Apocalypse “rescue the first Horsemen and return to Earth” when she’s 24, which fits rather better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apocalypse looks down into a reflection here, and sees himself. In the Marvel Comics<\/em> #1000 page he saw himself with the Horsemen<\/em>, and so this is presumably a callback.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 27.<\/strong> Trailers. The Krakoan reads NEXT: CHAMPIONS.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition. X-MEN vol 5 #13“X of Swords, Chapter 10”by Jonathan Hickman, Mahmud Asrar and Sunny Gho COVER \/ PAGE 1: Apocalypse and the original Horsemen stand over defeated opponents, with Apocalypse carrying his two swords. PAGES 2-3. Recap and credits. PAGE 4. […]<\/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-5788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-annotations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5788","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=5788"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5788\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5790,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5788\/revisions\/5790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}