{"id":8170,"date":"2022-08-10T22:28:08","date_gmt":"2022-08-10T21:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=8170"},"modified":"2022-08-10T22:28:08","modified_gmt":"2022-08-10T21:28:08","slug":"a-x-e-judgment-day-2-annotations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=8170","title":{"rendered":"A.X.E.: Judgment Day #2 annotations"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"\"<\/a>A.X.E.: JUDGMENT DAY #2<\/strong>
\nWriter: Kieron Gillen<\/strong>
\nArtist: Valerio Schiti<\/strong>
\nColourist: Marte Gracia<\/strong>
\nLetterer: Clayton Cowles<\/strong>
\nEditor: Tom Brevoort<\/strong><\/p>\n

COVER \/ PAGE 1.<\/strong> The reanimated Celestial looms over the heroes (not looking quite the way it ends up in the actual story).<\/p>\n

PAGES 2-3.<\/strong> Recap and credits.<\/p>\n

PAGE<\/strong>\u00a04.\u00a0<\/strong>Meet the civilians.<\/em><\/p>\n

The first appearance of all six of these characters, as far as I’m aware. Arjan’s confidence that the heroes will save him is ironic given what happens to him later in the issue. There are of six of them, matching the number of the Hex, which may or may not be significant.<\/p>\n

The narrator<\/strong> is identified later in the issue as the new Celestial god that Ajak is in the process of raising. The caption style is clearly reminiscent of the “machine” narration from\u00a0Eternals<\/em>, though.<\/p>\n

Tom’s T-shirt has the image of\u00a0Bruttu<\/strong>, a one-off character from\u00a0Tales of Suspense<\/em> #22 (1961). That story involves Bruttu being a comic book character who then inspires one Howard Lindley to become a real-life Bruttu, so the existence of Bruttu merchandise in the Marvel Universe is entirely reasonable.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

PAGES 5-7.<\/strong>\u00a0The Krakoans fight the Hex.<\/em><\/p>\n

According to the cast page, the big thing that Exodus is fighting is\u00a0Syme the Memotaur<\/strong>. All of the Hex are new characters and it’s not clear at this stage precisely what a Memotaur actually\u00a0is –\u00a0<\/em>though it’s obviously a play on “minotaur”, particularly given the design. We saw the start of Exodus’s fight with these guys in\u00a0Immortal X-Men<\/em> #5.<\/p>\n

“I should have written protocols…”<\/strong> This is a callback to a data page in\u00a0Immortal X-Men<\/em> #2, with one of Cyclops’ protocols for dealing with kaiju attacks. In fact, that data page specifically contains a cross-reference to a Celestials protocol, so apparently Cyclops has given some thought to this problem before…<\/p>\n

The Avengers.<\/strong> Or most of them, anyway. The team here are obvious big guns Captain America, Captain Marvel, Thor and Namor the Sub-Mariner, plus the current Starbrand, Phoenix (Echo) and Nighthawk (formerly of the dodgy Squadron Supreme of America).<\/p>\n

PAGE 8.<\/strong> Iron Man and Ajak work on the God.<\/em><\/p>\n

Avengers Mountain<\/strong> is the corpse of\u00a0the Progenitor<\/strong>, an ancient Celestial which died on Earth billions of years ago; the decay of its body into the ecosystem is supposed to provide part of the explanation for the emergence of superhuman powers on Earth. This all comes from the opening arc of the current\u00a0Avengers<\/em>\u00a0run. Ajak’s plan is basically to revive the Celestial with some reprogramming and get it to pull rank on Druig.<\/p>\n

Mr Sinister\u00a0<\/strong>insists that he’s the only thing that really matters, in line with his personality from\u00a0Immortal X-Men<\/em> #1 – though he’s often subtler about it than this. Still, Sinister doesn’t stand to gain anything from having the Eternals wipe out Krakoa.<\/p>\n

Ajak claims that Sinister “transgressed against the Celestials and stol[e] knowledge from the gods”; more of that on page 12.<\/p>\n

PAGE 9.<\/strong>\u00a0The heroes fight Thieaka the Harpsicus.<\/em><\/p>\n

It may mean nothing, but Banshee is among the combatants, looking completely normal, despite his Ghost Rider appearance in Legion of X<\/i>.<\/p>\n

PAGES 10-11.<\/strong>\u00a0Syme damages the mantle.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Avengers head off to deal with the disaster relief, which Exodus takes as abandonment – even though he didn’t want non-mutant heroes here in the first place. Destiny seems to agree with Exodus, though, at least in the sense that the mutants will have to stand alone rather than being able to rely on allies.<\/p>\n

PAGE 12.<\/strong>\u00a0Montage: the components of the new god are assembled.<\/em><\/p>\n

Well, this looks like a bunch of side quests for tie-in issues, doesn’t it?<\/p>\n