{"id":7762,"date":"2022-04-06T22:31:33","date_gmt":"2022-04-06T21:31:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=7762"},"modified":"2022-04-06T22:31:33","modified_gmt":"2022-04-06T21:31:33","slug":"x-men-red-1-annotations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=7762","title":{"rendered":"X-Men Red #1 annotations"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"\"<\/a>X-MEN RED vol 2 #1<\/strong>
\nWriter: Al Ewing<\/strong>
\nArtist: Stefano Caselli<\/strong>
\nColourist: Federico Blee<\/strong>
\nLetterer: Ariana Maher<\/strong>
\nEditor: Jordan D White<\/strong><\/p>\n

X-MEN RED.<\/strong> This is the successor title to\u00a0S.W.O.R.D.<\/em>, also written by Al Ewing. It’s the second series to go by this name; the first was the series written by Tom Taylor which ran from 2018-19. In that context, the colour was simply indicating another X-Men team to go with Blue and Gold. Here, it refers to the planet Mars, where the series is set.<\/p>\n

If you want to be really nitpicky, this is actually\u00a0X-Men Red<\/em> vol 1, because the Tom Taylor series was officially called\u00a0X-Men: Red<\/em>, but that’s too much even for me.<\/p>\n

COVER \/ PAGE 1.<\/strong> Magneto, Storm and Sunspot on Mars, with the face of Abigail Brand visible behind them.<\/p>\n

PAGES 2-5.\u00a0<\/strong>Flashback: Storm defeats “Nameless” to become ruler of Arakko.<\/em><\/p>\n

This is an expanded version of a scene previously shown in flashback in\u00a0S.W.O.R.D.\u00a0<\/em>vol 2 #8. All we saw in that issue was the first two panels, though the surrounding dialogue made clear that Storm had issued a challenge to her predecessor as regent and defeated her in combat. That issue also established the basic idea that anyone on Arakko can challenge for a seat on the Great Ring (the ruling council) and win it by defeating the incumbent in combat.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

“Just before the first Hellfire Gala, when Arakko was still an island.”<\/strong> This was always implicit, but the significance of this is that Arakko was relocated to Mars (which was terraformed for the purpose) during the first Hellfire Gala, as seen in particular in\u00a0Planet-Sized X-Men<\/em> #1. So Storm issued her challenge, took control of Arakko, and used that role to direct Arakko to Mars. Storm confirms later in the issue that she used her casting vote to decide that question. Storm’s repeated protestations in this issue that she is not a ruler and wants to rule by a consensus of the Great Ring should be seen in that light.<\/p>\n

“Nameless, the Shape-Shifter Queen”.<\/strong> The dialogue tends to suggest that “nameless” is a description rather than the actual name of the character. Presumably this character doesn’t have an identity because their shape-shifting is so effective that they always take on someone else’s identity.\u00a0Note that the captions describe this character as both “queen” and “regent”, despite Storm’s repeated efforts to draw a distinction between the two in this issue.<\/p>\n

“You in your prime! Your best self! When you were clean!”<\/strong> Nameless adopts Storm’s costume from her earliest appearances in late-70s\u00a0X-Men<\/em> comics. The suggestion seems to be that Storm’s prime was just after she joined the X-Men, when she had training and power but had yet to become corrupted by moral compromise. Storm was certainly written as something of an innocent in early issues, evolving over years into a leader figure.<\/p>\n

“You were not there.”<\/strong> This was also a charge levelled at Storm by a challenger in\u00a0S.W.O.R.D.\u00a0<\/em>vol 2 #11 – specifically, by Kobak, who we’ll see again later in the issue. The (perfectly legitimate) objection is that Storm has usurped rule of a society that she is not a part of, and whose experiences and suffering she has not shared.<\/p>\n

“Know the cost.”<\/strong> It’s not\u00a0exactly<\/em> clear from the art what Nameless does here, but the implication seems to be that she kills herself with lightning (using Storm’s borrowed powers) rather than taking the offer of surrender, refusing to let Storm believe that she has taken the role without compromise.<\/p>\n

PAGE<\/strong>\u00a06.\u00a0<\/strong>The Great Ring begin to discuss whether to return to Amenth.<\/em><\/p>\n

This is the same discussion that we saw part of in\u00a0X-Men<\/em> #9. For those still keeping track, the members of the Quiet Council (clockwise from top) are Xilo, Ludos Logos, Isca, Idylll, Tarn, Lactuca, Storm and Sobunar. The face of the sentient island of Arakko is in the background.<\/p>\n

Genesis.<\/strong> Apocalypse’s wife and the former ruler of Arakko, when it was trapped in Amenth.<\/p>\n

PAGE 7.<\/strong> Recap and credits. The small print carries the same “Mutants of the world” text as\u00a0Immortal X-Men<\/em>.<\/p>\n

PAGES 8-12.<\/strong>\u00a0Magneto meets the Fisher King and creates the Autumn Palace.<\/em><\/p>\n

Magneto<\/strong> resigned from the Quiet Council in\u00a0Immortal X-Men<\/em> #1. His speech is basically recounting how he tried to build Krakoa as a great work for mutants, but he considers it to have failed. Since Krakoa is still there, Magneto is presumably referring to the way his clandestine alliance with Moira MacTaggert was exposed in\u00a0Inferno<\/em>, leading to her being driven out and the original plans for Krakoa thwarted. He seems to feel defeated and humiliated by this; another way of looking at it is that while Professor X is sticking it out and trying to make it work, Magneto has gone off to sulk.<\/p>\n

Magneto repeats the “they were not there” motif when discussing his career as a supervillain, alluding to his suffering in the Holocaust as a justification for his actions. He seems to be tacitly acknowledging that it’s at least partly an excuse.<\/p>\n

“Max” is Magneto’s rarely used real first name, established by retcon in the\u00a0X-Men: Magneto – Testament<\/em> miniseries in 2008, but hardly ever invoked in contemporary stories.<\/p>\n

The Fisher King\u00a0<\/strong>(named later in the issue) is a new character. He represents a rather more rounded version of Arakkan society, where their obsession with strength is tempered by a rather more realistic understanding of what strength involves.<\/p>\n

PAGES 13-22.<\/strong>\u00a0Sunspot, Vulcan and Thunderbird in the Red Lagoon.<\/em><\/p>\n

Port Prometheus is the main city of Arakko and the centre of its diplomatic zone for visiting dignitaries; the Red Lagoon is the main bar there. (As with Krakoa’s Green Lagoon, Arakko seems to get by with just the one.)<\/p>\n

Sunspot.<\/b> Ewing has written Roberto DaCosta before in New Avengers\u00a0<\/em>vol 4 and in\u00a0USAvengers<\/em>. This is much closer to Ewing’s previous take on the character than the largely comedic figure we’ve seen in other Krakoan-era books, though there are elements of both. Sunspot has bought the Red Lagoon. Roberto has been living in the Shi’ar Empire during the Krakoan era, hence his treating a spaceport bar as a fairly mundane thing. Note that despite his familiarity with all these outer space phenomena, Roberto is wearing normal Earth clothes, despite the fact that the signal they send is unlikely to mean anything to anyone around him. Maybe he just likes the aesthetics, or maybe it’s an aspect of his self-identity.<\/p>\n

David Mancuso<\/strong> (1944-2016) was a DJ who held influential parties in New York in the 70s.<\/p>\n

Kobak Never-Held<\/strong> was previously seen in\u00a0S.W.O.R.D.\u00a0<\/em>vol 2 #11 challenging Storm for her seat on the Great Throne. Evidently he submitted (since the Arakkii don’t appear to do resurrection). His first love Tarlo is a new character. The Vile, who Tarlo died fighting, remain a little bit obscure as a historical phenomenon; Tarn, the outright evil Great Ring member, is the sadistic mad scientist leader of the current Locus Vile.<\/p>\n

“My first love was named Juliana…”<\/strong> Juliana Sandoval, who died more or less as Sunspot describes in his first appearance,\u00a0Marvel Graphic Novel<\/em> #4. (She was later resurrected under the name “Marissa Sebastian” when Sunspot made a deal with Blackheart in\u00a0X-Force<\/em> #98-100, but that doesn’t actually contradict anything he says here.)<\/p>\n

“You’ve a place in the broken land.”<\/strong> Kobak, like the Fisher King later, seems to accept other forms of traumatic history as making someone suitable for Arakko, or at least likely to fit in there.<\/p>\n

Vulcan.<\/strong>\u00a0Gabriel Summers became the ruler of the Shi’ar Empire in Uncanny X-Men<\/em> vol 1 #485, and lost the throne after being seemingly killed in an explosion in\u00a0War of Kings<\/em> #6. A flashback in\u00a0X-Men<\/em> vol 5 #10 establishes that he was rescued by mysterious alien creatures who apparently altered his personality and had plans for him at some future point. He’s basically yelling here at a poor Shi’ar diplomat who isn’t treating him as the reigning emperor (because he\u00a0isn’t<\/em> the reigning emperor), and moreover, isn’t even willing to acknowledge who Vulcan is.<\/p>\n

“I heard how Gladiator usurped my throne.”<\/strong>\u00a0Gladiator took the throne in\u00a0War of Kings: Who Will Rule?\u00a0<\/em>#1.<\/p>\n

“How he gave it Lilandra’s line – to Xandra Xavier.”<\/strong> Xandra is the daughter of Professor X and Lilandra Neramani. She became the empress in\u00a0New Mutants<\/em> #2. I think this is the first time we’ve heard her referred to as “Xandra Xavier”, rather than “Xandra Neramani” (which is obviously the more relevant lineage for the Shi’ar, but may also reflect Vulcan’s own preoccupations).<\/p>\n

“…and every Summers must kill his Xavier, in the end…”<\/strong> Vulcan is presumably referring to the time Cyclops killed Professor X in\u00a0Avengers vs X-Men<\/em> #11. (He got better.) Cyclops was under the influence of Phoenix at the time and about to re-enact the Dark Phoenix story. Vulcan may be thinking of it as a symbolic killing of an obstructive figure standing in the way of destiny.<\/p>\n

“I’ve fought without powers before.”<\/strong>\u00a0Sunspot is referring to a storyline from\u00a0USAvengers<\/em> where he had to use a regulator headband to switch off his powers for his own health. The answer to Vulcan’s question “How did that work out?” is that eventually, in\u00a0Avengers<\/em> #688, he had to switch the thing off and use his powers to save the world, supposedly knocking several years off his lifespan in the process.<\/p>\n

“[Y]our human suit, your human money, your human bar…”<\/strong> Sunspot’s suit is undoubtedly human. The money is an interesting point; Sunspot has always been preoccupied with wealth in the Krakoan era, but Krakoa itself has been portrayed as a post-scarcity economy. That may be one reason why Sunspot prefers being elsewhere. But in most of the universe money\u00a0does<\/em> mean something, and we’ve not really seen any indication that Arakko is an exception. It’s hardly been portrayed as a utopia. As for the bar, even Krakoa has one of those – it’s maybe the only clearly recognisable human institution that they didn’t feel able to do without.<\/p>\n

Thunderbird.<\/strong> John Proudstar was, very very briefly, a member of the X-Men in 1975. His main role in X-Men mythology is to be the one who died, very very early, on his second mission, in\u00a0X-Men<\/em> vol 1 #95. He was resurrected in\u00a0X-Men: The Trial of Magneto<\/em> #5 after the Scarlet Witch’s magic enabled the Five to resurrect mutants who had died before Cerebro started recording back-ups. He’s wearing a modified version of his costume, with a few less frills and regular trousers. Note that he aggressively rejects the crowd identifying him as a Krakoan.<\/p>\n

“One of the also-rans who left me on Krakoa to die…”<\/strong> Vulcan is referring to the plot of\u00a0X-Men: Deadly Genesis<\/em>, which heavily retcons\u00a0Giant-Size X-Men<\/em> #1 (Thunderbird’s first appearance). In\u00a0the original story, the first team of X-Men are captured by Krakoa, Cyclops escapes, and he returns with a team of new recruits to rescue them. In the retconned version, an entire team of trainees try and fail first, one of whom was Vulcan; Professor X then wipes the X-Men’s memory of these unfortunate events. The second team did not leave Vulcan on Krakoa to die – they didn’t know he was there.<\/p>\n

“[T]hat thing with Petra and Sway…”<\/strong> Cable is referring obliquely to a botched storyline from the Hickman run in which Vulcan was seen hanging around on the Moon with Petra and Sway, two of his teammates from the\u00a0Deadly Genesis<\/em> squad. Apparently this was\u00a0meant<\/em> to be Vulcan hallucinating about them, but other characters seemed to acknowledge them as real, which wasn’t the intention. Since Petra and Sway both died off panel in Giant-Size X-Men\u00a0<\/em>#1, and\u00a0Trial of Magneto<\/em> is emphatic that it wasn’t previously possible to resurrect characters from that period, I think we have to take it that Vulcan was indeed hallucinating about them.<\/p>\n

“He’s not welcome at the Summer House – but even so, maybe Dad can get through to him.”<\/strong> The Summer House is the Summers family home on the moon. Vulcan used to live there, so it’s not clear what led to him being thrown out. If you’re still reading you almost certainly know this, but Cable’s “Dad” is Cyclops, Vulcan’s older brother.<\/p>\n

“I think what he needs is some useful work.”<\/strong>\u00a0Abigail Brand evidently has plans for Vulcan. It’s not spelled out here, but the closing issues of\u00a0S.W.O.R.D.\u00a0<\/em>established that Abigail Brand is actually a double agent, working not just with the mutants’ outer space organisation S.W.O.R.D., but also with the anti-mutant outfit Orchis. Note that while Thunderbird starts shouting on the next page, it’s Sunspot who reacts with horror to the initial idea of S.W.O.R.D. taking Vulcan in. That plays into his scepticism about Abigail at the end of the scene and later in the issue.<\/p>\n

“You need to start watching your temper, Proudstar, it’s gotten you killed once…”<\/strong> Thunderbird died in\u00a0X-Men<\/em> vol 1 #95 when he insisted on jumping aboard Count Nefaria’s escape plane and tearing it apart despite the obvious problem that it was in flight at the time.<\/p>\n

“You could learn a lot from your brother…”<\/strong> Thunderbird’s younger brother James Proudstar started as the second Thunderbird, trying to avenge the original, before eventually becoming Warpath and joining X-Force. He’s currently a regular character in\u00a0New Mutants<\/em>. Note that Thunderbird calls him “Jimmy” (which is not a name we’ve seen used for him), and Cable makes a point of calling him “James” in response.<\/p>\n

“You, Frost, Xavier – all you vultures.”<\/strong> Cable was James’s mentor in X-Force; Emma Frost was his mentor in the Hellions when he was starting out. Xavier never exactly had that relationship with James, though obviously there have been periods where both were around in X-circles together – John seems more to be alluding to the treatment of himself. Broadly, he seems to blame the X-Men for getting him killed (even though it was his fault).<\/p>\n

PAGES 23-24.<\/strong> Data pages – the result of the Great Ring’s vote on returning to war. We already saw in\u00a0X-Men<\/em> #9 that Isca abstained and that Storm used her casting vote to support peace.<\/p>\n

“[T]o return to Amenth and face the demons alongside Genesis.”<\/strong>\u00a0A long history is covered in the “X of Swords” crossover and the lead-up to it. Broadly speaking, Arakko (a sister island of Krakoa) spent millennia in the hellish dimension of Amenth with its mutant population fighting demons in an endless war. At the end of “X of Swords”, Apocalypse claimed as his prize Arakko’s transportation to Earth complete with its population, but he and Genesis went to Amenth to rule the population remaining here. Note that the Arakkii are basically having a vote here on whether to reject Apocalypse’s sacrifice – but nobody seems to raise that as an argument.<\/p>\n

Isca.<\/strong> If you’re new here, Isca\u00a0literally<\/em> can’t lose, but that doesn’t mean she can achieve whatever she wants – beyond a certain point her powers turn on her and compel her to side with the winners or to stay out of the fight. As she explains later, Isca abstains because if she voted, her side would automatically win. But that could simply mean that she would be instinctively compelled to vote for the side that would have won anyway.<\/p>\n

Idyll.<\/strong> In\u00a0Hellions<\/em> #14, Tarn said that he had taken her voice\u00a0before<\/em>, but seemed to imply that it had been restored. (“Idyll the Future Seer seems stricken dumb, perhaps hiding her voice so I won’t take it again.”) I think the idea is that she’s chosen to say nothing since Tarn’s last attack.<\/p>\n

Storm.<\/strong> The entry for her tells us that “Arakko sees her – and she has a place in the broken land.” That seems to be referring to the island itself and suggesting that, to Arakko, Storm’s history is indeed sufficiently traumatising to qualify her to be here.<\/p>\n

Sobunar<\/strong>‘s apparent delight at being on a thriving and living world – which is at odds with many of his colleagues – is consistent with his reaction when he was participating in the terraforming of Mars in\u00a0Planet-Sized X-Men<\/em> #1.<\/p>\n

Xilo<\/strong> has “gone through many names”, probably to smooth over a glitch in early appearances of the Great Ring where inconsistent names were given.<\/p>\n

Lodus Logos<\/strong> is apparently dying (or destined to die soon) – this is new information.<\/p>\n

The Night Seats<\/strong> are three further members of the Great Ring who are never seen, and may be an urban legend (but probably not). Note that the small print shows “Dawn”, “Day” and “Dusk”, with the fourth entry redacted out – obviously “Night”.<\/p>\n

PAGE 25.<\/strong>\u00a0Storm and Isca.<\/em><\/p>\n

Redroot<\/strong> is the interpreter for Arakko, serving a similar role to Cypher on Krakoa. She was captured by Jim Jaspers during the “X of Swords” crossover, in\u00a0X-Force<\/em> #14. A rather different version of this scene appears in\u00a0X-Men<\/em> #9, where Storm is lobbying the Great Ring to rescue Redroot; the two aren’t outright inconsistent but they do read a little awkwardly side by side.<\/p>\n

Isca<\/strong>, by abstaining and letting the majority on the Council decide, is actually achieving Storm’s desire of not being a one-person ruler – and, at the same time, forcing Storm into that role against her will.<\/p>\n

PAGES 26-29.<\/strong>\u00a0Storm and Abigail Brand.<\/em><\/p>\n

The opening panel is a flashback to the opening flashback, with Storm again being reminded that she isn’t fully accepted in her role as regent.<\/p>\n

Storm resists being addressed as “Queen”, but Abigail responds by addressing her as royalty in somewhat different wording.<\/p>\n

“When Krakoa colonised Mars…”<\/strong> Storm resists this characterisation of what happened in\u00a0Planet-Sized X-Men<\/em> #1 on the basis that Mars had no native population. However, there’s nothing wrong with Abigail’s use of the term; it’s also been applied to settlements in Antarctica, which has no indigenous population either<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“[A]n island full of violent morons who live to cause trouble…”<\/strong> This is the caricatured version of Arakko which\u00a0X-Men Red<\/em> is trying to move away from (though it’s a pretty fair description of how Arakko has been depicted to date by most writers).<\/p>\n

Isca<\/strong> did indeed fight against Arakko in Amenth, because her powers compelled her to switch sides when the Arakkii were losing.<\/p>\n

Obviously, Abigail’s pitch here is a feint appearing to set-up the titular X-Men team – with a clear warning sign that this would be a bad thing, given that we know she’s a member of Orchis.<\/p>\n

“Was I this in the crowds of Cairo?”<\/strong> As part of her lament that her identity has been reduced to a role, Ororo thinks back to her childhood as a Cairo street thief.<\/p>\n

“On the rooftops of Tokyo?”<\/strong> Storm is referring to her adventures with Yukio in Tokyo which led to her drastically changing her appearance in\u00a0Uncanny X-Men<\/em> vol 1 #172-173 – another formative experience for her.<\/p>\n

“When I laughed in the skies and gave rain to the soil…”<\/strong> Her pre-X-Men role, using her powers to help a village in Kenya.<\/p>\n

PAGES 30-34.<\/strong>\u00a0Back to Magneto’s castle.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Fisher King<\/strong>. The Fisher King is a figure from Arthurian mythos, supposedly the descendent of a bloodline charged with keeping the Holy Grail. He’s usually an injured figure in need of healing; here, that presumably ties to him being a non-mutant.<\/p>\n

Elizabeth Braddock<\/strong>, the current Captain Britain, is heavily tied up with the quasi-Arthurian mythology of Otherworld in the previous run of\u00a0Excalibur<\/em> and the upcoming\u00a0Knights of X<\/em>.<\/p>\n

“You were somewhere too.”<\/strong> This is alluding to Magneto’s childhood in Nazi concentration camps.<\/p>\n

“Headmaster.”<\/strong> Magneto was the stand-in headmaster of Professor Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters for a time in the 80s, when Sunspot was one of the pupils there. Sunspot is obviously being somewhat ironic in calling Magneto by this term, when he’s approaching him as an equal and calling him by his first name. Specifically, Sunspot calls him “Erik”, which was the standard “real name” for Magneto throughout the 1990s, later retconned into a pseudonym.<\/p>\n

Storm<\/strong>‘s appearance references her drastic change of appearance in\u00a0Uncanny X-Men<\/em> vol 1 #173 when she showed up with a mohawk. As there, she’s breaking very visibly with the trappings of an identity that she no longer feels comfortable with.<\/p>\n

PAGE 35.<\/strong> Trailers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition. X-MEN RED vol 2 #1 Writer: Al Ewing Artist: Stefano Caselli Colourist: Federico Blee Letterer: Ariana Maher Editor: Jordan D White X-MEN RED. This is the successor title to\u00a0S.W.O.R.D., also written by Al Ewing. It’s the second series to go by […]<\/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,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-annotations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7762","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=7762"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7762\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7765,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7762\/revisions\/7765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}