{"id":7075,"date":"2021-09-01T22:02:21","date_gmt":"2021-09-01T21:02:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=7075"},"modified":"2021-09-01T22:02:21","modified_gmt":"2021-09-01T21:02:21","slug":"hellions-15-annotations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=7075","title":{"rendered":"Hellions #15 annotations"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"\"<\/a>HELLIONS #15<\/strong>
\n“Don’t Look Back Part III: Fire and Brimstone”<\/strong>
\nby Zeb Wells, Rog\u00e9 Ant\u00f4nio & Rain Beredo<\/strong><\/p>\n

COVER \/ PAGE 1:<\/strong>\u00a0Just a straightforward picture of Psylocke with the rest of the cast behind her.<\/p>\n

PAGE 2.<\/strong> Our opening quote comes from Tarn. The idea that Amino Fetus cannot be allowed to eat was established when he debuted in issue #6, and the rest of the Locus Vile have always been very keen to stop him doing it. The reasons haven’t been explained until now.<\/p>\n

PAGE 3.<\/strong>\u00a0The Right approach Krakoa.<\/em><\/p>\n

These are the Right’s ZETA Team, who were introduced in issue #13, and were described by one of their own colleagues as “psychopaths”. They’re meant to be looking for the rogue AI that Nanny picked up from the Right in issue #8. They’re named here as Cobb (apparently the leader), Barker, Martinez and Susan. Susan appears to be a religious zealot, which Cobb (at least) doesn’t share.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

PAGE 4.<\/strong>\u00a0The Right use the AI to hack Nanny’s ship.<\/em><\/p>\n

The guy in charge here is Dr Murch, also seen in issue #13.<\/p>\n

PAGE 5.<\/strong> Recap and credits.<\/p>\n

PAGE 6.<\/strong>\u00a0Mr Sinister and Mr Sinister arrive in New York.<\/em><\/p>\n

This is the Murderworld facility that the Hellions acquired for Sinister in issue #11. Last issue, the two Sinisters fled through a portal to get here, leaving the Hellions to face Tarn and his Locus Vile. They’ve destroyed the gate to stop the Locus Vile following. Tarn has teleportation facilities of his own, as we saw last issue, but in itself that’s no use to him because he doesn’t know where to go.<\/p>\n

“I traveled to Amenth to collect mutant DNA where I was pulled apart at the molecular level.”<\/strong> Issues #5-6. The copy Sinister was – apparently literally – stitched back together by Tarn and regards Tarn as his “master”, even when Tarn isn’t around to hear. Either Tarn is seriously intimidating even to Sinister, or this Sinister has been knocked into line when Tarn re-created him.<\/p>\n

PAGES 7-10.\u00a0<\/strong>The aftermath of the Locus Vile’s battle.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Sinisters released all these clones last issue to cover their escape. The Locus Vile have finished slaughtering them all, and defeated the Hellions, off panel between issues.<\/p>\n

“La vie est cruelle et courte.”<\/strong> “Life is cruel and short.”<\/p>\n

Mudgear<\/strong> was, apparently, killed by Nanny and Wild Child last issue, though that wasn’t really clear at the time.<\/p>\n

Amino Fetus<\/strong> lost his arm last issue when Orphan-Maker destroyed it with a rocket launcher.<\/p>\n

“May I feed on the dead? Praise Tarn, my injuries require<\/strong>\u00a0it.”<\/strong> This is Hex Butcher, whose power is sustained by eating the people he kills.<\/p>\n

“Think I’m done dying for you idiots.”<\/strong> It’s been a running gag that Empath keeps dying on every mission, though in most cases that’s been because he did something outrageous to provoke Greycrow into killing him.<\/p>\n

“How about I turn you into that violent psycho…”<\/strong> Havok was sent to the Hellions in the first place after briefly turning psychopathic in issue #1. The suggestion was that some sort of outside influence was involved, but despite occasional hints, that story has remained in the background until now. Nothing has suggested that Empath has anything to do with it – Manuel probably just means that he can use his powers to bring out that side of Havok’s personality.<\/p>\n

Empath’s refusal to take on Tarn directly seems quite reasonable, really. He’d be massively outpowered and it looks suicidal. By implication, Empath is making a more fundamental point to Havok: why are you asking me to deal with this guy instead of just obliterating him yourself?<\/p>\n

“But that’s not possible. We defeated Arcade…”<\/strong> Other than Sinister and Psylocke, the Hellions were brainwashed in issue #11 to believe that they had achieved an outright win over Arcade. They’ve reacted since as if this was something of a team bonding experience for them.<\/p>\n

PAGES 11-17.<\/strong>\u00a0Sinister explains his plot, while Psylocke explains Murderworld, and Greycrow goes crazy.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Yikes. Is this where you went to work on him?”<\/strong> They’re passing the seat where Arcade imprisoned Sinister and tried to torture him into submission in issue #10. The blood is still visible; Sinister is pretending that he was the aggressor.<\/p>\n

“I’ve seen the future, and it is chimera.”<\/strong> Sinister has been inspired by Tarn to mix the DNA of multiple mutants. This calls back to\u00a0Powers of X<\/em>, where one of Moira’s past lives involved an alternate future full of chimera mutants assembled from elements of other mutants.<\/p>\n

In\u00a0Powers of X<\/em> #6, Moira’s diary extracts claim that Sinister has\u00a0already<\/em> created his first chimera by adding mutant DNA to himself. She said that this had happened “decades early.” Sinister probably doesn’t regard that as a proper chimera, since it seems to have resulted simply in a Mr Sinister body that qualified as a mutant.<\/p>\n

“I thought… so stupid.”<\/strong> The strong implication in earlier issues was that Greycrow saw himself forming a relationship with Psylocke. Understandably, he feels betrayed here.<\/p>\n

Greycrow’s powers<\/strong> have always been decidedly hazy, since he relies entirely on weapons when in combat. Early appearances state that his power is to assemble mechanical components into weapons, or something of that sort, which is why his costume as a Marauder was covered in available components. But again, quite why the ability to put some pieces together qualified as a mutant power was a little vague. The suggestion here seems to be that Greycrow’s power enables him to generate these components from his own body, transforming himself into a cyborg in the process. There’s an apparent echo of Cable in the “big gun” and cyborg angle.<\/p>\n

PAGE 18.<\/strong> Data page on the life cycle of Amino Fetus. Fairly self-explanatory.<\/p>\n

PAGE 19.<\/strong>\u00a0Tarn disposes of Amino Fetus.<\/em><\/p>\n

This is… a bit underwhelming, isn’t it? He’s built up as a universe-threatening problem and the solution is just to teleport off and dump him in a black hole? Are we coming back to this?<\/p>\n

Note that the Locus Vile have pretty much been wiped out in this story – only Mother Rapture is left. If he doesn’t go in for resurrection, he’s going to have quite the time covering this up back on Arakko.<\/p>\n

Fornax.<\/strong> Fornax UCD3 is a galaxy about sixty million light years away. As the dialogue suggests, it’s home to a massive black hole. So is the Milky Way, to be honest, but Tarn is thoughtfully dumping Animo Fetus somewhere as far away as possible. That’s nice of him.<\/p>\n

Consistent with his motivations, Tarn is not interested in random destruction. Presumably he was amused by the idea of creating Amino Fetus in the first place and reckless enough not to be too worried by the risk of it going wrong – but he\u00a0did<\/em> at least have a firm plan in mind for how to get rid of him if need be. (It’s also conceivable that he was a bit more relaxed about obliterating Amenth, but probably not.)<\/p>\n

PAGES 20-22.<\/strong> The Hellions learn about Psylocke’s daughter.<\/em><\/p>\n

Sinister has created a combined Sinister \/ Tarn chimera, which he describes as having “the power of god”. That’s probably an overstatement, since Tarn certainly isn’t\u00a0that\u00a0<\/em>powerful.<\/p>\n

Psylocke’s daughter survived as an AI in\u00a0Fallen Angels<\/em> and Sinister has been using her as a threat to keep Psylocke in line throughout this series. Greycrow seems somewhat relieved that Psylocke has a passable reason for what she’s done. He liked her.<\/p>\n

PAGES 23-24.<\/strong>\u00a0Havok destroys everything.<\/em><\/p>\n

Greycrow, always the nicest of this bunch of Hellions, was willing to stand down in deference to Psylocke’s wishes. Apparently so was Havok, who remains basically a hero in his own mind. Curiously, it’s Empath who steps in to destroy the Sinister\/Tarn chimera – which actually does seem like quite a good idea, all things considered. The only reason that Empath gives for this is “Emma says hello”, obviously referring to Emma Frost – has he been some sort of sleeper agent for Emma all along, looking out for Sinister’s secret plans?<\/p>\n

PAGE 25.<\/strong> Trailers. The Krakoan reads NEXT: IT ALL FALLS APART.<\/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. HELLIONS #15 “Don’t Look Back Part III: Fire and Brimstone” by Zeb Wells, Rog\u00e9 Ant\u00f4nio & Rain Beredo COVER \/ PAGE 1:\u00a0Just a straightforward picture of Psylocke with the rest of the cast behind her. PAGE 2. Our opening quote comes […]<\/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-7075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-annotations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7075","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=7075"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7075\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7077,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7075\/revisions\/7077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}