{"id":5900,"date":"2020-11-19T21:34:10","date_gmt":"2020-11-19T21:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=5900"},"modified":"2020-11-19T21:34:10","modified_gmt":"2020-11-19T21:34:10","slug":"hellions-6-annotations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=5900","title":{"rendered":"Hellions #6 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

HELLIONS #6<\/strong>
“X of Swords, Chapter 18”<\/strong>
by Zeb Wells, Carmen Carnero & David Curiel<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

COVER \/ PAGE 1.<\/strong> Tarn the Uncaring stands over the defeated Hellions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 2.<\/strong> Epigraph from Tarn, which pretty much speaks for itself. Tarn is (presumably) a new character – for what it’s worth, the Marvel Universe does<\/em> have a previous Tarn, who was a minor Spaceknight, but that’s probably just coincidence. Oh, and a tarn is a small mountain lake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note that Hellions normally opens with an epigraph from Nightcrawler. I suppose Tarn gets the slot here because they’re such a long way from home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

PAGES 3-4.<\/strong> Recap and credits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 5-10.<\/strong> The Hellions arrive in Arakko and meet the Locus Vile.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Hellions have clearly taken a battering in getting here (not least because they’ve had to pass through Arakkii-occupied Dryador), and as they immediately learn, it was all a waste of time. Their mission, set up in the last issue, was to sabotage the contest by stealing Arakko’s swords before it began. But the contest started three chapters ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we establish, Sinister seems to know this very well; his only objective here is to get more DNA samples from the mutants of Arakko, in keeping with his usual obsessions. This is<\/em> consistent with the previous issue: when the two Sinisters were discussing their plans, they never mentioned the Swords. They just said that “Arakko contains The Prize.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mister Sinister <\/strong>is now wearing a makeshift cape to replace the one that he traded to Jamie Braddock last issue. He says later on that he’s “insecure” about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Dryador Gate.<\/strong> Important point, this: this is the gate that connects Arakko\/Amenth proper with Dryador, the Otherworld kingdom that the Arakkii conquered in X of Swords: Creation<\/em>. So the Hellions are now leaving Otherworld, and re-entering a regular alternate dimension – and the ones who die in this fight can presumably be resurrected on Krakoa as normal. Or at least, if there’s an obstacle, it’s not due to dying in Otherworld.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Locus Vile.<\/strong> Tarn’s team all wear blank masks – clearly modelled on his, though his has expression. The Vile were previously mentioned in X-Men<\/em> #14, where Genesis\/Annihilation described the Amenthi cross-breeding captured mutants with Amenthi demons to produce a hybrid warrior race, “the origin of the black experiments of the vile schools”. A data page in the same issue talks about the Vile as some sort of secret police which enforce Amenthi rule on the population of Arakko (who, remember, were fighting them until relatively recently). Where the Locus bit fits in is less clear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE<\/strong> 11.<\/strong> Data page on the Locus Vile. Broadly speaking, Tarn seems to be Mr Sinister’s counterpart, as a mad-scientist geneticist with no apparently coherent objective beyond playing with DNA for the sake of it. Unlike Sinister, however, this guy seems stable and has a fanatically loyal team of worshippers behind him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The members of the Locus Vile are all new characters. The common theme seems to be that Tarn’s modifications to them have made them all more powerful in a narrow sense, but also disfigured or cursed them in various ways, all of which they presumably regard as worthwhile. He himself claims to have “exalted then defiled” their mutations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 12-19.<\/strong> The Hellions fight the Locus Vile. It goes badly.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tarn <\/strong>claims that he “came to Arakko to plunder while Genesis feuds.” This is an odd line, since X-Men<\/em> #14 presented the Vile as part of the Amenthi\/Arakkii order. But perhaps, like Sinister, he has side missions that he wants to pursue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Greycrow<\/strong>. Once again, as soon as he’s freed from Empath’s control, Greycrow seems to be the most professional and reliable guy here (admittedly not a very<\/em> high bar). He goes to quite some lengths in this issue to help Havok.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“You take care of this package and I’ll continue taking care of yours. That’s the deal, isn’t it?”<\/strong> Presumably referring to Sinister and Psylocke’s exchange in Fallen Angels<\/em> #6 where he agrees to take custody of Apoth, in exchange for her running some missions for him – though in that issue, she did specify “if I believe your need is just”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Psylocke<\/strong> intentionally – if reluctantly – sends the fanatically loyal Wildchild to die in order to buy time for her, Greycrow and Havok to escape back to Otherworld. Note, though, that she doesn’t <\/em>attempt to bring Sinister back with her, and doesn’t see his death as undermining her mission to bring his DNA samples back – presumably she’s guessed that there’s another Sinister waiting for her back on Krakoa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 20.<\/strong> Data page. Apparently a report from one of Saturnyne’s priestesses to a superior, updating on the misfortunes of the Hellions. Predictably, Saturnyne’s main concern seems to have been the recovery of her horse, which was stolen from her by Jamie, and then traded to the Hellions in the previous issue. The horse doesn’t actually die on panel in this issue – she throws Nanny off and we don’t see her again. Maybe she lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Pintok Hatchery.<\/strong> New, but the author is lamenting the slaughter of Dryador’s maritime-based population by the invading Arakkii in X of Swords: Creation<\/em> – and understandably wondering why Saturnyne finds this a lower priority than her horse. He’s naturally unwilling to send his scouts into Arakko (due to it being suicide) and clearly expects to be, at the very least, expelled by Saturnyne for his troubles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Feculent Forest <\/strong>is also new, and mercifully we don’t get to see it – “feculent” means “to do with faeces”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 21-22.<\/strong> The surviving Hellions make it back to the Krakoan gate.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This seems… terribly easy considering how hard it was to get to Arakko in the first place. At any rate, Greycrow doesn’t kill Empath this time, presumably because he knows that resurrection isn’t an option if Empath dies in Otherworld. But he does seem to want to make sure that Empath only just <\/em>avoids that fate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 23-26.<\/strong> Sinister attacks and kills the Hellions.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Presumably, Sinister wants to keep the DNA samples but cover up the fact that he sent the Hellions on a suicide mission and lied to the Quiet Council about it. Psylocke, Greycrow, Havok and Empath will doubtless be resurrected, but they’ll lose their memories subsequent to their last back-up, which would have taken place before they left for Krakoa. But that also begs the question of whether the Krakoans will attempt to resurrect Nanny, Orphan-Maker and Wild Child – or whether they’ll just write them off as having died in Otherworld.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

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

As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition. HELLIONS #6“X of Swords, Chapter 18”by Zeb Wells, Carmen Carnero & David Curiel COVER \/ PAGE 1. Tarn the Uncaring stands over the defeated Hellions. PAGE 2. Epigraph from Tarn, which pretty much speaks for itself. Tarn is (presumably) a new […]<\/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-5900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-annotations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5900","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=5900"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5900\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5903,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5900\/revisions\/5903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}