{"id":8151,"date":"2022-08-04T21:43:47","date_gmt":"2022-08-04T20:43:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=8151"},"modified":"2022-08-04T21:43:47","modified_gmt":"2022-08-04T20:43:47","slug":"immortal-x-men-5-annotations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=8151","title":{"rendered":"Immortal X-Men #5 annotations"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

IMMORTAL X-MEN #5<\/strong>
\n“Meditations on the X”<\/strong>
\nWriter: Kieron Gillen<\/strong>
\nArtist: Michele Bandini<\/strong>
\nColourist: David Curiel<\/strong>
\nLetterer: Clayton Cowles<\/strong>
\nDesign: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen<\/strong>
\nEditor: Jordan D White<\/strong><\/p>\n

COVER \/ PAGE 1.\u00a0<\/strong>Exodus in action above Krakoa (with what looks to be one of the Hex visible on the ground below). Obviously, it’s Exodus’s turn for his spotlight issue.<\/p>\n

PAGES 2-3.<\/strong>\u00a0Flashback: Exodus has a vision of the Phoenix in the desert.<\/em><\/p>\n

Black Knight: Exodus.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>The flashbacks in this issue heavily reference the 1996 one-shot\u00a0Black Knight: Exodus<\/em>\u00a0by Ben Raab and Jimmy Cheung, because it’s Exodus’s origin story. In the original story, the Black Knight (Dane Whitman) and Sersi attempt to return to the mainstream Marvel Universe from the Malibu Ultraverse. They wind up stuck in the time of the Crusades, with Dane possessing the body of the period Black Knight, Eobar Garrington. (I’ll come back to that.)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The future Exodus, Bennet du Paris, is a fellow Crusader and apparently Garrington’s closest friend. He and Garrington have been hunting for “an ancient tower of power beyond the reckoning of man”, and have tracked it to Akkaba. At this point Bennet doesn’t appear to be particularly religious at all, and seems to be motivated by adventure and personal success. Disappointed by Garrington’s odd behaviour, Bennet heads off into the desert on his own. In the original story, he is on the verge of collapse when a voice challenges him to “risk your very life to satisfy your ambitions, to become one of the strong.” Bennet accepts the challenge and promptly has a boulder thrown at him, leading him to use his mutant powers for the first time to defend himself. Bennet has always suspected that he was different, contributing to his sense that he was destined for power. Bennet then fights a scarab thing, which tells him he is “the Exodus – the journeyman bridging the chasm between an ancient past and a distant, inevitable future”. Bennet responds by using his powers to kill the scarab thing.<\/p>\n

By the time the Black Knight and Sersi make it to Apocalypse’s citadel in Akkaba, Bennet is hanging around with Apocalypse, wearing his familiar costume, calling himself “Exodus”, and generally saying all the survival of the fittest stuff that Apocalypse henchmen used to say in the 90s. Broadly, Exodus is just delighted to have his sense that he’s one of the strong vindicated. However, he rejects an order to kill the Black Knight and Sersi, and turns on Apocalypse, declaring that “I am Exodus, and I am slave to neither man nor a false god the likes of you.” Apocalypse then puts Exodus into a coma, from which he will eventually be woken by Magneto.<\/p>\n

Returning to the issue at hand: this opening scene is not an accurate reflection of what we saw in\u00a0Black Knight: Exodus<\/em>. Bennet’s costume was completely different in the original story (where it didn’t need to say “crusader” quite so immediately), and he doesn’t encounter the Phoenix, which doesn’t feature in the original story at all. Exodus’s narration clearly signals that he’s an unreliable narrator, but leaves it ambiguous whether this is how he remembers things now, or whether it’s an accurate account of how he perceived matters then. Throughout this issue, Exodus seems to be a bit spaced out when it comes to keeping his attention centred on any particular time period – later on he attributes that to the Eternals’ attack, but he seems to be having issues already here.<\/p>\n

Gillen’s Bennet du Paris is rather more obviously religious than he was in the original story, referencing Apocalypse as “revelation” in the usual explanation of the significance of the final book of the Bible. That said, the Exodus in the original story would certainly have agreed that he was a man of faith, even if his motivations didn’t entirely align with that self-image.<\/p>\n

PAGE 4.<\/strong> Data page – a quote from Exodus’s own personal translation of the Book of Exodus. This is Exodus 1:12, but Exodus has changed “Egyptians” to “humans” and “Israelites” to “mutants”. Quite how Exodus could think that was the correct\u00a0translation<\/em> is unclear – either he’s delusional or he’s spelling out what he thinks is the original metaphor.<\/p>\n

PAGE 5.<\/strong> Recap and credits. The title, of course, is a play on “Meditations on the Cross.”<\/p>\n

PAGES 6-8.<\/strong>\u00a0The Quiet Council discuss Judgment Day.<\/em><\/p>\n

We saw a snippet of this meeting in\u00a0AXE: Judgment Day<\/em> #1, but the dialogue on these pages is new.<\/p>\n

“My visions have coalesced.”<\/strong> Destiny recognises the Eternals as the coming threat at the start of\u00a0Judgment Day<\/em> #1, and immediately sets off to alert the Quiet Council – which is what we’re seeing here. Storm is here, so this is after\u00a0Judgment Day<\/em> #1 page 9; Nightcrawler is absent because he’s on Mars, as also shown in that issue.<\/p>\n

“The abduction of Sinister.”<\/b> Mr Sinister was kidnapped by the Eternals in the previous issue.<\/p>\n

Little Hollow.<\/strong> The Eternals prevented a disaster in Little Hollow in\u00a0Eternals<\/em> #11-12.<\/p>\n

“Apocalypse is gone.”<\/strong> Since “X of Swords.”<\/p>\n

“Magneto is gone.”<\/strong> Since issue #1. If CEOs at the Hellfire Gala are conscious of this then apparently the membership of the Quiet Council is public knowledge to the wider world – or maybe the guy just picked up on the fact that some of the big names weren’t at the party.<\/p>\n

“They have their own cities, locked off from reality…”<\/strong> Exodus is accurately describing the Eternals’ status quo in their own book.<\/p>\n

“Shortly after Apocalypse tried to recruit me to his false church, I met [an Eternal].”<\/strong> Sersi, in\u00a0Black Knight: Exodus.<\/em><\/p>\n

“We fought in our minds and I won.”<\/strong> This is pages 36-37 of\u00a0Black Knight: Exodus<\/em>, which just shows Sersi attempting a telepathic attack and getting repelled. The idea that he picks up lots of information about the Eternals during this sequence is new.<\/p>\n

PAGES 9-11.<\/strong> Flashback: Exodus fights the Black Knight.<\/em><\/p>\n

Page 9:\u00a0<\/strong>Bennet kneeling at Apocalypse’s feet and being transformed into Exodus is an original scene, but obviously implied by the original story.<\/p>\n

“It would take me a while to reassemble my faith.”<\/strong> Presumably during his long sleep, which may not have done wonders for his sanity. (Pre-Exodus Bennet, in\u00a0Black Knight: Exodus<\/em>, seems completely in touch with reality.)<\/p>\n

“I was to be … [f]or the first time, an acolyte.”<\/strong> Exodus was the\u00a0de facto<\/em> leader of the Acolytes for much of the 90s.<\/p>\n

Pages 10-11:<\/strong> This is a basically accurate recap of the plot of\u00a0Black Knight: Exodus,\u00a0<\/em>with the added retcon about Exodus reading Sersi’s mind.<\/p>\n

Garrington.<\/strong> In the original story, Exodus picks up on the fact that Garrington is behaving oddly, but apparently never figures out that he’s being possessed by Dane Whitman. In fairness, Whitman himself is confused about that fact. Garrington was the Black Knight during the Crusades, who was possessed by Dane Whitman for some five years or so in a number of stories published in the 1970s;\u00a0Black Knight: Exodus<\/em> is a reprise of that. This is a piece of Whitman’s back story which has aged very badly and tends not to be spoken about much.<\/p>\n

PAGE 12.<\/strong>\u00a0Exodus realises that the Uni-Mind is attacking.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Uni-Mind attack is shown in\u00a0Judgment Day<\/em> #1; the details of Exodus’s response are new.<\/p>\n

PAGES 13-14.<\/strong>\u00a0Flashback: Exodus joins Magneto.<\/em><\/p>\n

We’ve been told before that Magneto found and woke Exodus, but I think this is the first time that it’s been shown. By talking about rolling back the stone from the tomb, Exodus seems to be comparing himself to Christ, but it’s clear that he sees Hope as the actual messiah here.<\/p>\n

Page 14 panel 3 seems to be a generic image of Magneto and Exodus fighting the X-Men. I don’t think it can represent any particular fight, since Exodus was only with Magneto for a fairly short period of time before Magneto went into a coma (and Nightcrawler wasn’t even on the X-Men roster at the time – he was with Excalibur).<\/p>\n

“Magneto was lost to me, time and time over.”<\/strong> Magneto enters a coma in\u00a0Wolverine<\/em> vol 2 #75, causing Exodus to become leader; he tended to delude himself that Magneto was still speaking to him, though. He finally gets separated from Magneto for good after the Acolytes’ space station base is destroyed in\u00a0X-Men<\/em> vol 2 #43.<\/p>\n

PAGE 15.<\/strong>\u00a0Wolverine interrupts Exodus’s reverie.<\/em><\/p>\n

“The Eternals got some kind of shadow-walking killer. They’re going for the Five. Killed Egg, Nearly killed Hope.”<\/strong> Again,\u00a0Judgment Day<\/em> #1. The “shadow-walking killer” is Jack of Knives.<\/p>\n

PAGES 16-17.<\/strong>\u00a0Exodus fights the Uni-Mind.<\/em><\/p>\n

Exodus sees himself as a crusader knight fighting a dragon, but makes sure to tell us that this is a deliberate visualisation technique to maximise his powers. He’s wearing a version of his crusader costume from the opening scene, but the crucifix symbol has become an X. The red and white colouring of the cross, plus the fact that it’s, you know, a dragon, alludes to St George fighting the dragon, which is supposed to be a Crusader-era story. The dragon is multi-headed because the Uni-Mind is a merger of multiple Eternals.<\/p>\n

PAGE 18.<\/strong> Data page. An abstract depiction of the psychic battle (which is a nice way of making these things look less familiar).<\/p>\n

PAGES 19-20.<\/strong>\u00a0Flashback: Exodus considers throwing himself into the sun.<\/em><\/p>\n

“There were two hundred mutants alive. The rest wiped away by the red witch.”\u00a0<\/strong>This is the “Decimation” era that followed\u00a0House of M<\/em>, where the Scarlet Witch removed the powers of almost all mutants. The number of remaining powered mutants was usually given at the time as 198.<\/p>\n

This scene of Exodus apparently considering suicide seems to be new, but it could be referencing the opening pages of\u00a0X-Men Annual<\/em> vol 3 #1, a Mike Carey story, where Exodus is shown floating in space and reflecting on his life.<\/p>\n

“A child had been born. The first since the witch swept us all away.”<\/strong> If this is\u00a0X-Men Annual<\/em> vol 3 #1, however, then Hope hasn’t been born yet. But placing it\u00a0right<\/em> at the moment of Hope’s birth doesn’t work, because Exodus is already with his team of Acolytes by that point. Let’s assume Exodus means that he had a vision that Hope\u00a0would<\/em> be born imminently – as indeed she was, in the “Messiah Complex” crossover.<\/p>\n

PAGE 21.<\/strong> Hope wakes Exodus up.<\/em><\/p>\n

As in issue #2, Hope seems to be forming a bond with her worshipper. She doesn’t buy the religious angle but Exodus is a nice enough guy in his way.<\/p>\n

“Wandering a radioactive wasteland…”<\/strong> Hope grew from infancy to adolescence in assorted post-apocalyptic futures under the care of Cable in the 2008-2010\u00a0Cable<\/em> solo book.<\/p>\n

PAGES 22-24.<\/strong>\u00a0Exodus fights the Hex.<\/em><\/p>\n

“An Eternal makes a speech to humanity.”<\/strong> Druig, the villainous Prime Eternal, at the end of\u00a0Judgment Day<\/em> #1. The actual fight with the Hex is new material which takes us beyond the end of that issue.<\/p>\n

“The Nazarene mutant.”<\/strong> Jesus – Exodus referred to him in this way in issue #2 as well. And no, this is not Marvel claiming that Jesus was a mutant. It’s Exodus claiming that Jesus was a mutant, and Exodus believes all sorts of odd things.<\/p>\n

“The rock in the hand of Cain.”<\/strong> The weapon that Cain used to kill his brother Abel, at least in some versions of the story – the Bible itself just says that Cain killed him.<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition. IMMORTAL X-MEN #5 “Meditations on the X” Writer: Kieron Gillen Artist: Michele Bandini Colourist: David Curiel Letterer: Clayton Cowles Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen Editor: Jordan D White COVER \/ PAGE 1.\u00a0Exodus in action above Krakoa (with what looks to […]<\/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-8151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-annotations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8151","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=8151"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8151\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8153,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8151\/revisions\/8153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}