{"id":7394,"date":"2021-12-09T22:02:30","date_gmt":"2021-12-09T22:02:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=7394"},"modified":"2021-12-09T22:02:30","modified_gmt":"2021-12-09T22:02:30","slug":"hellions-18-annotations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=7394","title":{"rendered":"Hellions #18 annotations"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"\"<\/a>HELLIONS #18<\/strong>
\n“The Losing End”<\/strong>
\nby Zeb Wells, Ze Carlos, Stephen Segovia & Rain Beredo<\/strong><\/p>\n

COVER \/ PAGE 1:<\/strong>: The Quiet Council judge the Hellions. (This doesn’t quite reflect the interior – in the story itself, Psylocke isn’t shackled, and Empath isn’t on trial with the others at all.)<\/p>\n

PAGES 2-3.<\/strong>\u00a0The Quiet Council prepare for the Hellions’ trial.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Hellions are on trial after Orphan-Maker killed two park rangers after the fight with the Right in the previous issue.<\/p>\n

The Council members present are (clockwise from top) Professor X, Mr Sinister, Exodus, Mystique, Kate Pryde, Emma Frost, Sebastian Shaw, Nightcrawler, Storm and Magneto. Since the other two seats are vacant, this presumably takes place before Destiny and Colossus join the Council in\u00a0Inferno<\/em>. On the other hand, Psylocke is acknowledged as a “Great Captain” later in the issue, and she was only formally appointed to that position in\u00a0Inferno<\/em> #1. So apparently we’re between pages 44 and 45 of\u00a0Inferno<\/em> #1.<\/p>\n

Professor X’s opening comment – “We knew this day would come” – suggests they haven’t had to do this in quite some time, but Storm refers later on to “precedents”, plural. One is Sabretooth in House of X<\/em> #6. The other is presumably the trial of\u00a0Nature Girl and Curse in\u00a0X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic<\/em> #12.<\/p>\n

Mr Sinister is openly angling for the whole team to be got rid of, presumably because he no longer has any leverage over Psylocke (following the loss of the AI version of her daughter, which he was holding over her for the entire series), and because the team haven’t yet got their revenge on him for tricking them in “X of Swords” and again in the subsequent Murderworld arc. This incarnation of Sinister is not much of a schemer and is so glaringly unsubtle about it that the rest of the Council more or less ignore him.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Nightcrawler argues that Orphan-Maker is “a child”, and Mystique replies that he is “stunted” but “neither biologically nor psychologically a child”. That’s somewhat significant. Orphan-Maker’s whole deal is that his powers are apparently so dangerous that they must never be allowed to emerge. The suit of armour is supposed to arrest his powers. Prior to “X of Swords”, it was ambiguous whether Peter was a child in an adult-sized suit of armour, or an adult with the mind of a child (and his powers suppressed by the armour). When he was resurrected after “X of Swords”, Peter came back larger (implying that he was not fully grown before), but remained emotionally dependent on Nanny. Given his behaviour, it’s not obvious what Mystique means when she says that he’s psychologically an adult, but Professor X confirms later in the issue that “He’s had the body and mind of a man since Arakko.” At any rate, suggesting that he’s an adult with a learning disability – which seems to be what she’s getting at – is hardly an answer to Kurt’s point.<\/p>\n

Greycrow seems sardonically unbothered by the whole thing, but then he’s had something of a depressed attitude throughout the series and might well be quite relaxed about the thought of going to the Pit.<\/p>\n

PAGE 4.<\/strong> Recap and credits.<\/p>\n

PAGES 5-8.<\/strong>\u00a0Flashback: The X-Men meet the Hellions on their return to Krakoa.<\/em><\/p>\n

Psylocke asks for assurances that Orphan-Maker won’t go to the Pit, doesn’t get them, and a fight ensues. Naturally, it’s Greycrow who throws the first punch, since he’s the one most consistently concerned with protecting his teammates; loyalty to his team is his defining virtue. Wild Child attacks next, because he’s defending Psylocke (whom he regards as an alpha female).<\/p>\n

Havok and Polaris quietly greet each other while the scene is going on around them, in reference to their long-running relationship from the 1970s and 80s.<\/p>\n

Empath steps in to subdue the Hellions in characteristically smug fashion. We’ve seen over the last few issues that this is an act and that he really wants to be accepted by the team but seems chronically incapable of acting accordingly. In fairness to him, it’s perfectly reasonable for him to step in here – all he’s doing is breaking up a fight in the only way that’s really available to him – but he still won’t openly align himself with his team.<\/p>\n

PAGE 9.<\/strong> Emma acknowledges Hellion.<\/em><\/p>\n

We established in issues #15-16 that Empath has been acting as a mole for Emma Frost, and that part of his role is to bring out Havok’s violent persona when required. Havok strongly implies here that Greycrow has told him about this. Last issue, Havok\u00a0didn’t<\/em> seem to be aware of that – he told Psylocke that Greycrow had told him what he did while in his other persona, but said he had no idea why he did it, and no memory. Presumably Greycrow told him about Empath’s role between the flashback and the main story, perhaps as a response to Empath finally distancing himself from the team altogether.<\/p>\n

PAGES 10-12.<\/strong> Sinister argues for the Hellions all to go to the Pit.<\/em><\/p>\n

“They harboured a mutant-hating A.I. on our island.”<\/strong> Well, Nanny did (and Orphan-Maker didn’t tell anyone). They picked it up from the Right in issue #8, and it only turned out to be mutant-hating last issue. But A.I. is a big no-no on Krakoa because of the fear of machine dominance that was set up in\u00a0Powers of X<\/em> (and more of that in\u00a0Inferno<\/em> this week). It was also alluded to in this book in issue #8.<\/p>\n

Even allowing for the fact that it’s a gag, the fact that the rest of the Council are willing to literally shut Sinister up suggests he doesn’t have a great deal of credibility or leverage with them – despite the importance of his technology to resurrection. They might live to regret that.<\/p>\n

PAGES 13-15.<\/strong>\u00a0Orphan-Maker is sentenced to the Pit.<\/em><\/p>\n

This is a weird scene in a lot of ways. For one thing, all of the Quiet Council seem to accept without question the proposition that Orphan-Maker has the mind of an adult, despite all appearances to the contrary. The possible exception is Nightcrawler, but he doesn’t actually make an argument that Peter is a child – instead, he makes the “abolish prisons” argument that violent tendencies should be seen as a mental health problem. But none of the Hellions regard him as a child; we’re clearly invited to see it their way; and Mystique described him as “stunted” earlier in the issue.<\/p>\n

It’s also got some rather rushed-looking art compared to the rest of the issue.<\/p>\n

The main problem, though, is that this is not much of an argument for the enlightened nature of mutant society. Even if you’re not up for the abolition of prisons, what we have here is an “advanced” society that hasn’t managed to come up with the defence of diminished responsibility, something which has been around for literally hundreds of years. So… the legal system of Krakoa is less enlightened on questions of mental health than 18th century Britain. Yay mutant culture.<\/p>\n

Nightcrawler has been contributing quotes of wisdom throughout the series, but this is the first time he’s actually\u00a0done<\/em> anything significant in the book, and true to form, he’s trying to be supportive to the Hellions.<\/p>\n

PAGES 16-20.<\/strong> Nanny goes to the Pit with Orphan-Maker.<\/em><\/p>\n

Nanny died in the fight with the Right last issue, and hence isn’t implicated in the killing that followed. She absolutely insists on going to the Pit with Orphan-Maker, which she casts as evidence that she won’t abandon him. In fact, though she only alludes to it in passing here (“I failed him once”), she pretty much\u00a0did<\/em> emotionally abandon him after his resurrection, because she was focussed on the new Right AI. In that sense, she’s responsible for his tantrum that led to the two rangers getting killed.<\/p>\n

The song that Nanny sings is a version of the one that she sang to Orphan-Maker back in issue #1, played less comedically this time.<\/p>\n

PAGE 21.<\/strong>\u00a0Greycrow, Havok and Wild Child leave.<\/em><\/p>\n

With the Hellions finally disbanded, Havok is at last willing to acknowledge that he was a member and to accept Greycrow’s support.<\/p>\n

PAGE 22.<\/strong>\u00a0Empath with the original Hellions.<\/em><\/p>\n

This begins a series of epilogues where we see how the characters have been changed by the last 18 issues. Empath winds up right back where he started, using his powers to stop the other (original) Hellions from yelling at him. The three seen here are Beef, Catseye and Roulette – he was making Catseye and Roulette (and Tarot) fight for his entertainment in issue #1. The difference for Empath is that he now sees this as empty, but he has no idea how to do anything about that, and is left trapped.<\/p>\n

PAGE 23.<\/strong>\u00a0Psylocke stops Greycrow from killing Empath.<\/em><\/p>\n

Greycrow did pledge to kill Empath for his treatment of Havok, but Psylocke – whom he’s plainly in love with – encourages him to be better than that. Greycrow’s been killing Empath repeatedly as a running joke throughout the series, but now he moves on.<\/p>\n

PAGE 24.<\/strong>\u00a0Wild Child starts taking his pills.<\/em><\/p>\n

Rejected by Psylocke, Wild Child apparently decides to try and regain his stability. He was taking medicine prior to issue #1 but has apparently been refusing them throughout this series. The unnamed doctor is (as usual) Cecilia Reyes.<\/p>\n

PAGES 25-28.<\/strong> Havok is reunited with Madelyne Pryor.<\/em><\/p>\n

Havok has been agitating for the resurrection of Madelyne Pryor ever since she died in issue #4. The original reason for refusing to resurrect Madelyne was that she was a clone of Jean Grey, and that there were strict rules about resurrecting doubles. Cyclops mentions “relaxed protocols” here, probably referring to the arguments raised by the Five over in\u00a0New Mutants<\/em> where they objected to the existing rules on the grounds that they excluded even clones who were plainly people in their own right, such as Scout. Apparently their lobbying was accepted.<\/p>\n

Madelyne is wearing a version of the flight suit that she used to wear when hanging around with the X-Men in the 80s, positioning her somewhat as “good Madelyne” again – but she sees herself in the mirror as the Goblin Queen. Basically, Havok thinks he’s got the happy ending as a reward for his suffering, but he absolutely hasn’t. Madelyne seems to suggest that she didn’t\u00a0want<\/em> to be resurrected – “Were my feelings considered for a moment?” – though in fairness, we’ve not heard of anyone else being allowed to opt for permanent death. (In\u00a0Excalibur<\/em>, Malice had a new body forced on her.) On top of that, Madelyne recognises that she’s being cast as the prize in somebody else’s story, and she’s understandably resentful of that.<\/p>\n

PAGES 29-30.<\/strong>\u00a0Emma and Magneto discuss Mister Sinister.<\/em><\/p>\n

This feels like it’s setting up plots for\u00a0Immortal X-Men<\/em>. Neither Emma nor Magneto wants Sinister on the Council but they’re stuck with him for now. Sinister, meanwhile, seems to be back to scheming about blending the DNA of multiple mutants – chimeras, in other words. We saw him experimenting with this in issue #15, and it was set up in\u00a0Powers of X<\/em> as a big historical development when he finally gets to it.<\/p>\n

Magneto’s final line is a double meaning – Sinister is the cancer, and he knows how to grow mutants.<\/p>\n

PAGES 31-32.<\/strong>\u00a0Greycrow and Psylocke at the beach.<\/em><\/p>\n

With Psylocke’s quest to recover her daughter’s AI no longer an obstruction, the team’s two noble warrior types are finally together. This seems to confirm that Greycrow is indeed the obscured figure whose hands Psylocke was holding in\u00a0Excalibur<\/em> #25 (which evidently takes place later).<\/p>\n

Greycrow mentions that he “likes to cook” – I think that’s a reference to the Nightcrawler story in\u00a0X-Men: Divided they Stand\u00a0<\/em>#1 from 2008, where one of Greycrow’s clones was shown working as a chef.<\/p>\n

PAGE 33.<\/strong> Data page – a self-explanatory quotation from Nightcrawler. Unusually for a Krakoan-era X-book, it ends there, with no trailer page.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition. HELLIONS #18 “The Losing End” by Zeb Wells, Ze Carlos, Stephen Segovia & Rain Beredo COVER \/ PAGE 1:: The Quiet Council judge the Hellions. (This doesn’t quite reflect the interior – in the story itself, Psylocke isn’t shackled, and Empath […]<\/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-7394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-annotations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7394","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=7394"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7394\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7396,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7394\/revisions\/7396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}