{"id":7907,"date":"2022-06-01T22:22:35","date_gmt":"2022-06-01T21:22:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=7907"},"modified":"2022-06-01T22:23:32","modified_gmt":"2022-06-01T21:23:32","slug":"knights-of-x-2-annotation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=7907","title":{"rendered":"Knights of X #2 annotations"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"\"<\/a>KNIGHTS OF X #2<\/strong>
\n“Never Split the Party”<\/strong>
\nWriter: Tini Howard<\/strong>
\nArtist: Bob Quinn<\/strong>
\nColourist: Erick Arciniega<\/strong>
\nLetterer: Ariana Maher<\/strong>
\nDesign: Tom Muller<\/strong>
\nEditor: Sarah Brunstad<\/strong><\/p>\n

COVER \/ PAGE 1.\u00a0<\/strong>The Knights of X fight Merlyn’s forces in the Crooked Market. It’s got some lovely covers, this series.<\/p>\n

PAGES 2-3.<\/strong>\u00a0Merlyn yells at the province leaders.<\/em><\/p>\n

This time, the provinces not associated with Merlyn are represented – Roma, Jim Jaspers, and two of the hooded things that represent Mercator. Merlyn kicks us off by recapping the plot of issue #1 in the first couple of panels.<\/p>\n

Mister M.<\/strong> It’s been implied before that Mr M is the mysterious ruler of Mercator, but this is the first time it’s been directly confirmed on panel. Absalom Mercator is a fairly obscure character whose most significant appearances were in the mid-2000s Bishop series\u00a0District X\u00a0<\/em>and the later miniseries\u00a0X-Men: The 198<\/em>. However, he’s been consistently listed throughout the Krakoan era as a missing omega mutant, and\u00a0Planet-Size X-Men<\/em> #1 strongly implied that he was the one now running the renamed province of Mercator. Mercator is a massively powerful matter transmutator. He was seemingly murdered in\u00a0The 198<\/em> #5, but apparently rose from the dead transformed in some way, and was never seen again.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Jim Jaspers.\u00a0<\/strong>In\u00a0Excalibur<\/em> #24, Jaspers expressed great confidence that Merlyn’s anti-mutant crackdown wouldn’t affect him because he was rich. Obviously he was wrong. Mind you, if it was predictable that Merlyn would act like this, you have to wonder why Roma showed up for this meeting.<\/p>\n

PAGES 4-5.<\/strong> Betsy contacts the Quiet Council.<\/em><\/p>\n

“A sacred crystal portal given to us by Roma…”<\/strong> The Siege Perilous was given to the X-Men by Roma in\u00a0Uncanny X-Men<\/em> vol 1 #229 (1988).<\/p>\n

“When I led the X-Men, it was the last resort that saved our lives when we needed escape…”<\/strong>\u00a0This refers to\u00a0Uncanny X-Men<\/em> vol 1 #251 (1989), though it’s really talking up Psylocke’s time as leader of the X-Men. The run-up to issue #251 sees the team losing members left right and centre; after Storm apparently dies in issue #248, with Wolverine away on a leave of absence, it’s just Psylocke, Colossus, Havok and Dazzler left. It’s in that context that Psylocke becomes “leader” of the X-Men for a grand total of two issues before she shoves the remaining team members through the Siege Perilous to choose reincarnation over a suicidal battle with the Reavers. That then leads into a lengthy storyline with the reincarnated X-Men scattered around the world and living alternate lives.<\/p>\n

Mr Sinister and Jubilee<\/strong> are both recapping plot points from last issue.<\/p>\n

Betsy’s communication circle<\/strong> comprises herself, Rachel (the only non-Captain Britain), the “queen” version of Betsy from\u00a0Excalibur<\/em> #17, the Violet Swan, and presumably Elspeth Braddock from last issue (her costume is slightly different, but she was set up as the Corps’ top seer).<\/p>\n

Betsy seems now to be talking as if the main aim is simply to evacuate mutants to Krakoa, rather than to liberate Otherworld.<\/p>\n

PAGE 6.<\/strong> Recap and credits.<\/p>\n

“Never split the party”<\/strong> is an RPG trope, of course.<\/p>\n

The Siege<\/strong> Perilous\u00a0<\/strong>is described in the recap as “a mystical gem that has saved mutantkind many times before” which, um, what? It saved some of the individual X-Men in a handful of stories in the late 1980s but that’s about it, surely.<\/p>\n

PAGE 7.<\/strong> Data page on the Siege Perilous, basically acknowledging that the Marvel version doesn’t bear much resemblance to the legendary version. The bits about transformation and amnesia refer to the “Shattered Star” storyline that runs for 20 issues or so after\u00a0Uncanny<\/em> #251. In Psylocke’s case, her reincarnation is what led to her being blended with Kwannon and becoming a ninja, though strictly speaking that was mostly the work of the Hand who found her\u00a0after<\/em> she’d gone through the Siege Perilous, rather than a direct effect of the Siege itself. Of course, that doesn’t mean that it was pure coincidence for the Siege to put her there.<\/p>\n

PAGES 8-9.\u00a0<\/strong>Kylun and Mordred fight.<\/em><\/p>\n

Kylun seems to think that Mordred is doing something to his mind, but everyone else appears clear that this isn’t what’s happening. Presumably a subplot.<\/p>\n

This is where Betsy decides to split the party, presumably not remembering that she’s meant to be playing along with the quest tropes. (Although the fairy tale narrator from last issue seems to have vanished.)<\/p>\n

PAGES 10-12.<\/strong>\u00a0Gambit, Meggan, Rachel, Kylun and Bei arrive in the Crooked Market.<\/em><\/p>\n

We saw Gambit making friends with the Crooked Market locals in\u00a0Excalibur<\/em> #23; obviously, as the team rogue, he feels more or less at home with these people.<\/p>\n

Meggan is being\u00a0really<\/em> over familiar with Gambit here. I pointed out in issue #1 that there was arguably some subtle hinting that the two of them arrived to meet Betsy together (and Meggan was the only core character where we\u00a0weren’t<\/em> directly told what she had been doing before).<\/p>\n

Blightswill<\/strong> is the drink from Storm and Wolverine’s drinking competition in “X of Swords” (specifically,\u00a0X-Force<\/em> #14 and\u00a0Wolverine<\/em> #7). It did indeed seem to affect Wolverine’s healing factor temporarily.<\/p>\n

PAGES 12-13.<\/strong> Betsy and Roma talk.<\/em><\/p>\n

Roma seems to be saying that leaving Shogo behind, rather than taking advantage of his power, is “clever” because it recognises that the nature of Otherworld literally rewards heroic conduct.<\/p>\n

“Ser Vescora.”<\/strong> “Ser” is a variant of Sir used in some fantasy novels, sometimes as a gender-neutral alternative. For what it’s worth, in issue #1 Arthur’s forces referred to their Vescora colleague as “Sir Viscora”. Mordred also consistently uses “Ser” in preference to “Sir” in this issue.<\/p>\n

PAGES 14-19.<\/strong>\u00a0Betsy’s team rescue Sheriff Whitechapel.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Vescora<\/strong> have been stripmining Blightspoke, the dimension of failed realities, for useful stuff ever since the end of “X of Swords”.<\/p>\n

Sheriff Whitechapel<\/strong>, despite being billed as a lawman of some sort, is apparently the closest thing Blightspoke has (or had?) to a ruler. She’s certainly the only authority figure we’ve ever seen associated with the place. Presumably, the Vescora are now serving as its representative on Merlyn’s council.<\/p>\n

“It’s time to confront Death.”<\/strong> Betsy is referring to Death, the Horseman of Apocalypse, who has been in Sevalith ever since “X of Swords”. Everyone else misses that and assumes she’s talking about death, the natural phenomenon.<\/p>\n

PAGES 19-22.<\/strong>\u00a0Gambit’s team fight Furies in the Crooked Market.<\/em><\/p>\n

The second mid-page scene transition of the issue, which helps to emphasise the “split the party” theme.<\/p>\n

The Captain Britain Corps.\u00a0<\/strong>Rachel wishes the Captain Britain Corps were there to help, and suggests that they’re being kept busy “waiting on Saturnyne”. This doesn’t really make sense, because issue #1 made clear that they were spending a lot of their time on rescue missions for stray mutants, and Saturnyne was not at all happy about that. A better reason for them not to be here is that the Knights are meant to be on a traditional quest, and they can’t just call in an army to help them for the same reason that Betsy wasn’t allowed to open a permanent portal to Krakoa last issue – it’s just not how the genre works.<\/p>\n

“Anomaly – sole individual.”<\/strong> This seems to be referring to the idea from 1980s\u00a0Excalibur<\/em> stories that Rachel was unique in the multiverse, having no counterparts in any of the dimensions that Excalibur visited during the Cross-Time Caper storyline. Presumably by “additional Otherworld selves” the Fury means counterparts on those worlds – i.e., the worlds of the various members of the Captain Britain Corps.<\/p>\n

Strictly speaking it’s not true that Rachel has no counterparts in the Marvel multiverse – she appears in various issues of\u00a0What If?\u00a0<\/em>and in the alternate version of Days of Futures Past which was the home timeline of Hyperstorm. But those are all timelines that diverged from versions of the Marvel Universe, as opposed to the more fundamentally different worlds of the Captain Britain Corps.<\/p>\n

“Askani.”<\/strong> This refers to Rachel being stranded in the far future in\u00a0Excalibur<\/em> #75, where she eventually becomes Mother Askani and leads the Askani religion that plays a part in raising young Cable. This elderly version of Rachel was eventually downgraded into being a divergent version; the Rachel we’re currently reading about also diverged shortly after\u00a0Excalibur<\/em> #75, made it back to the present day, and is generally taken to be the “real” one even though there’s no obvious reason to treat as her as any more or less real than Mother Askani.<\/p>\n

Gambit’s tarot cards.<\/strong> The Four of Swords depicts a tomb, though apparently it’s more associated with withdrawal and focus. Justice is self-explanatory. Both of the designs here come from the Rider-Waite tarot deck (which is in the public domain in both Britain and America).<\/p>\n

PAGE 23.<\/strong> Data page. Cypher responds to last issue’s memo from Rictor, where Rictor asked him to translate Apocalypse’s grimoire.<\/p>\n

Okkara was the name of Krakoa and Arakko before they became separated. From the sound of it, Apocalypse has been writing some sort of poem about his estranged wife Genesis, in ancient language.<\/p>\n

I’m not quite sure why Apocalypse’s will would be an issue. Even leaving aside the fact that Krakoa does not have well developed executry laws, the guy’s not dead.<\/p>\n

Cypher makes sure to flag his concern that Bei really wants to be on this Otherworld quest for some reason, despite her apparently random inclusion in the cast.<\/p>\n

PAGE 24.<\/strong> Betsy’s group arrive in Sevalith.<\/em><\/p>\n

This is the vampire province, of course.<\/p>\n

PAGE 25.<\/strong> Trailers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition. KNIGHTS OF X #2 “Never Split the Party” Writer: Tini Howard Artist: Bob Quinn Colourist: Erick Arciniega Letterer: Ariana Maher Design: Tom Muller Editor: Sarah Brunstad COVER \/ PAGE 1.\u00a0The Knights of X fight Merlyn’s forces in the Crooked Market. It’s […]<\/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":[31,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-annotations","category-x-axis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7907","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=7907"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7907\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7910,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7907\/revisions\/7910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}