{"id":8029,"date":"2022-06-29T20:32:30","date_gmt":"2022-06-29T19:32:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=8029"},"modified":"2022-06-29T20:32:30","modified_gmt":"2022-06-29T19:32:30","slug":"x-men-red-4-annotations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=8029","title":{"rendered":"X-Men Red #4 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 #4<\/strong>
\n\u201dThree Short Stories About Death\u201d<\/strong>
\nWriter: Al Ewing<\/strong>
\nArtists: Juann Cabal, Andr\u00e9s Genolet & Michael Sta. Maria<\/strong>
\nColourist: Federico Blee<\/strong>
\nLetterer & Production: Ariana Maher<\/strong>
\nDesign: Tom Muller withJay Bowen<\/strong>
\nEditor: Jordan D White<\/strong><\/p>\n

COVER \/ PAGE 1.<\/strong> Sunspot is resurrected at the feet of Rockslide.<\/p>\n

PAGE 2.<\/strong>\u00a0The Great Ring begin their discussion.<\/em><\/p>\n

Magneto took the \u201cSeat of Loss\u201d – Tarn\u2019s seat – by killing him last issue.<\/p>\n

PAGE 3.\u00a0<\/strong>Recap and credits. The \u201cMeanwhile, elsewhere in the cosmos\u201d paragraph relates to events from other books. The \u201crecent assassination of the Shi\u2019ar empress and Xavier\u2019s daughter, Xandra\u201d, is the as-yet-unresolved cliffhanger of\u00a0Marauders\u00a0<\/em>#3. The \u201csecret of mutant resurrection [was] revealed on Earth\u201d in\u00a0X-Men<\/em> #12.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause I could not stop for death\u2026\u201d is the opening line of a poem by Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), the rest of the sentence being \u201che kindly stopped for me.\u201d Obviously, that has some resonance in the Krakoan era.<\/p>\n

PAGE 4.<\/strong> Data page, explaining the Arakkii attitude to death and resurrection.<\/p>\n

The White Sword<\/strong> is a character first introduced in\u00a0Hickman\u2019s\u00a0X-Men<\/em> #12 and who appeared as one of the Arakkii champions in \u201cX of Swords\u201d. He was a healer who resurrected his \u201cOne Hundred Champions\u201d every morning so that they could continue the endless war. It was always fairly clear that the Arakkii weren\u2019t massively keen on this practice, which feeds into the fact that (despite being in many ways an obviously parallel society to Krakoa) they have no resurrection and have shown no interest in getting it.<\/p>\n

Of course, just because they haven\u2019t asked, doesn\u2019t mean that Xavier isn\u2019t recording them anyway. It\u2019s not as if he was going around getting consent forms signed when he started using Cerebro.<\/p>\n

At any rate, Ora Serrata\u2019s argument here is that life is meaningless without the threat of death, and that the symbolism and significance of combat to the death is undermined when a participant knows they can simply be brought back. That\u2019s just the Crucible, after all. And while Ora Serrata at least claims to be comfortable having Krakoans around, it\u2019s another matter whether they\u2019re fit for a governing position in this society.<\/p>\n

One might reasonably ask why this question didn\u2019t come up when Storm was acclaimed as regent, but Ora Serrata may be worrying that when you have two Krakoans on the Ring – both winning their seats in mortal combat that was ultimately risk-free – it really is starting to set a precedent.<\/p>\n

PAGE 5.<\/strong>\u00a0Isca comments.<\/em><\/p>\n

Isca claims that she would win any debate on the necessity of loss that she chose to participate in. From what we know of her history, that doesn\u2019t necessarily mean that her preferred side would win the argument. She might just be compelled to support the side that was winning anyway, regardless of her personal view.<\/p>\n

Ora Serrata seems entirely open to the possibility that Roberto used Isca\u2019s powers to engineer Magneto\u2019s victory over Tarn last issue. Since this scene shows that she\u00a0can<\/em> decline a challenge, presumably Roberto\u2019s bet last issue is to be read as him accepting an offer that she had implicitly put forward, though I\u2019m not sure it really comes across that way. Anyway, Ora seems remarkably relaxed about whether this would undermine the symbolic nature of the single combat; as the Arakkii lawyer, perhaps Ora is simply comfortable that this is covered by precedent, while the resurrection thing is an open question.<\/p>\n

PAGE 6.<\/strong>\u00a0Sunspot is resurrected.<\/em><\/p>\n

That\u2019s Jean Grey doing the resurrecting.<\/p>\n

PAGE 7.<\/strong>\u00a0The Great Ring\u2019s meeting continues.<\/em><\/p>\n

Xilo\u2019s point is that if resurrection is objectionable because it means that a Quiet Council member faces no real risk when defending themselves against challenges in the Circle, presumably Isca\u2019s presence on the Council is also objectionable, because Isca\u2019s powers mean she is bound to win any challenge. Isca\u2019s answer is to say that she is merely standing in for the absent Genesis, who remained in Amenth with Apocalypse after \u201cX of Swords\u201d – and she seems surprisingly convinced that Genesis will be back, or better yet, that the whole of Arakko will go back. While Isca was presented as the spokesperson for Arakko in their early appearances, it seems increasingly like she represents a minority opinion.<\/p>\n

Arguably Isca could also be defeated by someone turning off her mutant powers, as Vulcan did to Tarn last issue. Nobody suggested that that was against the rules. But presumably if you do that before the fight starts it\u2019s cheating, and if you wait until the bell has rung, Isca\u2019s powers will guarantee (somehow or other) that you never get the chance to turn them off. More plausibly, Isca might argue that she still faces a risk of severe and permanent injury, but then we don\u2019t know how the Arakkii feel about healers.<\/p>\n

PAGE 8.<\/strong> Data page – the diplomats attending the meeting with the Shi\u2019ar. As you\u2019d expect, this is largely self-explanatory, and follows the same groupings we\u2019ve seen before.<\/p>\n

Dorrek VIII,<\/strong> the current Kree \/ Skrull Emperor, is Hulkling, formerly of the Young Avengers.<\/p>\n

The Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda<\/strong> is an empire formed by time-travelling Wakandan colonists which T\u2019Challa wound up running in the previous volume of\u00a0Black Panther<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Orbis Stellaris<\/strong> is indeed an arms dealer, as established in\u00a0S.W.O.R.D.<\/em>, where he was an unreliable ally of Henry Peter Gyrich.<\/p>\n

Richard Rider\u00a0<\/strong>is Nova, but since everyone in the Nova Corps is called Nova, they\u2019re understandably referring to him here by his real name.\u00a0The line that \u201cHe stood when all else fell\u201d probably relates to the stories he discusses on page 17.<\/p>\n

PAGE 9.<\/strong>\u00a0Storm and Black Panther talk.<\/em><\/p>\n

Galactus protocols<\/strong> were mentioned back in the Christopher Priest run as something that the Black Panther had.<\/p>\n

Kimoyo<\/strong> is an advanced Wakandan communications system, introduced during the Ta-Nehisi Coates run.<\/p>\n

Gentle<\/strong> was indeed established as a Wakandan sleeper agent (long predating Arakko) in\u00a0the most recent\u00a0Black Panther<\/em> #3.<\/p>\n

PAGES 10-11.<\/strong>\u00a0Oracle briefs the diplomats on Xandra\u2019s death.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201dDeathbird is missing.\u201d<\/strong> She was kidnapped in\u00a0Secret X-Men<\/em> #1.\u00a0Marauders<\/em> #1-3 establish that she was kidnapped by the Kin Crimson as part of their scheme to isolate Xandra and make her more pliable.<\/p>\n

Superguardians.<\/strong> The members of the Imperial Guard. This is a Grant Morrison-era term.<\/p>\n

PAGE 12.\u00a0<\/strong>Roberto, Jean and Hope talk about Rockslide.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cBack once again for the renegade<\/strong>\u00a0master.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong>This is the hook from Wild Child\u2019s \u201cRenegade Master\u201d<\/a>, which in turn is best known from the Fatboy Slim remix that reached number 3 in the UK in 1998<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a distinct memory of him reading me the riot act for getting killed last time.\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0Sunspot was among the many characters casually killed off in the run-up to the Krakoan era – specifically, in\u00a0War of the Realms: Uncanny X-Men<\/em>. We\u2019ve never actually seen his resurrection from that.<\/p>\n

Otherworld.<\/strong> The rule that mutants who die in Otherworld can\u2019t be resurrected, except as tenuously related new versions like Rockslide, was established in \u201cX of Swords\u201d.<\/p>\n

PAGE 13.\u00a0<\/strong>Orbis Stellaris speaks.<\/em><\/p>\n

Obviously, there are unspoken parallels here between the position of Xandra and mutants more generally, particularly if you know that Orbis has been tenuously allied with Orchis.<\/p>\n

PAGE 14.\u00a0<\/strong>Magneto speaks.<\/em><\/p>\n

Magneto reframes the question – as we\u2019ll see shortly, he does so in a way that means it never has to be answered. However, his basic point is (legally) valid. Ora Serrata\u2019s professed concern was about immortal mutants; any rule ought to be expressed by reference to that, and not by reference to Krakoa specifically.<\/p>\n

\u201dThe self that draws the soul back to the new body.\u201d<\/strong> That\u2019s the closest we\u2019ve had to a clear explanation of how this back-ups thing works given that the Marvel Universe unambiguously has an afterlife.<\/p>\n

PAGES 15-16.\u00a0<\/strong>Sunspot talks to Wrongslide.<\/em><\/p>\n

We haven\u2019t seen all that much of Rockslide since his reincarnation beyond a few appearances in\u00a0X-Factor<\/em>, which got cancelled not long after. In those, he was practically childlike and unable to communicate. He\u2019s evidently picked up a lot since then, and is keen to distance himself from the previous Santo – not least because he doesn\u2019t want to remind people of their lost friend, or to live his life trying to fill Santo\u2019s role.<\/p>\n

Note that when asked to give his name – \u201cthe sound that means only you\u201d – Roberto acknowledges his codename but gives his real name as the answer.<\/p>\n

PAGE 17.\u00a0<\/strong>Nova speaks.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI used the entire Nova Force to help bring the dead of Xandar back to life.\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0New Warriors<\/em> #41-42.<\/p>\n

\u201cPretty basic – cloned bodies, mind recordings. You\u2019ve probably got a better way on Krakoa.\u201d<\/strong> On the face of it, no, they don\u2019t – unless the reality-warping contribution of Proteus is adding something material. This is an interesting point, since it suggests that the resurrection technology is not inherently specific to mutants. (The fact that they had back-ups of Wanda, as seen in\u00a0Trial of Magneto<\/em>, also tends to suggest that limiting the back-ups to mutants is a matter of choice and perhaps of storage limitations.)<\/p>\n

\u201cThen the Annihilation War<\/strong> happened\u2026\u201d\u00a0<\/strong>Xandar was destroyed again in\u00a0Annihilation: Prologue<\/em>. Again, the subtext here is that Krakoan-style resurrection technology didn\u2019t do Xandar a whole lot of good in the long run. They\u2019re immortal as individuals but not as a race.<\/p>\n

PAGES 18-19.\u00a0<\/strong>Storm points out that Xandra will have been resurrected already.<\/em><\/p>\n

Obviously, this is what was occupying Professor X when he failed to attend Sunspot\u2019s resurrection.<\/p>\n

The Reckoning\u00a0<\/strong>refers to the recent \u201cReckoning War\u201d storyline in\u00a0Fantastic Four<\/em>.<\/p>\n

PAGE 20.<\/strong>\u00a0Sunspot and Rockslide talk.<\/em><\/p>\n

Asserting that death is an inherent part of life and that the Five cannot ultimately remove it.<\/p>\n

PAGES 21-22.\u00a0<\/strong>Magneto surrenders his and Storm\u2019s immortality.<\/em><\/p>\n

Magneto expands somewhat on his own reasoning, suggesting that he\u2019s worried about what he could become in the long run. Storm\u2019s reasons – beyond the surface one of appeasing Arakkii sensibilities – may be covered in due course.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are other ways back\u2026 My daughter built one.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong>Referring to the Waiting Room established by the Scarlet Witch (Magneto\u2019s\u00a0de facto<\/em> daughter) in\u00a0X-Men: Trial of Magneto<\/em> #5. In\u00a0Trial<\/em> #5, we were told that Wanda had enabled Cerebro to scan past mutants – hence creating back-ups for them. Presumably Magneto means that in principle Cerebro could go back and scan him again, even after his death – at least following further magical intervention. He also helpfully clarifies here that not all past mutants were added to the resurrection queue –\u00a0Trial\u00a0<\/em>#5 actually says that Wanda \u201callow[ed]\u201d Cerebro to scan for \u201cevery mutant\u201d not previously catalogued, but strictly speaking it never said that Cerebro\u00a0actually had\u00a0<\/em>scanned them.<\/p>\n

PAGES 23-24.\u00a0<\/strong>Sunspot and Rockslide.<\/em><\/p>\n

Rockslide sees his own continued resurrection as selfish; he wants to share the world with \u00a0future generations (in the form of future incarnations of him) rather than hold onto it forever.<\/p>\n

Bringing this gentle soul to Arakko feels like it would solve his problem of reminding people of Santo, but cause vast new difficulties of fitting in. Mind you, he certainly fits the \u201cbroken land\u201d theme.<\/p>\n

PAGE 25.\u00a0<\/strong>Trailers.<\/p>\n

 <\/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 #4 \u201dThree Short Stories About Death\u201d Writer: Al Ewing Artists: Juann Cabal, Andr\u00e9s Genolet & Michael Sta. Maria Colourist: Federico Blee Letterer & Production: Ariana Maher Design: Tom Muller withJay Bowen Editor: Jordan D White COVER \/ […]<\/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-8029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-annotations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8029","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=8029"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8029\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8032,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8029\/revisions\/8032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}