{"id":8199,"date":"2022-08-24T22:48:56","date_gmt":"2022-08-24T21:48:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=8199"},"modified":"2022-08-24T22:48:56","modified_gmt":"2022-08-24T21:48:56","slug":"a-x-e-judgment-day-3-annotations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=8199","title":{"rendered":"A.X.E.: Judgment Day #3 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 #3<\/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> Makkari, Jean Grey and Iron Man, presumably inside the Progenitor.<\/p>\n

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

PAGES 4-5.<\/strong>\u00a0The Progenitor judges Captain America.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Progenitor<\/strong> is still going by the name he had in the\u00a0Avengers <\/em>arc that introduced him, despite his resurrection with an apparently altered personality. You have to wonder what the connection is between this guy and the very Celestial-like, though somewhat lower powered, Progenitors from various Al Ewing stories, most recently X-Men Red\u00a0<\/em>#2. But that’s probably a story for another time.<\/p>\n

Ajak<\/strong> initially tries to rationalise away what she’s done. She’s apparently programmed to worship the Celestials as a religion, and so much of what she’s doing involves trying to explain or reinterpret that religion to get to a place she can live with.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Captain America<\/strong> is judged by the Progenitor as a “failure”, which leads Iron Man to conclude that nobody is going to pass the Progenitor’s test. But a couple of points are worth noting here. Firstly, what the Progenitor actually said in the previous issue was “If there is more that is just than wicked, you will live.” It’s not obvious that the Progenitor is actually judging Captain America by that standard here. If it wasn’t for the thumbs down, you’d wonder whether the Progenitor is just expressing an opinion. Secondly, the Progenitor seems to be judging Captain America by his own standards – which would imply that other people will be judged by a less exacting standard. In fact, taken to its logical conclusion, it would mean that the lower their ambitions and ethical standards, the more likely they would be to pass.<\/p>\n

PAGE 6.<\/strong>\u00a0A civilian montage.<\/em><\/p>\n

These are the same six civilians we saw on similar pages last issue, except with Arjun’s widow Komali taking his place. There’s a striking disparity between the way the Progenitor acts and talks in the rest of the story, and the conversational tone of its narration here. Presumably that’s going somewhere.<\/p>\n

“Britain doesn’t even recognise them.”<\/strong> The UK withdrew recognition of Krakoa at the first Hellfire Gala, in\u00a0Excalibur<\/em> #21 (2021).<\/p>\n

PAGE 7.\u00a0<\/strong>Druig talks to Uranos.<\/em><\/p>\n

Uranos<\/strong> believes that any deviation at all is excess deviation, which it is the Eternals’ duty to destroy – the logical consequence being that just wiping out life on Earth is the best way forward. More logically (in a sense), he reasons that if the Progenitor rejected Captain America for failing to fulfil his mission, then it will judge the Eternals for failing to fulfil their own mission by wiping out the mutants. Presumably even Uranos would be concerned about the Progenitor wiping out life on Earth if that included the Eternals themselves.<\/p>\n

Druig<\/strong> seemingly agrees with this plan, but he seems a lot more keen than Uranos that the Earth should be spared – he insists that “the world hasn’t failed its test yet”, and he certainly stops short of releasing Uranos himself again. That invites the question of why he goes along with renewing the attack on Krakoa. Perhaps he’s just hedging his bets, or perhaps he’s got more going on.<\/p>\n

PAGE 8.<\/strong> Iron Man and co make plans.<\/em><\/p>\n

Ajak is unwilling to countenance simply switching the thing off, but Phastos is more of a practical engineering type and perfectly happy to countenance it. He makes clear that he would be compelled to resist such a plan if he knew it was happening, but he interprets the principles flexibly enough that he can discuss it as a hypothetical.<\/p>\n

PAGES 9-10.\u00a0<\/strong>The Quiet Council meet.<\/em><\/p>\n

Mr Sinister<\/strong> makes telepathic contact with Destiny to tell her about the plot – we haven’t seen him use his psychic powers much recently, but they’ve been established since the 1980s.<\/p>\n

Destiny<\/strong> reveals that there’s a risk that destroying the Celestial would cause considerable devastation. She says that it wouldn’t happen. In a sense, as we see later on, she’s right. Does she know how matters pan out, and if so, what does she see as the advantage in pursuing this route? Or does the Celestial confuse her visions of the future too? Or does she actually see a risk of the plan working and creating massive devastation, but lie about the risk because it’s the only option? After all, she’s very keen in this issue for the X-Men to remain ignorant of the implications of what they’re doing.<\/p>\n

The vote<\/strong> passes by 5-3 with one abstention. The three traditional heroes all vote against, but they’re outvoted by an interesting alliance, with Hope voting alongside the villains and the morally ambiguous. Emma abstains, perhaps to avoid taking sides when there’s no need to, but it’s not clearly explained. Kate objects that Destiny is taking advantage of the absence of Professor X (temporarily dead) and Storm (who has somehow returned to Mars, presumably to appear in\u00a0X-Men Red<\/em>). But even if you assume that both of them would have voted against, Sinister is also missing, and he would certainly have voted in favour, since he was the one who recommended this idea in the first place. So the vote would still have passed, unless Emma cast a no vote to deadlock the Council.<\/p>\n

“Jean and Scott left this circle due to moral quibbles.”<\/strong> In “X of Swords”, just before they re-formed the X-Men.<\/p>\n

“Summers risked the Earth with the Phoenix to rebirth our species.”<\/strong>\u00a0In\u00a0Avengers vs X-Men<\/em>, the event miniseries that ended the “no more mutants” era.<\/p>\n

PAGE 11.<\/strong>\u00a0The Deviants arrive on Krakoa.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Deviants can use the gates because they’re the ultimate source of super powers on Earth, and the mutants are in some sense descended from them.\u00a0Kro<\/strong> has been the Deviant leader dating back to the original\u00a0Eternals<\/em> comics; he’s flanked by Ransak<\/b> and\u00a0Karkas<\/strong>. The rest are generics as far as I know. Kro tacitly acknowledges that the Deviants have rarely actually\u00a0won<\/em> a battle against the Eternals, but at least they have plenty of experience in slowing them down.<\/p>\n

PAGES 12-13.<\/strong>\u00a0Sinister’s leak is exposed.<\/em><\/p>\n

Straightforward.<\/p>\n

PAGES<\/strong>\u00a013-<\/strong>19.\u00a0<\/strong>X-Men versus Eternals, and an illusory armageddon.<\/em><\/p>\n

The mutant strike team members seen on panel are:<\/p>\n