{"id":5819,"date":"2020-11-04T21:33:15","date_gmt":"2020-11-04T21:33:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=5819"},"modified":"2020-11-04T21:33:15","modified_gmt":"2020-11-04T21:33:15","slug":"x-men-14-annotations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=5819","title":{"rendered":"X-Men #14 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 #14<\/strong>
“X of Swords, Chapter 12”<\/strong>
by Jonathan Hickman, Mahmud Asrar, Leinil Francis Yu & Sunny Gho<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

COVER \/ PAGE 1:<\/strong> Apocalypse with his sword and a bunch of skulls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

PAGES 4-7:<\/strong> Apocalypse and Genesis meet in the Starlight Citadel garden.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Genesis.<\/strong> This is the first time we’ve seen her speak at any length, and she seems to be if anything more “survival of the fittest” than Apocalypse himself. Presumably she was a big influence on him. She does seem to still have some genuine affection for him, but we’ll see later that she’s now at least merged with Annihilation, and driven by Annihilation’s goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Twilight Blade.<\/strong> We’ve been told repeatedly that the Twilight Blade was involved in the Amenth invasion that led to the split between Arakko and Krakoa; Apocalypse obviously sees it as a symbolic defeat for Genesis now to be wielding it herself. Genesis seems simply confused by that, apparently regarding the Blade as nothing more than a straightforward weapon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The High Summoner has kept us informed while keeping you misinformed.”<\/strong> In particular in X-Men<\/em> #12 and X of Swords: Creation<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 8: <\/strong>Data page. It’s identical to the one that introduced Summoner’s version of this story in issue #12, except that the small print at the bottom has changed from “Krakoa weeps” to “Summoner lies.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 9-22.<\/strong> Genesis gives her account of the history of Arakko.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is an alternate telling of the story that Summoner told in issue #12, largely repeating the same art. I’ll go through the details, but I’ll warn you now – most of this is basically the same with slightly different dialogue, and it really didn’t merit being reprinted in full.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Page 9 panel 1.<\/strong> The opening caption is different, but otherwise this is identical to Summoner’s version. Genesis repeats the same “It was ancient before that word existed…” routine which we’ve heard several times before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Page 9 panel 2.<\/strong> Identical to Summoner’s version (unless you’re very excited about lettering placement).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Page 9 panel 3.<\/strong> Identical to Summoner’s version, except he said “from that dark world”, and she says “from Amenth”. No obvious significance to that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Page 10, panel 1.<\/strong> Identical to Summoner’s version, except Genesis adds the detail that the “enemy” is Annihilation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Page 10, panel 2 to page 11, panel 1.<\/strong> Summoner’s version of this scene claimed that from the perspective of his people, the reasons why Apocalypse had stayed behind were a matter of speculation and myth. Genesis’s dialogue is different, but it covers the same basic point in a higher-level way. She says that they “both know the real reason you stayed”; in a flashback in the previous issue, she was shown bidding him farewell and saying that he couldn’t come because he was “not strong enough”. Why that is remains unrevealed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Page 11, panel 2.<\/strong> Identical to Summoner’s version.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Page 11, panel 3.<\/strong> Different dialogue, but no obvious change of substance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Page 12, panels 1-2.<\/strong> This is a slightly clearer version of Summoner’s story, but not significantly different. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Page 12, panel 3.<\/strong> Again, different dialogue, but not significantly different from Summoner’s version. Both Genesis and Summoner specifically refer to “mutant alchemists and engineers”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Page 13, panels 1-2.<\/strong> Once again, the dialogue is different but the substance is basically the same. Summoner’s version put more emphasis on the towers eventually failing, Genesis stresses more how long they thrived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Page 13, panel 3.<\/strong> The first line is identical in both versions, which might suggest it’s part of the folk-tale version of these events. The second line is understandably different, since this panel depicts the birth of Summoner, who was talking about himself in the original; Genesis refers more generally to “children of War”, but appears to be referring literally to the Horseman War (Summoner’s mother). She also talks about the mutants of Arakko being strong and fit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Page 14, panel 1.<\/strong> Different wording, but no fundamental difference in the content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Page 14, panel 2. <\/strong>Both versions use very similar wording here. Summoner has an extra line to explain who Genesis is, because he hasn’t mentioned her before. He also describes Idyll, the Arakkan prophet, as his “crib mate”, and says that Idyll’s vision was specifically of “the fall of our great towers”. None of that is obviously contradicted by Genesis here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Page 14, panel 3.<\/strong> Genesis’s version is slightly fuller about her reaction to getting a warning; Summoner’s version mentioned that she didn’t follow through on her threat to punish Idyll, but Genesis skips over that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Page 15.<\/strong> Broadly the same; the dialogue is paced a little differently, but there’s no change in the content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Page 16:<\/strong> In Summoner’s version, Genesis is missing for six years following her encounter with the White Sword, and “escaped by untold and never spoken means”. In Genesis’s version, he simply “drove us out”, and there’s no suggestion that she was gone for anything like that length of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Page 17:<\/strong> In Summoner’s version, he simply said that Isca had been sent to invite Genesis to a parlay with Annihilation, and that nobody knew what the two had said. Genesis adds the detail that Isca is her sister, and suggests that Isca was desperately trying to save Genesis from herself by getting her to sign up for the parlay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Page 18:<\/strong> Genesis actually does add some significant new material here. According to her, she discovered that the mutants who fled at the outset didn’t die, but instead wound up being captured and crossbred with demons to form a warrior race. She describes this as “the birth of Summoners”, which is curious, because we’ve already seen that Summoner himself was born in Arakko. The data page at the end of the issue refers to “the Summoners of both Amenth and Arakko”, so presumably Genesis is only referring here to the birth of the Summoners of Amenth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

X of Swords: Stasis<\/em> indicates that not all the mutants were hybridised over the years, since it describes Redroot as a “pure-blood mutant reclaimed from Amenth”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Genesis also says that this hybridising was something to do with “the origin of the black experiments of the vile schools”. We hear more of the Vile (capitalised) on a data page later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Page 19:<\/strong> Summoner’s version implied that Annihilation had killed Genesis. Genesis explains that she killed the previous wearer of the Annihilation helm and inherited the right (and duty) to wear it next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Page 20<\/strong>: In Summoner’s version, he suggested that having killed Genesis, Annihilation launched an attack on Arakko over the course of a century. In Genesis’s account, the demons ran wild because she refused to take on the mantle of Annihilation; she allowed Arakko to risk defeat because the whole point of coming to Amenth in the first place was to slow down the hordes and protect Earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Page 21 panels 1-2:<\/strong> Different dialogue but no real changes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Page 21 panel 3 and page 22 panel 1:<\/strong> Summoner presents the first of these panels as being something to do with him, and makes only a few vague remarks about what’s going on in the second. According to Genesis, these are some of the greatest citizens of Arakko trying to re-open the portal back to Earth, presumably in an attempt to escape Amenth. She regards that as a retreat which makes all the Arakkan sacrifice pointless. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Page 22 panels 2-3:<\/strong> And so, in Genesis’s rather clearer account, she succumbs to putting on the Annihilation helm. It becomes the dominant part of her, and she leads the hordes into Arakko. Presumably, Arakko falls because the hordes now have a proper leader, and most of their big guns have already left in the previous escape attempt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’m really, really not convinced that that merited 14 pages of reprinted art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 23-24.<\/strong> Genesis\/Annihilation bids farewell.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 25.<\/strong> Data page. This is based on page 18 of House of X <\/em>#6, which showed the three laws of Krakoa. The first law is the same; the second has changed from “Murder No Man” to “Destroy Our Enemies”; and the third has changed from “Respect this Sacred Land” to “Defend this Broken Land”. The Krakoa\/Arakko scoreline in the small print at the bottom has been reversed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why Krakoa and Arakko would coincidentally come up with three such similar laws is unclear, unless some sort of ongoing link between Krakoa and Arakko has something to do with it (or perhaps both are drawing on some sort of echo of the original joined island of Okkara).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 26.<\/strong> Data page on “The Mutants of Arakko”. The first section is talking about what happened to the remaining mutants of Arakko when Annihilation conquered them. It mentions the “Vile school” from earlier in the issue, without really explaining them. It also mentions that the Summoners of Amenth and Arakko differ; the Arakkan Summoners are apparently not loyal to either Arakko or Annihilation, but only interested in pursuing their own power base “and twisted religion”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second paragraph is a prophecy from the latest Idyll (a name apparently passed down the generations) which seems to be something to do with reuniting the two islands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition. X-MEN vol 5 #14“X of Swords, Chapter 12”by Jonathan Hickman, Mahmud Asrar, Leinil Francis Yu & Sunny Gho COVER \/ PAGE 1: Apocalypse with his sword and a bunch of skulls. PAGES 2-3: Recap and credits. PAGES 4-7: Apocalypse and Genesis […]<\/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-5819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-annotations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5819","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=5819"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5819\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5822,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5819\/revisions\/5822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}