{"id":7987,"date":"2022-06-23T22:20:40","date_gmt":"2022-06-23T21:20:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=7987"},"modified":"2022-06-23T22:20:40","modified_gmt":"2022-06-23T21:20:40","slug":"x-men-12-annotations-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=7987","title":{"rendered":"X-Men #12 annotations"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"\"<\/a>X-MEN vol 6 #12<\/strong>
\n“Controlled Demolition”<\/strong>
\nWriter: Gerry Duggan<\/strong>
\nArtist: Pepe Larraz<\/strong>
\nColourist: Marte Gracia<\/strong>
\nLetterer: Clayton Cowles<\/strong>
\nDesign: Tom Muller\u00a0<\/strong>
\nEditor: Jordan D White<\/strong><\/p>\n

COVER \/ PAGE 1.<\/strong>\u00a0Just the X-Men posing in their tree.<\/p>\n

PAGES 2-5.<\/strong>\u00a0Cyclops fights Dr Stasis.<\/em><\/p>\n

Cyclops<\/strong> initially assumes that Dr Stasis is an agent of Mr Sinister. Given his reaction, it doesn’t seem as if he was ever exactly on board with having Sinister in the Quiet Council (and why would he, given that he spent some of his childhood in Sinister’s orphanage and doesn’t exactly have happy memories of it).<\/p>\n

The display case<\/strong> contains the fake EMT gear that Dr Stasis wore when he killed Cyclops in issue #7. He already had it in the case at the end of that issue.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Dr Stasis<\/strong> insists that he is the original Nathaniel Essex and that Mr Sinister is one of his experiments gone wrong. He clearly knows something about Sinister – he knows not only that Sinister used stolen mutant DNA to turn himself into a mutant, but that the DNA came from Thunderbird, something that was only established in a text page in\u00a0Powers of X<\/em> #4. Generally, this guy seems a little bit less eccentric than Mr Sinister, but that’s very much a relative term – he’s more of a lunatic who thinks that he’s acting like a level-headed realist, while Sinister is in some ways more self aware as a giggling cynic.<\/p>\n

Thanks to time travel, Cyclops was around for the creation of Mr Sinister in\u00a0Further Adventures of Cyclops & Phoenix<\/em>, and he knows that the real Sinister always had the diamond symbol on his forehead rather than the club shown here.. He certainly doesn’t seem to give much credence to this guy’s claim to be the original, and treats it as a delusion. But since Sinister himself is the umpteenth iteration of the individual, it’s certainly\u00a0possible<\/em> that this is a surviving earlier incarnation.<\/p>\n

He claims that he’s been “here” since arriving from England; we’ve been told before that he was in New Jersey, but the road sign at the end of page 5 \u00a0shows he’s specifically in Essex County. But if he’s claiming to have founded the area, this doesn’t work – Essex County has been called that since the 17th century, and Sinister doesn’t get powers until 1859.<\/p>\n

Stasis has a photo of what seems to be a Victorian child with some sort of growths on his head, possibly an early mutant, and appears to be motivated by trying to help this kid. Nathaniel Essex did have a son, Adam, who was born with numerous birth defects and died at the age of 4. However, we saw his body in\u00a0Further Adventures<\/em> #2, and he looked nothing like this. Quite how Stasis hopes to help a child who appears to exist solely as a picture is a whole other question.<\/p>\n

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

PAGES 7-15.<\/strong>\u00a0The X-Men defeat Cordyceps Jones.<\/em><\/p>\n

Pretty self-explanatory.<\/p>\n

“First it was those awful bugs in Kansas.”<\/strong> Issue #1.<\/p>\n

“Then I almost got run over by the High Evolutionary’s Teslelephant.”<\/strong> Issue #3.<\/p>\n

“I remember what you said at the Gala, Jean.”\u00a0<\/strong>Shown in flashback in issue #4.<\/p>\n

Rogue<\/b> gets one final flashback to how the current team got themselves elected – just in time for the next Gala to come around. (For this sole purpose, we seem to be working on publication time rather than Marvel time, which…. okay…)<\/p>\n

PAGES 16-17.<\/strong> Scott and Everett meet with Ben Urich.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Schaefer’s Diner, across from the Little<\/strong> Theater.”\u00a0<\/strong>There\u00a0used<\/em> to be a “Little Theater” on Broadway, but it was renamed in 1983 and is currently called the “Hayes Theater”. It still has a “Little Theater” sign above the door, though. Doesn’t seem to have a diner opposite it, judging from Streetview, though there is a restaurant next door.<\/p>\n

“Mutantdom has solved death.”<\/strong> A rare use in this series of normal English, though the inexplicable “solved for death” shows up again on the newspaper article later on. (I assume it’s meant to be a play on “solve for X”, but it doesn’t really make sense.)<\/p>\n

“If we don’t stand for the truth, then we’re just another council.”<\/strong> Referring to the Quiet Council, obviously, and harking back to the suggestion from the tail end of the Hickman era that the X-Men were going to serve as a potential competing power base. You wonder if this line makes much sense to Urich.<\/p>\n

“Cyclops fell… I took your memory of the story to protect my<\/b> people…”<\/strong> Scott died, and Ben’s memory was wiped, in issues #6-7. Everett admitted responsibility in issue #8.<\/p>\n

“It’s not the first time I’ve forgotten a story.”<\/strong> I’m not sufficiently up on\u00a0Daredevil<\/em> continuity to know precisely what’s being referred to here, unless it’s the obvious point that Ben knew Daredevil’s secret identity and elected to keep it secret. But if that was what he could have in mind, he could hardly say he “came to do the right thing”, at least not while implying that the “right thing” was to publish.<\/p>\n

PAGE 18.<\/strong> Data page – the\u00a0Daily Bugle<\/em> front page with Ben Urich’s story.<\/p>\n

“It was not so long ago that we all heard the voice of Charles Xavier in our heads…”<\/strong>\u00a0House of X<\/em> #1.<\/p>\n

“[T]he apparent murder of mutant fashion designer Jumbo Carnation.”<\/strong>\u00a0New X-Men<\/em> vol 1 #134. “Apparent” because although he was being mugged at the time, he actually seems to have died of a drug overdose.<\/p>\n

PAGE 19.<\/strong>\u00a0Ben Urich reflects.<\/em><\/p>\n

“My name is Ben Urich. I’m a reporter.”<\/strong> This is an intro line for Urich’s narration from the Frank Miller\u00a0Daredevil<\/em> run.<\/p>\n

“They were hated and feared, then loved and adored…”<\/strong> Apparently the basic point of this last year: the X-Men have basically succeeded in their effort to be accepted as mainstream superheroes.<\/p>\n

PAGES 20-22.<\/strong>\u00a0The X-Men in Madrid.<\/em><\/p>\n

They’re fighting the Mole Man, but it’s backdrop to them discussing the upcoming “annual” election, so he doesn’t even get mentioned.<\/p>\n

“Irene’s in a fit, saying that only I can prevent ‘mutants walking through a gate and never returning'”.<\/strong> Irene is Destiny. Rogue is apparently being shunted over to some other title – most likely\u00a0Knights of X<\/em>, where her husband Gambit has been appearing.<\/p>\n

“There is something I must do in service of Arakko…”<\/strong> Presumably Sunfire is off to\u00a0X-Men Red<\/em>‘s supporting cast.<\/p>\n

“Cyclops was right.”<\/strong> Seems to be a callback to the “Magneto was right” slogans from the Morrison run – an interesting way for Scott to position himself.<\/p>\n

PAGE 23.<\/strong>\u00a0Orchis regroup.<\/em><\/p>\n

“I trust our friend is ready for her debut at the Mutie Gala?”<\/strong> This probably refers to the X-Men story in\u00a0Free Comic Book Day: Avengers \/ X-Men \/ Eternals<\/em>, where Moira MacTaggert kidnaps Mary Jane Watson with apparent plans to pose as her in order to get into the Gala.<\/p>\n

PAGE 24.<\/strong> Data page – quote from Dr Stasis. This isn’t Duggan’s final issue, but it is the end for the current roster (and, I think, the end of the second trade paperback).<\/p>\n

PAGE 25.<\/strong> Trailers.<\/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. X-MEN vol 6 #12 “Controlled Demolition” Writer: Gerry Duggan Artist: Pepe Larraz Colourist: Marte Gracia Letterer: Clayton Cowles Design: Tom Muller\u00a0 Editor: Jordan D White COVER \/ PAGE 1.\u00a0Just the X-Men posing in their tree. PAGES 2-5.\u00a0Cyclops fights Dr Stasis. Cyclops […]<\/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-7987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-annotations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7987","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=7987"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7987\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7989,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7987\/revisions\/7989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}