{"id":6799,"date":"2021-06-18T23:14:32","date_gmt":"2021-06-18T22:14:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=6799"},"modified":"2021-06-18T23:14:32","modified_gmt":"2021-06-18T22:14:32","slug":"x-corp-2-annotations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=6799","title":{"rendered":"X-Corp #2 annotations"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"\"<\/a>X-CORP #2
\n“A Shark in the Water”
\nby Tini Howard, Alberto Foche & Sunny Gho<\/strong><\/p>\n

COVER \/ PAGE<\/strong>\u00a01.\u00a0<\/strong>A stylised picture of Monet at the gala, with the same mock pharmaceutical layout elements as we had in issue #1. The “mg” after the issue number seems to be standard, and the number of tablets is presumably the number of pages in the print edition (counting adverts).<\/p>\n

PAGE 2.<\/strong>\u00a0Monet prepares for the Hellfire Gala.<\/em><\/p>\n

Sunspot<\/strong> was shown as being involved in X-Corp before he relocated to the Shi’ar Empire. We’re told later in the issue that he invested a lot of his own money, so he does indeed have a legitimate interest in what they’re up to.<\/p>\n

Sebastian Shaw.<\/strong> Monet elects not to listen to his message at all. Again, though, Shaw has perfectly good reasons for contacting her – he’s the Black King of Hellfire Trading, with responsibilities for distributing the pharmaceuticals that X-Corp manufactures.<\/p>\n

Professor X.<\/strong> Generally recapping the events of issue #1, and questioning Monet’s decision to reveal the X-Corp HQ at the end of the issue. He seems to be saying that she’s messed up the planned orderly release of a home office technology, and is exposing X-Corp to attention that it isn’t ready to deal with yet, since it doesn’t actually have the product ready to launch. Whether Monet actually has a proper plan, or whether she’s just arrogant, remains to be seen.<\/p>\n

PAGE 3.<\/strong> Monet discusses things with Angel.<\/em><\/p>\n

Sofia Mantega<\/strong> – Wind Dancer – was shooting an X-Corp commercial last issue. The fact that Monet can’t remember her name doesn’t exactly inspire confidence that she’s thought through all the details here.<\/p>\n

Monet’s plan for the evening is, to be honest, bordering on incomprehensible. Something about trying to make sure that more people want to meet with them than they can actually accommodate, so that they look impressive? I guess? The recap page clarifies that the urgency to round out the board comes from X-Corp having been prematurely announced by Monet last issue; page 9 spells out a little more clearly that Monet was meant to be using the big shiny headquarters to distract from the loss of the Savage Land holdings. I suppose that sort of justifies the idea that she needs to follow up and keep the momentum.<\/p>\n

PAGE 4.<\/strong> Recap and credits. As with other “Hellfire Gala” tie-in issues, the design evokes an invitation.<\/p>\n

PAGES 5-6.<\/strong>\u00a0Madrox and Trinary prepare for the evening.<\/em><\/p>\n

We’ve seen throughout the Gala issues that all of the waiters and bar staff are Madrox duplicates. This scene confirms that they’re basically being used to let Madrox monitor the whole thing.<\/p>\n

Lots of people want to meet during the Hellfire Gala to discuss joining the board. We’ll come back to the individuals named here. I suppose, given that\u00a0X-Corp<\/em> #1 is supposed to be very recent and the “launch” is meant to make the board an urgent issue, it would make sense that they’d be ploughing on with this task during the Gala.<\/p>\n

PAGE 7.<\/strong>\u00a0X-Corp arrive at the Gala.<\/em><\/p>\n

A French 75 is a cocktail. Monet continues to aggravate Madrox for no good reason.<\/p>\n

PAGE 8.<\/strong> Data page. This is apparently Sofia’s list of people for them to meet. Given that Sofia’s role was defined last issue and earlier in this issue as marketing, I’m not clear why she’d be advising on this.<\/p>\n

Neal Shaara<\/strong> is the third Thunderbird, a little-used X-Man who comes from Chris Claremont’s short-lived 2000 run and the subsequent\u00a0X-Treme X-Men<\/em> spin-off. He’s not done a great deal since. Of some vague note is that his back story ties him to his partner Karima Shapandar, who is now involved with Orchis.<\/p>\n

Selene Gallio<\/strong> is the former Black Queen of the Hellfire Club, but since she’s not currently associated with them, she’s listed here as the “Black Priestess.” That was her title in her earliest appearances, from\u00a0New Mutants<\/em> vol 1 #9. The “nasty rumours about what she’s been up to when she’s away from Krakoa” might relate to her role as a member of the Power Elite in Ta-Nehisi Coates’\u00a0Captain America<\/em> run. But Selene was captured in\u00a0Captain America<\/em> vol 9 #23 (which came out last September), and that issue says she was going to be handed over to the Quiet Council. This seems to be largely a breakdown of communications between the two titles, since her activities in\u00a0Captain America<\/em> really ought to result in her being banished to the Pit with Sabretooth. The X-books don’t want to do that, so it looks like we’re just going to ignore it. This is more of a general problem with the Coates’\u00a0Captain America<\/em> run, which is a very long, extended storyline that doesn’t neatly fit anywhere in particular.<\/p>\n

Sara St John.<\/strong> Noblesse Pharmaceuticals was the company that complained about the Savage Land farms in the previous issue, apparently on behalf of Jean-Pierre Kol. St John seems to confirm later on that he’s an investor and it’s her company. Incidentally, the claim here that St John is the\u00a0only<\/em> human to ask to meet rather belies the claim elsewhere in the issue that there’s tremendous pressure to follow up on the “launch”.<\/p>\n

Trinary tells us that St John has come up with several patents for medical devices which “look like a mess”. It’s not clear to me whether she’s saying that the patents wouldn’t stand up to challenge, or that the devices themselves wouldn’t work (though that would also make the patents invalid in most jurisdictions – the whole point of the patent bargain is that you get a temporary monopoly in exchange for disclosing how to do something). Since Trinary’s power is simply to talk to machines, I’m not clear what qualifications she would have to express a view on patent law and\/or medical devices.<\/p>\n

Mastermind.<\/strong> Recently seen over in\u00a0Hellions<\/em>. His “daughters” both also go by Mastermind or Lady Mastermind. Sofia rightly perceives him as trying to muscle in on her PR role.<\/p>\n

X-Corp have also approached\u00a0Bishop<\/strong> and\u00a0Risque<\/strong> – presumably for reasons connected with their powers, since neither has any relevant business experience. The entry for Thunderbird seems to confirm that in Bishop’s case, at least.<\/p>\n

PAGE 9.<\/strong> Monet and Warren meet Neal and Roberto.<\/em><\/p>\n

Neal doesn’t get the chance to do much here.<\/p>\n

Sunspot barely knows him, as far as we’re aware, so it’s hardly surprising that he barely remembers recommending him. We’ve seen him investing very enthusiastically in the Shi’ar Empire in Hickman stories.<\/p>\n

PAGE 10.<\/strong>\u00a0Madrox swaps places with a dupe.<\/em><\/p>\n

The first mention in the Krakoan era of\u00a0Layla Miller<\/strong>, who was indeed married to Jamie Madrox by the end of 2005-2013 run of\u00a0X-Factor<\/em>. The two of them had retired to the Madrox family farm at the end of that, since when Layla hasn’t been mentioned. She’s just… vanished. There was some ambiguity in\u00a0X-Factor<\/em> about whether Layla was actually a mutant or not – a couple of stories expressly cast doubt on it – which may account for her absence from Krakoa. But clearly it’s a story that needs addressed if Madrox is going to be a regular character.<\/p>\n

PAGE 11.<\/strong> Warren meets with Selene.<\/em><\/p>\n

Selene is basically making a pitch that she’s valuable as a negotiator. Quite why\u00a0she<\/em> wants to be on X-Corp’s board isn’t addressed and nobody seems to think it worth asking her, which is a bit silly.<\/p>\n

PAGES 12-13.<\/strong>\u00a0Warren and Monet dismiss Fenris.<\/em><\/p>\n

Fenris<\/strong> already have a position in Hellfire Trading, according to\u00a0Marauders<\/em>, so it’s not obvious why they’re trying to get into X-Corp too. They are indeed basically neo-Nazis, and Warren understandably makes the point that they don’t really have very much to offer anyway. That said, Warren’s precise reasons are a bit incoherent. He seems to be saying that Krakoa is a post-scarcity economy with unlimited resources (which would indeed put them in a destablising position in the global economy)… but “tons of money” was basically what Sunspot is acknowledged to bring to the table. You can’t have it both ways.<\/p>\n

There’s something weird about the dialogue between Monet and Jamie on page 13, where presumably she’s offering him a seat on the board. Either they’re meant to be communicating partly telepathically, or there’s something missing – it just doesn’t make sense as printed.<\/p>\n

PAGES 14-15.<\/strong>\u00a0Mastermind makes his pitch.<\/em><\/p>\n

Mastermind’s basic pitch is that image is everything, and he’s an illusionist. Which… doesn’t really make sense. How do his illusion powers help with image on the scale of public relations involved here? If he’s suggesting that he’s willing to use his powers to manipulate people for X-Corp’s agenda, then okay, but again, what’s his motivation for this?<\/p>\n

PAGE 16.<\/strong>\u00a0Monet realises that Fenris are going after X-Corp HQ.<\/em><\/p>\n

Apparently X-Corp HQ, despite being incredibly valuable and top secret, is completely accessible to any mutant. That really makes no sense on any level beyond “the plot demands it”. There’s a baffling attempt on page 22 to suggest that this is some sort of analogy to “open-plan work space” but…. what? This is just reciting buzzwords.<\/p>\n

PAGE 17.<\/strong>\u00a0Monet reaches Andrea.<\/em><\/p>\n

Well, that wasn’t very interesting. It’s also botched on a storytelling level, since it looks like Monet beats Andrea in two panels, but when we see them again, they’re still fighting.<\/p>\n

PAGES 18-22.<\/strong>\u00a0Warren confronts Andreas.<\/em><\/p>\n

Warren refers to Andreas as “the Swordsman”, which was the identity he used as a member of the Thunderbolts – specifically, at a time when Andrea was dead and he was separated from her. It’s always been strongly indicated that the Fenris twins have an unhealthily close relationship, shall we say. Nonetheless, one of Andreas’s redeeming qualities is his genuine concern for his sister.<\/p>\n

Fenris have set themselves up as pharmaceutical consultants, which Warren acknowledges they’re more or less free to do. Um, while being involved in Hellfire Trading…?<\/p>\n

PAGE 23.<\/strong>\u00a0The debrief.<\/em><\/p>\n

The suggestion here seems to be that Warren did lose his temper while fighting Andreas, and turned into Archangel, but Mastermind helped to cover it up – presumably to ingratiate himself with Warren for his campaign to get onto the Board.<\/p>\n

PAGE 24.<\/strong> Data page. Mastermind has now been accepted as an equal CXO with Warren and Monet, and it seems we have two slots still to fill. So we’re likely to be in team-gathering mode for a while yet. Right now, quite honestly, this book feels like a dud on a par with Fallen Angels<\/em>; I wouldn’t be entirely shocked if it doesn’t last much beyond that team-gathering arc.<\/p>\n

PAGE 25.<\/strong>\u00a0Trailers. The Krakoan reads NEXT: EXPONENTIAL GROWTH.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition. X-CORP #2 “A Shark in the Water” by Tini Howard, Alberto Foche & Sunny Gho COVER \/ PAGE\u00a01.\u00a0A stylised picture of Monet at the gala, with the same mock pharmaceutical layout elements as we had in issue #1. The “mg” after […]<\/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-6799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-annotations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6799","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=6799"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6801,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6799\/revisions\/6801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}