{"id":7321,"date":"2021-11-18T22:24:39","date_gmt":"2021-11-18T22:24:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=7321"},"modified":"2021-11-18T22:24:39","modified_gmt":"2021-11-18T22:24:39","slug":"x-force-25-annotations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=7321","title":{"rendered":"X-Force #25 annotations"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"\"<\/a>X-FORCE vol 6 #25<\/strong>
\n“The Edge”<\/strong>
\nby Benjamin Percy, Robert Gill & Guru-eFX<\/strong><\/p>\n

COVER \/ PAGE 1:<\/strong> Wolverine faces off against the surfers that he meets later in the issue. The fact that they’re all shooting at him kind of gives the twist away.<\/p>\n

The previous issue ended with the under-the-influence Colossus killing Kayla and ?then being approached by Professor X. That storyline isn’t mentioned at all in this issue, presumably because it does indeed lead into the cliffhanger of?Inferno<\/em> vol 2 #2. Instead, we have something… completely unrelated.<\/p>\n

PAGES 2-4.<\/strong>?Wolverine collects his surfboard from Forge.<\/em><\/p>\n

Apparently, this is what Wolverine asked Forge to make for him (or rather, was about to ask for before he was interrupted) way back in issue #4. It’s… an adamantium covered surfboard. Right. I’ll come back to that.<\/p>\n

We’re told that Wolverine is still waiting for something else from Forge, so that’s a dangling plot.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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

PAGES 6-8.<\/strong> Kid Omega collects Phoebe for their day.<\/em><\/p>\n

I like the panel of them lying with their hair together; that’s a nice image for the five-in-one telepaths. Anyway, the other four Stepford Cuckoos are losing patience with Phoebe and Quentin’s relationship, apparently because they see him as a threat to their togetherness.<\/p>\n

The Phoebe\/Quentin relationship subplot started in issue #11, and she was initially keeping it secret (most likely because the Cuckoos, as a group, were dating Cable at that point). We haven’t seen much of the other Cuckoos in this book, but Phoebe did indeed say in issue #17 that they couldn’t stand Quentin. Issue #18 also has a scene where Quentin tells Phoebe that when they’re together, “I don’t need Jean, the same way you don’t need Emma or the Cuckoos” – not equivalent, and Phoebe didn’t seen entirely convinced at the time.<\/p>\n

At any rate, the Cuckoos are basically correct to see Quentin as trying to prise Phoebe away from them, and their attitude has been foreshadowed, albeit a while back. It may or may not be deliberate, but the Cuckoos are all wearing identical costumes here; often, one of them wears a black version of this outfit.<\/p>\n

PAGE 9.<\/strong>?Kid Omega and Phoebe visit the Bower.<\/em><\/p>\n

This is the nursery for mutant babies, previously seen in?Way of X<\/em> #3. That issue also portrayed it as a casual sex venue and most of the babies as abandoned; the portrayal here (unusually, considering it’s?X-Force<\/em>) is rather more straightforwardly sweet and plays down the intentionally uncomfortable elements from?Way of X<\/em>. Quentin, as we’ll see, views this as a utopian upbringing, and seems to be letting his guard down here (especially with Phoebe around).?The arch in the background reads “Make More Mutants”, the first law of Krakoa.<\/p>\n

PAGES 10-12.<\/strong>?Wolverine goes surfing.<\/em><\/p>\n

Mmm. Not a fan of this.<\/p>\n

Let’s start with the boring points: metal doesn’t float, and while I suppose in theory you could have a really thin coating of adamantium that weighed almost nothing but was still indestructible, plenty of stories have told us that Wolverine doesn’t like fighting in water because all that metal makes him heavy.<\/p>\n

I get that we’re going for the liberation of self-destruction or something like that, but come on. He’s a remote mountains kind of guy, not a surf guy; a metal surfboard is silly; and the idea that he’s going surfing in dangerous waves with other people nearby using a dangerously bladed weapon is… even sillier.<\/p>\n

PAGES 13-14.<\/strong> Kid Omega tells Phoebe about his work in the Bower.<\/em><\/p>\n

The message Quentin is trying to send is that he sees this as a wonderful opportunity to prevent any of these kids going the same way he did. The flashback in issue #17 is fairly vague about details; he says that he killed his biological parents and it’s implied that they were in some way abusive to him, but the story was ambiguous about precisely how, or about whether Quentin had acted consciously. Quentin seems fairly clear here that he simply lost control. However, that flashback strongly suggested that Quentin was a few years old than the babies seen here.<\/p>\n

The message Phoebe gets from this scene is entirely different: Quentin has completed his journey of self-discovery and he no longer needs her support.<\/p>\n

PAGE 15.<\/strong> Data page. The other Cuckoos tell Phoebe to break up with Quentin.<\/p>\n

PAGES 16-18.?<\/strong>Wolverine meets Pike and her surfers.<\/em><\/p>\n

Pike is a new character, and this scene largely speaks for itself. The other surfing destinations that Pike’s group talk about are all genuine.<\/p>\n

PAGES 19-20.<\/strong>?Phoebe breaks up with Quentin.<\/em><\/p>\n

Quentin’s house has a big Omega on the wall, presumably just as visible from outside.<\/p>\n

This is a fairly standard “afraid of commitment” scene, as Phoebe presents it – she makes no mention of her sisters except in the final line about her “greatest commitment” being to them.<\/p>\n

PAGE 21.<\/strong> Data page. Basically, Sage and Black Tom have noted that the waves in the surfing location churn up the waterborne plantlife that they use for surveillance, making it a weak spot for security.<\/p>\n

The implication is that Pike and co aren’t actually mutants, and have sneaked on to Krakoa using their incredible surfing skills – which is why Wolverine had to tell Pike where basic landmarks were back on page 18. However, he wrote that off as being due to the island’s shifting geography.<\/p>\n

PAGES 22-23.<\/strong>?Pike and co steal the babies.<\/em><\/p>\n

Speaks for itself.<\/p>\n

PAGE 24.<\/strong> Trailers. The Krakoan reads NEXT: TOTAL BUMMER.<\/p>\n

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

As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition. X-FORCE vol 6 #25 “The Edge” by Benjamin Percy, Robert Gill & Guru-eFX COVER \/ PAGE 1: Wolverine faces off against the surfers that he meets later in the issue. The fact that they’re all shooting at him kind of gives […]<\/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-7321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-annotations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7321","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=7321"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7321\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7331,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7321\/revisions\/7331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}