{"id":6450,"date":"2021-03-03T22:34:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-03T22:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=6450"},"modified":"2021-03-03T22:34:00","modified_gmt":"2021-03-03T22:34:00","slug":"hellions-10-annotations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=6450","title":{"rendered":"Hellions #10 annotations"},"content":{"rendered":"

As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>HELLIONS #10
\n“Funny Games, Part II: Hitbox”
\nby Zeb Wells, Stephen Segovia & David Curiel<\/strong><\/p>\n

COVER \/ PAGE<\/strong>\u00a01. <\/strong>Some of the Hellions in the foreground, with Arcade gloating in the background. For some reason this issue has old-style 1980s cover boxes, which doesn’t really seem to play into anything much (though it does get the characters who aren’t in the main pose onto the cover).<\/p>\n

PAGE 2.<\/strong> The now-usual opening quotation from Nightcrawler. This time he’s telling us what a valuable experience it is to face our demons and grow.<\/p>\n

PAGES 3-6.<\/strong>\u00a0Arcade talks to Sinister.<\/em><\/p>\n

Arcade<\/strong>\u00a0traditionally wouldn’t be in anything approaching Sinister’s league when it comes to power. But he\u00a0does<\/em> tell us that Sinister’s powers are being dampened by the chair. And Sinister seems to be a lot less physically powerful in his current incarnation anyway.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Arcade claims that his agenda here is to get access to Mr Sinister’s cloning technology, so that he can use the clones in his Murderworlds. He doesn’t exactly tell us\u00a0why<\/em> he wants to do that, and his motivations in this scene are a bit obscure. Traditionally, Arcade’s thing was to build insanely elaborate deathtraps, capture people, and throw them into said deathtraps before sitting back to watch and giggle. Ostensibly he was an assassin, but it’s obvious on a moment’s reflection that he could just kill people as soon as he captured them. The whole scheme only makes any sort of sense if he just\u00a0enjoys doing Murderworld<\/em>. There have been stories where Arcade messes around with virtual reality technology, but the basic theme that he enjoys the game, and that his assassination career is a mere excuse, continues.<\/p>\n

Arcade has pressganged Mastermind into helping him with the use of a hostage, and he seems to have a staff of some sort (given the memo we see later). But he describes this as a “low-tech Murderworld” which depends on Mastermind to give it any content. Arcade\u00a0claims<\/em> that this “Sure beats watching them bounce around a giant pinball machine” (which was a feature of his earliest appearances, in Marvel Team-Up\u00a0<\/em>#66 and\u00a0X-Men<\/em> #123). But he doesn’t exactly seem convinced. In the previous issue, he complained that watching the Hellions experience Mastermind’s illusions “looked utterly boring”. Arcade does apparently have video screens that can show the illusions, as we see on page 24.<\/p>\n

Arcade also plainly doesn’t trust Mastermind, hence his repeated efforts to have it confirmed from a distance that all is as it appears. Of course, Mastermind could easily interfere with that, but Arcade seems to suggest that he’s getting other signals as well – presumably, the idea is that since Mastermind doesn’t know what those other signals are, he won’t know what subtle illusions would screen them out.<\/p>\n

Mastermind<\/strong> is here to rescue his daughter,\u00a0which is nice of him, since I don’t think they’ve ever actually met on camera. Mastermind has two daughters, Regan and Martinique (basically the result of two different stories coming up with the “Mastermind’s daughter” gimmick independently). Both of them have previously been seen on Krakoa in cameos. Arcade describes the captive here as “Martinique”, \u00a0but the art shows Regan – the one who was briefly a member of the X-Men as Lady Mastermind.<\/p>\n

Zeb Wells was asked about this on Twitter, and his response makes it pretty clear that this is an error. Presumably this character is meant to be Martinique as stated in the dialogue – though it it mattered that much which one it was, it would probably have been caught. At any rate, in case it matters, Martinique has a history with Arcade: she hired him to go after Wolverine and Gambit in her debut story, the 1995 miniseries\u00a0Wolverine \/ Gambit: Victims<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Miss Locke.<\/strong> Arcade identifies his female aide as “Miss Locke”, but she supposedly died in\u00a0Wolverine \/ Gambit: Victims<\/em>. That didn’t stop her appearing in some later stories, probably by error, but\u00a0Avengers Arena<\/em> reiterated that Arcade had killed her. Given that Arcade is able to make humanoid robots, it’s entirely possible that this is a robot Locke, and the story strongly hints at that later on.<\/p>\n

PAGE 7.<\/strong> Recap and credits. I’m not sure what the significance is of the title “Hitbox”. It was the name of a competitor to Twitch (now defunct), which I suppose might be seen as quite Arcade.<\/p>\n

PAGE 8.<\/strong>\u00a0Psylocke’s illusion.<\/em><\/p>\n

Obviously, we’re now getting that good old standby, the series of dreams and nightmares that illuminate something about the characters. Psylocke’s utopia scenario is one where she’s living an ordinary domestic life with her daughter. The daughter was introduced in\u00a0Fallen Angels<\/em>, and we’ve seen in previous issues that her mind now survives as an AI which is in Sinister’s possession – hence Psylocke’s willingness to work with the Hellions.<\/p>\n

Maternal Psylocke has black hair rather than the familiar purple, even though her hair isn’t meant to be died; presumably it’s all part of her wishing for normalcy. Her utopian vision is also very low-tech, rural, and conspicuously trad-Japanese.<\/p>\n

The other Psylocke watching from outside has the weird painful-looking retractors associated with Mojo. This refers to a storyline involving Betsy Braddock, who lost her vision during her first run as Captain Britain, and was given new eyes by Mojo, who used them to film the X-Men for his TV shows. All this predates the body swap (and basically ceased to be an issue after Betsy went through the Siege Perilous), but perhaps it’s intended as a horrific image that Kwannon associates specifically with Betsy as an invader and outsider.<\/p>\n

PAGE 9.<\/strong> Greycrow’s illusion.<\/em><\/p>\n

Fairly straightforward – a group of fellow soldiers reassure Greycrow that he’s a good person, something he would clearly like to believe but knows isn’t true. There is some precedent for showing Greycrow as a regular soldier – a flashback in\u00a0Weapon X\u00a0<\/em>vol 2 #14 (the Frank Tieri series) shows him serving in World War II and being shot by a firing squad for “the murders and subsequently scalping of 8 of your fellow officers”. The actual crime isn’t shown, so in the current interpretation of Greycrow, it’s entirely possible that he didn’t do it. At any rate, the art here seems more intended to suggest Vietnam.<\/p>\n

PAGE 10.<\/strong>\u00a0Empath’s illusion.<\/em><\/p>\n

Even though this is meant to be the positive illusion, Empath is shown a mother trying ineffectually to reprimand, and a seemingly endless table of people he has hurt, “come to remind you of the pain you’ve caused”. Empath is apparently such a sadist and sociopath that he regards this as wallowing in the good times.<\/p>\n

PAGE 11.<\/strong>\u00a0Wild Child’s illusion.<\/em><\/p>\n

Wild Child imagines himself as the alpha male who intimidates and dominates Wolverine and Sabretooth – the two characters he’s usually seen as a pale imitation of. Sabretooth references the idea that he goes after Wolverine every year on his birthday, something that was established back in the 80s.<\/p>\n

PAGE 12.<\/strong>\u00a0Nanny and the Orphan-Maker’s illusion.<\/em><\/p>\n

Nanny’s dream is to have lots of children to look after, who delight in her care and attention. Again, despite this being the “positive” illusion, Orphan-Maker is immediately unhappy because, as seen last issue, he seems to be losing Nanny’s interest. This is presumably why a second Nanny appears to take care of him – Mastermind is trying to shore up the scenario. They’re the only two who were put together; again, presumably Mastermind assumed that separating them would just make his job harder in keeping Orphan-Maker happy. Mastermind may also be struggling to understand what Peter wants, given his recent personality change – remember, Mastermind is an illusionst, not a mind reader.<\/p>\n

PAGE 13.<\/strong>\u00a0Havok’s illusion.<\/em><\/p>\n

He dreams of being happily in a relationship with pilot Madelyne Summers. This is a bit confused in terms of timeline, since she would have been with Scott at this point, but he and Madelyne did have some time together in the Australian era and the lead-up to that. It’s interesting that Alex is given Madelyne rather than on Polaris, his longer term (and more recent) partner. Presumably some of these details are being filled in by Alex’s own mind.<\/p>\n

Using Madelyne also reminds us of the storyline of Krakoa’s refusal to revive her when she died earlier in the series, something which has also been flagged up in\u00a0New Mutants<\/em> recently.<\/p>\n

PAGES 14-15.<\/strong>\u00a0Arcade and Sinister in the control room.<\/em><\/p>\n

The strong suggestion here is that “Miss Locke” is a robot who has been programmed to give Arcade physical affection; Arcade is presumably embarrassed about the obvious comparison with Havok on the screen. (Locke was also never this clingy.)<\/p>\n

Arcade seems to proceed to torture Sinister simply because it’s fun, even though Sinister already agreed to build the clone farm. It’s not entirely obvious how this assists Arcade – he needs to let Sinister go in the end, and he’s proving to Sinister that there’s no point in playing along with Arcade’s requests. He offers a bizarre psychological explanation later, claiming that he makes himself a saviour to people by creating horror that he can liberate them from.<\/p>\n

PAGES 16-18.<\/strong>\u00a0Psylocke’s illusion.<\/em><\/p>\n

Psylocke seems to break the illusion on her own, partly by picking up on the fact that the child has no name – presumably because her mind doesn’t know this detail, and can’t fill it in. The “Betsy” version of Psylocke describes Kwannon-Psylocke as the “lesser one”. All of this plays into the idea that Psylocke is (a) so depressed that she instinctively rejects any happy scenario as implausible, and (b) sees herself as the impostor in her own body, given how much more established Betsy was – is she torturing herself by using the Psylocke name and costume?<\/p>\n

PAGE 19.<\/strong>\u00a0Greycrow’s illusion.<\/em><\/p>\n

It seems to be Psylocke’s message that breaks the illusion here, rather than any deliberate change by Mastermind. This time, Greycrow sees the enemies that he slaughtered as the innocent Morlocks that he killed as one of the Marauders during the Mutant Massacre crossover. Erg and Tommy are easily recognisable.<\/p>\n

PAGE 20.<\/strong> Data page. Arcade’s rambling memo to his staff, who are apparently all working for him under duress in the same way that Mastermind is.<\/p>\n

PAGE 21.<\/strong>\u00a0Arcade learns that the illusions are broken.<\/em><\/p>\n

Self-explanatory.<\/p>\n

PAGE 22.<\/strong> Empath’s illusion.<\/em><\/p>\n

Empath’s illusion only turns\u00a0after\u00a0<\/em>Arcade gives the direction that Mastermind can switch to nightmares, but it’s not entirely clear that he needed to. It depends really on what Arcade is trying to achieve here – and maybe it’s just easier for Mastermind to do all dreams or all nightmares than a mixture of the two. At any rate, Empath’s nightmare is (of course) loss of control.<\/p>\n

PAGE 23.<\/strong>\u00a0A montage of nightmare sequences.<\/em><\/p>\n

Wild Child imagines being beaten up by the more senior characters, Wolverine and Sabretooth. Alongside them is a rare post-Origins\u00a0<\/em>appearance by\u00a0Romulus<\/strong>, the secretive cryptic conspiracy mastermind pack leader who I thought had been rightly banished to the memory hole.<\/p>\n

Havok imagines himself as a slave of Goblin Queen Madelyne during the “Inferno” crossover.<\/p>\n

Kwannon imagines herself on the run from Psylocke; apparently in this dream she isn’t a fighter at all. Presumably that’s because her fighter side is actually the Psylocke figure, and it merely suits Kwannon to be able to view that part of herself as an interloper by associating it with Betsy.<\/p>\n

Greycrow imagines the Morlocks as zombies killing him, and Nanny and Orphan-Maker are overrun by evil shadowy children. The caption seems to suggest that they’re meant to be pulled apart, but that doesn’t really come across in the art.<\/p>\n

PAGE 24.<\/strong>\u00a0Arcade explains his psychological theory.<\/em><\/p>\n

It’s not entirely clear from the art, but Arcade seems to deliberately wipe blood across his face after removing the glove.<\/p>\n

PAGE 25.<\/strong> Trailers. By the way, I’m not annotating non-Krakoan books like\u00a0Demon Days: X-Men<\/em> #1. I’ll review them in due course.<\/p>\n

The Krakoan reads NEXT: ESCAPE OR DIE.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition. HELLIONS #10 “Funny Games, Part II: Hitbox” by Zeb Wells, Stephen Segovia & David Curiel COVER \/ PAGE\u00a01. Some of the Hellions in the foreground, with Arcade gloating in the background. For some reason this issue has old-style 1980s cover boxes, […]<\/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-6450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-annotations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6450","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=6450"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6450\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6452,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6450\/revisions\/6452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}